A Modern Day Hero 's Journey

What images come to mind as you reflect on your childhood? Playgrounds, blackboards, and soccer balls may be among the warmest of memories. Yet for many mermaids swim their thoughts, princesses get swept of their feet, and lions roar to their loyal place in the animal kingdom. There is no doubt that today’s entertainment has most of its touch using classical influences. Walt Disney has produced animated films that have captured the heart and imagination of audiences of all ages around the world through the magic of storytelling and imagery. Many of us appreciate the imagination and magic that Disney puts into its animations with out knowing they are based off of classical and traditional storylines

Today was my first lesson in humility. Some of the elder Monks had reprimanded me for my selfish thoughts and words. This was my first transgression and thus I was taught my lesson behind closed doors.

Zeke and I has been together for a year and a half. Zeke and I met August 28, 1993 I was working at the mall at the time, in a man's clothing store; and he come in with his cousin Junior. I ask them if they needed help and Junior say yes, because his the one that was buying some clothes, so instead of me helping him I started talking to Zeke and didn't help Junior at all.

In 2014, I attended the Hero's journey summer program in hope to discover myself and to become a better man. My father who has attended the program many of times introduced me to the foundation and thought I should give it a try under the Young Men’s program with 8 other teens from around the world. Nervous but also excited about discovering who I truly was and what brotherhood really meant I found myself becoming the best of friends with these guys for 7 days. During the trip I learned that in relationships it is not only about how much you have in common, but that you trust each other and can work together as one. I could not tell you those guys last name or their favorite video game but I can tell you that I knew they had my back no matter what.

Journey is the pathway to growing up. It is the feeling when you look up in the car after being on the road for a few hours and discover you are back home, the place you’ve been longing to get back to all week. It’s the realization that this time next year you will be halfway done with highschool. It’s all of those feelings wrapped up in one.

There I was sitting at the table eating what the nuns like to call food what just looked like to me slop I was sitting with my friend Felix. He came across a carrot and it was a full-size carrot he just sat there and stared at it not even touching it if he did not hurry up and I was going to grab it and eat it.

A few months later, I found myself riding with Halt back to his quaint little cottage nestled in the woods. He was teaching me about animal tracks. As our horses tread against the snow that lay on the ground, I noticed a massive print next to the cottage, and Halt said it was a giant boar. A man was lying in the bushes and came out to claim that he had seen the boar first hand, and that it was a mad and destructive one. Halt told him to go to the castle and tell the Baron to gather a group of men so that we can all go hunt the boar in the morning. The next day, I found myself on horseback on the outside of a circle of warriors, and Horace. If the boar were to escape through our circle, I was to chase it down and finish it off with my bow.

Let me tell you a short story about this boy. It was 9 o'clock in the afternoon when his parent asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said with enthusiasm "I want to be a doctor", not knowing what it is. After that we just went about our days. Ten years later, he's a senior in junior high school getting ready to embark on the road where many have failed. He did what he had to do so that he can graduate. Graduation day was here and pretty quickly. His parents said to him, "no more fun and games, you are going to enter high school. All I want from you is to pass your class of high grades , graduate and go on to college to pursue your career to become a doctor." This kid heard a lot of things when it comes to becoming a doctor and

Mankind had believed themselves to have escaped the horrors that preyed on them in bygone ages. Perhaps they were right. Mostly. The torch of scientific progress kindles by newton and his companions spread like wildfire over the centuries that followed, and drove the beasts that dwelt in our shadows scampering back into the darkened pits that had spawned them; turning the hunter into the hunted. Physics, the idea that our world operates through universal laws, defeated the ancient magics that had once left Kings and nobles alike shivering in the all concealing night. Darwin and his concept of evolution banished the ancient monsters with such speed and ferocity that even hercules himself would have been envious. But there are still places in our world where the light of modern day hasn’t come to contact with . i come to you not with a tale of some hidden cave in the heart of the wilderness, but that endless sprawl that surrounds all of humanity's great achievements. The last great uncharted territory. The ocean

“Small town big heart,” they say locked away behind their cold immaculate castle gates that rest on the remains of the previous farmland and plains. The collective heart beats but only at a convenient time suiting parties involved. “A place where everyone matters,” they utter as their motto in indistinguishable monotone voices. The people are too wrapped up in their everyday lives to ever be concerned about their neighbor, they look through life with gilded glasses. It’s as if a fog had descended slowly creeping into their view distorting what they once held most dear.

On August 3rd, 900, my parents found out they were having a child. They prepared for a

Marlee watched as the first visitor approached the door from the upstairs window. He was sitting upstairs cooking shrimp in a pot of oil. He was kind of confused to see a crazed person approach the abandon house at 9 p.m. This visitor looked old and weary. It was an old lady who was carrying a purse, while she was walking up to the house she took out a key like she lived there. Marlee was so scared he thought he was in the wrong house. He quickly called Max and told him to get over to the house right away! The old lady walked inside and started to walk up the stairs. She soon opens the creaky door who reveals frightened Marlee sitting in a boxy chair in the corner. Thats when she started screaming at the top of her lungs, her head was turning red like a cherry, it looked like her head was going to explode. Marlee took off running.

Months later she told me what actually went through her mind that day. She told me how her legs began to shake when she discovered who it was. She was an equestrian as well and had seen her share of accidents at horse shows. When she first heard the news, she thought it was someone else; then she learned it was her best friend.

Cal walked through a trail in the woods during the last gasps of dying summer. Browning ferns brushed against his jeans while he paced. The trail was overgrown and undefined, and Cal stomped through sticks and tree branches to make his way through. He emerged through the thicket into a clearing for a power line route. He saw the old derelict boat, his family’s boat, nested in its 30 year resting place. He walked up to it and put his hands on the giant steering wheel and looked down at the undergrowth of plants at its base. Traditionally, the end of august was prime huckleberry season. And the base of the old boat was traditional grounds for some sizeable huckleberry bushes. When he was younger, Cal, his sister and cousin would bring buckets

My father was a photographer back in Vietnam and also he had a love for computers. My father fascination with technology became what is my passion today. Ever since i was a child, as far back as my memory can go, i have always been surrounded by technology. Even though we had lived in a third world country and our technology was not advanced as other countries, I was still fascinated by how these machines works. Moving to The United States of America had a bigger impact on my passion than ever before. America is a first world country with all the new technology, in Vietnam, we still had big box TV, landline phone, motorcycles, big computers and more, and that all have changed in America, where everything is smaller and more compact, such as