In the year of 1996, I was 3 years old. I loved playing with balls, big balls. I was never quite good but I tried. It happened at camp Gan Israel; I realized it in the baseball field at first base. I did slides, throws, and catches, running, tagging, and diving. I was great!
When I was a baby, just about 3 years old, in my house my Mom would play with me by throwing a beach ball to me. I went to a lot of fun sport games, events and parties I loved it!
When I was 5 years old, my dad threw me tennis balls about 10 m.p.h. I got hit by the ball a lot so I couldn't say I loved it. So I lost interest. Instead of playing baseball, I would ride my bike, learn, and play with my friends. Not that that was bad or anything, but if I was there in the year of 1999 instead of 2003 I would tell myself ''Joshua, if you practice now instead of in a few years, you will be even better then I am now in 2003."
When I was 7, in 2002, I got back in the interest of baseball. I played with hard balls. I looked at my dad's baseball cards for the first time. He has a rookie card of Nolan Ryan, which is worth $254. That year my family and I went to Ocean City. When my family and I were on the boardwalk I saw a kind of ''booth''. So I begged my parents to let me throw a few balls to see what speed I could throw. So I tried it was only 28 miles per hour. So when we go home I asked my dad if I could practice with him. He said sure. So about every week we practiced. I got better, especially on aim.
On August ninth it was my birthday. I turned 8! I went to a camp called Camp Yedid. It was not great because we played sports only inside twice a week and we played gym just inside too much, and we were just inside too much. That year in school was a lot harder than second grades. That year was a big change in my life.At the end of the year I had a wish come true. I went into a little league. I felt it was as easy as buying a baseball because I was in the 7-8 year league.
When I was 9 years old, I had the year of my life! It was June 13th. I was so sad my best friend (Emily and Adina) were not coming back to Abrams Hebrew Academy my school but I got over it. I went to a camp called Camp Gan Israel. We got to make our schedule. So I picked to have sports 3 times a day! I met my sport counselors named Kenny and Derry. I played baseball, and I was okay! I played shortstop, but then I remembered that in little league I played 1st base. So I begged Kenny to let me play 1st base he said I could try. It was better than I was at shortstop, but I was not so great because I was using a different baseball glove. The next day at school I brought my Phillies baseball glove to camp. THAT DAY IT HAPPENED AT 1ST BASE. I dove, slid, caught, and did everything!!!! They stared at me with their mouths opened.
Our alarms woke us up at about 5:30 am. We jumped into the car where my sisters and I all fell back to sleep. My mother drove while Hannah snored�she hated the ride to the hotel. It was nearly three hours by the time we arrived. We made a wrong turn right near the hotel. I said to go the other way�the right way�but they did not listen to me!
When we got to the hotel we went up and down to each floor to see what was there. There were exercise rooms, an indoor pool with a Jacuzzi and a steam room for men and women. There were also changing rooms. The hotel had twenty-one floors. I thought that was amazing.
Davida had to go to a meeting with the girls in the pageant. They announced their names and learned a dance for the end of the pageant. It was really good. Davida�s best friend at the pageant was named�Victoria. At least that is what I thought. They did their dance to the song called �Can you move it like this?� They did such a good job. The group split into two. I thought that would be pretty hard but it was not for them.
After all of the major events it was time to give the contestants their trophies. They were plastic but I thought they were pretty. Davida did not like the trophies; she hated them. She even told me so. Davida looked so beautiful in her full-length evening gown. It was black silk with pink flowers. She even had a matching necklace to go with it. We took many photographs of her�holding her flowers like a princess. She really did look like a princess!
When they announced the top twenty Victoria was the second called and Davida was the eleventh. She couldn�t believe it�someone had to nudge her out onto the stage. It was really funny to see her reaction. Then they called the top-ten; Victoria was again called second but Davida was the ninth and �very happy! Victoria was wearing a dress that looked like a beautiful bridal gown. Some of her other friends also got into the top ten. Davida�s hair was set like mine was at her bat mitzvah. It had a half-pony and my mother curled it in a circle and clipped it. It looked really good on her. She looked like she was twenty not thirteen.
The people who did not get into the top 10-20 started crying. I felt really bad for them and so did my family. When they called the top five, Davida did not get in. Victoria did and she was the first runner-up. Davida didn�t start crying for at least she was pleased to have been in the pageant. She knew that she had no chance of getting into the top five and did not mind. Davida was very happy for her friends and that was enough for her. Now she had an experience to report when she had to write a composition in her first year of High School.
When we were driving home, to meet my brother and Abba at Rita�s Water Ice we found it closed. We were really upset but then thought to go to Friendly�s for ice cream. We had really yummy ice-cream there. By the time we got home it was 12:00pm and Patches/goosey, our dog, went crazy when we got home, happy to see us after a few days away. He jumped on me and I fell backwards. He licked me all over. That was the first time that he ever licked me! I thought that we should go away more often. Then we would get more kisses from Patches. It was time to unpack�next week we were off to Florida to visit my grandparents. Abba was staying home with Patches so that we could go to Sarasota.