Monday, August 31, 2009

Three of My Life Changing Events

     Sorry guys, but I'm posting yet another essay. This essay is different from any essay I've ever written because it's pretty personal to me, and it gives very accurate incite to why I act like I do, and tells readers how my mind works. In this essay for A.P. American history I was required to write about three of my most life impacting events. They might not seem like that big of a deal to you, but they were to me. Of course I knew a teacher would be reading this, so I tried to make it a little less personal. Don't be offended if you aren't personally mentioned; all of my friends have made an impact on my life. In fact, I didn't mention the affects of the friends I made at Fairfield. Because of my friends at Fairfield, I was able to have friends at Davis. To be more particular, I ended up meeting my very best friend of all time. So enjoy the essay!

     There are a few things about me that many people could easily point out when first meeting me, Jojo. I’m a simple girl, very easy to please, and excited for just about everything that life has in store for me. Although I’m the type of person who enjoys simplicity, and have only lived sixteen years, I have had personally significant, life changing experiences that I will never forget. I’ve had a complete paradigm shift from a near death experience, I’ve been able to start out on a fresh slate from an unexpected change of schools, and I now know the significance of both hard work and team work through my past efforts in the Davis High Marching Band.

     When I broke a blood vessel at the young age of ten, I came to realize the importance of life. Being as young as I was at the time, I had never had anyone really close to me die. My broken blood vessel was located somewhere above my nose, so at first, my family thought that it was simply a bloody nose. Unfortunately, the blood pouring from my nose didn’t stop after the first twenty minutes; after forty-five minutes, I was practically passing out while in the process of being carried into the Emergency Room. As I started to lose my senses, sitting on the gurney in the waiting room, I began to recognize the fact that I might die before a doctor could save me. With tear-filled eyes, I told my dad that I loved him and apologized to my older sister for being angry at her earlier in the day. A short time later, I was being carried again, but this time I was being lifted into a car instead of onto a gurney. The doctors saved me, but that is an event that I will never forget. Breaking a blood vessel was a very traumatizing experience, but I was able to learn first-hand that tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. I finally comprehended the importance of living without regrets and making sure that you truly appreciate those you love before it’s too late.

     The second life changing experience that I had wasn’t as scary as my first, but it still had a huge impact on my life’s outlook. Halfway through eighth grade, my neighbors and I were informed that there was going to be a boundary change that would encompass not only us, but the two neighborhoods next to us. I was completely devastated. From the beginning of my torment in seventh grade, I had imagined what it would be like to be at the top of the rung, a ninth grader. In all my times of envisioning, I had never imagined that I would be going to a new school. Somehow, I would be re-living my seventh grade experience again, but this time I’d be a lost and shy ninth grader. Amazingly, going to Fairfield Junior High turned out to be the best experience of my life, and I learned so many skills, both socially and academically. The district that changed my neighborhood’s boundaries had a student body officer elected to help the other new kids involved in the boundary change, and I became the officer. In eighth grade, I had never tried to get to know anyone; I already had friends and didn’t feel like I needed more. When I became an officer that kids looked up to at a new school, I realized how important it is to make others feel important. I did my best to befriend lonely kids, like myself, and now I know more than ever that sometimes it’s the little things that count in someone’s life. Someone’s whole day can be made by one small and kind act.

     My final life changing experience wasn’t a single experience, but many impacting memories and challenges that I faced when first joining the Davis High Marching Band. It all began with my amazingly smart sister, Ashli. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be like her. Before I even knew the purpose of Ash’s shiny silver instrument, I knew that I wanted to grow up and play it too. Although I didn’t completely follow in her footsteps when it came to band, it has still been one of the best experiences of my life. After playing the flute all through junior high, for the marching band, I decided to learn a new instrument, the baritone. A baritone is a brass instrument, best described as a miniature tuba (although it is still extremely heavy.) Learning a new instrument was a lot harder than I’d expected. Sometimes I would sit in my room, practicing for hours on end, trying to make my mouth properly buzz. Carrying such a heavy instrument was mentally and physically strenuous; just holding the baritone up for a minute became a burden, but I learned how to mentally push through pain (even though I injured myself a few times in the process.) Marching band taught me the importance of hard work. Hard work not only benefits the person that’s working hard, it benefits every person that you keep in mind while completing the difficult task. The most important lesson I learned was the lesson of teamwork. While competing against other high schools, I had to rely on my fellow baritone players many times; they taught me how to follow in their footsteps so that I could be a positive asset to our team.

     Even though I have lived a fairly short life so far, I’ve already found meaning and purpose to my life through my many experiences. Through a completely random “bloody nose,” I learned how important it is to live life as best as you can before it’s too late, in school I learned about leadership and just how important it is to lovingly include anyone in need of friendship, and through marching band, I learned how good it feels to work towards a goal, accomplish it, and learn to be a team player as you work with others.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Cutest Homecoming Invitation

     Once again, I'm sorry that I haven't been writing very much dear blog readers! It's been a crazy and hectic past month (particularly the past week.) I'm back in the marching band, and yes, I'm playing the heavy baritone again. On top of the three and a half hour long practices after school every week day except for Tuesday and Friday, I have hard classes like Chemistry, Honors English, and the infamous A.P. American history that I've done four and a half hours worth of homework over this weekend on. Ouch!

     Even though it's been kind of tough getting back into the work hard and no sleep routine, it hasn't been all bad. In fact, I was asked to my very first Homecoming dance (to my continually happy and most astonished surprise.) To be completely honest, I've spent the past month just trying not to think about the Homecoming dance. I kept telling myself that if I didn't expect to get asked, then it wouldn't hurt as much when I didn't get asked. But somehow I was wrong.

     On Wednesday night I was downstairs working diligently on my A.P. American essay (which I will post later,) when my dad called my name. My concentration was a bit shattered after working on this essay for over two hours, so I didn't stall for too long. To my surprise, dad stared me down and said,
"Beth, the door's for you." My brother next to him snickered a little, and I felt really confused. Had I been so concentrated that I couldn't even hear someone knocking on the door?
Yet again I was surprised when I walked into the entry way to find the door closed, not an inch of the night beyond could be seen. Walking a little bit quicker, I reached my hand for the door and peered outside no longer expecting to find a person. Even though I'd only been asked to one other dance, it felt just like the first time.

     One of our lawn chairs was sitting on the outer edges of the porch light's circle, I noticed a white piece of paper taped onto the back of the chair before I noticed the bright red rose sitting on top of it. The note read:
Dear Jojo...,
I would be immensely honored if you would accompany me to the Home Coming dance.
(and in a bit smugger tone of letters beneath it said,)
provided you can find all twelve roses to figure out my name.

     After doing so much homework, I was more than happy to take a break. It took me about thirty (or more) minutes to find all of the vibrantly red roses all around my yard and in the bushes and only five minutes to figure out that Wes was the one who asked me. For the past year I have collected every flower I receive. Wes didn't know that when he bought the roses, but I'm probably going to keep those roses for the rest of my life so that I can remind myself later in life that there's always someone out there who cares enough to make me feel happier.

     The next day Wes got a box of twelve donuts in his last period math class. I wanted to give him a dozen of something too! On the outside of the donut box it said something along the lines of:
"Do not open this box in class! If you are clever enough to unscramble these letters, (which I'm sure you are,) then you will have your Homecoming response!
Best of Luck! -Beth."

     As you've probably guessed, I stuck twelve letters inside the box, one in each donut hole. It spelled out, "I would love to!" because those were the first words that popped into my head when thinking of how to respond.