Painting With Neil: S.L.

I thought "Painting With Neil" was very well written. I loved how I could read about a familiar person and event. Even though the writer was not feeling the emotions that he or she was writing about, they did a very good job of portraying the TRUE emotions someone would have at a soccer game like they were: mad, frustrated, excited, tired, and so on. I also liked this piece because I could connect with Neil's first reaction to the scoreboard walking into the game. Like just about anyone who walks into a game after it has already started, you would first look at the scoreboard to try to get "DL" of whats going on in the game. Also like anyone else, if at first you see that your team is already down by one or more points, you would probably feel the same way he felt. But as the game rages on, anyone would still continue to cheer and hope for their team. Not only did S.L. write about a soccer game, they wrote about one of the biggest games for both Homestead's Boys and Girls soccer teams, Homestead vs. Canterbury. Lastly, when the writer compared Neil to "just a dot among the people," I could really vision a tired, frustrated painter walking away from the stadium after a rewarding win for the girls, but such a tough defeat for the boys.