#41

A hero, to me, is someone who is selfless. Someone who puts everything on the line for someone else. In the movies, heroes are always portrayed as super strong and handsome, but I think a true hero has so much more than just their physical appearance or abilities. A hero should be a leader and someone that can be looked up to as a role model. They should display heroic characteristics such as honesty, truth, courage, strength, and love. If a person portrays these characteristics, even without being super buff with dazzling good looks, I would still consider them a hero. I also think of a hero as someone who makes a difference in the world. Not just talks about it, but actually takes action to do their part and help someone other than themselves. Sacrifice is a huge part of this. It is putting someone else's needs above your own. Looking at the stereotypical hero, I would have to say Captain America is my favorite. What I like about him is that he went from a "nobody" to a somebody. He had all of the characteristics of a hero without being just physically superior. The best example of this is when the general tested the soldiers by throwing a bomb at the soldiers. All of the other soldiers ran away, but Captain America ran right to it and covered himself over it to save the rest of the soldiers. That is sacrifice. Captain America also had the intelligence of a hero. This was tested when the soldiers were told to get the flag on top of the pole. While the other soldiers failed in climbing the pole in order to retrieve the flag, Captain America simply undid the bolts from the base of the pole and retrieved the flag after the flag pole had fallen. These characteristics are what made him a hero even before he went under the procedure that boosted his strength and physical abilities.

Journal #40

This year my family and I have moved to a new house with a good amount of land in hopes to become more self sufficient. So far we have planted trees, started our garden, gotten bees, and our newest addition is baby chicks. We now have six baby chicks and we were suppose to get six hens, but the place we were going to get them from had an accident. A fox had gotten into the hen house and killed all of the hens we were going to buy! It was terrible. We were still able to buy our baby chicks though. On Sunday, I went with my parents to pick up the baby chicks. I think the name of the store was Farm & Home Supply, but I am not really sure.  I think all the home supply stores sound the same. I was surprised with how many different breeds of chicks they had. They had chicks ranging from tiny black ones that were only a few days old to larger orange ones that were a little over a week old. The breed that we picked is black and brown, but I cannot recall the official name. While the employee helped my Dad catch the chicks we wanted, something terribly traumatic  happened. In one of the crates of chicks I noticed a tiny little black chick that was not moving. It did not look good. At first I thought he was just sleeping, but when I looked closely I saw that he was not breathing! The poor baby chick had died! The other chicks in the crate were completely oblivious and walked all over it. It was incredibly sad. Then the manager had to come over and take care of it. This was the last thing I wanted to happen to our six baby chicks. All of the chicks we got were females and I got the pleasure of naming each of them. Their names are Ariel, Rapunzel, Arora, Belle, Snow, and Cinderelly. I like Disney princesses if you can't tell. The baby chicks are so cute and I was so excited to bring them home! They live in our garage in their own little crate with their heating lamp, food, water, etc. I like that they live there because every morning when I leave for school, I can tell the baby chickies goodbye. Saying hello to them is also the first thing I do when I get home. I wish they could stay this small and cute forever!

Journal #39

Spring Break is such a tease. It is a week that basically feels like summer, but then you have to come back to school. My spring break really did feel like summer. This year, my family and I drove down to Florida. We had rented a condo in New Smyrna Beach, it is twenty miles south of Daytona. I was super excited to go, but I was absolutely dreading the car ride there. We drove the entire way. The trip took seventeen hours total without traffic. We left Friday early evening, stopped that night, and then traveled the rest of the way Saturday and did not get in until about ten at night. I did not even care though because we were finally there! It was so worth it. Our condo was literally right on the beach. When I stepped onto our balcony and looked out I could see the sand the waves right in front of me. Sunday we went to a local church in New Smyrna and then went out to an Easter brunch. The brunch was delicious and we even ran into our extended family there who is staying in Daytona! It was such a coincidence because they did not even know we were in Florida! Sunday night my sister, Katie flew in.  I was so jealous she got to fly and not drive, but I was so happy she could come. We picked her up that night at the airport and  brought her home to paradise.We spent the next three days doing nothing, but lounging on the beach all day. Well, I did run in the morning, but after that our day literally consisted of nothing, but soaking up the Florida sun. It was wonderful. On Thursday, we drove to the other side of the state to visit my Dad's parents. It was so nice to see them. My mom, sister, and grandma went out and got manicures together and then we joined my dad and grandpa for a Japanese Steakhouse dinner. Friday was our last day in New Smyrna, but unfortunately it rained all day. We made the best of it though and turned it into a shopping day. We shopped til we dropped and I loved every minutes of it. That evening, we dressed up in our new clothes and went out to our favorite restaurant that we had gone to the first night we were there. This vacation was much needed and it was so nice to just get away and relax. I cannot wait until summer!

