The Story of a Quest: NationRun

I have been frequenting this particular blog for the past 30 or so days.  I was first made aware of this blog and its writers by a Saint Rose Blackboard: Picture of the Day that depicted the three boys, Andy, Ken and Matt, who make up Nation Run! 

The three guys are 22 and 23 years old and all NY natives, in fact 2 of the team members are as local as East Greenbush!  They attended SUNY Oneonta and graduated last May and this past January.  Their quest to run across the nation grew out of their passion for running and their dream of “living the dream.” 

Their website, www.nationrun.com gives their audience and supporters information about them and the plan and the scholarship that they are raising money for through there efforts. 

The website also links to their blog, http://nationrun.blogspot.com/ which is updated daily.  (I have found it frustrating–as I have been come pretty obssessed with their blog and their entire journey, that as they’ve moved across time zones the updates come later and later as they near their ultimate finish line of San Diego, CA.  Their blog is updated by a variety of people; when they have the access and time, actual members of Nation Run provide the updates, otherwise the blog is updated/typed by friends from back home who receive the updates via a telephone call from the boys (they act much like a stenographer providing us a transcript of their conversation). 

On the Dalily Update page of their website, http://nationrun.com/Daily_Updates.html readers will find a photo journal of their trip.  This is not updated as regularly as the blog as the boys themselves have to have the access to a computer in order to upload their photos.  Never-the-less the wait for a photo update is always worth while as they have done a fantastic job of documenting their journey on film as well as in the print.

 

I think the reason I became so obsessed with this travel blog is because it is so inspirational.  I can not imagine running 28-40miles a day for 4 months…driving from GA-CA seems tedious…I can’t imagine running it!  But these guys are, and they’re getting the opportunity to see the country from a perspective that 99% of us never will and it makes me jealous. 

There blog has really inspired me to do something on a bigger scale–I love taking vacations/ traveling and being able to see new places–but I realize it could never compare to doing something like this and being the vessel of your own discoveries.

argument essay draft#2

Morgan E. Schutz Argument Essay

ENG 251: The Personal Essay Draft #1

Professor Nicholas

3 April 2008

“To Make the Best Better” a Better Way of Life

Parents have a responsibility to make effective life decisions for their young children; decisions that will steer them towards success and happiness, as corny as it might sound. As a parent, you have the opportunity to enroll your child into a variety of programs or organizations that are meant to broaden their horizons and foster friendships and personal growth. Getting your child involved in community programs can be equated to insuring their future is full of taken opportunities and inimitable life experiences. Many times the first place parents gravitate towards is the Girl Scouts/ Boy Scouts of America, overlooking other organizations, such as 4-H, that may just be the superior option. While each organization has its own strengths and weaknesses that should be considered when determining which program would best serve your child and family, I am a firm believer that 4-H has the most to offer its participants.

This may seem like a very biased opinion for someone to take—and I will admit that I do believe that there are certainly benefits to any organization a child belongs to—half the battle is getting involved in something, anything! However, based on my 13 years of personal experience and my knowledge of various organizations, 4-H has a variety of traits that can not even begin to be surpassed by other groups.

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America are both huge voluntary youth movements, boy scouts being the largest in the world with a membership in the United States nearing 1 million boys ages 11-17 and an estimated 25 million members and volunteers worldwide. (http://www.scouting.org/Media/FactSheets/02-503.aspx) Girl scouts has more members in the United States than their male counterpart program, 3.7 million, but only 10 million worldwide. (http://www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/ ) These two organizations are widely publicized and recognizable because of the media endorsement of these groups and the money they have spent on advertisement and promotion. Additionally, most adults who are now becoming parents are familiar with these two organizations and the allure of the infamous Eagle Scout or The Gold Award. When asking parents’ of children who are enrolled in these two organizations, many will note that they have pushed and prodded their sons or daughters to continue scouting until they achieve these high ranks because of how it looks on resumes and applications. In my opinion, this attitude does not spell out success or a meaningful involvement for one’s child.

