Hi my name is Amber Lea Shultz and this is my poetry site. I'm closer to 18 then I am to 17. I live in Sturgis, South Dakota and I'll be moving to Cheyenne, Wyoming. My role model of all time is the late legendary Chris LeDoux. I've been writing for about four and half years. I'm in debate, rodeo, going to be in JROTC. I was born on July 7, 1987 in Deadwood, South Dakota. I was born a blue baby; my umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck three times. Three days later, I went home. Two years later, I was happily content playing on the beach with my pregnant mother watching over me. My father and a friend of the family, who we nicknamed, 'Uncle Bill', was sitting in a boat in the lake (Alcova outside out of Casper, Wyoming). The waves gabbed me and drugged me face down into the water. My father jumped over Uncle Bill and dived in. He saved my life. Seven years later, my mother, my sister, and I went to a bull riding practice out at Hart Ranch (Rapid City, South Dakota). We were there with two other ladies in an alleyway they used to run steers and the calves down to the roping box. The gate to the alleyway was open and we had not known that. Exactly where the gate was, there was a pin of bulls that recently came from the strip chute. I was sitting on the fence that was up against the wall when I saw a bull with huge horns coming down the alley. I jumped down off the fence, climbed onto the other side and ran across the arena and up to the bleachers was and went to the very top of them. The bull, which we call Clayton, after my father, had also attacked my father through the fence when he was videotaping the practice a few months prior to this practice. When I was eleven, I received three stitches after I put my hand through a French door. I was chasing my sister, I don't remember why though. A year later, I did the unthinkable. I faced one of my dreaded fears. I had to get on an animal that I could be killed by. It was a Winter Series Final and I got on the biggest calf there was. I didn't make the whistle. I ended up landing in a pile of manure and being teased about my "new perfume" as Sugar Ray, the announcer, called it. The calf is still being bucked today although; Tim is twice the size of when I got on him. He still scares me when I see him now. He helped me face one of my fears and now I ride mechanical bulls instead of the ones that you could get killed by. In April 2003, my sister (Kyla) and I were home alone. We heard sirens go past our house. Kyla ran outside and saw that there was smoke coming from the west end of our street. She pulled me off the computer and outside just in time to see flames race up the hill behind my house. Kyla and I were scared to death; Mom says, "We were dramatized for life." We started calling everyone that we could think of and I finally got a hold of one of my friends. He stayed for a couple hours after the fire was put out. For a long time I couldn't look at the hill. For days, Kyla and I kept having the flames going up the hill burned into our minds. We couldn't concentrate on anything. Fall of 2004, I met a freshman that was very tall. He knew me as Kyla's sister since he went to school with Kyla. We ended up dating for a month but now that I look upon it my life has changed thanks to him and his family. November 2004, I was reintroduced to one of my old friends, Danielle. Autumn and I hang out with her every chance we get. Feb-March 2005, I had a crush on a guy I met last summer and saw again in January but didn't really start talking to him until February then we started dating in March and we're still going out. April 23rd, 2005, I went to prom with my boyfriend, Cody, and hung out with all my friends and had fun. I won a trophy at the Newcastle tournament in Feb. for 2nd Best Speaker first trophy ever one. I tried out for cheerleading unfortunately I didn't make it but that's all right. I'm going to be in debate, tennis, rodeo, JROTC, journalism and young life next year. busy busy busy. My life has had its ups and downs. I'm currently attending high school in Sturgis. I grew up loving country. My best friend, Tambri, reintroduced me to Chris LeDoux and she wrote cowboy poetry and she had me writing.