The Man with the Palm Tree

           The Man with the Palm Tree

Flash Fiction

BAM! And you’re off. Right out of the start and straight up a hill. The first three hundred meters just there to make you tired. You’re doing better than most but you’re last on your team. You know if you’re not seventh or better, you won’t run at conference and than you wouldn’t run at districts or state, not only that but if you get top twenty one, you could get Honorable Mention All Conference. There are eight runners on your team and you need to beat them. The hill is brutal but you’ve trained for this and you keep going up in the pack. You’re at the top of the hill and it’s right back down. It’s steep so you gain momentum, but at the bottom there’s a sharp right turning funnel next to a steep drop over rocks. You’re cautious while going around and after you’re through you start to pick the speed up. You can see some green jerseys and you start to get after them.

You pass the first one, another Junior on your team, and think to yourself you wouldn’t beat him if he wasn’t hurt, you tell him to pack up, then you keep going. Next is the man with the palm tree not ten feet ahead, he doesn’t want to lose, and after beating him last race he won’t let you get away. You and the man with the palm tree push each other until you see the Freshman only another twenty feet ahead. You tell him to keep on it, than pass him, with the man with the palm tree right next to you.

You go over rolling hills but neither of you will let up. You get to the stretch by camp and he pulls away, but you catch right back up. You go through a mud patch and gain some distance, but he’s right back. You’re both catching and passing kids, but you don’t care because it’s between you and him. The second hill is coming and it’s more difficult than the first, it’s so steep and so long you feel like you’re going a walking speed, the man with the palm tree gains more distance, but you get right back next to him. You know he doesn’t like hill and that part must have taken a lot out of him. Your at the top of the hill and the hill down is steep and long. You make your strides longer and coach tells you to breathe easy and go. You speed up as you pass the two mile mark but when you look to the right you see the man with the palm tree is gone.

You’re encouraged to go faster and for the next half mile you continue to pass runners from other teams until you see the Senior who has been your role model since you were a Freshman. You speed up to catch him with eight hundred meters left and you tell him to get his butt moving. He must really have taken it to heart because he sprinted up to the next teammate, the basketball player, before starting to drop back again. Six hundred meters left and you catch than pass him. You continue to add distance between you and him when you see three more Juniors on your team, the second fastest runner since Freshman year, the runner you had beat last race and doesn’t care much for practice, and the basketball player.

The only other runner on your team you had not seen was the man, the myth, the legend, the cross country star and the Green boy of the team, he goes by Greenie. You continue to get closer to the pack of runners and as you get closer and the kid you beat last week passes the second runner, you keep your eyes on the basketball player and get within two seconds when the finish hits you, and it’s done.

Greenie had beaten the school record, the kid you beat last week got second on the team and Honorable Mention All Conference. Your team’s second runner got third on the team and also got Honorable Mention All Conference, same with the basketball player who was fourth on the team and got twenty first overall which was the last Honorable Mention All Conference, so you didn’t get Honorable Mention All Conference, but you don’t care because you got fifth on the team followed by the Senior at sixth, the Freshman at seventh, the man with the palm tree at eighth, the injured Junior in ninth. People are telling you good job and you know you’ve gotten varsity. When the results come out the difference in times from the second runner on our team to finished the race to you was eight seconds and in one mile you beat the man with the palm tree by over forty second. With the race done and your season to continue the man with the palm tree keeps telling you that he will be beat you next year, than you smile, look him in the eyes, wink, and say, “I’d like to see you try.”

Background

In my picture I have two runners in color and the rest of the race and crowd as black and white. The two runners are Levi (the man with the palm tree) and I and we are both on the same cross country team. Both of us are about half way into a five kilometer run ( one and a half miles) and we are trying to push each other. This is the part of the race when the ground is wet and right before we go up a four hundred meter hill. Levi was trying to pull away from me because I had beat him last race and he didn’t want that to happen again, but I sped up with him because I knew I could win and he couldn’t keep the pace for much longer, eventually I won out in the end. This race was important because the top 7 runners were supposed to run at conference and the winner between use two would get to run varsity and the other would be done for the season.

Features

In the picture Levi and I are next to each other with no one directly around us and we have good space between us and the next guy. I did this so it looked like we were at the front of the pack and were pushing each other without worrying about the rest of the race. Being separated from the rest of the race brings the viewers eye into the middle instead of the background. The picture was taken during the muddy part of the course because it was the toughest part of the race which was when we were covered in mud and working our hardest, plus it made the terrain look more difficult. Only Levi and I are in color and that is because we weren’t worried about the rest of the race and the only thing we cared about was showing coach which one of us was faster that way we could get a varsity spot. The color that the two of us are is brighter than the original picture because it makes the sun look hotter and the weather more intense. It also make us the highlight of the photo and makes the person looking at the picture focus on Levi and I.

Reflection

Most people think that your personality will stay the same forever. People hope that the friends they have will never change and always be the same. People think that our personalities are who we are and if we don’t keep the same personality, what makes us the same person as we were ten years ago? If we are made by genetics why would our personality change, we should have a personality that is the same from when we’re born to when we die. Are personalities like we think or do we become different people over the years to the point we are nothing like we were?

One psychologist named Dr. Romeo Vitelli wrote an article about how personalities change over time in Psychology Today, which goes against the common belief. He tells us that personality is usually a more well rounded state when we are older compared to when we are younger. (Vitelli) When we are baby we have a personality that could be anger or happy and when we are adults the personality is there as well, but milder than it first was. But afterwards Romeo says personalities can change on their own: "personality changes can still occur depending on new life experiences," (Vitelli) for example people with jobs become more responsible, which will slightly change what type of person you are (Vitelli). These are changes in personality that people don’t intentionally look for but can you will yourself to change? Romeo goes on the talk about a study where participants take a personality test than choose the traits they want to change. (Vitelli) After 16 weeks the participants came back from counselling with better scores toward the personalities they wanted and smaller scores in the traits they didn’t want (Vitelli). Romeo tells us that personalities are changeable and will change either by choice or on their own.

I agree with Romeo but not exactly in the same way that he believes. I do think that if you are forced into different environments that need you to change to be more effective that you will change to fit those roles. I think people will change without noticing the changes because people will try to adapt to their job or other environmental changes. I also think the changes take years to occur, which is so slow most people won't notice it. I don’t think you can change your personality intentionally because you have no incentive other than you want to be a better person or better at a certain task. If you could change you personality just by willing yourself to you would change from so many little ideas and mental adjustment that in a year you would be a whole new person compared to who you once were. I believe personalities can change but not by choice but be random experiences and environments that make change necessary to be more effective it that scenario.

Vitelli, Romeo. “Can You Change Your Personality?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 7                   Sept. 2015, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/media-spotlight/201509/can-you-change-your-personality.

Kayde Bowers

Perspectives

Ms. Becker P.1

11/6/18