Track And Field Day

In third thru fifth grades, during October, my friends and I, would travel to the Kentucky School For The Blind, to compete in track and field events. The night befofe we left, the dorm would be filled to capacity with both the residential and day students spending the night at school.

The dorm parent woke us up at 4:30 in the morning to tell us to start getting ready for breakfast. The dorm was so full that it took longer to get dressed and make my bed. We went to breakfast at 5:15, it was weird being the only ones in the dining room. After breakfast, we went to the gym, the teachers did a roll call to make sure everyone was there, then we were split into groups, assigned a teacher to look after us for the day. When we went out to the bus, I got seats with my friends, roll call was taken once again, the bus finally started moving, left the parking lot at school. The bus was real neat, we had reclining seats, a foot rest, a reading light over the seat, there was even a bathroom at the back of the bus. The teachers handed out blankets, I slept on the bus for the first few hours, until it started to get light outside, then I woke up to talked to my friends the rest of the way to Kentucky.

The Kentucky School For The Blind, looked completely different from my school. The buildings were not all connected by tunnels. Every building was seperate, you went to the different buildings at different times of the day. When we first arrived at the school, our assigned teacher took roll call, then lead us to the caffeteria building to have lunch. For meals at this school you took a tray, went though the food service line, our teacher showed us a table where we could eat our lunch. The cooks at my school served us our meals at our tables.

After lunch, our teacher took us to the gym building, to tell us when our events were scheduled that day. My events were the 60 yard dash, the standing long jump and the 440 yard dash. The 60 yard dash was scheduled for right after lunch. My teacher took me to the track, where I started to do some warm up stretches, I was very excited and starting to get a little nervous about the race. My name was called, my teacher told me to go on the track, someone told me which lane I would be in, told me to go to the starting line. The finish line looked very far away to me. My nerves were no longer bothering me, I was just hoping that I did good in the race. The starting pistol fired and I took off, I was not concerned about how the other runners were doing in the race, I just wanted to get to the finish line as fast as possible. When I crossed the finish line, I felt so excited and proud, I did not even care that I came in last place, I just felt good to have finished the race. My teacher congradulated me on running a good race, took me to get some water to drink. I hardly had time to rest, before it was time for me to do the Standing Long Jump. My teacher took me to the Standing Long Jump, where I stood around for a while whatching people rake the sand clean. This event was easy, I was not nervous. My name was called, my teacher told me to go to the jump area, someone told me to wait until they told me it was all right to jump. The first time I jumped, my foot steped backwards, so they measured from my back foot. The second time I jumped, my feet stayed together. I was very glad that I was able to keep my feet together. My teacher congradulated me, I got a fourth place ribbon, the ribbon was yellow and very pretty. I had some time before my last event, I walked around the field for a while, looking at all the different events and teams. My last event was the 440 yard dash. My teacher took me to the track, where I started to do some warm up stretches, I was very excited but no longer nervous about the race, I had already done one event on this track. My name was called, my teacher told me to go on the track, someone told me which lane I would be in, told me to go to the starting line. The finish line did not look very far away from me. I was just hoping that I did good in the race. The starting pistol fired and I took off, I was not concerned about how the other runners were doing in the race, I just wanted to get to the finish line as fast as possible. When I crossed the finish line, I felt so excited and proud, I did not even care that I came in fifth place, I just felt good to have finished the race. My teacher congradulated me on running a good race, took me to get some water to drink. After my last event, I walked around the field for a while, looking at all the different events and teams.

The track and field events were coming to an end. The school was once again all together. We all headed back to the bus, where roll call was taken once again, the bus finally started moving, left the parking lot of the Kentucky School For The Blind. I got seats with my friends, we showed each other are medals, shared experiences from the day, talked about how much fun the whole day had been for everyone.

We stopped at a McDonald's for supper. The bus stopped, we went inside and stood around for a while waiting to order our burgers and fries. There were so many of us that it took FOREVER to get any food. My friends and I ordered Happy Meals, we found a table to eat at, talked for a while in the restraunt. After we were through eating, we got back on the bus, to continue heading back to school. I was getting really tired by now, luckily we did not have far left to go, in order to get back to school. When the bus got back to school, it was 8 pm at night. I was so tired, I went back to the dorm, went straight to bed. This was a very fun and exciting day for me.