9 This is the Story of How I Changed

I am choosing to write my Personal Narrative on an experience I had just over a year ago. I was on my high school Cross Country team for my first and last time. We had a Saturday meet and our coach told us it was a fast course and most people PR'd (made a personal record). The race day ended up being extremely rainy and my specific race ended up being postponed because of lightening. My race that day was one I will never forget. It put me at an all new emotional low for reasons you will hopefully understand when you read it. I don't like telling this story a lot because it shows just how weak I am but I love it because it shows how much strength the Savior provides us when we turn to Him. It was this experience that really taught me patience and humility. I hope I can write it well, but it will be hard to put how I felt into words. Anyway I realize that is really vague, but yeah that's what I am going to write about. Just one Cross Country race that somehow changed me more than any other moment of my life.
On a more exciting note, I'm going to the Mockingjay Part Two midnight (9pm) showing on Thursday!!!!! I'm super pumped just thought y'all should know. I actually really liked all the books, not because they were so well written or I was happy with everything the author did-I wasn't-but because the I believe the deep down message is so important. Panem, the place in which it is set, comes from the Latin phrase, "panem et circenses" or "bread and circuses". It basically means that the government, or people in general, distract themselves from their miseries or unhappinesses with food and games. I mean on a large scale. In Rome, the government provided free bread rations and sports games to make the people forget their lack of freedom and wealth. In Hunger Games, it's obvious that the Capitol does a similar thing. But in our real world, we also get distracted by bread and circuses. Who won the last Superbowl? What are the newest movies? TV Shows? Okay, we're all pretty aware. Now, besides ISIS, what do you know about the US's most recent wars? Where have our soldiers been fighting and dying? What do you know about how the US is helping the immigration crisis in Europe at this very moment? We have all heard about the terrorist attacks in Paris yesterday, but what about the University shooting in Kenya that killed even more people? Yeah? Well what about.... and okay you get the point. That's also why I think the movies and their popularity is a bit ironic because that goes is an example of everything the book shows is wrong with the world.
It's also about war and its effects that aren't shown in the media. Most movies show a lot of action, usually with the main character coming out on top and then having learned from his experience. I like The Hunger Games trilogy because Collins really captures how traumatizing war is. The main character may live to the end of the war, but she is far from okay. She clearly has PTSD and she has been so traumatized she can't even see the world for what it is anymore. Her mental stability is questionable at best. War is not glorified. Basically, that's why I like the Hunger Games. It shows how dehumanizing war really is when others may not.