Month: February 2024

As a kid, I was always outside. My friends and I were always outside after school doing God knows what and having a great time. One of my favorite things to do was camping. My father took me camping several times as a kid and I always had a great time. One particular time, we all went camping for a week at a campground. The trip started off great, with all of us hanging out playing games and having a good time. My favorite part was the nightly fire pit that we had where we would relax by the fire until it was time for us to go to sleep and repeat the cycle in the morning.

During this trip, I bunked with one of my closest friends. This was his first time camping for this long of a time and he was understandably going through a lot of emotions. We were very young, away from home, and in the middle of the woods. The second we got to the campground I made it my mission to make sure everything was going fine for him and that he was doing good. During the first day, we were having a great time tossing a football around, playing corn hole, and fishing in the lake. We rapped up the day with the fire pit until it was time for bed. It wasn’t until two in the morning when he woke me up. He was having a hard time sleeping and he had to go to the bathroom. Since we were kids, there was a rule that anywhere you went, you had to be accompanied with someone else. So, I went with him to the tiny old outhouse in the middle of the night. When we got in, we both heard this noise that sounded like a baby rattle. After hearing this, we both turned around and saw this massive bat just hanging on the wall right next to us. We both instantly ran out of there and back to our tent. That night not only made us closer friends, but it also showed him that I was by his side and that everything he was going through, I was going through as well.

That night helped him see that he was not alone and that everyone was experiencing the same thing as him. After that night I continued to help him throughout the trip. By the end of the camping trip, he was totally comfortable with everything and he ended up having a great time. This camping trip taught me so much about myself and how to handle myself during trying times. I learned many leadership qualities that I have been using ever since the trip. I am grateful for this camping trip and the bonds I built from it.

As a person who has grandparents that immigrated to the United States, I have always believed that immigration is very important. My grandmother lived in Glasgow Scotland up until her twenties and my other set of grandparents came from Sicily. As a kid, I always found their stories about their homes to be fascinating. Hearing about the cultures and beliefs of other countries was extremely fascinating to hear about as a child, since life as a kid is almost like a bubble. My grandmother used to tell stories about her times living back at Scotland and she also talked about her immigration experience to Ellis Island. I remember listening to her stories and thinking about how complicated the whole processed seemed. More importantly, it was odd to me that the people working there weren’t the most pleasant people.

The topic of immigration resurfaced in my life when one of my best friend’s grandmother was trying to become a citizen. We were in middle school and his grandmother was going through the process. My friend was explaining to me what was going on and I was shocked at how the situation was going. His grandmother was from Turkey and she mainly speaks Russian, with a broken English accent. During the citizenship test they wouldn’t let my friend’s mom accompany her mother during the test for translations. This was particularly strange because this is something that they usually allow. Without her daughter present, my friend’s grandma didn’t pass the test and it was back to square one.

After hearing this story, I was shocked at how the system worked and I thought it was strange how harsh the employees were. I’ve believed since I was young that everyone immigrating to the United States from another nation deserves an equal chance at becoming a citizen. People should not be prioritized or swept under a rug because they can or cannot speak English. My friend told me that this was the second time that they failed to give his grandmother a fair chance at citizenship. I found this to be insane, seeing as my grandmother didn’t have as challenging of an experience back in the 60s when she moved.

There is a silver lining to this story however, as eventually she got a third opportunity and did not waste it. This time around, they allowed her daughter to be there, and she aced her test. I was extremely happy to hear this news as I am very close to them and I also related to what they were going through. I believe all immigrants deserve a fair chance at citizenship so situations like this can be prevented.

