Homecoming
Title: Homecoming
Supposedly, the University
of Missouri University of Kansas
Meg Rogers (former team captain for JT Track and Field) sent
me a message on Friday asking me if we had any more practices over break. We didn’t but there were a few athletes out
of town earlier in the week who I wanted to work with, so I told her
I’d see. I found out Miss Cash was
available, grabbed Leland, invited Meg, and headed for the track. Cash and Leland were warming up when Meg
pulled in. I immediately went over and
said hi to her. “Have you ever met Cash
Perry?” I asked. “I have
not,” Meg replied. I introduced them and then Meg
went off to warm up, while Cash began the process of dying. It has only been two years since Meg
graduated and it is weird that a girl on my team doesn’t know her. In Cash’s case it is perfectly
understandable, she is only in eighth grade and wouldn’t know Meg, but Autumn
knows Meg as part of what she calls, “The Trio.” One of three inseparable friends who were in
track and cross country together for six years.
Cash hits 1:17 on her first 400 repeat and then battles to survive the
others. Meg calmly watches another human
being suffer in the drill, for it is one that she is very familiar with as a
former XC runner. Toward the end of Cash’s
ordeal, Meg begins warming up on the hurdles and the drills she is doing are
amazing!
Cash is now done and walks around the track. I expected her to go home but Cash chooses to
stay to learn the hurdles from a college hurdle girl. Meg does not disappoint! First we do her workout. Meg is a 400 meter hurdler (and also her
colleges anchor in the 1600 relay) and she wants to work on her timing to the
first few hurdles. I grab out a pair of
blocks and count her steps. It is so
much fun! When Meg gets done she runs a
clinic for Cash and I. Three years ago
Meg and I started her hurdle journey together, Parker and I the teachers, and
she the student. After two years of
college hurdles, she is the teacher and I am the student. Patiently Meg goes through the drills with
us, giving us micro corrections to improve form. I suddenly wish all my aspiring hurdlers were
here for this special moment because this is a clinic that would have been
worth paying money for. I am really glad
Cash is there to share the moment.
It is wonderful to have three former athletes competing at
the college level but it is nice to see former athletes regardless! McKenzie Prutsman has finished her college
basketball career (and what an amazing one it was!) and will be coming home
soon. I mentioned to her dad, “If she
can, I would love it if she could talk to the team!” Last year Josh Peraldo talked to the cross
country team and I thought they got a lot out of it! I think it is good for students to hear from
people who loved their time in the sport and radiate passion as they talk about
their days as a Wildcat. It is also
great for me to see them again! To the
students they are people to look up to but to me they are special people I have
not seen in a long time:)
In a fantasy series it is hard to jump to “the next
generation.” Actually I think that is
hard in any series but since we’ve been studying fantasy genre we will stay
with that. When a friend at camp let me
read “The Elfstones of Shannara” I was blown away! My favorite character was the mysterious Allanon
the druid, a dangerous character that was always outgunned, and feared and
hated by the very people he was trying to save!
In the next series I really hated Terry’s next druid hero “Walker Boh.” As an adult I don’t mind him as much, but I
had little patience for him as a teen. Walker
Boh is the reluctant hero, something I didn’t understand as a kid, but that I
understand much better as an adult. Anyway,
I strongly disliked him and was glad when he died. I thought the next druid was a much stronger character! Her name was Grianne Ohmsford. She started out in the series as a villain...
a very powerful villain! It turns out
she was abducted and twisted into a villain as a little girl. She is redeemed from her path of evil and
eventually becomes the Ard Rhys, the leader of the Druids. She is feared and it is a very believable
fear, for she used to be a powerful villain!
Grianne is not soft like Boh was but nor is she inhuman or
uncaring. She is a woman who has done
much wrong and seeks to atone for her actions.
You can feel it drive her through the series. Grianne is not an SJW Mary Sue in that challenges
she faces are stiff and you wonder whether she is up to the task!
Mr. Brooks presents three generations of heroes but all
different from each other. Allanon the
man who has lived for a long time through druid sleep, well aware of the danger
Shannara is up against, and goes to work because he knows no one else
is going to do it! He is powerful and
hunted by terrifying enemies, but his role is usually to mobilize the four
lands against the coming threat and find a young hero that can take on the new
arch villain. Walker Boh, is far from
the mysterious and ancient Allanon. He
is way under trained and not interested in the job of being a druid. He kind of muddles his way along blindly, not
due to stupidity back severe lack of experience and has little passion for his
role. I guess he’s kind of the spiderman
hero, in that he gains the knowledge “With great power, comes great
responsibility,” but instead of having his uncle die by a low level criminal he
refused to stop, Walker arrives at his conclusion being thrown into the role of
super hero without really desiring it.
Then you have Grianne. She borders
on almost an anti-hero in her approach to problems but she is moral and
ultimately plays by the rules... sort of.
At her back is a troll named “Kermadec” who is intensely loyal to her
but is not a love interest. They make an
interesting duo, both hated characters, and both heroic. Mr. Brooks struggles with breaking away from
his book formula through the stacks of books he was written but in this one area he succeeds magnificently! Each generation has their own hero, who is
similar to the other druids, and yet extremely different! I have found this as a coach. There are traits that most track heroes share
in common but as people they are very different from each other. Personally that was the struggle I had with
the Dirk Pitt series (I know that is not fantasy genre:) I liked Dirk Pitt but as I read about the
kids or the crew of whatever that ship was called, they seemed very much like
him. What motivates characters and who
they are should be very different. My
two most popular characters, Myth and Risk, are extremely different. One was forged from a young age to be
something and given many advantages and the other has to survive in difficult
circumstances. Both are tough but Myth
is OP where Risk is just a child who can fight like an adult. Myth calmly goes from situation to situation
rarely actually scared where Risk has to power through situations by force of
will and faith! When Myth meets people
who can actually take him on it is a shock to him but Risk is in danger
often. Myth is sort of like a superman
character (though he is not an alien and does not come from an alien planet...
he also doesn’t fly, have freeze breath, X Ray Vision, enormous strength, or...
okay, they are not very similar but compared to Risk, Myth is like
superman.) Risk is like a batman
character, that has had to hone himself and his skills for the challenges
ahead. Risk is intensely driven where
Myth is extremely laid back. Ironically,
Risk learns he is too intense and Myth comes to realize he is too casual about
life. Both learn to trust the Lord more
than themselves in their journey as heroes:)
*** Author Adrian Essigmann has eighteen books in print on
Amazon.com, soon to be nineteen! All of
them are $.99 cents on Kindle, with the exception of “An Assumed Risk” which
will be (Lord willing) an e-book before summer.
All of his books are available in soft cover too! Type Amazon Adrian Essigmann and his author’s
page should come up ***
Book list
Fiction
Wolf Hunting – Action/suspense
Wolf Hunting 2: Trick Shot – Military action/ science
fiction
American Fairytale – Colonial America
Life, Liberation, and the Pursuit of Video Games – Dystopian
Asylum Series (Tribulation genre meets CS Lewis meets lost)
Asylum
Killer Robots
Werewolves
Elf Princess
Zero Book – 666
C-3 Series (Pilgrim’s Progress meets Ender’s Game)
An Assumed Risk
Heavy Opposition
A Distant Boom
Two Hearts
The Magnificent Six
Don’t Pass Go!
Two Paths – Coming Soon!!
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