College Prep English Paper

Here's the paper I was so excited to write. I didn't go the way I was originally going to go with it, but I survived my first paper at Jefferson! You were supposed to write a story about sometime in your life that you learned lesson and find a cliche that summarized your story. Here it is...



What Doesn’t Kill You Will Make You Stronger

Have you ever heard someone say “What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger?” I’ve heard that saying many times in my life but the time it sunk in, was my track season two years ago.
It was spring of my freshman year and track season was upon us. Everyone at school was discussing the upcoming season and counting down the days until the first practice. Myself, however, I was already counting down the days until the season was over. You see, I hate to run! People that know me know how much I hate to run, but people that don’t sometimes are surprised. They seem to think that being a good athlete means that you love to run. That’s definitely not the case for me.
When practice started, it became apparent that I was not a very good runner. By the first track meet I knew my coach would stick me in something we weren’t very strong in so I wouldn’t screw it up. Unfortunately for me, that was the four by eight hundred relay. Anyone in track knows the eight hundred isn’t a very easy race. But if you aren’t in track, I’ll explain the relay to you. In the four by eight hundred, each of the four members of the relay has to run an eight hundred. An eight hundred is two times around the track. So for me, the girl who hated running and who wasn’t very good, that wasn’t good news.
After running if for the first time, it was clear that the eight hundred and I weren’t going to get along. I was part of this relay all year no matter how much I begged to get out of it. Lying on the ground at the coldest meet of the season I promised myself that I would never, ever run this race ever again in the rest of my track career.
The next year, I was assured by my coach that I would never again have to run an eight hundred if I didn’t want to. The team practiced for the first couple weeks and when the first track meet came along, sure enough, he didn’t call my name to run in the four by eight hundred. I was so happy! I had been running better times and had improved a lot from the last year. Track was almost fun, almost…
I thought I was home-free when in the middle of the season one of the four by eight hundred runners got sick and was out of school for a week. When another runner got sick, my coach showed up in one of my classes and asked to speak with me. “Oh no,” I thought. He asked if I was willing to run just one four by eight hundred for the team because half the relay members were sick. Somehow, before I even thought it through, a “yes” came out of my mouth. I was going to die!
On the day of the meet I was nervous and regretting agreeing to run the race. As I took my spot in the line of other runners and looked back to see my teammate who was moments from handing me the baton I thought, “What am I doing?”
After the race, I went up to get my time from my coach. To my surprise, I had run a solid time! In fact, it was the best of my short track career! After running that time, whether I liked it or not, I was again part of the four by eight hundred relay team.
The season came to an end and contrary to what I thought, I did survive. Because of that one time I filled in for someone, I unfortunately became a permanent member of the four by eight hundred relay team.
By this experience I have learned that even though you may not like something of even hate it, it can help you. So when I was faced with the decision to participate in two months of intense basketball workouts with Jake Sullivan I looked back at my track experience. Using that experience I decided that even though it may be difficult, it would make me a better, stronger player in the end. I have continued to participate in the program and I don’t regret my decision.
From now on, when faced with a challenge, I remember that track season. Even when I thought I wasn’t going to make it, I did and I became stronger for it. So from now on, I’ll remember my favorite cliché, “What doesn’t kill me will make me stronger

First day of school

Ok...today, school...yeah. Well the day started out with geometry. I get there and I find out everyone is going to switch to Algebra 3, so now I guess I'm going to be in algebra 3 which sucks because I'm no math scholar. haha..But he said I could handle it if I work at it. Nice, something else to worry about.
So after that, I had to travel to Jefferson for College prep english and Chemistry. So after getting lost, being stared at like I'm some freak by the Jefferson kids and embarrassing myself I get to english. As all of you know I LOVE to write but I'm not really feeling the teacher. Our first assignment is cliches and mine is "What which does not kill you makes you stronger" so I'm pretty excited about that one. And chemistry...wow! Labs, labs, labs...I hope they are better then they sound!
After we got back we had an assembly where I was pressured to go out for cross country but don't worry everyone... I stayed strong!!! :) Because everyone knows just how much I love to run! (only because my ice cream's melting right Heather?!!!) I decided I'm going to be doing enough running this fall in Ames with Jake Sullivan and I'm not going to run any more than I have to...plus I need my sleep! ;)
We got out early today for the heat so we didn't finish the day but I'll let you know how the afternoon goes tomorrow. Good 'ol spanish, american history and Intro to Psych in Jefferson. woo hoo...or not. :(
Oh by the way.. I'm definately in "like"...yay! I'll keep you posted!