My love for football dates all the way back to the 2010 NFL season. My father has been a lifelong New York Jets fan and it wasn’t until January of 2011 when he passed his fandom down to me, a six year old kid. The Jets have had a pretty rough history, putting it lightly, but in 2009 and 2010 the Jets reached back-to-back AFC Championship games, putting them just one win away from a Super Bowl berth. In 2009 the Jets fell to Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. My dad told me that he thought that was our last chance at finally winning another Super Bowl championship. However, the Jets did the unthinkable and found themselves back into the playoffs the very next year, even defeating a prime Tom Brady and the Patriots on the road in the Divisional Round. And then the next week rolled around and it was time for Jets vs. Steelers, winner goes to the Super Bowl. This games remains my first ever memory of watching a football game, and from then on I was hooked. Unfortunately, the Jets lost to the Steelers and when my dad repeated his same line as the year before “Well that was our only chance”, he ended up being right because the Jets haven’t even been to the playoffs since that game.

When I entered fourth grade I decided I wanted to play football. And I did, all the way through sophomore year of high school. When I entered high school, it was my dream to play quarterback for the team, as that was the position I had played my whole life. Unfortunately, my team was extremely good and had two quarterbacks already lined up to play. So, they made me play free safety, a position that I wasn’t too fond of. I played at free safety for all of the freshman season without any injuries at all. Freshman year was a fun season, as we played against kids the same ages as us and it felt like playing pee wee football all over again. And then, sophomore year rolled around and I got the safety job for the JV team. I played the whole first game pretty well, and I was feeling good about myself. However, week two rolled around and on the second play of the game, the other team passed the ball to the running back, who was like a foot shorter than me, and I didn’t get low enough and his helmet went right into my ribcage. I remember just laying on the grass for about ten seconds to collect myself, and then I was helped up and gingerly walked off the field. While I was sitting on the bench, my coach yelled out to me “Bachovchin, can you go?”, and I bent over to grab my helmet and shot right back up and said “Nope, not a chance”. The pain I felt when I bent over was excruciating, and I had no shot to play. The injury knocked me out for two more games. My father told me that whenever you fall, you gotta get back up. I did just that and when I returned to the field in week 5, I let them know who I was.

When I was in middle school, my father got promoted on his police force from patrolman to sergeant and because of this, he had to switch from his day shift to working midnights. With him working nights he experienced a slew of crazy calls that his squad had to go to. The one that I remember the most vividly took place when I was in seventh grade. They received a call from an elderly woman who was in extreme panic and distress. She told the dispatcher that her son was intoxicated and was threatening her. Once they got to the house they were able to see flames through the windows on the first floor. The woman’s son had apparently had several run-ins with the officers for quite some time and he was not in a great place mentally. He claimed that his mother was the reason why his life was where it was at and as a result, he attempted to burn her house down. Thankfully by the time they arrived it was early enough to put an end to the fire without it causing any major damage. The officers went in and found the man just standing in the middle of the house just watching it burn around him, while his mother was hiding somewhere else in the home. My father was able to calm down the man and was able to escort him out of the house and into custody. After they removed him from the home they successfully found the woman hiding in a bathroom and they evacuated her from the house.

When my dad first told me this story, I vividly remember my mouth being agape at the dinner table. As a child I knew that my dad had a very dangerous job, but I did not know that sometimes the extent of the job could reach heights like this. Hearing how my father handled himself in that situation showed me how I can handle myself during a trying time. It taught me how to be fearless and how I can use acts of bravery to get me through a difficult situation.

During the next week, my one friend was getting bullied in school. It had been going on for a few weeks and he didn’t tell anyone at that point. It wasn’t until that Tuesday of Wednesday when I experienced for myself what was happening. During gym class that day, these two guys were all in his face and were shoving him around. I saw this happening from a distance and was immediately concerned. The two guys pushed my friend to the ground and then walked away. I ran over to my friend and asked him what was going on. Once he told me, I remembered the lesson that my dad taught me and decided to act. I told the teacher what happened and the guys were ordered to detention. I had been friends with him for so many years and couldn’t stand by and watch what was happening, especially after the lesson I had just learned. I am so thankful that I learned that lesson when I did, as it helped make me a better person.