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Started from the bottom

I hope you enjoy stepping in to the shoes of the one they call Sir Nick Tamanini the

First. He is a great man and has lived an extraordinary life., he has many great

stories and many lessons that others can learn from. He is as wise as an old man.

Have Fun and Work Hard

and you will achieve

everything


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the meaning of life: We are here to make memories and have fun.

To do this we must stay positive and work hard. We must never take anything to

seriously because if you take life to seriously

you will never have fun. Enjoy life, we are only here for a very short period of time, lets

spend that time having FUN!

.


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my influence In March of 2011 my mom went in for a routine doctor’s appointment, toward

the end of the appointment the doctor found a lump. At first they thought it was nothing,

but when they checked it a weak later they realized it was cancer. My mom, the woman I

love more than anyone in the world, the woman I would do anything for, the woman that

was seemingly unbreakable and immortal, was diagnosed with double negative breast

cancer.

When I found out, I was rough, my mom and I hugged and cried for a while and

we both though the worst. The next couple of days my brother and I were not ourselves.

We were sad and quiet and we didn’t know what to do. My mom observed us moping

around sad and hopeless and realized that she had to be tough for us, so she put away her

fear. On the inside she was scared to the bone and extremely emotional, but on the outside

she was solid, she seemed confident and determined to beat cancer. This taught me that in

life it’s not always about me, even if I have a life threatening disease. She taught me that I

must take care of others first and always act determined even when I’m not.

Personal Reflections on Influential People

being the Brother Being a brother means a lot to me. I will do anything and everything for my

brother, even if sometimes I have to beat him it’s for the best, well sometimes it is for

fun, but that’s what brothers do. We fight and argue, but we will always have each

other’s backs. I am the big brother, which means if anyone messes with him, I will

finish it for him, if any one influences him wrongly, I will change them and if anyone

ever touches him… I will be forced to use deadly force to make sure they never attempt

that again, but that is what I am supposed to do. As a brother I have a special bond with

Ryan, sometimes I hate him, and he can be a total screw up, but in the end he is my

brother and I always have his back. When he began hanging out with a group of kids

who were up to no good, I completely changed his friend group. I made him hangout

with me every single day until he did notlike his old friends and became friends with my

super friends, and by super friends I mean super athletes with over three point zero

gpa’s and the best influences I have ever had. I changed him for the better, and I

protected him from a slippery slope of trouble.



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Wrestling High School has definitely been eventful, but there is one event that really stands

out. My favorite high school memory was in wrestling sectionals my junior year. This

memory is so great because it was from heart and drive. It really showed me that hard work

really does pay off.

When I started wrestling in 7th grade I was not good. In 8th grade I did not break

the varsity line up. Freshman year when all of my friends were on varsity I was on JV and I

finally broke into the varsity line up my sophomore year and went 6-18, but for those years

when I was not a good wrestler, I was the hardest worker. I knew that I was not a natural

born athlete and if I ever wanted to be a good athlete I had to outwork everyone, so I did.

My junior year I came into sectionals the 6th seed in a very tough weight class and I was not

expected to do very well. I lost my first match and then wrestled back to the round to go; if I

won I would go to regionals. I was wrestling the 3 seed and this kid was good, he had the

biggest arms I have ever seen on a kid in my weight class and he was mean. My coach’s pep

talk for me was “well Nick you had a good season, good luck”. What a pep talk, now I was

a little nervous to say the least. I slowly walked to the scorer’s table and then went out to

wrestle. In the first period I was man handled, but the score was close. In the second period

I was thrown all over the mat, but still the score was close. In the third period the kid was

gassed, he put all his energy into throwing me around the first two periods and had no

energy left for the third period. This is where the hard work kicked into gear, this is where

all the sprints I ran and all the practices I pushed myself in came into play, this is where

work beats talent. I started making up points quickly, taking the beast from Frankford down

twice in a minute and thirty seconds. With thirty seconds left in the match I let him up,

putting me down by two. With ten seconds left I hit a fireman’s carry and tied the score up

at the end of regulation.

