JUST KEEP DIVING

The cold wet suit stuck to her skin as her pace quickened, approaching the dock. Nerves made her skin pucker as she watched the diving instructors fasten the harnesses to the oxygen tank. Hannah Wampler, obtained her certification after completing a two week course down in El Camino at Dolphin Scuba Center. She was with her grandfather at the time and this took place during the winter months. Dressed in her gear, She went through two weeks of training to prepare to go into the ocean and to scuba dive. Through the process mixed emotions racked her mind, fear especially, due to how many things could go wrong if certain precautions weren’t taken. Learning to use the oxygen tank was one of the more challenging parts of the training.

With the first plunge Wampler said, “When I first went underwater with all my gear on it was pretty nerve racking because I felt compressed underwater and when I was breathing it felt like someone had their hand on my chest the whole time.” As the days past she began adopt breathing techniques and how to say her oxygen for longer periods of time. Not only learning how to save oxygen she also had to learn how to protect her ears, “Also the whole time I had to learn how to decompress my ears without bursting my eardrum while I was underwater so that was a little tough in the beginning.” She felt the support radiate from her grandfather as he was learning as well. “It was a really fun experience. These two weeks were training for Hannahs trip to the Pacific Ocean in Maui. This experience has a lasting impact on her, “These moments have changed me because I feel I have more freedom to explore the places in the Ocean that we as a society do not know much about. Scuba Diving really has helped better myself into becoming a more adventure loving person.” over her body as she got her necessary papers out to exchange with the other driver.

Although thoughts raced through her mind she handled herself and got everything sorted, the other driver was very sweet and didn’t make a huge deal out of it. As the days past, Moeller decided it was best to stay at her friends house and not drive until her parents got home. Thoughts bounced around as she waited for her doom. “I had no idea what I was going to do.” Her best friend, Marissa drove her everywhere for about a week until she got over her short term fear. Soon after the wreck she got some concerning texts from the seemingly sweet lady she hit a few days prior. The texts contained death threats about what will happen if she doesn’t fix the damage she ensued, although she just needed to wait for her parents to come home to move foreword with the report. The texts began to include her home address, and became more aggressive. Over time she stopped texting and the threats were empty. This event taught her that safe driving is the best route. To this day Moeller approaches the roads with this memory in the back of her head.

Our highschool years come and go in a flash, and moving on from a small town highschool to the big open campus of a college can be pretty nerve racking. Blake Coursey excitedly took his parents with him to a college preview day at the University of Tennessee, which is where he will be attending college for the next four years! He remembers feeling nervous leading up to the tour, but after meeting new people and experiencing the culture on campus, he felt at home and ready for the adventure. Exploring a new place brings new feelings and new views. When asked how it changed “It changed me because it gave me a different perspective on how different parts of the country are, and it just made me feel like I could fit in really Another thing that helped Blake feel as welcome as ever, was the friendly students, who have been in Blake’s shoes and know exactly what a new student is thinking, as well as how this campus will be their everyday and new

Tadpoles And Team Bonding

How many people can say they catch tadpoles on their runs? Ainsley Jantz sure can. On a hot summer practice, the day before an important race in the middle of Cross Country season, Jantz and the girls team are out on their normal run. They run past Twin Oaks like usual and onto a dirt path to a creek. The girls found live tadpoles in the water during their run and Ainsley got in to grab one of the tadpoles with her bare hands, and place it into a water bottle, filled with water. Jantz then took that tadpole home to the pond at her house, eventually letting it grow into a full frog! What made this moment so special for her, was being able to bond with her teammates and just being able to enjoy the moment so purely, not having to worry about the race they had the next day. Jantz described feeling “happy and excited” for the entirety of that particular run, and got to feel as though her teammates weren’t just teammates, but they were her friends and they were all getting along so well. She said that there was no “‘who wants to take him, or who wants to carry him’ kind of thing. It was just, ‘Let’s work together and let’s make this moment as fun as we possibly can before we have to go out and try our best to meet tomorrow.’” Finding friendships and good team connections is so important to have in sports and so important to hold on to, and this moment embodies it perfectly.