School...

Ok so I'm totally sad/bummed/mad/depressed today because school starts tomorrow! I don't want summer to end, you don't have to worry about anything. No homework, no friend drama (if you don't want it), no early sports or band...you can just relax. School is so stressful, if I didn't absolutely have to go to school and if I didn't want to have a productive life when I grow up I seriously wouldn't ever go to school! I hate it...

Random Thoughts

Have you ever met someone and after being around them realize that they are a totally different person then you thought they were? It’s funny how that works. People these days think they have to hide the “real them” so deep down because they don’t think it’s good enough that it takes a long time to get to know them.
Sometimes you are friends with people long enough that you don’t realize what they are doing to you. The “real them” finally surfaces and you don’t realize it until it’s too late. By then you are in too deep and can’t get out of the relationship without getting hurt even more or hurting them.
Other times you get to know people at a certain place then meet them somewhere else and they act totally different. I hate it when people act a certain way with their grandma or at church, then are totally different people at school. I don’t think that you need to be constantly changing your personality depending on the crowd you’re in. I think you need to develop a personality that is appropriate for wherever you happen to be.
I sometimes struggle even knowing who I am, let alone what I need my personality to be. It’s hard to not change for the people you’re around. But as hard as it is, it’s so much easier to just be yourself and make friends that like the real “you” instead of pretending to be someone else and going through the end of a relationship because you lied about who you were.
It’s so hard for teenagers today to know who to be. Whether to be the good kids their church and family want them to be, making it so hard to fit in at school or go with the crowd, being popular but going against their beliefs and values.
This world is so hard to live in, it’s so discriminating against differences and it’s become that the good guys always get the short end of the stick. It’s either you play fair and get screwed over, or play dirty and get what you want. But when you play dirty, you may get what you want but you end up feeling guilty because what you did wasn’t right. How is anyone supposed to make these decisions, let alone teenagers who are still deciding who they want to be? I know being fair isn’t the most popular choice, but now it’s almost an impossible choice.
Which brings me to fairness. In this world, fair isn’t always equal. When you get your “fair share” it’s what you earned. It’s not always spread equally. It’s like the “Little Red Hen” story. The hen raised the wheat to make the bread so she got the bread and since the other animals didn’t help, they didn’t get any. The other animals didn’t think it was fair but it was, they just didn’t put any work into it.
This is also the story of what’s happening in farming families these days. The children who stay on the farm to work in the end, should get their fair share of the inheritance. Fair, meaning what they’ve EARNED on the farm, since they decided to stay. In the big picture, the ones who decided to stay are the ones who made it possible for the rest of the children to have an inheritance. So, in a just world the one who stayed on the farm should get the biggest inheritance; an example of fairness…not always being equal.
In this world today, money is very important. Money can break up friends, marriages and even whole families. Now, even the closest, best families can be broken up by money and inheritances. People don’t realize when they die, what can happen to their family when they have to divide up belongings. It just makes my heart hurt to think that some people can’t look past the money and belongings to see what it’s doing to their relationship with their family and how it makes them look to anyone on the outside looking in. It all comes back to the nice guys finishing last and the ones that don’t play fair coming out ahead.
I sit back and look at this world and the people in it and it amazes me how different it seems to be from even 20 years ago. It seems like the bad things cover up the good things, your hear about all the crimes and no miracles or the celebrities that are always in trouble instead of the child who raised money for a good cause. People don’t see the good in the world anymore even though, unbelievably, it’s still there.
The next time you read the newspaper or watch the news just pray to God about all the things that may not be going well, but also be thankful for the good that’s still left in this world.

Dreams

Dreams. Everyone has dreams. Some people work to make them come true. Some people don’t even try because they don’t want to be disappointed. But dreams are what keep us happy. God loves it when you have dreams. Because when you have dreams, you have faith that those dreams will come true.
Little children cover their walls with posters of famous athletes dreaming that one day that will be them on someone’s wall. Teenagers sit in class and dream of their life and what it will be. Parents stand over their baby’s crib dreaming of what their baby will achieve. Everyone dreams.
Without dreams, you are nothing. You have nothing to look forward to, nothing to work for. It’s what you do with your dreams is what makes you the person you are. Will you go out and work for to make your dream come true? Put in those extra hours in the gym after your friends go home? Study, instead of going out? Work that overtime so your child can go to a good preschool?
Or are you one of those people that sit and dream those beautiful dreams every day, but don’t get up and act on them because you are afraid of disappointment? You’ve gotten hurt or disappointed too many times and want to protect yourself. But what you can’t see, is that you are hurting yourself even more. You are more unhappy dreaming that dream that’s just out of reach then you would be if you dreamt, worked for it and fell short.
What person are you? Do you know what you want? Are you willing to work for it? Don’t stop dreaming, because without dreams you are nothing.