4-H is an organization that offers both boys and girls, ages 8-19 the opportunity to explore a variety of subject areas and activities through hands on experiences, world class education and unique learning experiences that connect the youth to their community on a more personal level. Many people assume that 4-H is only for the “country-bumpkins” and “farm-kids” but that is not true by any means. While 4-H was originally started in hopes of integrating public school education and the country lifestyle, today the majority of 4-H enrollment is in small non-farming rural towns (33.8% of enrollment) and in central cities with populations of over 50,000 (25.6% of all enrollment). In fact, farming communities make up only 10.9% of all 4-H enrollments. There are currently an estimated 6.5 million children enrolled in 4-H programs throughout the United States making it the largest voluntary youth program in the country. (http://www.national4-hheadquarters.gov/library/2005_ES-237_stats_6-06.pdf ) The shift from a rural oriented program to a more broad country-wide organization comes from the organizations desire to uphold their mission to empower youth to reach their full potential, working and learning in partnership with caring adults on a more global level.

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts main focus is on earning merit badges around a variety of skills and subject areas including camping, fishing, boating, survival skills, wilderness cooking, small boating, and other such activities. In order for a scout to advance in the program they are required to complete a variety of merit badges, even if the subject of the badge is of no interest to them. Additionally, these skills learned and emphasized in Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts are not always the most practical for today’s advancing technological superior society; a society of children who are not necessarily ever going to need to know how to build a campfire without matches on a planned camping trip, or how to cook food over a fire pit rather than in a grill—even the most avid adventure seeker will often carry a portable grill with them on camping expeditions these days. My brother, who recently became an Eagle Scout, has always contended that the activities that he has done and things he has learned as a boy scout are very impractical to what skills he will actually need and use in his daily life.

As a 4Her, children get to choose from a wide variety of subject areas and are not required to complete projects in any of the areas if they are not interested. There are no specific requirements for what a member decides to do in each area in which they decide to participate in order to receive awards of recognition or honor. 4H is a unique program in that similar to scouting, the national program and even state-wide program is divided into small groups or clubs. However, while in scouting these smaller troops are all fairly similar—advancing towards the same goals and working on the same types of merit badges, 4H clubs are very diverse. Some clubs are specific subject area clubs, such as The Orange County Hare Raisers—a 4-H club in Orange County, New York that’s main focus is on education and projects related to raising and showing rabbits. However, the majority of the clubs are general interest clubs that dabble in a wide variety of subject areas throughout the year. This allows the youth to choose subject areas that interest them and can choose to expand further into a few specific areas and become experts on the topic or they can continue to explore the many offered areas and learn a wide-range of skills. Additionally, kids can choose to be a member of more than one club if they have the time, commitment and desire. As a 4-Her, I was a member of The Orange County Hare Raisers, Kaptivating Kids, and the BAG (Borrow-A-Goat) Program all at the same time, during most of my 4-H career; it is simply a matter of personal interest and the ability to be an active participant in each club, but if there is a desire to learn and experience new things, then there is always the opportunity to be involved.

The 4-H program is very flexible and each member is able to create their own unique program that meets their desires and interests. 4-H subject areas include but are never limited to: electricity, textiles, cooking, woodworking, natural resources, photography, record keeping, heritage, arts and crafts, community service, leadership, citizenship, animal science (rabbits, guinea pigs, dairy/cows, goats, swine, dog, and chicken/poultry), recycled projects and restoration, horticulture, entomology, and child development. My brother is also a member of 4-H and has adamantly stated his preference for this program because of its flexibility and the fact that it has allowed him to explore areas that interest him and will be valuable experiences to have had as he moves on to college. Though my brother did in fact experiment in all the subject areas of 4-H (yes, he even sewed his tuxedo for his junior prom), the organization allowed him to focus on the specific areas of his greatest interest: woodworking and electricity, without worry of not meeting the necessary requirements to be promoted to the next year.

If there is an area that interests a child that is not clearly defined by 4-H they are more than welcome to develop their own projects and curriculum, in fact there are 4-H clubs that are tailor-made for boys and girls who love skateboarding and want to learn how to create their own boards, ramps, and skate parks. There is something for everyone in 4-H.

Typically, Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops are made up of a group of children from one town or community. Scouts rarely collaborate with other troops outside of scout camp, which occurs once a year over the summer. Therefore the opportunity to meet other kids with similar interests from outside their immediate community is not as readily available as it is with other organizations.

