Storytelling: Capture the Flag

By Alexander Rozas

My story was about my elementary schools' epic capture the flag games when I was in 2nd grade. I was picked near last and decided to fake whose team I was on. I slowly walked backwards to my opponent's flag and put myself on guard duty. I waited patiently until I was left alone, and a clear path back to my side was open. Once a space opened up, I grabbed the flag and sprinted back to my side. Once I made it safely to my side, the opponent team argued that I was on their team and couldn't just betray my team. I argued that I wasn't on their team and in the end they ruled I was on their side at the start of the game and didn't count the point.

This story came to mind because one, it makes me look cool, and two because it was one my earliest athletic success stories. I wasn't the most athletic kid and this was a rare occurrence that I was able to beat kids older and faster than me. At the time, it was one of my proudest moments, of course they still disallowed it, but I didn't care.

Telling this story to my peers was a surprisingly fun and exciting experience. I felt like people were actually enjoying my story and were paying attention to me. All of my classmates were supportive and I got a ton of positive comments. I think this storytelling project brought the community together because some of these stories are embarrassing or personal and you have to really trust people in order to share them.