We now went into a sudden death period where the first man to score a point wins.

I stepped onto the line and as the ref blew his whistle the kid from Frankford took a shot.

Catching me off guard he got in deep, my first reaction was to go into my specialty move,

the splits. As soon as I hit the splits he stopped, with no energy left he laid on my leg trying

to hold on and not give up any points. When I felt him stop moving I kicked over and got

around for a takedown and the win. When the ref called out TWO the crowd went wild and

I did too. As I walked off the mat I was tackle by my teammates as we all celebrated the

upset victory. This was one of the greatest moments of my life.

Achievements

what i will miss

High school has been great for me and I am really going to miss everything

about it. Although I hated the strict schedules of football and a seven period day, and I

hated waking up in the dark and going home in the dark through all of wrestling

season, I am going to miss it. I am going to miss the hard work, I am going to miss the

long hours and I am going to miss the overall nature of high school. It was a fantastic

four years and now it will all change. I know college is going to be a blast, but there is

not a better atmosphere in the world than a Friday night high school football game in

fishers. The hype and nerves I would feel before we played a tough opponent and the

amount of crazy passionate fans in the crowd, sometimes over ten thousand strong

would make the loudest sounds I have ever heard. The heart and physicality in which

we played every single game was unbelievable and I will never forget the pain the next

day, but I will miss those Friday nights the most, they were the greatest days of my life.



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My Most Memorable

High School Experience Out of all the unbelievable experiences I have been through in my school career. Out of

all the breathtaking moments I have been a part of and all of the extracurricular activities I

excelled in. There is not a single experience that can even come close to the 2012 sectional game.

This game was the most moving and emotional experience of my life. I felt like was watching a

movie, but it was real life and I was a part of it.

The day started like a normal Friday, everyone was excited for the game and everyone

was excited for the weekend. That all changed around noon when Trent VanHoosen, the father of

Matt VanHoosen our starting outside linebacker, had a blood clot pass through his heart and he

passed away. The whole school was in shock and I didn’t take it very well either. Trent was an

outstanding man and he was very good to me my whole life. After this tragedy nothing felt the

same, no one wanted to play, and no one was mentally ready for a game, especially an

elimination game. Matt made the decision that he could not play under these circumstances and

told coaches he would not play.

We were without a leader on our defense and we did not know what to do. When

pregame started everyone was flat and there were tears in the eyes of almost everyone on the field.

After pregame Matt came in the locker room and we really lost it. We were a group of huge

testosterone filled football crazy teenage boys that all thought we were pretty tough, but in that

moment in the locker room, not a single eye was dry. Tears ran down the face of every player

coach and manager in the room. This was fifteen minutes before the game started.

When we took the field we were absolutely flat. We were playing a team we beat by thirty last

time we played and they pushed us all around the field. It was clear we needed a spark, we

needed something to get us going, but in the first half that never came. We went into half time

down 6 and we were not ready to make a comeback. It looked like we were destined to lose. We

went out not ready and got pushed around some more.

Then from the locker room came number 49 Matt VanHoosen, but this time, Matt had

on a uniform. Matt walk onto the field and the crowd went ballistic! Chills ran up and down my

spine and the whole team sprinted to the track to welcome Matt on! We got the spark we needed

and we took control. We ran McCutchen out of town and won the sectional championship!

Personal Reflections on Memories

the future The future looks bright for good old Tamanini. I am on my way to Indiana University at

Bloomington and I am ready to change the world. I plan to be a business man or a politician

because I am very good with people, I hope the values and work ethic that was installed in me

through life lessons and sports will stay with me throughout my life. I hope my positive attitude

will make up for everything that I lack and I believe my great sense of humor and fantastic people

skills will give me a step on the rest of the world. I feel that my genuine character and nice guy

attitude will also help me in the future. Nikko Foster and Indiana University will put me on the

right path to a great future and after I graduate from college my opportunities will be unlimited, I

can do anything I want! I could be a CEO, I could be an environmentalist, who knows, I could be

the President! In the future I will be successful, I can’t see myself any other way. I hope to

change the world for the better with my life and I hope to make the people around me happier.