4-H clubs can be localized like troops, but there are also many clubs that are county-wide programs that bring together kids from numerous schools and towns that have similar interests. Additionally, the 4-H program year culminates each year with the County Fair, where all the clubs from the county come together to showcase the projects they’ve completed over the year, show their animals and raise funds and awareness of the 4-H program. Many states also have a variety of state-wide programs that allow 4-Hers to interact with other members from around the state including the State Fair (another fair where members showcase projects that were deemed outstanding at the county level and show their animals and skills at the state-level), Career Exploration Weekend, and 4-H camps to name a few. I was a member of both county-wide clubs as well as community-based clubs and in my personal experience I loved having the opportunity to meet kids from throughout the county who shared the interest in raising and showing rabbits. I met my best friend in my countywide 4-H club and we are still friends to this day. Even though we’ve both moved away to separate colleges, we became friends because of our shared interests and the experiences and that’s proven to be a lasting formula.

One of the best aspects of getting one’s children involved in a youth group is that these groups all strive to expose children starting at a very young age to community service projects. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts both focus on service projects—generally focusing on their immediate community with projects such as Scouting for Food. This service entails the children going around to neighborhood homes and leaving a shopping bag on the house doors with a note attached explaining the project. A week later the scouts return to the houses in hopes of finding that the inhabitants have left bags filled with food items which they then take to local food pantries. The problem with this type of community service project is that the kids never actually get to see and experience the actual interaction with those in need. While the project is an invaluable one that does a great benefit for the community, part of process is being able to see the gratitude of those you’re helping, it makes the reality real for the children. This is one of the most commonly seen community service projects conducted by scouts but is not the only one; troops can choose to participate in troop specific projects as well they devise and implement.

4-H is founded on the principles of several essential elements. One such element is that of generosity:

4-H offers opportunities to experience Generosity – young people become active and engaged citizens. Young people need to feel their lives have meaning and purpose. They need opportunities to connect to their communities and learn how to give back to others. As part of this process, youth gain an understanding of others’ needs and learn how to respond to these needs. Generosity may also include the development of values such as compassion and tolerance for diversity and the ability to take the perspective of others, and to approach problems as “a member of a global society,” through participation in local, and national politics. (http://www.national4-hheadquarters.gov/about/4h_elements.htm)

4-H clubs are responsible for creating their own opportunities for community service related projects and therefore the projects are very customized to be meaningful to the kids performing the service as well as an opportunity to give back to their community. For example, The Orange County Hare Raisers often organize events that educate the public about the proper care of small pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs. These projects are meaningful for the kids because they are able to display the skills that they have learned and the interest they have in the subject area as well as serve their community. As a 4-Her, community service became a very integral part of my life, by the time I entered high school I was doing 200+ hours of community service each year and I never even realized it until I would review my service hour logs at the end of the year. 4-H had really taught me to value the community that was raising me and being involved in my town and county became second nature—I love seeing the difference I am making reflected in the faces of those I am helping, it is the most inspirational and rewarding aspect for me of being a 4-Her.

The 4-H motto, “To Make the Best Better,” truly encompasses the spirit of the 4-H program. 4-Hers are expected to better themselves and their communities and much of a 4-Hers work is in community service oriented projects. The 4-H pledge sums up what the program really tries to embody in its entirety:

“I Pledge my Head to clearer thinking, my Heart to greater loyalty, my Hands to larger service, and my Health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world.”

The skills learned, opportunities given and friendships formed as a child are the stepping stones from which all great successes stem. Being able to provide your child with an abundant supply of stones to guide them on their way begins with steering them towards a youth program that will allow them to grow, flourish and value a sense of community and themselves. By getting your child involved in the 4-H programs you are ensuring them a world of new opportunities unlike those of any other program available.

Easter Everywhere: A Memoir (Book Review Revised)

Easter Everywhere is described by the author, Darcey Steinke as her spiritual memoir; A reflective piece of literature that describes her own personal quest to find God and to answer the age old questions surrounding spirituality.

Steinke, the daughter of a minister and grew up playing in her father’s rectories and the backwoods behind the church—performing her own baptisms, weddings and funerals on frogs, cats and dogs. Her mother, a former Miss Albany, grows increasingly depressed by the life of a minister’s wife and Steinke watches her parent’s relationship as it grows strained and distant. Her father’s own uncertainties surrounding his faith lead the family on a whirl-wind of moves from New York to Kentucky and numerous places in between.  Steinke divides her memoir into five concise parts; each part representing a certain time and place in her life and her spiritually.  The author takes the reader along with her on her journey from her stuttering childhood to her rebellious young adulthood, right up to the time she sat down to right her memoir from a profoundly reflective viewpoint.  She introduces you to the animated characters she has met along her journey and lets her readers in on her own personal relations and anguishes over her own family’s instability and her questions surrounding her belief in God.  

