Cameron Thomas
Tyler Petty
ENG 103
2/3/12

Informative Project

Sports have been a huge part of my life since I first began watching the New York Yankees with my dad when I was a kid. This very team developed a bond between my dad and I that will last my whole life. This bond lead to the best vacation of my life, and still strengthens my relationship with my father to this day. For as long as I can remember, my dad and I have wanted to attend a Yankees home game in New York. To both of us it was our dream trip, and in my senior summer we finally got the chance to make it happen. On this vacation I bought a bracelet in Yankees Stadium that I now wear everyday of my life.
When I first found out that we were going to a Yankees game I immediately began thinking of a souvenir I wanted to get. The reasoning behind the bracelet is that it is something I can wear every day, and as a fan of Derek Jeter I just had to have it. Derek Jeter has been my favorite player and hero since I first started watching the Yankees. There isn’t anything particularly special about the bracelet, but it represents my love for the Yankees and the relationship with my father stronger than anything else could.
The souvenir itself is nothing special; it’s just a simple grey bracelet with the “DJ3K” Derek Jeter symbol on it. The “DJ3K” symbol represents Derek Jeter and his achievement of getting 3000 hits, which is an elite group of only 28 players in the history of the MLB. This is one of the many achievements that solidify Derek Jeter as one of the best shortstops in the history of the game. On the field he is one of the best ever, and he plays the game as hard as he can day in day out. As well as having such a successful career as a player, he is also a very respectable person off the field. In sports today there are a lot of great athletes that perform on the field with the best in the world, but off the field they are not always the best people for a kid to look up to. That being said Derek Jeter has never been one of those players. If there is one argument against people that believe athletes are terrible role models for children, it is Derek Jeter. Off the field Jeter has never had any run-ins with the law, or test positive for performance enhancing drugs. In Jeter’s long 17-year career I have witnessed a rookie turn into a legend, and I have learned valuable knowledge and life lessons from looking up to a great person like my hero, Derek Jeter.
The trip to New York was the most memorable vacation of my life. Going to New York was always on the top of my list, and it was not a disappointment. Leading up to the vacation my dad and I were like little kids overtaken by excitement. When the time came to leave for the airport, my dad and I were thinking about one thing, the Yankees. The three-hour drive to the airport was filled with stories about past games and players of the Yankees. The flight, on the other hand was filled with sleep because I did not sleep one minute the previous night due to excitement for the next day.
When we first arrived to New York my dad and I were full of ideas of things to do and places to go. Our first destination was to the hotel to drop off our luggage. After we checked into the hotel we finally made it to the big city. One expression came to both of our faces when we arrived, amazement. The first thing we decided to do was just go explore and try to make it to the 911 Memorial, which was under construction. Both my dad and I had wanted to visit the memorial first just to make sure we made it there during out vacation.
Being at the site in person was something that my mind really could not comprehend. Imagining the destruction and all the lives lost right at the spot we were at was something I will never forget. We talked to one local that had lived in New York during the 911 attack and he told us the story of the day it happened, and after hearing his story I was left feeling the