Author: ethanhalsey

Every summer I go on a mission trip with my church, Living Faith. We go on a trip every year to a previously selected location where we do different things to help out that community. This previous summer we went to Southern Chicago were we stayed in a boxing gym. We stayed in a rundown part of town called Harvey and it was pretty sketchy. But it was really fun and we helped out a lot of people. We worked for several different organizations don’t work ranging from feeding the homeless to gardening in a special needs center. On our last day, everyone got to go on a seaway tour of Chicago.

One quote From the Philosophers of transcendentalism that stuck with me is from Emerson. “The only person you are destined to be is the person you decide to be.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson. I like this quot because it relates to the idea that in order to be the person you want to be you only have to just follow that path to be that person. You should follow your heart, and you can be anyone you want to be. Your destiny is only dependent on what you what it to be.

Recently we got 2 new puppies for our family. They are two little Dachshunds and and are now 16 weeks old. One is a boy and the other is a girl. The boy is has black fur with brown accents. The girl is a chocolate color with a gray tint to it. Before we had these two, we had a golden retriever. He was the best dog in the entire world. He was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer and he died at age 5. He died too young and it was devastating. After a while, to fill our holes in out hearts we got two little Dachshunds. My mom really likes Dachshunds, which was the reason we chose that breed. The two little puppies are named Violet and Winston. they are not related but coincidentally they were born one day apart.

AP college credit on my mind

homework piling higher than man kind

Finish my math lab assignments

more annoying than the school’s confinement

AP tests coming up

The Only thing to sooth my Stress is my little o’l pup

I try to get up to everyone’s exceeding expectations

but staying strong on the Outside concealing my frustrations

I’m sure it will all be worth it in the end

At least I have like an hour to rest on the weekends

As I look back to the miserable projects, long nights, hard work, and piles of home work I can only think that all that work has to be put their for a reason. As a freshman I thought little of the future, I focused on the work given to me and trying to make the most fun out of the growing stresses of what people call high school. Growing as a Sophomore, I finally saw the importance of good grades, getting your name out their and dedicating yourself to pushing your limits, expanding your comfort zone. As a Junior, the most stressful part of High school, I took AP courses, studied night and day for ACT and SAT and I learned the content that made me feel like Einstein. As a senior I got the Maturity to be the college student I will be and I Made to most of a High school experience.

There are many people in this world that I look up to. One in particular is my Gymnastics coach. His name is Coach Jake and there is no one word to describe his. He is like a gentle giant. He is more buff than The hulk but is also the most kind and gentle gentlemen you will ever meet. Not only that but he is very smart. He is a walking encyclopedia. You could ask him what the proton count was in magnesium carbonate and he would have the answer right of the top of his head. He not only teaches us gymnastics but how to lead a successful life and he teaches us life skills. He makes sure we are up to date on our grades and we are following our dreams.

There are many radical beliefs in this world and some are more pointless and dumb than others. I am a die hard christian and I would die with my heart pointed towards Christianity. I only believe in one god and his son Jesus. I don’t believe in any nature ideas, or polytheistic ideas. I wont discriminate people for there beliefs but i wish for people to see the bigger picture. I believe that when we die, you will go to heaven if you have accepted Christ. In terms of Worldly things like political opinions, I would not die for anything.

Over the previous weekend, I learned a new song on the guitar. I learned Smells like teen spirit. It is kinda ironic because that is the song that was played while our free write was going on. The Song is very easy to play but it is one that I never bothered to learn. The song consists of four different chords in the pentitonics scale. then in the bits between the different choruses, there is some finger style on one of the strings and some string chugging. The song was written by Nirvana which is a popular rock band from 1987.

When I am asked the question “am I am a conformist or not?” mt reply would be a little bit of both. As an individual I want to be a leader and someone who stands out and achieves goals many thought to be impossible. I want to be successful and knowledgeable in many different aspects. But that is not to say that other people also want this same thing, which also leads to a little bit of both sides. To be successful, most of everyone has to follow the same path and process to be educated and find a good job. That aspect can make anyone conformist because there is not really a better way to reach academic or life goals.

In the video, there is a lot of people doing wired things but as the narrator speaks, he is describing Transcendentalist thoughts like being misunderstood from society and connecting your heart with the nature of the world, the second video it was a poet narrating his writing, he explains to take the road less taken and to be different from the rest of the world. In the third video, which was in the Lego movie, It really emphasizes having a connection with society and having a happy attitude towards everything. The fourth video is also from the Lego movie and it was all about team work and being together. In the next video, it was the song called “What a wonderful Moon”, in the video it shows many nature related pictures with the song lyrics explaining the beauty of nature and the relation ships people have. The last video, it is a dialogue of two people fighting over the approval of a character named ray. One was for the bank of society and the other was about Baseball and the company of people it will bring. This was an internal conflict in ray to choose between the pressures of society of the nature of human kind and its company.