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Parents don’t understand the Music of Today

All I hear today is parents complaining about how terrible our music is now a days. They all say it is making us all insane, but it is really not. Today’s music is just an expression of the youth, just like in their day when they listened to Billy Idol and ACDC. They forget that an eternity ago they were kids too listening to the music of the youth and getting yelled at by their parents. They always forget that they were kids, and they did the same stuff and turned out perfectly fine. I feel like parents just need to stop nagging and let us bump or rock or jam or whatever you want to call it. The music today is just an expression of the youth, some more “cultural” than others, but none the less, an extension of teen culture. I enjoy our crazy music because it is exciting, the ridiculous use of profanity is a little far and sometimes makes for an awkward car ride with your parents, but if Waka Flaka or Trinidad James floats your boat, I think you should have the freedom to bump it without getting yelled at.

Personal Reflections on Pop Culture

My Kind of Music I think you can assume that since I live on the rough streets of Fishers Indiana, and I am very thug, that I listen to hard core rap… And you are one hundred percent correct! Well at least you are correct with two things, I am a thug, and I do bump some hardcore rap music because I love the beat and the bass. There is just something about it that makes me so excited and hype when I listen to it. I also love slow rap, it can take me out of a bad mood, or just calm me down from being too crazy. I love J Cole, Drake, Wiz Khalifa, Trinidad James, 2 Chainz, and my new group is the Flatbush Zombies. The art and rhymes in their music is incredible. I am not all ghetto rap music though; I will always have a soft spot for my dad’s music. I will never tell him it, but I love John Mellancamp, Bruce Springsteen, and there is nothing more relaxing than a Jimmy Buffet song. The seventies and eighties had some great music and I love to throwback to the hippie era. I love music of all kinds; I will even blast the Zac Brown band. I have the most confused iPod in the world, but I love it.



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Sandy Hook Any little tragedy can affect someone’s life, but a shooting of twenty elementary students

and six adults will completely reshape the lives of everyone. On December 14th everyone’s life

was juristically affected by Adam Lanza, a twenty year old man who decided to go to the local

elementary school where his mom worked and massacre a classroom full of second graders and

handful of teachers.

This massacre affected not only affected Sandy Hook and New Town Connecticut, but it

affected us all. We all mourned for the parents of the children and we were all in shock after the

tragedy, but the Sandy Hook massacre brought up a few questions, could we have done more to

stop this, are there enough safety measures in place? The answer is, no. Since the shooting, many

questions have been raised about gun control, many schools have changed their security

measures, and many parents have had second thoughts about the safety of their beloved children

in a school where they are sitting ducks to any intruder that somehow broke into the school. To

help people feel safe and keep this from happening again a lot will be done to keep guns out of

the hands of bad people and to keep students safe at all levels of schooling. This will forever

change my life for the good and keep me from being a victim of a school shooting.

Personal Reflections on World Events

CNN. ―Sandy Hook Shooting: What happened?‖ CNN News. Cable News Network., 14

January 2013. Web. 15 January 2013.



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where are you going Although I hated the administration at Fishers high school, the teachers and students were

the biggest influences I have ever had. At most high schools the cool thing is to not care about

grades and just have fun, at Fishers it was different, grades were important. If I ever got a bad grade

my friends would make sure I remembered it and they would help me to not make the same mistake

again. My teachers would always help me learn the material and would always make sure to use

positive reinforcement to help me along the way. Due to my great influences and drive to work hard

I have a bright future ahead of me. I am going to Indiana University at Bloomington and I am

rooming with my best friend and one of my best influences Nikko Foster. When I am at Indiana

University I plan on studying at the SPEA school (School of public and environmental affairs) and

becoming a business man or a politician when I graduate, who knows, I might just be your future

president or the next hot shot CEO, except I won’t be arrogant or stuck up.

