Pfew Personal Narrative

It's a Friday afternoon, I plan to go to Great Wolf Lodge in an hour with my church. I see one of my friends so he says to his mom “ Hey, that's my friend” I said “Crap” So I go inside to sign in to go and see my friends just sitting in a corner on a big sofa. We are listening to music and just talking then a green bus comes.

The year 2003 the location Birch Creek Alaska. It is a small little town there is only about 28 people including my family. Back then I was so young so naive to the dangers of the world. I was 6 years just a mere child still trying to learn about the world. I have seen things now you would not believe. The pain and suffering that befell my family and I would be torment. It would haunt us for years to come after the events that would take place winter of 2003. I still remember it so vividly, so clean, it is has left a scar in my brain.

I have lived in only one location my entire life: Edwardsville, Illinois. A peripheral suburb of St. Louis, it stands as the rare oasis of people in a desert of corn, pinned in its own personal bubble. Due to this blend of time and isolation, I developed a natural familiarity with my hometown. But, throughout my childhood, I longed to break free from the confines of the bubble and venture outward. However, this changed last summer, as I walked through Richards Brickyard, our family heirloom, that my great-grandfather, Benjamin Richards, founded over 120 years ago. I felt these childlike sentiments slip away. The bubble that had surrounded me for so long began to vanish, and the picture that it had been obscuring was slowly revealed.

When you think of FFA, you think of cows, plows, and sows, but it is so much more. Growing up with a background of agriculture has tremendously impacted the way I have grown up. Both of my grandparents raised horses, which invoked my love for riding horses. My maternal grandparents raised pigs and beef as well which allowed me to broaden my background. I used to live on a dairy farm where we bottled our own milk. I also help out on our grain farm, and I milk at a dairy farm. With all of my experience in agriculture I knew that FFA would be a good choice for an activity to become involved in. Since joining the middle school quiz bowl team in 8th grade, I have been heavily involved in agriculture. Although I was later than

It is true in life that everything happens for a reason. It is also true to say that sometimes it is all about being in the right place, at the right time. There was never a more prominent example of this than a traumatic summers evening, only a few years ago.

I will never forget the day I became a statistic. It was a warm night in September when I became the 1 in a startling 4 women who would experience domestic violence in her lifetime. Sometimes it seems as if the violence defines my identity and I guess in some ways it does because it’s impossible for something like that to not have an effect on who you are. It was that day that I found out who I was, decided what I wanted out of life, and decided I wasn’t going to be a victim, I was going to be a survivor.

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

I’ve gone through high school back and forth on what major I’ll put on my college applications, but business has stayed a consistent interest. I knew that I’d never gain more knowledge from anything else about business before college than what I’d learn at PFEW. I heard my brother and my cousins rave about what an awesome experience Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week was for them, so I had to try the experience myself. Also, I chose this particular project because I knew participating would open so many doors for me. I made friends and connections that will last a lifetime, and that I could not find anywhere

I was in 11th grade, and I was taking Latin, which many considered to be a rigorous. I enjoyed Latin because my teacher made it extremely fun, so I was always excited to be in class. We were taking an exam, and my friend was attempting to communicate with someone and I thought she had called my name. As a result, I looked up and nodded my head. After the test, my teacher asked us both to step out and accused us of cheating. He explained that he did not want to embarrass us in class that’s why he asked us to step out after the test. I was immediately offended. I have never cheated on an exam, and after knowing him for over a year and a half I was extremely upset that he would even think that I was capable of cheating.

