Crazily Fantastic

#11 Volunteering

May 11 through the 17th of this year was the National Volunteer Week in Australia. I think that this is very benificial to many different people. Not only does it highlight those that already volunteer, but it also shows the need for volunteers to those that don’t already volunteer.

Right now, I volunteer at my church. On Wednesday nights, I help to run a youth group for three and four year olds. It has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I get the greatfullness of parents who are happy about a night off. I also get to see the joy on the children’s faces as I play with them or help them to complete a craft that they couldn’t have done alone. It’s encouraging to think that I’m helping to teach the highschool students of ten years from now.

There are many ways to volunteer, but I think that the most rewarding way is when you volunteer to teach something. It leaves you and the person that you taught with a good and fulfilled feeling.

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Blog #9 Heroes

Luckily for me, in my life time, I have had several true heroes in my life. Some have been quite noticable and others in the backround, but all of them are heroes just the same. At this point and time, I would like to feature one of my most wonderful friends, Cole.

Cole is fourteen years old and has been in the hospital for quite some time. I’ve known him for about three years, and most of that time he has been sick with something called dermatomyocitis. This is where the muscles literally calcify and turn to bone. This cannot be undone once it occurs. Fortunately, his family, doctors, and nurses have gotten this somewhat under control. After months in the hospital he is coming home one week from today! He is truly a hero. He has gone through so much pain and trauma, but everyday he still keeps his head high, presses on with life and therapy, and praises God through everything.

I believe that anyone that can do that is a hero. Even if life is just average, if you can keep a positive attitude and push forward, I think that you deserve the title of, “hero.” Others may have different opinions, or even think that no one average should get that kind of praise. However, if we didn’t have those average everyday heroes, then our world would be a far worse place than it is today.

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Purple

         Purple. Purple is a beautiful color. Many people, including many young ladies under the age of ten, enjoy purple immensly. Not only is it a, ”cute,” color, but it also can be deep and mystical, thought provoking, deeply satisfying, and relaxing.

         On the, “cute,” side of the spectrum we have cell phones, cameras, clothes, and furniture.

The deep purple that I most often think of relates to some of my own life experiences. As a small child, our family had blackberry bushes in our backyard. Many a fine summer day was spent picking berries for my mom, and eating more than amount that we brought back to her. My three older siblings and I always looked somewhat like indians on the warpath or just like extremely messy children.

The thought provoking purple is special. It could be a purple flower through mist, or a sea of flowers in a field.

The satisfying purple could be the robe I wear when I wake up in the morning.

The relaxing purple is different for everyone, but for me specifically it’s a deck of cards.

So, in conclusion, there are many different purples that can evoke different emotions. But these few are my favorites.

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How Blogging Has Changed My Life

This year I came to my tenth grade lit class expecting to read and write. However, I didn’t expect to spend hours on the computer as homework. Overall effects of blogging have been wondering what is going on in class, getting bad grades, and having my parents mad at me for being on the computer all of the time.

After beginning to blog in class and at home, I read less, I’m not in the sunshine as much, and I now have a hearty dislike of all slow, internet connections.

Teachers could make blogging easier by having a real blogging class instead of a blogging class disguised as a lit class. In my opinion, Lit classes are primarily meant for reading and writing, not exclusively learning computer skills such as blogging. In conclusion, blogging has affected my life greatly, but few of those effects were beneficial.

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Earth day

In the 20th and 21st century we have finally become “earth aware.” A state which, once it has been started, can almost never be reversed. As for my family, we are on the high end of average “earth geeks.”

The three R’s of earth day are reduce, reuse, and recycle. As good for the earth as it is to recycle, the first two R’s are much more important. Reducing how much we use is key to helping keep the globe clean, and being frugal with our resources. Reusing stuff, simply helps us to reduce, because if you are reusing stuff, you don’t need more stuff to take it’s place if you are still using it! Recycling is key to taking care of everything that we already have reused. For example, my family takes the paper bags from the grocery store, uses them for other things such as holding bottles and cans to recycle at the store, then we take those same bags and recycle them. So we have just recycled….twice.

Earth day is April 22nd this year. Be ready to go crazy with planning out the three R’s for your family to bring 2009 to a fulfilled end. Here are some ideas to get your family started. Most stores have bags for under two dollars that you can bring to the store and reuse, but if you choose to just get free bags, reuse them in any way possible, before throwing them into that recycling bin. Start a garden in your back yard, not only does it provide fun, excercise, and vitamin D, but it also provides delicious, fresh food that you grew yourself, without any processing or shipping! Remind your family/drivers in your family to combine trips. Don’t go to the store four times, when you could have gone once. Help choose the shortest route to conserve gasoline. Turn out the lights when you leave a room. Turn off electronics AND UNPLUG THEM at night. Turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth. It’s a small victory, but it actually does help.  

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#8 poem mash-up

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#7 A Slice of Life

          As I sat on the hard, but carpeted floor at church, with four little faces looking up at mine, I realized how important this time was to me. I was helping with the three and four year olds ”youth group” and I started thinking about how much I am going to miss this, when I graduate, move away, and can no longer look after the children of people that I’ve known my entire life. 

          While I was thinking this over, Gustavo’s mom arrived. He jumped up and ran to the door yelling “mom” all the way. He loves his mom more than anything. As he sprinted for the door and his mom, he glanced back at me. Then he immediately hugged his mom, gave her his stuff, and sprinted back to me. He grinned and gave me one of the biggest bear hugs I’ve ever gotten from someone that is about three and a half feet tall. I looked beyond him, and saw his mom with her eyes shining, proud of the little gentleman that her son is becoming. His loyalty is truly to his mom, but as he walked back to her, finally ready to go home, he looked back with a smile, a wave and a, “bye Mikayla.”

          So, in conclusion, I treasure my time now, because of moments like that. I especially treasure little kids. I will admit, sometimes they can be a pain, but most of the time, they can be the most thoughtful human beings that you will find on the earth.    

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#6 Podcasting

After listening to three different podcasts, I found that I my favorite one was The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. This podcast, did not have many different elements, but I still liked it because I have actually read the book, so I knew what they were talking about when they quoted sections of the book. They had a girl’s voice with music playing softly in the back round. During about half of the podcast, thy read segments of the book, to give you a feel for what it is about. The whole podcast itself is essentially a summary of the book. After listening to the podcast, you know exactly what is going on in the story. Throughout the whole podcast there is music playing in the back round. Right before the podcast ends, the narrator encourages you to read the book. Then they credit all of the people that helped to create the podcast. I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast and thought it was a very good representation of the book

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Blog#5-Texting

My general thoughts about texting are probably unlike what most of my classmates would say. This partially comes from the fact that I do not have texting. I think that phones in school are fine, but texting is not. So many people are texting in class, and much time is spent trying to catch them up to everyone else. Out of school I really like texting, and the fact that if you have a quick question you don’t have to call someone just to get a yes or no answer. For me, due to the fact that I don’t have texting it does not hinder my writing ability at all. I think that it texting should not be used continually. If the few students that like to write disappear from society and students texting fifteen word paragraphs takes their place, this world is going to be a very different place. If some present and past great authors in this world had had the ability to text as a teen, I’m guessing that we would not have all of the books we have today. I think that already people who used to talk on the phone a lot, have switched over to texting, making it easier for people, that wouldn’t normally talk to each other, to get to know each other.

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