While I might not have picked this book off of a shelf at the local bookstore had it not been assigned for a college course in creative non-fiction writing that I was enrolled in, this piece far exceeded my expectations and it is a book that will become a permanent fixture in my own personal library.  Whether you are a spiritual person or not, Steinke’s light-hearted language and humor set the scenes beautifully and provide a thought provoking backdrop for the reader.  This piece of literature is unlike anything I have ever read before, but has a similar feel to it as Without a Map a memoir written by Meredith Hall, in that both authors are describing their zigzagging path to finding themselves; a path with no distinct directions on how to arrive at the end.

Easter Everywhere is unlike the traditional memoir in that it spans most of Steinke’s lifetime; from a young child to her adult life, rather than a small extracted piece of time in her life. Her memoir obviously does not focus on every aspect of her life during those years—in fact she never mentions her writing career during the memoir (even though during the time period she had written and published three novels all of which went on to become New York Times Notable Books of the Year), but instead she focuses on the events in her life that had a spiritual impact and explores them deeper as she searches in retrospect for the answers to her childhood question: “Why does God let bad stuff happen?”

As a young girl, Steinke sees a man in the middle of the road, dead.  Big events like this an even the smaller more subtle moments are examined by the author as she considers God’s place in her world.

“The proximity of so much suffering made me start to suspect that God, in fact, was not infused into everything.  God was hiding from me…I began to think in binaries, to dived the world into good places and bad places, heavens and hells.  Heaven was the shady side of the house where the white violets grew, where I’d once seen a butterfly move inside a cocoon.  Hell was the way the neighbor boy melted slugs in jars set in the sun.  Heave was my parents’ bed. Hell was the garbage can under the kitchen sink” (Steinke 20). 

As a reader, this memoir makes one take note of their own life and experiences surrounding religion and how it manifests itself in ones own life. This memoir allows the reader to be comfortable in their exploration of these notions. The tone the author takes reflects her own uncertainties, doubts and hesitance towards the spiritual life.

Easter Everywhere is a pleasure to read. Darcey Steinke has done an excellent job of opening up herself and her life to her audience and she brings the reader into this world that she is looking at through the window of time with poetic detail and expressive language. She lets her character be vulnerable to the scrutiny of the reader and seemingly hides no secrets from the reader. A memoir well worth the read!

 

Verb-a-thon

Claim:

    1. “Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states” (King 83).

               The verb of the sentence is am, but I think the use of the adjective cognizant in conjunction with the verb am is a very compelling way for him to state his claim in this situation rather than choosing a simpler combination of verb and adjective in this situation.

    2. “You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham” (King 83).

Agreement:

1. “We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence” (King 91).

2. ” In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist” (King 88).

Disagreement:

 ”In your statement you assert (1) that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned (2)because they precipitated (3) violence” (King 90).

Recommendation:

1. “Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge to to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong” (King 88).

2. ” I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law” (King 88-9).

My Paragraph:

Parents have a responsibility to make effective life decisions for their young children; decisions that will steer them towards success and happiness, as corny as it might sound.  As a parent, you have the opportunity to enroll your child into a variety of programs or organizations that are meant to broaden their horizons and foster friendships and personal growth.  Getting your child involved in community programs can be equated to insuring their future is full of taken opportunities and inimitable life experiences.   Many times the first place parents gravitate towards is the Girl Scouts/ Boy Scouts of America, overlooking other organizations, such as 4-H, that may just be the superior option. While each organization has its own strengths and weaknesses that should be considered when determining which program would best serve your child and family, I am a firm believer that 4-H has the most to offer its participants. 

Book Review: Easter Everywhere: A Memoir by Darcey Steinke

            Easter Everywhere is described by the author, Darcey Steinke (whom I met this past week when she came to a Non-Fiction Writing course to discuss this specific piece) as her spiritual memoir;  A reflective piece of literature that describes her own personal quest to find God and to answer the age old questions surrounding spirituality. 

