1

Brandon Roode

A Star within the Sea

2

Introduction 2

Chapter One 2

Chapter Two 2

Chapter Three 3

Chapter Four 4

Conclusion 5

About The Author 6

Table of Contents

3

Introduction

4

Hello, as you read “A Star within the Sea” by Brandon Roode, you will find that friendships are very important to him. His friends have shaped who he is today in many ways, and are still are huge part of his life. He has had many accomplishments, including awards, victories, and championships. Brandon started playing tennis on vacation while in Cape Cod at the age of 6. He loved playing the game of tennis so much he practiced and became a State Champion. Brandon is family oriented and enjoys hanging out with his parents on the weekends. One of his favorite things to do is take walks in Mystic, CT and going out to eat with his friends.

Brandon attended Griswold High school in Griswold, CT. He played 4 years of varsity tennis and 2 years of soccer at Griswold High school. His major accomplishments here included making the honor roll for his 4 years of high school, and volunteering at a local food pantry. MacDonald and I led very separate lives. MacDonald didn’t have the experience I had, in fact, he was the opposite. He came from a home where there wasn’t much love coming from the parent. He grew up with a single mother, with his dad never caring about him. His mom struggled to support the household with the income she had as well as the number of children she had.

My parents have supported me with not only tennis, but also with my Aunt Jane’s passing away. They gave me the love and support I needed and helped me realize how tough it was for me to go through what I was going through. They were very in tuned with my feelings.

5

Chapter One

6

There have been many proud moments in my life that have made me who I am today; however, there is no one other than my parents who have been more supportive, loving, and there for me through thick and thin. My parents have been my best friends as well as my rocks throughout my life. I love being around them because the memories we share have been my best memories. Ever since I was a young kid, my parents taught me how to be re-spectful and kind towards others, to always follow my heart, be true to myself and be the support team that I’ve needed throughout life. I always wanted to be a successful tennis player; my parents sup-ported me and helped me accomplish this goal by providing me with the training I needed to become a Conference and State champion, which to date is my most proud moment. In my high school career, I chose to miss school dances, football games, and staying over at friends’ houses; however, it was all worth it to be with my parents and better my skills in tennis. One memory that stands out among the rest is when I won my first conference title. My family, friends, and teachers came to support me at each one of my matches. After the match, I ran in victory to find my parents, who had been my biggest supporting team behind me throughout my tennis career. Tears come to my eyes every time I watch the video of this particular match because of how much I appre-ciate the love and support my parents have given me. The video is evi-dence of goals accomplished through hard-work and dedication as well as the loving support of my parents.

7

The town I come from, family is always important;

I have always been close to my own family. When one

person is gone, it is a big deal. When my Aunt Jane

passed I needed the support from my family from my

town to get through this tragedy. My parents, who

shaped me, have always helped me through each

problem in my life and that was no different through

this one. MacDonald did not have that support and

had to deal with the problems on his own. The town I

come from has helped me through these tragedies.

8

Chapter Two

9

I have been lucky to be graced with a close knit, loving family in my life. Every person in my family has a special connection with one another, whether we like a certain tennis player or similar interests. One person I was extremely close to and cared for was my great great aunt, Jane Adamoski. My great great aunt was the rock in my family and we counted on her to always be at family gatherings. When Aunt Jane passed away the family felt the effect of the tragedy for many months and still feels the effects currently. Christmas time was the hardest for the family when dealing with Aunt Jane’s death because of her being at all gatherings; the tragedy was very hard to deal with.

Aunt Jane was a caring person who was always interested in what others were doing. I was her favorite nephew. As soon as I would arrive at family get-togethers she would ask what was going on with my life involving tennis and school. She would compliment me always telling me “I’m an amazing tennis player; however, she wished I would play golf because that makes more money.” I would reply “I only played golf for fun and would never consider trying to perfect the sport.” Once bone cancer started getting the best of my Aunt Jane I would help her with errands around the house. I was honored when my grandfather asked me to give the memori-al speech for my Aunt Jane’s funeral. I put together the speech, pre-sented it at my Aunt’s funeral and wasn’t nervous at all; the words flowed out of my mouth as swiftly as they had gone into my mind. I was happy to talk about such a wonderful woman that I had the pleas-ure of knowing. Through the speech I started to lose my composure; I thought about all the conversations my Aunt Jane and I have had, about how they would never happen again and it made me sad and I began to cry. I knew my Aunt Jane would want me to make her proud and be strong with my speech and my life so I proceeded to finish the speech. The entire audience at the funeral was moved by speech and left in tears. After the funeral, my family went back to my grandparents’ house and reminisced about the speech, the amazing person she was as well as the great qualities she portrayed. We collectively reminisced

10

about old times and tried our best to help each other through the loss. The memory that helped us through the loss easier was remember-ing her talking and laughing; this helped bring us all closer together. At the end of the day realizing that family is there for you through thick and thin to help you with your pain and struggles helps. My Aunt Jane had a special connection with animals; they always had an abnormal conformality around her. My family and I always share this fact every time we see animals. My dog Xena, who was very shy, would only take treats and food from my Aunt Jane because she was comfort-able around her.

