To send or not to send

I realize I haven't posted anything for quite a long time, but hopefully I can get in a habit of posting before I leave for college.

The following is a Thank you letter I wrote to my tennis coach. I can't decide whether or not to give it to him. This letter is exactly what I want to say to him. The problem is that I don't know how he would take it. He isn't a big fan of anything sentimental and I am afraid it will not be appreciated.



I wanted to thank you for everything you have done for me since i have started playing tennis. You have done so much more than developed my tennis skills. Whether you see it or not you have had a major impact on my life in general.
As far as my tennis game, you are way to nice to my family. The racquets and strings you havegiven us are greatly appreciated. If it weren't for the generosity of you and your parents there would be no way I would be playing tennis in college on a scholarship. You push us harder than any other coach does. That is exactly what I need. It is that push which keeps me playing and has made St. Anthony girls tennis a great success. I may have always complained about running the hills and lines and the few occasions I attemped some push ups and bear crawls but looking back I know that is what I needed. Also thanks for all the memories and jokes. I will never forget your witty banter. Good luck next year and keep me updated on how the team does.
You have had a major impact on many other areas on my life that you may not even realize. One of the major parts beleive it or not is my religious aspect of my life. Our many discussions and arguments on beliefs have allowed me to question my faith and learn more about it. It causes me to stand up for what I believe in and in turn makes me a stronger Catholic.
One of the othe major imfluences you had on me comes from one of the two memories I will never forget. The first is when I was like 6th grade and you threw you sweatshirt on me and said, "be a woman and go hang that up for me" or something like that. Then I threw your sweatshirt on the floor and stepped on it. The next memory made a big impact on me. I am not sure whether you remember this or not but I am positive you said it. It was when I was practicing with the high school team at your court in like 6th grade. They were all talking about the party they last went to and what type of drinks everyone likes. Being in 6th grade I had never even thought about drinking before. You then turn to me and ask if I have ever drank before. I say that I haven't and then you say something like, "well good because if you started drinking you would pack on the pounds so fast, you would be way to fat to play tennis." You will probably deny saying that but you did. The reason I remember this so well is because just a few days earlier I found out that my grandpa Esker didn't die in the war but died of liver poisoning from drinking too much. These two events together are the major reason I don't drink and never will. I greatly beleive that God sends us signs through the people around us and that these events were a sign to me not to drink. I am sorry that this means I will never be able to sit around and have a beer with you but I will forever be thankful for the day you said that to me.
I would also like to thank you for making fun of me. That seems funny as I say that but because of your fun insults and my Bloemer stubborness I am now able to take whatever people say about me. I have such a tough skin that I don't care what other think about me which allows me to concentrate on more important things.
Thanks for everything. You are a man I will never forget and are a true inspiration. Keep doing what you do because you never know what kind of impact you can have on someones life.

St. Joseph's College Of Indiana

On Saturday morning I drove three hours to a tennis tournament and college visit at St. Joseph College in Rensselaer, IN. It is a small Division II school in a town of around 6 thousand people. It has only three fast food restaurants and from what I hear Walmart is the main hang-out. The people enjoy driving slow, and the town is the definition of everyone knows everything about everyone.

I won my first match fairly easily but my second match was quite difficult. I played on a court with no alleys. Alleys aren't necessary for single but this is the first time I've played without them and was not used to it. I lost the first set 7-5 then came back to win the second set 7-5. We took our ten minute break and I won the third set 6-1. The whole match took over two and a half hours and I was so sore. It was the first day in a month that I played a competitive match of singles. The most exciting thing about the match was that the player played number 2 singles for the college team last year and I beat her. That put me on the good side of the coach.

After my matches, I ate with the team in their cafeteria. The food was better than I expected. Then I got a short tour of the campus, and I got to see the dorm I was staying in for the night. We got cleaned up and went to the tennis team's captain's room to watch some movies. They were surprised on how many movies I have not seen.

The next day, I lost in a three set match to the coach's daughter who is going to St. Joseph next year for college. I then played doubles with her and won the doubles division. The coach was very pleased with how I played and really wants me to play tennis on his team next year. I haven't made any decisions on where to go, but St. Joe is toward the top of the list.

It may seem weird but the thing I liked most about the college was that there is tons of grass and tons of trees. I like the fact that there is more grass than concrete. It is also a small Catholic school and my faith is very important to me. It is a gorgeous campus that I could definitely see myself at.

Tennis is over:(

Wow it has been a long time. I have been so busy with tennis and school that I never seemed to find the time needed to write. So let's recap. Last weekend was my last high school state tournament for tennis. Just thinking that it was my last makes me sad. Those who know me know how much tennis is my life. It was a good tournament to end it on though. We won our first three matches the first day. The second day we played the one seed first round and lost, but we weren't too upset. Besides the team that got second, my partner and I were the closest to winning a set off them. We won our next round but lost the one after that in three sets. We ended up finishing 13-16 out of a draw of 128. I was pleased.

I have also been working on applying for colleges. I think I am finally finished with that stressfull mess. I appied to the U of I Champaign-Urbana, Eastern Illinois, Southern Ill Carbondale, Augustana College, and St. Joseph College in Indiana. As of right now I am leaning more toward St. Joseph than the other schools. It is a small Catholic school around 3 hours away. If I went there I would play tennis for their team. This weekend I am playing in a tournament the college is hosting and staying with one of the players in her dorm. After this weekend I should have a better idea on whether the school is where I really want to go.

Well, hopefully with tennis season over, I will write more often, but we will see how that goes.

Which one is which

My aunt, uncle, and cousins from Chicago are down for the weekend to celebrate the little ones third birthday. They are identical twin girls who are so cute. It amazes me how half of the family can tell the girls apart and the other half can't. I'm in the half that can't. 5 seconds after I get told which one is which I forget again. I have given up on trying to figure it out.

The one thing the girls love the most about my town is all the animals they get to see. Yesterday, some of my aunts and I took them on a horse ride. They can ride one all by themselves as long as someone is leading the horse. It was also the first time in about ten years that I have ridden a horse. I was a lot of fun.

They mainly love the cats. For Christmas they received two cats from one of my aunts, but since their dad is allergic, the cats have to stay at her house. The majority of the time spend in town is with those cats. They also love to come visit my cat. My cat is huge compared to theirs and they love him. They came over for about an hour today to play with him.

My sister played her first college tennis tournament this weekend. From what I heard from her she won the backdraw in singles and got second in the backdraw in doubles. That isn't too bad for her first tourney. Nice job sis.

99 wins

So I haven't said much in a while but the main thing that I have experienced lately was a record breaker. I broke my school's record for most doubles wins in a high school career. Yesterday I won my 99th doubles match beating the previous record of 98.

I was going to get my 100th win this weekend in a tournament in Bloomington, but the weather has cancelled it. I am not worried though. I will be in triple digits soon enough.

Dreams

Not enough can be said about dreams. They are one of the most fasinating things of this world. How a person can go to sleep and while sleeping do something unimaginable. How in reality a dream is extremely short, but they seem like they go on for days. How sometimes you can remember them and sometimes you can't. How random the people in them are. How you can wake up with the same emotion you ended the dream with.

I bring this up because last night I had one of the weirdest dreams possible. I can't really explain it because some people would be questioning my sanity if they heard it. Let's just say it involved the olympics, gangs, important people of my church, german sheperds, and a huge house. I can remember a good percentage of my dreams, but the this one is different. I remember this one in much greater detail. Maybe it means something. That would be scary. Maybe the dream will continue tonight. If it does hopefully it's a little happier ending.

The shed