Best Sundays of the Year

Sundays are the holiest day of the year. However, it is not for the reason you are thinking.

Every Sunday between the months of September through the second week of February my

family, and I have our eyes glued to the television screen. My parents wake up around nine, and

my siblings and I wake up to the smell of pancakes. You know it is Sunday when I hear the flip

of the pancake on the skillet, and know it is golden brown when you slide it on the plate. The

chocolate chips are melting and creating a labyrinth through the pancake. The drizzled syrup

slowing oozing around the pancake and the homemade whip cream color of almond milk. We all

rush downstairs like we were all five years old again. We all run like a stampede of bulls rushing

to get to it first.

After eating breakfast, we go do mundane things like going to the grocery store, before

the big games come on. In my family Sunday is for football. God wanted us home to cheer on

our teams. We had a triad of teams. My family bled blue and white, black and gold, and black

and yellow. The exception was whoever was playing Tom Brady. According to our family and

majority of America, the most despised man in the National Football League, the NFL, and was

wanted gone. He was like the gum on your shoe. No matter when you stepped on it, he was

always there. He was the quarterback with seven Superbowl rings and was called the “goat.”

However, every year I can hear the same sentence leaving my mother’s mouth “I fucking hate

Tom Brady.” There were three men my mother couldn’t stand one was Tom Brady, the Green

Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, and lastly was Bill Belichick, head coach of the

patriots. Our family team was the Indianapolis Colts along with the New Orleans Saints, and the

Pittsburgh Steelers.
 Now it is time to get to the adrenaline rush of Sundays. Sundays are the best day of the

year through that short time of five months. Hearing the voice of five to six announcers going on

and on about how the colts are going to lose. It is like tuning in on your least favorite subject for

school and time last forever. You’re sitting in a lecture hall and just hear this professor talking

like he is saying “Bueller”, and it is the most monotone voice. This is the feeling of these

analyzers talking about our teams by saying “it would be a miracle if the colts win” and “they

have no chance.” Nevertheless, we would all be sitting on the couch as soon as the clock struck

one o’ clock waiting to see who would be starting with the ball first. Everyone has their

designated seat like an official seating chart. Waiting on the edge of our seats to see if we would

win the coin toss. Waiting and hoping for our team to win the toss, so we could have the ball

second half. The best feeling is the sigh you deeply exhale when you realized you won the coin

toss. It is like breathing in the fresh air of turf or the smell of lawn clippings. Something that

brings you back to summertime and the feeling of relaxing. Relaxation only happens twice

during that game if you are lucky. One is if you win and two is if you win the coin toss, but you

only got a fifty-fifty shot. Then it is time for kick off. The anticipation is building and waiting

and once the first contact of the ball happens my family goes into lockdown. My family and I are

sitting around each other and enjoying each other’s company like those who sit around

campfires. While the Colts are playing, we are talking and having conversations and then bam!

The announcers are going wild, and we are engrossed into the tv. When said play is done, we

have huge smiles on our faces and say, “did you just see that!” and “oh my god what a play.”

These phrases happen every game. I can hear my brother, Corbin, spouting out the most obscure

facts about the players that no one would know. I can see my mom jumping up and down

screaming like a banshee at the tv. My oldest brother, Alex, is rambling about what he needs to
happen so he can win his money on his bet. My sister, Sophia, is scolding the referees for

missing a flag. Lastly, my dad is talking about he would be a better couch than all the

professional coaches. All these scenarios are vivid and realize that these Sundays wouldn’t be the

same without these moments.

However, there was one Sunday that was the best Sunday and something that no matter

where we were in the state, we would come home to watch the biggest sporting event in

America: The Superbowl. Now the perks of the Superbowl include the food which is the

appetizers, wings, and dessert, next is the pre-game show, the game itself, halftime show, and the

winning celebration. If it was for the team you wanted to win. You turn the channel if the

celebration was for the team you wanted to lose. The Superbowl is a game that is full of

adrenaline and energy. The start of it begins with the food. The perfectly golden smokies with

the crescent rolls cooked just right and the mini smokies filling the air with the savory and sweet

taste. The savory from the smokies and the sweet from the bread. The sound of meatballs stirring

in the dark barbecue glaze sitting in the humming crockpot. The spicy queso was the brightest

orange that would make Cheetos cower. Paired with the gargantuan size bowl of chips ready for

the grubby hands that are stacking their already overflowed paper plate that is one more ounce of

food away from breaking. Many other finger foods to snack on throughout the game while either

because you are hungry or stress. Now the main meal is the crispiest, sauce-soaked wing that are

either buffalo, teriyaki, or mango habanero. The teriyaki are baked to the point that one bite and

all the chicken just falls off. The buffalo and mango habanero are drenched to the point that the

ranch you dip it in changes color. The fries sprinkled with salt and sugar are addictive and you

can’t stop dipping them in the cold extra dill ranch. All the flavors are combining into one flavor,

and you don’t want to stop. Then, after the wings are gone you sit on the couch ready for the
game to start. You have the eighty-three-inch tv staring back at you ready to see teams either go

away with everything or go home with nothing. The anticipation of the first touchdown being

scored. The relief if it is your team or the dread if it is the opposing team. The annoyance and

frustration of refs not calling a call or calling too many calls. The offense missing the first down

by a yard. The defense allowing a touchdown. The kicker missing a point. The quarterback

completing a pass. The quarterback throwing an interception. The offense false starting and

saying, “they know better than that.” The defense jumping offsides. The yellow flags reflecting

off the tv when it was an astonishing play, but it was called back. All of these ups and downs,

cat, and mouse in one single game that lasts four quarters, fifteen minutes per quarter, an hour-

long half time. The funny thing about the Superbowl is that we start out the same way as any

Sunday. We all have our spots on the couch, waiting for the coin toss to happen, the same

motions happen like it is in our muscle memory.

