Adam Teran, 2022 Gettin’ in the Game Junior National Championship (JNC) Nominee
My first trip out of Virginia was cool but there was something I didn’t like which was the first plane we were on, and it felt like we were in a flying tin can in the sky. That type of plane is what is called a prop plane; it has two seats on one side and one on the other. The rest of the flights were on bigger planes so I could fall asleep. I also got some good pictures of the world from the sky. There were some pictures of the clouds where it looked like the clouds made igloos and chairs in the sky.
However, the most fun I had was in Arizona when I was golfing, swimming, and eating at the JNC. When I was learning pinching I was digging a ditch in the grass. I also had fun golfing because at one of the holes I hit so hard and so fast it disappeared from my catties and my mom’s eyes. The most difficult part of golfing to me is the putting because I have a hard time controlling my strength. I also had fun swimming. We did a couple of swimming exercises. The hardest exercise was where you had to swim with a brick on your chest. The other exercises like diving to collect objects. There was another exercise where you’re floating on your back which was a little difficult because I have had an experience where I almost drowned before.
I also learned Tai Chi which I learned was a great exercise and not as easy as you would like. The class was taught by Mr. Rick Sparks who has hemophilia as well. He started doing Tai Chi after years of doing Karate had damaged his joints to the point he could barely move. He said Tai Chi helped him be able to move again.
The thing is that Tai Chi wasn’t even the best part, the best part of the trip was all the different foods. I didn’t know that you could blend chorizo and pulled pork without eggs in it. I thought that chorizo could only be made with eggs or by itself. I never even thought of the idea of trying different recipes for chorizo. The second-best part was the new people I met and the new friends I made in Arizona. The third best part was I got to see all the culture there from the old building and I was surprised to see that the people in Arizona didn’t make Arizona too modern and kept the old buildings instead of tearing them down like everywhere else in the U.S. The other thing I liked was all the stores I saw that I never even considered could exist, for example a store that sells nothing but socks. Personally, I would have thought that store would go out of business in a couple of weeks.
It was funny one night we accidentally left our bag of stuff we bought in Old Town Scottsdale and my mom had to go back to get it. She would have missed dinner if the host wasn’t nice enough to save her food until she got there. I also like the feeling of playing on a golf course for the first time ever and the feeling of playing like the pros with a caddie and golf cart. There were two other things I didn’t like. They were that we didn’t get to drive the golf carts and that we didn’t have more time at the JNC. So, in summary there were only three things I didn’t like about the JNC but loved everything else about the JNC. So, thank you for sending me to Arizona for the JNC. It was a lot of fun to be able to experience it for myself.
If you are interested in learning more and applying for the 2023 Gettin’ in the Game Junior National Championship (JNC) go here or reach out to VHF at 804-740-8643 or info@vahemophilia.org.