            Steinke is the daughter of a minister and grew up playing in her father’s rectories and the backwoods behind the church—performing her own baptisms, weddings and funerals on frogs, cats and dogs.  Her mother, a former Miss Albany, grows increasingly depressed by the life of a minister’s wife and Steinke watches her parent’s relationship as it grows strained and distant.  Her father’s own uncertainties surrounding his faith lead the family on a whirl-wind of moves from New York to Kentucky and numerous places in between. 

            Easter Everywhere is unlike the traditional memoir in that it spans most of Steinke’s lifetime; from a young child to her adult life, rather than a small extracted piece of time in her life.  Her memoir obviously does not focus on every aspect of her life during those years—in fact she never mentions her writing career during the memoir (even though during the time period she had written and published three novels all of which went on to become New York Times Notable Books of the Year), but instead she focuses on the events in her life that had a spiritual impact and explores them deeper as she searches in retrospect for the answers to her childhood question: “Why does God let bad stuff happen?”

            As a reader, this memoir makes one take note of their own life and experiences surrounding religion and how it manifests itself in ones own life.  This memoir allows the reader to be comfortable exploring these notions, because the tone the author takes reflects her own uncertainties, doubts and hesitance towards the spiritual life. 

            Easter Everywhere is a pleasure to read.  Darcey Steinke has done an excellent job of opening up herself and her life to her audience and she brings the reader into this world that she is looking at through the window of time with poetic detail and expressive language.  She lets her character be vulnerable to the scrutiny of the reader and seemingly hides no secrets from the reader.  A memoir well worth the read!

Revising through elements of Characterization

ORIGINAL:

 

The first time I came in contact with this seemingly impossible theory was in sixth grade.  I was on the school bus waiting for the rest of the students to be dismissed so that we could make the short ride home when Travis, the boy whose family had moved in next-door over the summer, plopped down next to me.  I didn’t say anything as he settled into the seat; I started out the window and pretended not to notice he was even there.  We had never talked before; he normally sat in the seat across from me. 

            “You go to Infant Savior church, right?” he asks me suddenly.

            “Yeah?” I answer hesitantly, what a strange question to ask someone I thought.

            “Good.”

            He then turns back to face forward in his seat, and it seems to me that he wasn’t going to say anything more, but he had me curious, so I bit:

            “Why?”

            “Oh, it’s nothing really.  It’s just that when I was at church this past Sunday, God told me we were soul mates.  I was just wondering if you were catholic because that makes things easier, you know?”

            I just stared at him blankly.  I had never even spoken to him before and in the same breath that he introduced himself he was also practically proposing marriage.  Travis and I went on to become best friends despite the awkward opening lines, and we certainly loved each other on many levels, but we were never in love.

 REVISED:

The first time I came in contact with this seemingly impossible theory was in sixth grade.  I was on the school bus waiting for the rest of the students to be dismissed so that we could make the short ride home when Travis, the boy whose family had moved in next-door over the summer, plopped down next to me.  I didn’t say anything as he settled into the seat; I started out the window and pretended not to notice he was even there.  We had never talked before; he normally sat in the seat across from me.

     I knew Travis, impersonally.  His family had moved into the big colonial style house with the blue chipping paint and the yard that led up to the edge of the Walkill River sometime over the summer, and I had seen him and his younger siblings playing in their new yard on many occasions.  He was tall and gangly and had this moppy red hair and his skin was much whiter than mine, which made me smile because I was always the whitest kid in my class.  And he had more freckles that I had ever imagined possible on one body.  All summer and fall I watched them play, wishing I could know them and that they’d ask me to join them; I rode my bike up and down the street for hours just for the opportunity.  But we hadn’t spoken at all; I almost figured he had never even noticed me.

            “You go to Infant Savior church, right?” he asks me suddenly. 

            “Yeah?” I answer hesitantly, what a strange question to ask someone I thought. 

            He then turns back to face forward in his seat, and it seems to me that he wasn’t going to say anything more, but he had me curious, and I didn’t want our conversation to end, so I bit:

            “Why?”

            “Oh, it’s nothing really.  It’s just that when I was at church this past Sunday, God told me we were soul mates.  I was just wondering if you were Catholic because that makes things easier, you know?”

            I just stared at him blankly.  I didn’t know.  I had never even spoken to him before and in the same breath that he introduced himself he was also practically proposing marriage.  I don’t know what I said back, but I must have said something, because we went on to become best friends, inseparable friends that even our middle school teachers joked, fought and acted like a married couple.    

