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The Storied Life Of Blake Priest Blake Priest Spring 2022

Getting to Know Me Hello, my name is Blake Priest, and I am about to give you a run-down of who I am as a person, what has shaped me into who I am today, and how it has bettered me beyond what I thought possible. Ever since I came out of the womb, I have been quite an athletic kid. If there was one thing for certain, that is that sports would play a major role in my life. There has never been a day in my life that sports didn’t impact or help make a decision for me that day. Sports are exactly what has shaped me into the person I am today, and I will forever be grateful for them. They are forever tied into my life like a lock with no key to it. I’d almost go to say that sports are my life. I have never had a fallback plan, and that is only because I want to be forever apart of sports. All my prior coaches have taught me so much that go so much further, and deeper than the sport itself. My football coaches, although as a young kid I was too scared to play, have taught me how to be a tough-minded, hard-nosed kid. They taught me how to never give up, how to push through pain, and most importantly how to be a good leader. My baseball coaches taught me that failure is never the end. They taught me that what is done in the dark will always be brought to light, and that hard work never goes unnoticed. I will always be grateful for my coaches. Life is a very hard ordeal; especially as a student-athlete. These things I have learned go a lot further than the field. I have become a better person in the classroom, in my daily life, and on the field. Moral of this story is that the lessons you learn take you far in life. It doesn’t matter what aspect of life you look at; it is always impacted by who you are, what you know, what you’ve learned, and how you approach it. My life has certainly been impacted in a big way by those things.

Dedication To everyone I have included in my journey of storytelling, thank you for all the inspiring moments, the lessons I will never forget, the memories that feel like yesterday, and the continuous love and support I have received from being a young child to now. Thank you! Table of Contents My Prized Possession………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 The Voice of an Angel……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5 A Tragic Passing………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 6 The Talk of Talks………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7 A Family Mystery………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 8 A Fairy Tale World………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9 A Special Letter……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10

My Prized Possession An artifact that’s been in my family forever are my father’s royal blue Converse cleats. My dad played in them when he was about 12-14 years old, which makes the cleats roughly thirty-two years old. He played many tournaments in them, including winning a couple youth national championships with his travel ball team based out of Norman, Oklahoma. He was a pitcher as well just like me, but comparison wise we don’t really compare much. He stands in about 5’10” but he was a real muscular guy weighing in around 215 lbs. He threw straight cheddar at a young age but ended up tearing up his arm. I stand in at 6’2” and 205 lbs. Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to model my game after his. For the longest time I looked for anything of his I could use in an actual game. When I came across the cleats, they were in my older brother’s possession which unfortunately meant I could not use them at the time. I got to watch him use them and run around the field having fun which was cool. Finally, it was my turn to wear them, and I was so excited. I played a great game with them on and afterwards talked to my dad about it. He was more concerned with my well-being because they were two sizes too small and the spikes were worn down, but at the end of the day he was happy that I wanted to do something like that for him. One day down the road when I have kids, hopefully boys, I’ll pass the cleats down to them. Just like my father before me, I’ll be just as happy to see my kids rocking those old royal blue 30-year-old cleats. If by that time they’re too broken down to wear, I’ll customize a new pair just for my kids to wear so I can have the satisfaction my father had watching me wear them.

The Voice of an Angel My time here at Cowley College has been nothing short of extravagant. I’ve ran into old friends and met many more new ones. One thing I learned is that here at Cowley we represent many countries. I believe Cowley represents more diversity than most colleges in America. You can expect to hear some languages, and accents you’ve never heard before. I attended Enid High School in Enid, Oklahoma and we had our fair share of foreign exchange students. We had a couple from Spain, and one from Italy. I was always amazed with the way they spoke, how it rolled of their tongue, and how beautiful it was. Well, I never thought I’d run into many others who hail from foreign countries, but geez was I wrong. First week on campus we had a bonfire, and as anyone would assume, a lot of people showed up. All night long I was talking to girls from Spain, Brazil, and even Italy. It was kind of the highlight of my week because my fascination with speaking to people from other countries or who speak a different language is absurd. I thought that’d probably be my most memorable moment when it came to language, but it wasn’t. The first week of second semester I entered my public speaking class and of course our teacher hit us with a speech due the next class period. We had to give an introduction speech, basically saying our names and informing the class about ourselves for one whole minute which is forever. Well, a girl from the UK gets up and as soon as she opened her mouth my jaw dropped. It was the prettiest thing I’ve ever heard, and usually you associate pretty with looks, but if I closed my eyes this voice was the prettiest thing I’ve ever heard. The accent was one I have never heard before. It still amazes me to this day. Any time she speaks she has my full attention.