Every Sunday it was a routine wake up, eat breakfast, listen to announcers’ ramble on

and on, have snacks for lunch and have a steak dinner to finish the night while watching the

night game. It was like clockwork, but the good kind. Something no one in my family got tired

of. Family game night for other people was playing Uno or Monopoly. Our “family game day”

was NFL Sundays for us and we loved every moment of it. Even from the time I was a little girl I

understood football. I grew up around it since I was born. Most people are used to girls playing

princesses and dolls, but no my sister and I were resorted to getting that in at the football field.

Watching our two older brothers play. Football was everything to our family. It represented our

family well which is “Work Hard, Play Hard, Win Hard.” The sheer determination to be able to

play, the passion of enjoying the sport, and the ultra-competitiveness of winning. Second is

always the first to lose and we were raised to never let someone walk all over you and that is the
root of football. If you work hard, play hard, and win hard you will be successful. This sport

makes our family whole. This is our family bonding time, and this second Sunday in February is

the finale of those five months full of shared groans, screams, laughs, smiles, anger, and

happiness and brings us together in the best way we know how. We see past that it is just a sport.

This concludes Sundays are the best day of the year.

For my memoir, I chose to pick a moment from every year. It is the one time a

year that is always the same for me. It is important and has had a huge impact on me as a person

and my family. I have a memory from every Superbowl year. I also chose this because I feel like

certain people would be able to relate to this. People who are lifelong sports fan and have

families where watching sports was a part of growing up. I feel that certain families would be

able to relate to having something that they bond with their family like how football is for mine.

This memory has shaped me as the person I am today because it has been a part of my life since I

can remember.

When I was picking out a topic for my memoir, I knew I wanted it to to be a happy

memory. I could’ve done something a little more difficult to talk about which would’ve made it

easier to be creative for a memoir. However, this topic was something I was passionate about and

knew I could make it interesting. This sport has shaped me and my family into what we are

today.

I incorporate many different key concepts into my memoir. I use different literary devices

throughout my project to make it be alive and vivid for the audience. I use figurative language,

repetition, and imagery. For example, instead of just saying what food we had I said, “The spicy

queso was the brightest orange that would make Cheetos cower.” I wanted it to be descriptive so

you could picture it instead of just imagining it. I gave you the color and the taste which allows

you to vividly see it in your head. I also used repetition by mentioning the word “Sunday” over

and over so it would stick in the reader’s brain. Also, in the second to last paragraph I used

repetition again to display the emotions of what it feels like to have the role go on your side and

when it doesn’t go your way. For example, “The quarterback completing a pass. The quarterback
throwing an interception.” This quote displays the repetition. These concepts help the audience

see and picture what I was trying to convey in my memoir. I also used specific quotes from my

family and had character development and a specific setting so people would understand where

the story is and who I am around.

My inspiration for this piece came from the time of this paper. It was assigned late

January and is due early February. Which is peak playoff time for the NFL. Also, one my teams

that I like was in the playoffs while I was writing the rough draft. Another is the memoir I read

for the discussion post we did in class. I believe it was called “the Room.” It was short and

concise which stood out because most memoirs I have read have been about deep topics. That

memoir made me believe I could write something that doesn’t have a huge emotional attachment

to most, but I could make it mean something.

Stylistic choices I made was word choice and using a lot of subtle repetition, but you

knew it was repetition. I also had a lot of heavy imagery on food and more description and

different literary devices when it came to the sport and the theme. I also made it into a basic

essay. It wasn’t chapters or split off. It was a concise and simple flow from one thing to another.

There were time jumps but none were heavily enough for me to write a new chapter. It was

better suited for a smooth transition. I added creative components by making it short and sweet.

Nothing was drawn out except if it was needed for the effect of the memoir itself. I started my

memoir by telling a memory about what happens every Sunday in my household, and I ended it

by explaining how Sundays were important to me and my family to relate to the theme. A

powerful moment was incorporating the quote “Work Hard, Play Hard, Win Hard.” This quote is

powerful because it is the theme of my family and football. We work hard on the Sundays before

the game, play while the game is going on, and we win when the game is over even if our team
loses. It adds to the main message which is that the meaning of football translates to the meaning

of my family.

The process of writing my memoir was better than I thought. It was a bit of a struggle to

make it creative and figure out where to start but once I had a flow, I stuck to it. I enjoyed it a lot

more because I like the simplistic style of it. It isn’t complicated. I struggled with finding the

natural transition and when to move on and when I needed to add more. I could see myself

engage in more creative writing both by actual writing and reading. I like picking out the

powerful moments when the memoir comes in place, and the details that tie to the theme.