Months after my Aunt Jane’s Death I became severely depressed. When asked to go out with friends I would turn down offers. I thought to myself one day that my Aunt Jane wouldn’t want me to become what I was becoming, so I decided to change my ways and started go-ing out. I called up my friends and apologized for how I had been act-ing lately, told them why, and asked for their forgiveness, of course they forgave me, and we started to hang together shortly after. I real-ized it takes time to heal wounds but that abandoning everything you’ve been your whole life in the process isn’t the right way to go about things.

My actions with coping with the tragedy were my conscious reac-tions; however, they caused me to become depressed. I was depressed be-cause I knew I had to get on with my life the way she would want me to instead of living in a depressed way.

11

Fitting in has never been easy, it has been a tough

thing for both MacDonald and I. He never fit in

anywhere because he hoped from place to place from

New York to clubs listening to all different types of

music. He never had that support system to be who he

wants to be and take the tragedies as they come

instead of being forced to deal with them. With me, my

parents let me feel the pain and helped me through it,

but MacDonald could never fit in because different

experiences kept happening to him like deaths that

kept him from fitting in.

12

Chapter Three

13

In “Easter Rising” the memoir by Michael Patrick MacDonald, MacDonald describes fitting in as something completely different than what we would consider normal now in this day. An average life “fitting in” is going to school, graduating, and acquiring a job. Kids in MacDonald’s neighborhood were far from fitting in; they were addict-ed to drugs, alcohol, weren’t part of school, and were involved in crime. MacDonald grew up in a neighborhood where doing drugs, alco-hol, and partying all night was normal. MacDonald didn’t relate to the normal in the neighborhood. At the concerts people would pass around a bottle of alcohol and would often get high; MacDonald unapproving of passing the bottle onto the next person would refuse to go the con-certs. MacDonald wasn’t accepted in Southie because of his life choices; however, Kathy liked him because of his individualism. He felt if he started to engage in the drugs and alcohol he would lose his imagina-tion and all that makes him who he is. In high school, I was a well-known athlete; athletes, in my school, are notorious for being homebodies and professional, never partying or doing drugs. Our sports were a major identity to us, they were who we were, and we would never risk our sports career by doing foolish activ-ities.

College was a different experience for me than high school was; I completely changed. My first experience was that parties here consist-ed of just strict alcohol, not like typical parties in my hometown. I made friends ranging from students all the way to athletes like myself. I realized after a month of being here that weed smoking and alcohol drinking is the norm here. I began to feel pressured to fit in feeling the only way I could fit in would be to smoke weed with others. I was in de-nial like MacDonald was that I could feel pressured like this, but every time I was asked I would deny. I took pride in being one of the few peo-ple here at Nichols that doesn’t smoke, similar to when MacDonald took pride in not smoking at the night club.

My curiosity hit me and I started to become curious about trying it so I could “fit in” and make new friends. I was nervous my first time

14

because I was breaking my promises to all my best friends from home. Peer pressure kicked in and I did it anyways; however, I felt bad after-wards for what I’d done to my friends. I liked that I began to fit in with new people this way so for the next two months I was smoking with several different people. I had friends that smoked, and friends that didn’t. I didn’t like the person I was becoming; I knew if I told my friends from home what I’d done they wouldn’t approve. I had two op-tions, I could continue smoking, tell my friends, and risk our friendship or I stop all together. My relationships from home were more im-portant to me than anything else, so my choice was clear; I stopped. I liked who I was before smoking weed and that’s why I decided to stop. Surprisingly, nobody left me because of my choices, which I am very pleased with. Everyone has their own story as MacDonald does, some want to fit in and others don’t care and are willing to lose what they have for drugs. His imagination and creativity kept him going, just like I don’t want to lose the most important friends in my life to drugs.

15

From being mature comes a lot. Many people mature

in different ways. Once they find their “nitch” with a

good group of people, they fit in a lot better. The main

reason why I felt so comfortable with my parents and

the reason I call them my best friends is because when

I matured and became old enough to realize that they

had my back no matter what, it was easier to fit in

because I felt more comfortable to be who I wanted to

be rather than being forced to react to certain

situations. MacDonald never fit in because he was

forced to always act a certain way especially after

deaths.

