Hello, and welcome to my sixth blog post! For this assignment we were asked to write a counterfactual to our blog five post, which was the memoir. We were told to read a few texts that shared stories and explained what counterfactual means and how to write it. A counterfactual is imagining how an event could’ve come to a different outcome, or picturing an alternate ending. We were asked to read a few passages that I have listed below, to get a better understanding of what counterfactual means. In my story I put a twist on it and pictured how things could’ve been different if certain aspects of the situation were changed.
It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and my high school football team was getting ready for practice. I thought to myself this day couldn’t get any better. We had our weekly workouts on Saturdays in the Spring to get us ready for the regular season. After an hour into our workout one of our hardest working linebackers went down to the ground. He stayed down for a little while, and coaches were trying to assist him and get him some water during that time. Eventually, the ambulance showed up and the rest of the team went back to our high school to wait and hear how our teammate was doing. I was sitting at a table with one of the assistant coaches and I asked, “Coach is he gonna be okay?” “We haven’t heard anything yet, but just pray that our brother will be alright”, he said. That really started to hit me. Time slowly went by and we still haven’t received an answer. Anxiety started to build up and I thought to myself, what if he never came to practice today? These off-season workouts were optional and I was just thinking, if he didn’t come today, then this wouldn’t have happened. He was such a hardworking kid, that it wouldn’t be realistic if he didn’t show up, but I could only think that. After a couple hours of waiting we heard the devastating news that our teammate passed away. We were all so shocked and heartbroken because he had so many goals that he wasn’t going to be able to meet now, and he was such a special kid. But something that came out later on was that he had a pre-existing heart condition that nobody ever knew about. Now my thinking has gone to, “What if he was actually aware of having a heart condition?” “What if he knew that he has limits and can’t go full force in practice, to the point of passing out?” This all could’ve played out way differently if that was the case. After days of grieving, the viewing was held at our school's church, which every member of the team attended. As we were walking out we heard a scream that said, “My baby! Noo, my baby’s gone!” This came from his mom and after that we all broke down crying. My brother, who was also on the team and was a year older than me, came up to me and gave me the biggest hug. I thought thank god I have my brother here with me because this was a really shitty time. I couldn’t imagine how that could’ve been different, if my brother wasn’t on the team. I needed that hug from my brother and have him tell me, “I got you dude, we gotta be there for each other, I love you.” This was the hardest time, especially since I was fifteen years old, it was difficult to process all of this. I knew that having my brother there helped me a lot, and if he wasn’t there, I’m not sure if I would’ve had the courage to be strong in that situation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Brandon Foy
I will use this blog to explore the messy processes of writing and to make meaning. ArchivesCategories
|