           Travis was the sweetest 11-year old I have ever known.  Band was last period of the day in 6th grade, and we both played the clarinet very dis-enchantingly; third chair, but it was my favorite class of the day.  I would open my case to pull out and piece together my instrument in hopes of finding a meticulously folded wedge of paper hidden somewhere within my case or instrument.  And when I did, these folded paper wedges opened into elaborate 3-4 page notes about more or less nothing but then again, for an 11-year old they were perfect.         

  Travis and I certainly loved each other on many levels, but we were never in love.  

 

Is there such thing as a soul-mate?

When i was in 6th grade the new kid next-door told me on the school bus home one day that God had told him at church that past weekend that we were soul-mates.  Not the best opening line for a friendship or relationship, certainly a unique one, and one that led to years of a great friendship and even more years of questions.  I never really had even thought about the concept of soul-mates until he brought it up–that might have even been the first time I had ever even heard the term, yet its something that you hear and immediately you seem to know what it means, no one ever had to define it for me, but I had tons of questions.  Travis answered a lot of my questions–he seemed to be the guru of soul mates, I mean come on, God had 1. spoken to him 2. told him exactly who his was, he definitely had something.  But looking back after all these years I wonder if it was silly to believe in soul mates at all, is there such a thing?  If there is, do you become soul mates or is it really something predestined like Travis would have had me believe?  Why do people settle for these mediocre relationships–that aren’t anything near those perfectly envisioned relationships they had planned for themselves and does that mean that thats really who they were meant to be with?  Do you lose your chance if you don’t leap on it?

I use to wonder if me and Travis missed something big because we never really acted on the fact that we were suppose to be soul mates; we became great great friends, and we loved each other surely, but we were never in love.  Even today, even though we haven’t been close since high school, if I ask him about that day on the school bus when he told us what God had said to him, he swears on his life he couldn’t have made that up if he wanted to.    So basically, every avenue I’ve taken, I’ve been confronted with the same unanswered questions I had almost 10years ago; maybe there is no real answers–maybe its up to the interpretation of everyone and their own love story?

Aphorisms

1. It’s those you hate the most that love you best.

2. Even if you change everything they criticize you for, they may still not like the end product.

3. Teaching is 1/3 prep work, 2/3 acting; Teachers: actors who couldn’t make it.

4.   The books your own lay little light onto the books you’ve actually read.

5.  Stop making excuses for yourself; people do hard things everyday.

6. If nothing changes, nothing changes.

7.  Cross the bridge before you burn it.

8.  If you quit, no one will care, but you’ll always know.

9.  It is what it is, regardless of intention.

10. Waiting never made anything happen faster.

11. Foolish are those who expect the expected, disappointed are those who do not.

12. The truth always comes out sooner than you imagine it might.

13.  Waiting is the hardest part of loving, but yet the most tried and true sign of love.
14.  Dreaming keeps us from becoming too comfortable in our current situation.