Journal #38

My job shadowing experience went very well. I went with four other juniors to the WICS News Channel 20 Station downtown. We had two sessions that day. The first session was from 10am to 12pm and then the afternoon session was from 3:30pm to 5:30pm. The woman we were suppose to shadow ended up having to go to Champagne for something and so she was not even there. Because of her absence, we were pretty much tossed around to several different people in the station. One of the first things we did was take a general tour of everything. The station is literally a maze inside and the hallways are very narrow with several doors and tight corners. One of the places we stopped during the tour was the Master Control room. This is where the two master control guys basically make sure the show runs how it should. WICS has a sister station in Champagne and so they run at the same time. These guys in master control have to make sure that the commercials line up and that there are no gaps between the shows. This was a job that I had never really thought about, but it is absolutely necessary. Another job that I had not really thought of before was the person who has to organize all of the news and schedule what stories should be covered.This was Steve's job. He would sit at his computer and take phone calls and make listen to the police scanners about any news that would be interesting to cover. I was so surprised with how many people were behind the scenes for the news to happen and how many jobs there are that you do not even realize are necessary. My favorite part of the job shadowing experience was sitting behind the camera and watching the Mid-day show. This really interested me because I want to be a news reporter or anchor. It was really cool seeing it all come together. This experience has definitely increased my interest in this career and I am excited to learn even more about it.

Journal #37

As I listen to the song Blue Monk, I imagine an everyday working man waking up in the morning, just in time to turn off his alarm before it sounds. It is a warm and sunny morning, just waiting for him. He hops out of bed and pets his sleeping dog still snoozing on the end of his bed. He then makes his way to the bathroom to get ready for the day. He takes a shower, shaves, and brushes his teeth all while humming his favorite tune. After putting on his work clothes, he makes his way downstairs. He has plenty of time left before he has to leave and so he decides to brew himself his favorite blend of coffee. The aroma fills the room and as he sips his coffee and catches up on the latest news in the morning paper. After finishing his cup, he cannot resist pouring himself another into a thermos to take to work with him. He is ready for the day ahead of him. Instead of driving today, the man decides to walk the five blocks to his work and enjoy the pleasant weather. As he walks he smiles at the passing strangers with a sincere grin on his face. He reaches his work and holds the door open for a lovely lady. He then follows inside and heads to the elevator. He reaches his floor and makes his way to his cubical. There waiting for him is a stack of papers to get through before the day is done. It fails to phase him and he contenting sits down and starts working. One after the other he gets through the papers in record timing. Before he knows it, it is five o'clock and time to head home. As he strolls home, he decides to stop by his favorite ice cream parlor to reward himself after a long days work. He is about finish with his ice cream when he gets home and gives the last few bites to his dog who has been eagerly waiting for him. He smiles as the happy dog wags his tail back and forth. What a great day.

Journal #36

Being yourself, I think, is crucial as you grow up. When you are living in a society that is only trying to conform you, simply being yourself is a great accomplishment in itself. Everyone wants to feel accepted. It comes to us naturally. This can cause people to change their morals and values just to simply fit in. I feel like this is very dominant in high school. If you look at the kind of person you were in middle school and the friends you were with, you have most likely changed quite a bit since then. Once you get to high school, I feel like your morals and values are definitely put to the test. You so badly want to be accepted by your new peers in high school, but you have to decide if you are willing to give up what makes you, you. Being a Christian, I found the adjustment from middle school to high school quite drastic. It was so different. I went from a tiny sheltered private Christian school to a public high school. This really tested my faith and I think made me stronger as a Christian. It is so important not to give in to peer pressure and maintain your morals when you are in a new environment. Simply be yourself. Do not let others decide who you are and make choices for you. God has made each and every one of us perfectly unique and special in our way. Conforming to be like someone else is like saying that God made a mistake. I personally find the type of girls who all act, talk, and look the same to be so annoying. They rely so much on the approval of each other that you do not even know what they are really like. So be yourself. Do not change for someone's opinion who does not even matter. An original is worth so much more than a copy.

Journal #35

After reading my reflection blog from back in September, I can definitely see improvement in my writing. At the beginning of the year, I kind of had an idea of how to write in this more formal style with support, but I still had much to learn. Something that I noticed between my September post and my Whitman's post from yesterday, is that I used a lot of first person in my writing. I put in a lot of my personal opinion rather than stating facts and then backing it up. In formal writings, we are not suppose to let our own opinion and first person ideas influence the writing unless we are specifically told to do so. It was almost like a fancy journal post. In my Whitman's discussion post, I think I did a much better job focusing on facts and support and not adding in my two cents on the topic. Something else I noticed from my old blog was that I had some grammar mistakes. I did not proof read as well as I thought I had, but this is something that I have improved on and is not present in my current posts. Something that my September reflection blog did a better job doing than my Whitman blog was the introduction and conclusion. My September blog had both a formal introduction and conclusion while my Whitman blog does not. If I were to be writing in an essay style format, I would make sure to include both of these parts, but I did not feel the need to do so with my discussion post, although I am sure it would not have hurt. My Whitman post however, has much more support through out the writing compared to my Independence Day post and has several different sources. I think this really strengthens my points. It is encouraging to see how my writing has improved over the months and I hope to continue to do so.