The purpose of this activity is to teach us how to write summaries and scenes, and the difference between them. We were supposed to choose an accident and write a one sentence summary, a one paragraph summary, one scene, and one slowed down scene. I chose to write about my skiing accident.
1 sentence
summary:
I was skiing down
the worst downhill on the racecourse when my teammate crashed into me.
1 paragraph
summary:
The
cross country ski team’s annual Hoodoo night race was usually the most fun and
the most dangerous race to compete in. It was fun because we took over the
Alpine skier’s course and therefore extremely dangerous due to the severe angle
of the hills. There was one hill in particular we were told to be wary of, the
last one. It was the most frightening because it had poor lighting, sharp
turns, and it was iced over the night we were skiing on it. Everything was
great during my race until I reached the dangerous hill, the one that completed
the first of the two laps. I slowed down to prevent myself from crashing when
my own teammate failed to go around me and crashed into me.
1 full scene
I
steadied my speed, which unfortunately would mean that I would lose my top ten
finish that I was aiming for. I didn’t care; however, I’d rather finish this
race. As I slowed down I heard my teammate Autumn yelling behind me.
“Don’t
slow down!”
“Go
around me!” I yelled back at her.
Suddenly
I was on the ground, my head smacking against the ice, and ski equipment of
numerous other competitors also tangling up with my limbs. More people piling
on me.
It
was a while later that I awoke from some sort of sleep to someone obnoxiously screaming
at the top of their lungs. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was me.
My
friend Peter (who was waiting for the boy’s race to start) heard the commotion
and came running up the hill toward me. He scooped me up by my arms and carried
me off the course as another girl crashed where I had just been sprawled out.
“Taylor,
can you stand?” Peter asked me as tried to gently set me on my feet. I couldn’t
respond but by my legs giving out underneath me Peter knew that the answer was
no. Peter loosened his grip and set me down on the ground, and ran off to grab
my coach, telling the nearby coaches of the other teams to call a snow mobile
to take me off the course.
Being
the stubborn person that I am, I took that opportunity to struggle to my feet
and finish the race.
1 scene slowed
down:
I angled my brand new Fischer racing
skate skis, removing them from their parallel speed-inviting position. The
trail was icier than I originally thought, making slowing down a bumpy and
difficult process. I knew that slowing my pace here would mean losing my
position in the top ten that I was currently in. But that didn’t matter to me anymore;
I just didn’t want to fall on this hill.
“Don’t slow down!” my teammate Autumn
yelled from behind me.
“Go around me!” I screamed back at
her, annoyed that she would criticize my decision to slow down when I had three
more years of skiing experience than her.
Suddenly I was on the ground. My
unprotected head smacking ruthlessly against the icy trail. Bodies of other
competitors were piling on top of me, banging their poles and skis around
trying to regain their footing, not caring that they were harming me in the
process. I struggled to look up for a second to catch my breath, only to see
Autumn hurrying away.
But then it was blissfully dark.
Quiet. Painless. I was somewhere else entirely, and that made me happy.
And then I was woken up by someone
screaming. A harsh scream louder than I thought someone could make. Then I realized
that it was me screaming.
Two coaches from one of the other
competing schools were on the sideline watching, not appearing to care what was
happening in front of them since I wasn’t from their school. All they did was
yell at me to get off of the course.
“I can’t move!” I yelled back at them
after multiple attempts to move my body. I was trying to get out of the way of
oncoming skiiers but it was impossible. One of the coaches walked up to me and
grabbed my left hand and began to pull. The only effect this had was me letting
loose a stream of impolite words since he had just grabbed my cracked thumb. I
instantly felt bad because it wasn’t his fault, I had taken off my cast so I
could race so there was no way he could have known.
This caused the coach to step back as
my friend Peter came sprinting up the hill. He yelled at the coach for not
getting me off of the field to which he replied, “If we moved her off the
course she would have been disqualified.”
Peter ignored this comment and lifted
me into his arms, careful not to touch my left hand or move my neck in case
something was wrong with my head. He carried me to the sideline just as I
watched a girl crash were I was just helplessly laying.
He tried to set me on my feet but
quickly gripped tightly when my legs buckled- I hadn’t regained control of my
legs yet. Peter carefully set me on the ground out of harm’s way, told the coaches
for the other team to call a snow mobile that would take me off of the course,
and then he ran to get my coach.
As soon as Peter was gone, I used my
arms and poles to put myself back on my feet. If this would be the end to my
skiing career, I wanted to at least finish my last race. Little did I know, the
only thing that would be unscathed from my crash would be my brand new skis.