15. Memory fails us and deceives us, yet we hold memories in such high esteem.

16.  A full fridge won’t keep you from going hungry.

17.  Your heating bill does not reflect your warmth.

18. The best stories are the ones you’re scared to tell.

19. If it isn’t broken, don’t assume it can’t be bettered.

20. Consider what you don’t know, what better way to learn?
21. Imagination is the life blood of youth.

22. The look on the face can be as deceiving as the words from the mouth.

23. Knowing when to quit is as important as knowing when to begin.
24. When given a chair, sit.

25.  Aphorisms: short and sweet jibberish.

Description: Assateague Island

I peer out of my tent, the world outside is just waking up, the sky a swirling array of colors, blue, red, pink, orange and purple. It is warm, even though it is only shy of 6am, but the wind is cool, so I grab a long sleeved shirt and step out into the cold, moist sand. The sand squishes underneath my toes and it feels wet and gritty in between them. The sand will be white hot in a few hours, when the sun takes its place high above us. All around the campsite small bushes reach up out of the sandy dunes and sprawl themselves out–their branches overlapping and intermingling. Wild hares and chipmunks dart between the bushes, taking refuge in their cool shadows and protecting coverage. I venture outside of the campsite, following the sandy path I’ve taken many times, towards the broken wooden walkway that marks the actual pathways that run along the island towards points of interest. The wood is ragged and splintered, it hurts my feet, and I walk carefully so to not lodge a shard of weathered wood into my foot. I walk up the large dune, following the wooden path, until I hit sand once again, and find myself staring out upon the ocean landscape before me. I take a seat near the top of the dune, sitting on the sand, staring out on the endless ocean that bounces playfully on the shore with the crack of each wave. The water is a clean, deep blue, the sun, seemingly rising out of the water in the distance, casts orange and yellow shadows on the surface. To my side I can see little green crabs darting cautiously out of sandy tunnels, scurrying sideways across the steep incline and then diving back into another. The sea birds play like children on vacation–running to the waters edge and then quickly retreating as the water rushes towards them. And in the near distance, I can make out a herd of wild ponies making their way down the beach, walking together, slowly, tranquilly–they look majestic against the scenic backdrop. I take it all in and think life couldn’t get any better, any beautifuler, any simpler.

I am not sure of a piece of literature that I really really enjoyed the descriptions in off hand–it’s hard being at school, where I have only a few books here and there to really look through some of my favorite pieces of work and come up with a particularly moving descriptive paragraph or so.

Personal Reflection Paper Draft #1

Morgan E. Schutz

ENG 251: The Personal Essay

Professor Nicholas

3 February 2008

At the Heart of the Game

I grew up in Pine Bush, N.Y., a tiny town that up until a few years ago didn’t even appear on most maps. My mom and dad were always having me try new sports and encouraging me to try out for teams. I made most of the teams I ever tried out for—I can’t actually remember not making a team. I remember my first swim team try-out. I was in 4^th grade and scared out of my wits by the bigger kids who were swimming in the lane next to the lane that I was being asked to “show what I could do” in. I jumped in feet first and swam as fast as my arms could bring me down the lane without stopping. I hit the wall, pushed off on my back, and did the same mad-sprint to the wall, this time backstroke. When I finished, the first 50 I had ever swam in my life, I looked up at the coach, and he handed me an official Pine Bush Piranhas swim cap. I was the only one of the 20 of us trying out that day who received a cap. I was hooked.

[The enormous building reverberates with the echoing sound of applause and cheering coming from the stands. The upper stands are filled with family members and friends, the lower stands jam packed with the athletes—each team in their own section of bleacher, with their matching uniforms and banners waving high. It’s an intense scene for the spectators, let alone us athletes and coaches on deck.

Rutger’s University in New Jersey is host to the Metropolitan College National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Swimming and Diving Championships this weekend. It is the last weekend in February, and this meet is the culmination of the 2006-2007 season.]

I’ve been a swimmer for as long as I can remember. My mom tells stories of how much I hated pools as an infant—crying and kicking to get as far from the watery basin that she would dangle me above. That fear and apprehension as a baby quickly disappeared as my mom enrolled us in Mommy and Me swim lessons. By the time I was 4-years old I could swim pretty well on my own, but the swim lessons continued and after I had made my way through the Red Crosses 6 levels of swimming in record speed, it was time to declare myself a swimmer and join a swim team.

12 years of competitive swimming later, here I am, at the end of my junior year of college, a particularly trying season with many disappointments, with one last chance to prove myself to myself.

[The Olympic sized pool pans out in front of spectators and athletes alike, its glassy water stretching a full 50m in length and 8 lanes wide. A bulkhead in the middle, creating two equally intimidating, 25-yard pools breaks the pool. Earlier today, the whole pool had been in use, but now, during the finals, only the front pool is housing competition. After three days of competition the building smells strongly of mildew and latex caps mixing repulsively with the heavy aroma of chlorine—a smell that will take weeks of showering to be rid of for good. The nervous emotions of the swimmers on deck, with their warm-ups zipped up over their necks and mouths, their eyes on the pool and their legs shaking instinctively as if keeping rhythm with their anxiously beating hearts, are only amplified by the knowledge that every eye in the facility is on those 8 lanes.

My event has just ended, I climb out of lane 8 slowly, breathing hard and looking up at the scoreboard. My time is unimportant really, it’s not a great time, but it’s the best time I’ve done all season. I quickly gather my things, avoiding the swimmers awaiting their upcoming races, and their nervous dance of jumps, stretches, fidgets and suit rearranging and head towards the far side of the pool where my coach will undoubtedly be standing. I can see he is holding his clipboard in one hand and spinning a pen through the fingers of the other. As I approach, he turns towards me sharply:

“Why did you even bother going out there?” he says snidely, “you might as well have scratched and let one of the alternates have a chance to go out there and actually prove something.”