16

Chapter Four

17

Adulthood changes many aspects of a person, whether it is just their age, their maturity level, or their coping skills. With MacDonald and I, we have gained all this skills because of our experiences and grew into beautiful adults because of these changes. Our life experienc-es and choices impacted who we have become because of the positive way we dealt with them and continue to deal and cope.

MacDonald’s attitude towards life changed throughout the mem-oir. His experiences shaped who he has become in his adulthood and who he will eventually be in his elder years. He is spending more time with his mother and re-visiting his culture with her. His in-depth expe-rience with culture has also allowed him to become better-rounded as an adult. Nobody is perfect; however, MacDonald has taken steps is his life that have allowed him to become a better person than where he started off. It is evident he is not running away from problems with his family anymore by him involving his family in what he is doing more and more each day, as well as being with his mother more. Tragedies were a norm in MacDonald’s life and took a toll on him. His brother committing suicide was a horrible tragedy and significant-ly impacted MacDonald. MacDonald headed in a bad direction after his brother’s death, he became a party animal. He would sneak out of his house and go to night clubs to forget about all the tragedies and rough times he was going through, even for a brief moment. In his adulthood he gained a more positive outlook on life; he became more culturally connected with Ireland, close to his family, and matured more with his intelligence and experience. He took life as it came at him not trying to find a clique to fill the empty space.

The beginning of MacDonald’s life was filled with deaths and try-ing to find out who he was. One week he would be sneaking into night clubs, and the next relating his life to music. There was no balance in his life. He is becoming successful in the way that he can talk about his feelings about the deaths with his mother. The conversation they had about the deaths showed MacDonald hadn’t moved on in a way that he is at peace with and can talk about them; this shows much maturity and success to accomplish this coping skill. MacDonald has overcome

18

all obstacles he has been faced with. He has his own apartment, and his mother. MacDonald has grown up and matured out of all the habits he used to be part of. The conversations he had with his mother are more mature than before

MacDonald’s life has been very difficult; many things have been presented to him in a negative way that has stopped him from living a normal life.

19

Maturing has been the most important part in my life.

Over the years tennis has opened new doors thanks to

my parents. It has taught me to always work hard, and

if you want to be good at something, it takes practice,

it doesn't just get handed to you. The more my parents

supported me and were my friends and guardians, the

more I could accomplish and get done. I would have

never became a State Champion if it wasn't for the help

of my parents pushing me trying to mature my tennis

game. That is the main reason why they are my star

within the sea.

20

Conclusion

21

The title “A Star within the Sea” has to do with the two most im-portant people in my life; my parents. They have been the support I need to make it through to where I am today. They have been my 2 best friends and are the shining stars in my life; they do everything for me. When I decided I wanted to play tennis they helped me by taking me to tournaments and spending their own money on me. They have given me everything and I appreciate them more than anything else in life.

Going into high school I have had many friends that I have shared everything with, gone to parties with, laughed and cried with through these tough times. My friends from school always have my back; how-ever, they would never protect and fight for me like my parents would. Throughout my life with tennis, my parents have been the balance I needed, always knowing when to push me at the right times or giving me the couples days off that I needed to recuperate. When I had to pick a theme for this book, there was no one I wanted to write about more than the friendship I have within my parents. Besides tennis, they are the only thing that makes me joyful every day, knowing that I can wake up with a great support system by my side. Having this great support system has helped me through many problems in my life as well as helping me accomplish many of my goals. Over the span of my tennis career, I have won many tournaments and was ranked #14 in New England in the Boys 16 and under. I’ve ac-complished my most price possession with my parents supporting me; my State tournament first place medal. Without them I never would have achieved this award.

I came from a town with many great friends. When my Aunt Jane passed; I had the support system of my parents to guide me through the difficult times. Friendship is having someone you can al-ways count on, no matter what. They’ll support you and always be there for you. MacDonald never had the support system I had. When kids died in his neighborhood, it was the norm; MacDonald was attend-ing a funeral every week. Life is about growing, throughout both Mac-Donald and my lives have had different experiences to shape who we

22

are.

23

About The Author Brandon Roode

Brandon Roode is very family oriented and involved with his family. He spends a

great amount of time with them because as he says they are his “best friends”. They

mean everything to me and are the biggest parts of my life no doubt. They travel with

him to many tennis tournaments and is a big reason why he has had so much success.

In high school Brandon completed a high school career with a State Championship for

his school for the Class S division. To this day he says it is his biggest accomplishment.

One day he hopes to be able to play tennis for a living and make it on the professional

tour. His dream is to win the Wimbledon trophy. Besides tennis, other things that

Brandon enjoys is spending time with his friends, going out at night to eat and walk-

ing around the town of Mystic, CT. One of his favorite things to do in the summer is to

go to the beach where he tans and rides waves.

General Business Major

Marketing Minor