Retell:
Yetunde Hawanda Tara Price is Serena big, big, big, big sister. She is the oldest of 5. She was the most understanding and the most forgiving. An example of her forgiveness was Yetunde and her sisters were joking around and pretended to cut Serena’s hair. Serena got so mad that during the night she actually cut Yetunde’s house not knowing that they had not actually cut her hair. Yetunde saw the cut hair and did not get mad at all. She laughed about it and let it go. On September 14, 2003 Serena was in Toronto, shooting a television show. She had to withdraw from the U.S Open because of a knee injury. She filled the time with some acting gigs. Following that day, Serena got a call at 4 o’clock in the morning by her mom. She called to ask if she had heard from Yetunde. Serena thought her mom was panicking for no reason and told her that she’s probably fine. But after the call of course couldn’t sleep and was a bit worried. There was just something about her mom’s voice that got her worried. So later on she called Yetunde’s house to check up on her. When she called Yetunde house, her cousin was the one who answered. She asked if Yetunde was around but being half asleep she could only hear half of what her cousin was saying. Soon enough she put all she could remember her cousin saying and remembered her saying “ She’s gone, Serena. I’m sorry.” Serena couldn’t believe it because she had just talked to her the day before. Her cousin explained to her that she was in a terrible accident. That Yetunde had been shot and that she passed away. Serena says that you never see it coming, and that when it hits you it never fully registers it. Her oldest sister Lyn was a wreck. She was the closest to Yetunde because they were very close in age. Lyn baby sat Yetunde’s kids all the time, or went to her house just to hang out. What happen to Tunde had been out to dinner with friends, just like she had told Serena. But then she drove over to Campton their old neighborhood, with this guy. It was after midnight, and some kind of argument had taken place. During the argument someone had pulled out a gun, and shots were fired into the SUV that Yetunde was riding. According to the police the shots were meant to be shot at her boyfriend. Everyone couldn’t believe it but knew that they had to get through this as a family. Serena’s mom moved in with Yetunde’s kids and promised to raise them as if they were hers. The thing Serena remembered the most was that they played a lot of UNO with the whole family including the kids. It was a way for them to pass the time together and a way to keep Yetunde with them close.
Relate:
I can relate to Serena because I know how it feels to loose a family member and it takes a lot of courage to get through it. It’s hard to think that someone could be there for a second and gone the next. I don’t really know what to day because you can never really know how a person feels unless you them. Just like her we had to really thank god for are life, and live it at it’s fullest because you never know when it’s time to go, not that anyone ever want to face that truth including me.
Reflect:
It’s nice to see that Serena has a really strong bond with her family. I think we should really think about all we have and not take it for granted. I know at times we forget what’s really important but at the end of the day family is really the one thing that counts the most. Family is the people that you will know your whole life. Those people were there since the beginning and will always be there for you. I think we should think about we have and just stop thinking about things we want and be grateful for it.
Match book entry:
Your destiny has just begun. Remember your people. Remember your sister. I’m proud of U. Your people are proud of U. Yetunde is prod of U. Always, always, always, keep it up. Play for your people. Play for Yetunde. U are capable of anything.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Being a Professional
First I want to apologize to M.David because I haven’t been posting my blogs so I’m just going to post 1 now and 2 tomorrow. So in this blog I’ll be talking about Serena becoming a professional tennis player.