My Heroes...

Hero. What is a hero to you? The word hero means a lot of things to me. There are a lot of different kinds of heroes. A hero is someone you can look up to, someone you are proud to know. I am lucky to have a couple different heroes in my life.

A hero can be someone that gives you a glimpse of what you want to be. Someone you can look up to and model yourself after. Someone that just magically comes into your life for seemingly no reason and changes it forever or someone that has been in your life forever that you didn’t know how much you cherished until they were gone.

A hero can be someone that can cheer you up with their smile or words. Someone who is there no matter what. Someone who believes in you when you don’t believe in yourself. Someone who will sit on the phone and pray with you because she wishes that she could be there. Someone who sends hugs through email. Someone who seems to know me as they’ve known me forever, not just a year.

A hero can be someone that you took a long time to realize. Someone that has been there forever, without you even knowing it. But when that times comes along you need them, they’re there. They seem to know you better than you know yourself. They’re there to give you their wisdom, to push you in the right direction. They know when you need that smile or hug to get your through their day. They will sit and listen to your funny stories, even though they aren’t funny and still laugh. (even if they’re only laughing inside)

A hero has courage. Whether it’s courage to find a new path to their life, courage to know what they want and not let anyone stop them or courage to admit their faults and get help.

A hero is kind. Someone who will talk to anyone if they need their help, someone who puts everyone else in front of themselves or someone that picks up on other’s moods and tries to cheer them up.

A hero is humble. Someone who tries to be the best they can be without bragging or attracting attention. Most of the time these people don’t even know what they are doing and who they are inspiring to be better people.

Sometimes people come in and out of your life when you need them. You need them so you’re close and they’re there, then you don’t need them and they’re gone. These people might come back when they are needed again or they might disappear from your life forever.

Some people come into your life for a day, for a month, for years or for a lifetime. You need to be able to identify them and how they fit in your life and when you find the right ones, never let them go.

High School

High school. It’s where you find out who you are. Are you a leader, a follower or a loner? Do you care what others say and let them hurt you, or are you comfortable enough in yourself that you don’t care what people say or think? Are you that person that everyone wishes they could be? Or are you that person that people pretend to not see in the hallway? What is the difference between these types of people? Their looks, their personality? Deep down, it doesn’t matter whether you are considered the “popular person” or the “unpopular person” it’s who you are. It’s the way you treat others, whether you can see through their looks or the wall they put up and get to know the real them.

Some might consider me as someone from the “popular” crowd and I have never been able to accept that. To me, that group is a group that makes fun of people and doesn’t get to know anyone outside their own “group” of friends. I grew up with the people from that group; they’ve been my friends ever since elementary school. I never asked to be part of that “group,” that’s just the people that I made friends with when I was young. We were just friends; they were all I thought I had, up until I got into high school. But, as I said, high school is where you find out who you are. It’s where you leave the past behind and become your own person. They became their own people, and I became my own. I’m not saying I don’t talk with them or hang out with them but that’s all there is to the relationship. It isn’t any deeper than sports or class.

I’m becoming my own person, but I’m going a different way than they are. I don’t fit in with them anymore; I don’t know exactly where I fit in. I have a different group of friends for everything. I have my “basketball friends,” my “band friends”, my “school friends,” my “youth group friends, “ even my “track friends.” But, that is so hard; to go through the year, and keep switching “groups” of friends. Out of all those groups of friends, there are 4 friends, true friends that I could count on for anything. I could call them in the middle of the night and they’d be there, they would be there to talk me out of doing anything stupid, they are there to help me out and they aren’t afraid to tell me how it is. Those friends are the most important of all. I would rather have 4 real friends, then have millions of others.

I don’t even know when I changed; from thinking I had no one except those girls who treated me like crap. Now, I am really good friends with people I never thought in a million years I’d be friends with. They are the ones I look forward to seeing everyday, not that group of friends that I thought I couldn’t live without. They are the ones that make me laugh, when I don’t want to, they are the ones that can look me in the eye and make me tell them what is wrong. I can look at them, and tell they are asking me because they care, they care about me. I never thought I’d have that again, after that group of friends, after Jess. I never thought I would be able to go to school and look forward to seeing people. I never knew there was anyone else out there, anyone else out there that cared.


Me, Sarah and Jess


us.. haha