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!

Journal #38

I job shadowed at Hansen Professional Services, a engineering company. Going into this job shadowing experience I really was not to happy or exited. I put down chemical engineering as my number one pick, and I did not think that Hansen had chemical engineering (They did not). But I was pleasantly surprised about how much information I received about engineering and careers in the sciences in general. I was paired up with Deb Ramsey, the only chemical engineer at Hansen. She talked to me about where shes worked in her career and the kinds of projects she has worked on or have been in charge of. She oversees several concrete companies and went to Ukraine to oversee the water treatment back when the Soviet union broke up.

After we were done talking Deb took me around her floor to talk to several other engineers. I talked to several civil engineers and a technician. I talked to a few college grads from 2012. It was really interesting to hear about Hansen, and engineering from young workers. They gave me good advice about college and looking for a job in engineering. After we went out to lunch, Deb gave me a tour of the company  The have an entire library, with inter-library loans and everything! I got to see the Geology lab, and talked to the guy in charge of that. After that I talked to several more people on the floor, and I even talked to one engineer who ended up being my neighbor! I received a lot of valuable information, and I will definetly take it under consideration when I decided my career path. I am not sure If I can see myself completely in a company like Hansen. I don't know if I could sit in an office everyday, I'm more suited towards working in a lab sometimes. I like a lot of the projects the company is working on, I could see myself working on projects like those.

Journal #37

We are currently listening to a jazz quartet, "Blue Monk," with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. The song sounds very upbeat and pleasant. Being friends with several saxophone players, I have come to appreciate jazz music more. I an tell that this song is very hard to play, but it sounds really cool. I know virtually nothing about how to play music, but I still can tell that this must have been very popular when it first came out.. I am sure that music like this was played at jazz clubs and "speak easys  when it first appeared in the 1920's. Flappers and young men would go to these and drink and relax to the jazz and have a good time. I like listening to the jazz because it is not the same the whole way through the song. With the several different instruments, saxophone, trumpet, and what ever else, they can be several different sounds that appear. There is also a piano, and maybe a cello or a base something that provides the base beat that really makes the song go together. At this point in the song I think of a part in A Very Goofy Movie, when the kid, Max goes with his hipster friend to a club and they read poetry to try and impress a pretty girl. They snap and talk in that "cool jazz way" that is very stereotypical of us in the present day thinking back to the 1920's. I am not sure if I would choose to listen solely to jazz or even jazz a lot of the time, but every once and a while it is a nice change from the music I normally listen to. The only other jazz person I have really heard of besides Miles Davis, is Louis Armstrong, I believe he is a saxophonist also. My dad listens to jazz sometimes  so I hear it in the car when I ride with him too everyone and a while.

Journal #36

It is very important for you to be yourself. Individualism is one thing that a lot of people do not care about very much in their lives. They just want to be like everyone else and fit in; wear the same clothes, talk the same way, and not stick out. When I look into the lunch room it is sad to see how so many tables of friends look the same. Girls all wear their tight, short skirts, or sweatpants and Uggs. I see the boys all wearing their Nike or Adidas shorts with the tall socks and tennis shoes. Teenagers these days could care less about being their own person, they just want to fit in and be liked. I try and pride myself on the face that I am my own person. I can do things for myself, I dress the way I want to dress, and I talk the way I want to talk. I do not need someone to go to the bathroom with me, like most girls my age think they have to. I do my own school work and homework, and I do not just copy others. I also do not try and hide when I know information. Too many people think that it is "uncool" to be smart, and that failing is more fun to do. I get good grades and I am very proud of this fact. Having your own personality and different friends is also very important. When you ask someone to describe you, you would hope that the words they use to describe you and different than the words they use to describe other people. If the whole world was the same it would be very boring, and no one would be very interesting. I hope that in the future kids will know or figure out how important it is to be an individual in their lives. Because it is one of the most important concepts to understand when growing up.