Retell:
Serena tells us how at first playing tennis was about being a family, and having fun. But she then realized that it was about pushing herself, to the best she can be. She knew it was thanks to her dad that she had that determination. Thanks to her dad Serena was capable of playing non-professional tournaments. The only thing was that they had to follow the WTA (woman tennis association) rules. But the thing was that they were always changing. One of the biggest change of all was the age-eligibility rule. The rule used to be that you could play in tournaments when you were fourteen, but starting in 1996 it was going to change to 16. The way it worked was, if you turned 14 in 1995 before the new rule took affect and played in a tournament that same year, the old restriction would apply to you and not the new one. Serena absolutely wanted to play in a professional tournament, and she did in Quebec City, November 1995.Sadly she lost to a girl name Anne Miller who beat her 6-1, 6-1. The moment was a little too big for her 14 year old head. I t messed with her head to be playing in front of a great, big crowd , underneath these great big expectation. Even though she lost Serena vowed to learn from it and get better. It was in Oklahoma City that Venus & Serena won their 1st doubles game tournament. It was a big thing because they then new that they actually had a chance in this career. They had also won a big giant check that they still have up to this day. It is also in 1999 a year after that tournament that her parents got a divorce. But they never talked much about it because they knew that it wasn’t really going to affect them as much, because they were older then 18 so understood and knew it wasn’t going to change the fact that their parents loved them very much.
Relate:
I can relate to her in a way because I do know how it feels to compete and sometimes lose. Example: Just 2 days ago I was a York university for a track meet for regional. But to qualify there you had to qualify at the meet before which I won 3rd place which I was proud of. But for regional you had to qualify in the top 4 which I didn’t. So sadly I lost but I can learn from it and do better in another competition. But I can’t relate to her with the divorce situation because my parents are together.
Reflect:
I learned that you can’t always beat yourself down when you don’t win. You can always do better next time around. You should always have a goal go for it. But before doing something you should really make sure that it’s what you want and that you’re really ready for it. And it’s always good to have someone believe in you just like Serena had her Dad believing on her dreams.
Match book entry:
Tell me “NO” and I’ll show you I can! Tell me “NO” because I can! Tell me “NO”! Go ahead, tell me. Just tell me I can’t win. Just tell me it’s out of reach. Come on, I’ll prove U wrong! Just tell me “NO” and watch what happens.
Retell:
Serena tells us how at first playing tennis was about being a family, and having fun. But she then realized that it was about pushing herself, to the best she can be. She knew it was thanks to her dad that she had that determination. Thanks to her dad Serena was capable of playing non-professional tournaments. The only thing was that they had to follow the WTA (woman tennis association) rules. But the thing was that they were always changing. One of the biggest change of all was the age-eligibility rule. The rule used to be that you could play in tournaments when you were fourteen, but starting in 1996 it was going to change to 16. The way it worked was, if you turned 14 in 1995 before the new rule took affect and played in a tournament that same year, the old restriction would apply to you and not the new one. Serena absolutely wanted to play in a professional tournament, and she did in Quebec City, November 1995.Sadly she lost to a girl name Anne Miller who beat her 6-1, 6-1. The moment was a little too big for her 14 year old head. I t messed with her head to be playing in front of a great, big crowd , underneath these great big expectation. Even though she lost Serena vowed to learn from it and get better. It was in Oklahoma City that Venus & Serena won their 1st doubles game tournament. It was a big thing because they then new that they actually had a chance in this career. They had also won a big giant check that they still have up to this day. It is also in 1999 a year after that tournament that her parents got a divorce. But they never talked much about it because they knew that it wasn’t really going to affect them as much, because they were older then 18 so understood and knew it wasn’t going to change the fact that their parents loved them very much.
Relate:
I can relate to her in a way because I do know how it feels to compete and sometimes lose. Example: Just 2 days ago I was a York university for a track meet for regional. But to qualify there you had to qualify at the meet before which I won 3rd place which I was proud of. But for regional you had to qualify in the top 4 which I didn’t. So sadly I lost but I can learn from it and do better in another competition. But I can’t relate to her with the divorce situation because my parents are together.
Reflect:
I learned that you can’t always beat yourself down when you don’t win. You can always do better next time around. You should always have a goal go for it. But before doing something you should really make sure that it’s what you want and that you’re really ready for it. And it’s always good to have someone believe in you just like Serena had her Dad believing on her dreams.
Match book entry:
Tell me “NO” and I’ll show you I can! Tell me “NO” because I can! Tell me “NO”! Go ahead, tell me. Just tell me I can’t win. Just tell me it’s out of reach. Come on, I’ll prove U wrong! Just tell me “NO” and watch what happens.
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