Post #5 - The Rat

Anna Evita’s intro and Violet Cortez’s outro were mediocre in Luca Blasi’s opinion. However, Ryan Lochte’s speech hit Blasi like a truck. Despite how washed up he might be, the speech held aspects of personal significance to Luca. “Family is the most important thing in life,” said Ryan, “they’re the ones who help you through tough times, provide you with good times, and gave you the greatest gift of all: life.” He thought back to the days before his father had kicked him out. After his mom died, they were the only friends each other had and now that they were apart, neither of them had any. Ryan continued, “After my incident, I had tension with my family, and coming together and ending that tension was the most helpful thing for me in that low point of my life.” Luca heard this and then saw the rat run across the stage. “Sure my dad is a rat,” he thought, “but that’s nothing a little cheese and quality time can’t fix.” He then headed back to his apartment to begin the search for his father.

Ryan’s speech was so close to Luca’s apartment that he could still hear him talking when he got back. He knew Lochte had gotten a bit too into his speech and how now gone 30 minutes longer than proposed. He was sad as he wanted to hear coach K speak to remind him of the times where him and his father had watched the Duke games, but just like coach K, those times were gone. Luca knew him and his father would never be the same, but as he opened his laptop he missed the sense of adventure his father had given him. Sure he was hard on him, but he had pushed Luca outside of his comfort zone, away from the screen, and into the world. Luca then shut his laptop and went back out into the street.