“What?” I ask, thinking he must be joking, “I dropped a whole second from the prelims this morning! I thought that was a pretty good swim, considering.”

“Considering what?!”

“Considering how I’ve swam so far this meet, I guess.”

“You think that was giving it your all?” he snarls, “One good time doesn’t mean you’ve given it your all, or that you’ve tried your best.”

“I know I left everything I had in that pool. I did everything you told me to—I kept my head down, and I didn’t breathe into or out of the walls, I gave it everything I had left. ” My smile has disappeared, a hostile stare moves across my red, tired face.

“Really?” His eyes dart back onto the pool rather than me.

“Yes, really. My legs are dead, I’m exhausted—it’s been a long meet and yeah, that was all I had to give.”

“Well clearly we’re going to have a problem here. If you’re not going to have any heart when you go out there and swim then get the fuck off the deck.”

The shock of his accusation and his language takes my breath away and for a moment, I say nothing. I stare at the pool, where another event is just ending—the swimmers still in the pool examining their times and placing on the large score board hung high above the pool.

“No, heart?” I ask dejectedly.

“You heard me. If you’re going to come over here after an embarrassing swim like that and say, you gave your all, then you don’t need to ask what I am talking about.”

“Are you kidding me? No offense coach, but maybe you didn’t notice, that’s the best time I’ve done all season. I know it’s not great. I’m not jumping for joy over the fact that I swam horribly this year, but I’m not gonna let you ruin the best thing I’ve done all season. Look around, I know I’m not the one without heart on this team.”

His eyes stay on the pool, his face a little redder than before, but perhaps just from the balmy, heat of the pool deck. When it is clear, he isn’t going to say anything further, I brush past him and head back towards the teams spot in the bleachers. I wonder if I said too much, if I went past that line of appropriateness. ‘Oh well, only one more year left’ I think as I climb back into my spot on the crowded bench, ‘it can’t be any worse than this one.’]

I’ve never hated swimming more than I hated swimming that night. Even during the hardest of practices, the worst of meets, I never truly hated what I was doing. Athletes learn a lot of things about themselves during their competitive years, and for me, the one thing I had learned most resoundingly about myself, was that I had heart.

As a senior in high school, I was signed to swim Division I at a big school in Maryland. I was excited and nervous to swim for the same team that Michael Phelps would occasionally coach. However, a few months before graduation, I was talking with my orthopedic surgeon, who I had been seeing for several years due to shoulder problems. She warned me that I would never finish my first year of Division I swimming, and probably ruin my shoulders beyond repair if I didn’t have reconstructive surgery on both shoulders beforehand. Its tough realizing your dreams crushed. I scratched all plans of swimming at Loyola College that fall and stayed home—attending a local school for my freshman year and had both shoulders shaved, gutted and rebuilt. A few months, several thousand dollars, countless hours of physical therapy and I was good as new and back in the water, I knew I had heart.

That year was what I had assumed would be my most trying year as a swimmer—I essentially had to learn to swim again. If I could get through that, I could get through anything I thought. And, I did, I set six school records at Mount Saint Mary College that year and I came back with vengeance: my times were faster, my strokes were smoother and my determination to make a name for myself at the collegiate level was stronger than ever.

I transferred to The College of Saint Rose as a sophomore on a swimming scholarship with plans to be better and faster than I had ever been before, and for a while, I was. Things went south my sophomore season for whatever reason and that final blow at the end of the season was devastating. As I left that meet, I wasn’t sure I would ever step foot on the Saint Rose pool deck again. But, I did. The funny thing about having heart is that it is not something you can turn off or ignore, regardless of how battered it might get along the way.

You learn many things as an athlete; some of these things help you to be a better person (time management, work ethic, and goal setting to name a few), some of these things make you a better person. My coach never apologized for his accusation, not then and not now as I finish my senior, and final season, but when you love something, you don’t really need that do you? No need for someone’s apology or justifications—you know what you have and what you love. I suppose it’s true that sometimes the blow that knocks you to the ground is just what you need to learn to stand up on your own.

 

 

 

*I’ve also attached this document to an e-mail I sent to the classes strose account, that might be easier for printing purposes*