Metaphor Madness by:Brittney Golder

My life is a cloud in the sky. It can be really white and beautiful. Sometimes though its gray and dull looking. It can be cheerful but, other times it rains because its sad. Sometimes you see different shapes of clouds and you can see cool shapes of animals and other things. Clouds look puffy, bright, wonderful, and you can never be sure what they will look like tomorrow, or if there will be any clouds tomorrow.

One day after I came home from school there was a phone call for me. It was a man who I have known before but not to well. He has seen me play basketball before and thought that I had some talent. So he asked if I would like to come and try out for this basketball league he was putting together. Of course, I really wanted to try to play on a better team and here was my chance. It was so unexpected, just like you never know what the cloud will look like or if it will even be there tomorrow.

I was so excited that this man remembered who I was and thought I had talent. I mean he even wanted me to try for his team, how exciting. I was so happy and cheerful that I was like a cloud floating freely in the big blue sky, happy, cheerful, and bright. But, I still had to try out for the team and there was still a chance that I may not even make it.

I went to the tryouts! They were difficult but fun and I was learning new things. It was about a two hour long tryout and I was exhausted afterwards. So, obviously I wasn’t in shape and needed to work hard to get into shape.

It had been a week after the tryouts and I still had no phone call back. I figured that I hadn’t made it on the team. I was a cloud on one of dull, sad, depressing days that clouds have. I seemed very gray just how clouds are on sad days. I decided that I had to face the fact that I didn’t make it on the team and look for another team to be on.

On a Saturday morning I got a phone call from the coach. He said that I had made it on the team!!! I was so excited and so was my mom. She took me out to breakfast she was so happy for me. I couldn’t believe it after I had told myself that I hadn’t made it on the team I actually was!

I knew that I had to get into to shape to show him that he made a good decision picking me. I had to work harder on my shooting, dribbling, and everything I could possible to get better. My mom told me that he could be really hard on me if I made a mistake and to be prepared and just suck it up and take it.

Our first practice as a team was great. I was floating on a cloud and no one could ever bring me down off of it, I was just so excited I was on this team. He put me playing the 5 position, which is usually where the tallest player plays, it’s the middle position pretty much. It was a hard practice and I got yelled at a few times for not doing something right. But every time he yelled at me I wanted to make my mistake perfect so that it would never happen again.

After the practice I went home and cried because I had been yelled at so much. It was a cloud on one of the sad days when it rains because they are said. My mom told me no one was perfect and everybody made mistakes. She told me he only yelled at me because he knows that I can do so much better than what I was doing and he was just pointing it out by yelling.

Our first game came! I was so excited but nervous. I was a combination of a some of a white, bright, cheerful cloud and a grey, scared looking cloud. I was scared that my coach may not approve of how I play. But I was excited too because it was my first game of the season. He put me in to start. I was confident because I knew the plays and how to play. I got in trouble sometimes for doing things wrong but that’s how you learn. We won the game by ten points and that made our coach very happy.

We had a great season and I became one of his first string players. It was awesome. Just how clouds are on a nice summer day when the sky is bright, cheerful, and looking great.