A Tragic Passing A world event that changed me was the uprising of the Corona Virus. It had drastic effects on not just me but the world. It’s hard to remember what the world looked like before this virus, but from what I remember it was free. There weren’t any mandates, there was no specified distance, nothing got cancelled due to rising cases, loved ones didn’t randomly fall ill from it, and life was free. Covid came about my junior year of high school which would’ve been 2019-2020. At the time it was bigger than the Flu, Ebola, and plagues. Everyone was scared and nobody really knew what to do about it, but to me I was a young kid, and I didn’t care. I wanted to do everything as if Covid wasn’t there. I thought it was fake, a fluke, and I was told by everyone in the world it couldn’t possibly harm a person as young or healthy as me. So as any kid would, I wanted to go on with life and stop letting this disease so greatly affect my life. Well fast forward to now, it’s 2022, and it’s still going on. I’m not sure if it will ever end or be recognized as a regular everyday sickness such as the flu. From an emotional standpoint I was fine up until about 4 weeks ago. Before that point all it had taken from me was a season of baseball which was easy to get over because it’s just a sport. About 4 weeks ago it took my grandpa from me. It made me angry with the world knowing there was not a single thing I could do about it. It was something I had never expected to happen so when it did it was like a fatal blow that no one saw coming. Am I more cautious now? Hell no, my grandpa would be pissed at me if I started living life scared. I can say this though, if Covid was a person it wouldn’t stand a chance of living because I’d kill it.

The Talk of Talks Blake: “Dad why didn’t you try to play sports in college?” Jason: “I had a lot of injuries, and it became too much to handle.” Blake: “What injuries were bad enough to keep you from playing?” Jason: “Well by the end of my high school career I had torn my bicep, rotator cuff, separated both shoulders multiple times, and tore my ACL. So, all in all I was good for one sport a year. If I didn’t get injured in one sport, I got injured in the other one.” Blake: “So what made you give up? You pushed through all those injuries. What made it different after the last one? What made you move on? Jason: “It just became overwhelming. It felt like it would never end. It was and became so painful to the point that there was no benefit to continue. It was never my plan to let my dreams die, but my body wasn’t built for those things anymore.” This certain dialogue has always meant a lot to me. The meaning over the years has indeed changed a bit. If you knew my dad, you would know that he does not give up in any situation whatsoever. So back then it was hard hearing this from him. It was sad, you could hear the pain in his voice. All the pressure to be great and his mind never folded, but his body did. Nowadays this story strikes me different. Now, it’s more of a never give up dialogue. He sacrificed his dreams to make a living for me. I’d be damned if my desire to succeed didn’t burn brighter than his ever did. When I look at or think of that talk it no longer becomes about just me, It’s for and about him too. This dream is all of ours.

A Family Mystery One mystery that is in my family tale is height. I am 6 foot 2 inches, and my aunt is about 6 foot 1 inches. Other than that, there really is nobody tall in my family. I’m not really sure where it came from. None of my family is over 5 foot 10 inches. I’ve always wondered where I get it from, and I have even jokingly asked my parents if I was adopted. No joke I look like a giant in our family photos. I’m at least a head taller than every single person in the photos. The height isn’t all, I barely look like my parents in my opinion, and my siblings always joke about it. My brother even gets super upset about my height. He is 5 foot 9 inches on his best day, and if there’s one thing he wishes he had, it would be more height. He used to beat me up over it, and most of the time it would be because my family started it by making jokes. Height has always been a weird thing to me, I have never understood why I am so tall, I have never understood where exactly I got my height from, and my parents have never been able to tell me where I got my height from. A Fairy Tale World If I was a fairy tale character in my work life, I would have to be Snow White. I’m a dude, and wanting to be Snow White might sound crazy, but hear me out. Snow White’s entrance in her movie was coming out of a sewer. Not the entrance anyone wants, but It’d probably be my entrance to work. Plus, she’s such a happy character. She is never down, always looking for the bright spots in situations, and is loving. Sure, she might a little spacey or dumbfounded, but sometimes a person needs that. So, I would be playing Snow White. My two fairy tale companions would be Shrek and Donkey. First off, I picked Shrek because he’s a realist. He never makes irrational decisions, always does

the right thing, and is pretty boring and straight up. If I were to procrastinate or get off subject, then he’d be the one to keep me in line. If I wanted to quit, then Shrek would be the one to keep me going. Hell, he might even test my will and tell me to quit. My second work companion would be Donkey, and only simply because he is the exact opposite of Shrek. Donkey is very outgoing, speaks his mind with conviction, never backs out of what he believes in, and is very adventurous. Donkey would keep me on my toes, and he’d always be ready to help me attack the day. He would challenge me in ways that other characters wouldn’t be able to. He’d never let me get down on myself, and he would always cheer me on to my successes. I chose these two characters, because although they are the complete opposite, they bring balance by being on opposite sides of the scale. A Special Letter Dear Hayden, you have always been my inspiration in everything I do. We may not be full brothers, and you might edge me out in almost every category possible, but you are the reason I do what I do, and I am who I am. I have looked up to you for as long as I can remember, and I will never stop. It wasn’t planned to put you in here, but you deserve a special little page just for yourself. All the lessons I have learned and all the memories we have made will never be forgotten. You are one of the best human beings on this Earth. Without there is no Blake Priest. I love you till the end of time brother, always.

Thank you for reading! Blake Priest