Personal Choice Reflections

family The most important thing in life is family, Family is the

only thing that you will have forever. Friends will come and go and

people will be there for you sometimes, but the only people that will

always be in your life and always be there for you is your family. As

an Italian kid, family is always number one, I have about five

hundred Guido aunts, uncles, and cousins and ironically they are all

named Anne or Tony or Vinny or Eddy. With a last name like

Tamanini, you can always expect some crazy Italians and you can

always expect all five hundred to be there at the drop of a hat. On

my mom’s side of the family I have great influences, they are all

very, very smart and they are all very, very rich. They are always

looking out for me and they are always giving me great

opportunities to do incredible things. That side of the family will

make me very successful one day and they will get me into things

most people will never have the opportunity to do. I love my crazy,

polar opposite families and I will always be there for them as they

would do for me too.


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Time Capsule Reflection

In my time capsule I want the person to open it to really know who I am. I will

put some of my favorite items in the time capsule and the lucky one who gets

to open it will be amazed of how funny, hardworking, and creative I was. I also

want to show them how we lived.

Time Capsule Piece 1: My Iphone

In todays society we use our phones for everything and I am no

different. I wouldn't be able to live without my phone and I want the

people of the future that this phone was awesome!

Time Capsule Piece 2: My wrestling shoes

My wrestling shoes mean a lot to me, first off they

were $120 and second off I put my life into those

pieces of cloth! I cut weight and worked until I couldn't

move in those shoes… and I will wash them, don't worry.

Time Capsule Piece 3: Pictures from state

This was one of the coolest things I have ever been

apart of and if the student in the future goes to

fishers, he will know about our win.

Time Capsule Piece 4: Cooks Pizza Shirt

I want to give the future my original black nike cooks

pizza shirt. In the future when cooks is bigger than

papa johns, the shirt will be really cool.

Time Capsule Piece 5: IU hat

I am going to Indiana university next year so I needed

to have something from the greatest university there is!

Also snapbacks are a fashion trend and it will be funny

in the future.

There's not a greater accomplishment in high school

football than winning the state championship, and

there is not a greater feeling than winning it as an

underdog every single game.

The most arrogant school I have ever played was HSE.

They beat us every year in the regular season, but every

year they turned our season around. My sophomore year

we turned it around and destroyed them 28-0, and my

senior year we came back and murdered them 42-7.

I still don't know how this hasn't been made into a

movie. This was literally the greatest thing I have ever

been a part of. I started, emotions were unbelievable,

and we won. Matt VanHoosen is the strongest kid I have

ever known. It was unbelievable.

After never wrestling a varsity match my entire

junior high career and being average my first 2

years of high school, I worked as hard as I possibly

could and became semi-state ranked 5th after I

beat the kid that was ranked 9th in the state.

No one though we could do it except us. We

went into Carmel where no one wins and we

dominated the second ranked greyhounds.

5 –Winning State

2—Becoming Ranked in Wrestling

1—Winning the sectional Championship

3—Beating HSE twice in Sectionals

4—Beating Carmel at Carmel


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This is a list top ten of the greatest moments in my athletic career. I played 2 sports

and excelled in both of them. This was my life in high school.

This was one of the best feeling every weekend

in wrestling, it was so hard to stay disciplined

and its was always nerve racking but it was so

uplifting when I made it.

Going into the state meet Seth Riley was a 4 seed

and pinned the number one seed, the next day he

pinned “the best thrower in the state” and all over

Indiana mat everyone said “who is seth Riley”.

Watching my best friend Mitch Sliga dominate the

state every single year since we were in firsts grade

was awesome, I would get more excited and nervious

to see him wrestle than I would for myself.

Every year I was in one of the toughest weight

classes and every year I would have a comeback

win in the match to go in sectionals. It was

always the most exciting match of the year.

Coming into high school as an unathletic chubby kid, I

worked my butt of and became a 6 time varsity letterman.

It was such a good feeling to see my hard work pay off.

10—Making Weight

7—Getting to regionals

6—Watching Mitch Win everything

8—Watching Seth Shock the state

9 –Getting my 6th varsity letter

Top Ten Best Memories From Sports

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