Journal #42

One day, a boy named Sam was walking down the hallway, minding his own business. He rounded the corner to his next class when a bright yellow colored poster caught his eye. He stopped walking and paused to read it. The poster stated that a one hundred dollar prize would be awarded to the student who brought in the most canned goods for the local homeless center. Sam got really excited, he had been wanting to purchase a brand new video game but he did not have any money for it. He thought that if he won this competition, he could buy the new game. That night after school, Sam raided his house for extra canned good, he walked to his grandma's and asked her for her extra canned goods. He did not tell either his grandma or his mom that he was only collecting the cans to be able to buy a new video game because he knew that they would not approve of his intentions. Sam ended up with quite a few cans but still was not first in the school competition. The girl in first place always volunteers her time helping the homeless and serving soup at the local food center. Sam was mad because he knew that the girl would just "throw away" the prize money and give it back to the homeless. This gave Sam a new drive to find cans and went around to his neighbors houses and other family members to find more cans. The next day at school, was also the last day for the competition. Sam ended up winning! The girl shook his hand and told him congratulations, you earned it for wanting to help the hungry so much! Sam felt very guilty after this and could not bring himself to buy his video game after this. Sam went down to the homeless shelter and gave them his prize money as a donation. Sam ended up being a better person and giving the money to a better cause!

Journal #41

In light of recent events, namely the events of yesterday in Boston, some of the most unlikely people can become heroes in the face of traumatic events and danger. Yesterday at a little before 3 o'clock, two explosions were heard at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Several people are dead and countless are injured. Most injured are losing feet or even whole limbs because of their close proximity to the explosion when it went off. I saw on the news that some runners crossed the finish line and kept running all the way to the hospital to give blood for the injured. I think that this act is incredible. These people just ran over twenty six miles and still went in to and summoned the energy to give blood for those who greatly needed it. Heroes can be anyone. You can be a hero if you step up and do what is right in the face of a threat or danger. A great description of a hero I think is in the Foo Fighter's song, My Hero. "There goes my hero, he's ordinary" Another group of people that most people do not consider as heroes but I do is journalists. I saw a exhibit in the Newseum in Washington D.C. about September, 11 through the eyes of the journalists. These men and women trued to put their lives as close to the action as the could to document it so the people at home could see what horror is going in. Some of these journalists ran to help wherever people were needed and the photographers put themselves in danger trying to capture images of the events that we will forever remember in history. Firefighters, policemen, other civil workers are also heroes for rushing in the face of danger every day for their jobs. Their job is to put their own self at risk to save their community. It is really incredible how much good you see in people when they are faced with an impossible situation.

Journal #40

There are about seven more AP Chemistry classes until our AP test. It is some pretty stressful stuff. BUT, after that I get a week and a half to study for my AP United States History exam and then summer is basically here!! I cannot wait! I will be working a lot, and when I am not working I will be swimming or spending time with my friends! It will be wonderful. But before that I get to look forward to prom with my friends, and as finals approach, less homework. This year has flown by so incredibly fast. Soon Elizabeth will graduate and that will be really strange, because she has always been around at school. Next year will be so weird without mist of my friends because they are all seniors. It will be pretty sad, but I will still get to see quite a few of them because they are going to school close by. I believe the furthest away someone is going is Kentucky, which still is not terrible. I am excited to start working again, because it is nice to not have to depend on my parents for money when I go out to eat or to the movies. I miss Colony West. I cannot wait to basically live there over the summer. Between work as a lifeguard and swim practice, the majority of my week is spent there. My friend Becca and I are trying to convince our boss to let us help coach the younger kids at swim practice. fingers crossed he lets us! We will not find out till the beginning of June though. The one sad thing about summer coming is the fact that youth group ends. Although I have been informed that we do even more stuff, just whenever over the summer. I have become super close to most of my friends there and I really want to spend time with them over the summer also!

Journal #39

I had a really fun spring break this year! My mom, my Aunt Chris, and myself drove to Washington D.C. on Good Friday to visit my Uncle Chris and his wife Marissa. We saw all of the sights, like the monuments, and went to several of the museums. I had been to DC before several years ago, so we only went to the museums that we have not seen or that we wanted to see again. We went to the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of American History, the Native American Museum, the Newseum, and the Holocaust Museum. My uncle took us to several cool restaurants while we were there also. We saw the Lincoln, Washington, and Jefferson monuments. We also saw the Korean, WWII, and Vietnam memorials. I really enjoyed walking around seeing the monuments; it is really pretty in DC wit all the cherry blossoms trees blooming. We stayed there until Thursday, when we drove home. I wrote my entire The Jungle essay in the car on the way to DC so after I drove my shift on the way home I slept for several hours. On Friday I went out to lunch with Katie and then helped Jenni babysit her cousins the rest of the afternoon. Then I went to Kathleen's and saw her after dinner. On Saturday I worked on a huge amount of my AP Chemistry homework with Andrew. After I went to my friends, Will and John's house where a whole bunch us of got together and watched Doctor Who. Sunday, I went to church and then out to lunch at Sonic with my friends. Then we met some more friends and went to Washington park for the afternoon. Sunday night I went to my youth group and we had our Great Trade Up, which my team won! We got a Starbucks gift card! I had a great Spring Break! I learned a lot and saw a lot of my friends in the three days I was home!