It's been an interesting year so far, and it looks like it is about to get even more interesting (more about that in a moment). What I wanted to write about in this here journal of mine is a new brand of shoe that I just purchased; they are called Nike running shoes, and I love them. They fit well, are comfortable and seem like they will last quite a while. I just had to have a pair (I think I'm the first one here at school to have them most of the other students have never even heard of them; Neanderthals, I know!). I predict they will be a big hit in the future. Okay, enough about shoes, let's move on to more serious matters, my love life! (just joking journal I have no love life right now). Oh well, I haven't written in here for the past few weeks, I guess I better talk about the events of the month. Let's see, it's October 1962 and a number of events have taken place; some here at the University of Mississippi, some in the United States and some internationally. Many of these events will likely have long-term impact on some very serious matters. Of course, I did not think any event would foreshadow James Meredith being admitted into the University, but, the first Negro being admitted into a higher education institution is an event that has only national implications, while the missile crisis in Cuba, could lead to death to thousands or even hundreds of thousands of citizens in both the United States and in Russia.

Once when I was going through high school, it was my senior year and people constantly asked me. What profession I was going to do? I always said I do not know what I am going to do. Then a friend came and said that the A&P mechanics were always hiring. Therefore, my friend and I started talking about planes. I had always been interested in planes; I always wanted to be in the air force, I could not join the air force because of my glasses and medical conditions. When my friend found out that W.A.T.C. was teaching A&P mechanics. He influenced me to join W.A.T.C. to get my license to become an A&P mechanic.

I was the only camper in the entire camp; the busses from Chicago didn’t arrive until three in the afternoon. My counselors took me with them to the mess hall where all of these girls on staff were in their Uggs sweatpants and sweatshirts eating breakfast. It’s June, who wears ugg boots in the summer? After hours of sitting on my cold hard mattress on the top bunk, as I wasn’t allowed to unpack until the rest of my cabin arrived, there was an announcement, “Attention all campers and counselors RUN RUN RUN to the top of the hill the busses are almost here!!” I had never seen a more excited group of people in my entire life and I had no clue why. I get to the top of the hill where the counselors are singing at the top of their lungs “we welcome you to Chippewa were mighty glad you’re here” the girls started filing out of the three huge coach busses and tons of hugs were exchanged. There were tears of joy along with sad tears, many squeals and overall just an indescribable vibe. We all made our way to the center fire circle where cabins were announced. I was in the first cabin, the youngest cabin. I gathered with my soon to be best friends and walked back to my cabin. I was looking around, these girls had just spent 6 hours together on the bus and they know each other from home. Are they going to hate me? How do I make friends? These were

It was a cool November day, in the middle of Afghanistan. As a medic, I was sitting outside my make shift aid station with one of my buddies sharing stories about home. We hear a loud explosion right outside of the wire. I looked up and could see the cloud of smoke billowing up from about two hundred meters away. Not knowing how bad the situation was, I grabbed a few of my soldiers, our translator and my aid bag and ran straight to the smoke. When we got there, a group of civilians were huddled around a group of people who were yelling, screaming and crying. The translator found out that a group of three men and three children were walking around a field when one of the children stepped on a mine. One of my soldiers grabbed the mine

On a sunny, steamy summer day in mid-July, as I passed under a bronze archway reading Rocky River Ranch, little did I know what the future held. Camp life was a 180-degree turn from the peace and quiet I was used to in my calm home. Being an only child from a household with two loving parents, my life lacked conflict. As a shy, introverted person I quickly had to adapt to a place full of endless chatter, interaction, and wacky songs. I was nervous about my ability to make such a difficult transition, but the love and positivity abound at camp simplified the shift.

Nine years ago, my parents dropped me off at overnight camp for the first time ever. Wow, nine years ago… that’s just hard to think about. Anyways, I do not remember much about that first summer, but it must have been fun because I came back the next summer, then again, and again, and again, and again, and, while, you get the point. I really liked it there. Back then, I would not have been able to explain what I loved about camp so much. I would have said something like “my great friends” or “all the sports we play,” but now I understand it means so much more than that. If I was to explain all the memories I made on that hillside throughout my seven year career as a camper, this essay would be well over 650 words, so I will refrain from doing so. Instead, I will talk about my transition from camper to counselor and how it helped me realize the importance of giving back.