One late summer day, August 11, 2001, my Mom got a phone call. By the sound of her voice I could tell that something was wrong. Panicking, she turned on the TV and turned it to the news. Not knowing what was going on I continued playing, though this event would change the world. As the images flickered across the screen I could see a building smoking. My mom started to cry now, as a plane came into view. It’s a shame that my earliest memory had to be such a tragic one.

At the playground sometime later (I don’t know how much longer) it was morning. I saw my friend and ran to him. We talked about things and played, his name was Leo. We and the rest of the class were called in by the teacher; it was time for show and tell.

In the months leading up to my fifth birthday, my mom told me,
“We’re going to be moving soon your dad is going early to get the new house set up,”
“How far are we moving?” I replied
“Very far,”
“Will I still be able to see my friends?”
“Probably not often,”
I had moved before when my parents “separated” and thought she was just exaggerating. Since their “separation” they had gotten back together. the last day here was fun at least, I had a huge birthday . My fifth birthday party was a melancholy one, the day after it I moved away. It would be almost a decade before I would see Leo again.

Going into kindergarten in a new place where I didn’t know anyone was hard. I was there for the orientation day before the actual school year and made a new friend named Kevin. Through the years we grew to be better friends. I went over to his house every weekend and we played for hours. Our parents became good friends. My dad wouldn’t have the skills for the job he does now if Kevin’s dad hadn’t have taught him. We were both always in the harder level classes. The big difference in our school work was spelling; he would always get 100% on his spelling tests. I never saw him walk away with less than perfect. His pronunciation however was not the best, when he said climb he would pronounce the b on the end and however many times we corrected him he couldn’t get it right.

During the summer I convinced him to play on the baseball team with me. After the first three practices his skill surpassed mine, he was a natural. As a shortstop he was amazing but in the outfield he couldn’t catch much. His hitting was mediocre at best, he even asked me,
“How do you hit so well?”
“I don’t know, I think it might be just something that you’re good at or not,”
By the time 4th grade came we were inseparable. That’s when he moved to Virginia. Although I had other friends, none came close to Kevin. During the summer between 4th and 5th grade I moved to an Annapolis suburb called Cape St. Claire, it was there that I started my rugby and football careers.
Right before we moved, I broke my foot. During this time
I started playing baseball my first spring there but it was during the summer between 5th and 6th grade that I found my true love, rugby