Positive Experience of Jack Finesse (Fictional) When you’re feeling good about something and that something is the something that made you feel good about yourself. That’s when start to have a better outlook on life. My really good experiences about life aren’t just one big experience, it’s happened multiple times. My first one I can remember is, going to a concert for the first time. The one good thing that has happened in my life is skateboarding. That 7-layered maple wood with pivot metal things and polyurethane wheels is the best thing in my life that’s happened to me. I’ve always played Tony Hawk games and was really good at them but never really got into it until I was 12. I found out one of my best elementary friends Jamie skateboarded. It was 7th grade and all I had was a wal-mart digimon board from when I was in 3rd grade and some Reeboks. I called Jaime over one day so he could teach me how to skate. He said; “I can teach you how to ollie”, which is a simple jump, he maneuvered the board and I said, “wow”. I was so amazed he could do it. After about a week and a half, I could do a pretty stable ollie, I thought I was so cool. After all that my mom bought me my very own pair of skate shoes, which were called Vans. I was becoming a skater more and more, it felt good. Every weekend I would go over Jaime’s house or he would come over mine. He taught me front side 180’s,over spring break. We skated three times in one day early in the morning for about an hour and a half. Then we would go in play a little video games for about 2 hours then go outside again and skate some more. The whole time I was practing my heel flips and shuv-its, but then I saw Jaime do a front side 180. I’m a visual learner so as soon as I saw him do that I practiced it until it was dark. I worked so hard on that trick and landed it the same day. I landed and said, “Jamie! Dude did you see that?” I did it up a bank so I felt cool. Next trick I managed to get down was front side shuv-its. Front shuv-its is when the board does a front side 180 but you’re body stays straight. The beginning of 8th grade my mom bought me a real actual legit skateboard from a skate shops. I loved that board so much; it was an Element Bam Board with black venture trucks, redz bearings, and black and white flip wheels. After I got that board I learned front side shuv-its. I was really stoked that I landed it. Just messing around in the living room and I magically did it. The biggest smile on my face sprouted up. By this time Jamie and I haven’t skated together in a really long time I started meeting new people around the neighborhood that skated but weren’t good. I could do way more than them and I really couldn’t do much. The only tricks I had down were front side shuv-it, front side 180 and heel flip but I could only flip it. I skated that board for a really long time, from the beginning of 8th grade to, the middle of 9th grade. It lasted for a really long time but who ever skated it said I had no tail but my board felt fine to me. I had scratched the tail down so much it wouldn’t even hit the ground when I popped. It felt completely normal to me. I could ollie really high with it; the kids in the neighborhood all ways called me “moon man”, which I thought was pretty funny. It lasted me so long all because I was in football. Then when I started skating normally again, I bought a new deck and quit football because I didn’t want to deal with it anymore, I wasn’t really good at it and I realized that I have potential in skating. My drive for skating was at an all time high. All I wanted to do was skate every time I got home till it was dark. I would always watch John Motta one of my heroes’s in skateboarding, before I would go skate. Watching his videos would always pump me up and inspire me. At the end of 8th grade I called Jaime and told him how much I progressed, but Jaime progressed more too, he said, “I can varial kick flip and almost 360 flip”. I flipped when he told me that. Those tricks to me were so difficult. He also had some bad news too; he told me that he was moving to Washington, when I heard this my heart sank. My best friend that has taught me how to skate and learned so much with is moving. I couldn’t believe it. To this day I wonder what if he still skates. I can’t just forgot about someone that has taught me how to do something that I love doing. Skateboarding brings out the real person inside of you. That’s why I like it so much it makes you feel really good about yourself and it brings out your self-confidence. That is one of the best things that has happened in my life.