Why I Am A School Classroom

After three hours of of hiking what felt like a vertical slope, the top of Mount Haystack was right in front of me. I knew that I could keep pushing through because I had suffered so much worse before. I wasn’t about to let this mere incline prevent me from reaching the top. I powered through the aching muscles and throbbing knees, while ignoring the sharp radiating pain in my calves. After what felt like forever, I was standing 5260 ft above the sea and taking in a spectacular view. When I glanced to my left, I realized I wasn’t quite at the top, I still had two more peaks to go before I’d reach the top of Lafayette. So after a few minutes of rest I got started on the rest of the hike.

The mountains are a beautiful adventure. As you walk up the incline, trees overhang, animals run wild, and rivers roar. All of these are things that keep me coming back to hike. On my most recent hike, while it may have been 100 degrees back home, where I was it was a chilling 40 degrees. As we walked around ten miles up and over the mountain, I took many breaks to catch my breath and take in the majestic scenery. There are also the snow skiing vacations. While you can’t see anything besides snow and trees, the adventure of cruising down the slopes is full of adrenalin. The mountains have always signified an adventure for me. Just like the mountains, life is a beautiful adventure. I do not know yet what adventures are in store for my life, but I look forward to them. I strive to see the beauty in everything.

In Matthew Hedger’s article “Yosemite National Park Day Hikes: Vernal Falls Death March”, he claims that you don’t always know what you’re getting into and find that things are harder than they seem. Hedger supports his claim with a story of his hike up Vernal Falls. His purpose is to inform his readers that you can always get through difficult things and that they’re stronger than they think. The intended audience is anyone who enjoys a good story and wants to know about hiking.

Strayed had gone through quite a bit before deciding on taking a hiking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail. Strayed thought the Pacific Crest Trail would help her find who she was before her mother’s death. To illustrate, “I’d set out to hike the trail so I could reflect upon my life, to think about everything that had broken me and make myself whole again” (84). This hiking trip was her way to find the person she was before her mother died. After hiking for three weeks she noticed, “I am not afraid… I realized…I’d done to myself and all that had been done to me” (122). Having spent three week hiking up Strayed become aware of a change in herself, she began showing confidence in herself (122). Her confidence is practically oozing out of her by the end of her journey (310). She tries to pass her confidence on to another person who was considering going on a similar journey on the Pacific Crest Trail. She emphasized, ‘“You could. You should. Believe me, if I can do this, anybody can”’ (310). Strayed has truly understood who she is after hiking eleven hundred miles through gruesome and extreme environments. Now, she is an inspiration to those who have hit rock bottom and need to find

The journey through that hike was the hardest thing I had ever done, but that made the destination so much sweeter. In that moment at the top I gained a sense of my new emotional strength and will-power and that was my destination. It was just as satisfying and reassuring. No other moment at WinGate brought me as much strength as that hike did but the overall experience added up. After that experience, I feel as if I can conquer anything with ease and confidence. The comfort that a warm bed and hot soup brought me when I had the flu before was now replaced with the comfort of knowing actually how strong I was

I believe that through mental toughness and dedication you can achieve many goals. Such feats are often not attained by everyone simply because they either are of the mindset that they cannot do it or they do not even try. No matter how tremendous or minuscule your end goal may be, if you do not at least attempt to achieve the goal, you may find in the future that you will become accustomed to creating an excuse for not putting forth effort. Being mentally strong is often difficult for people, especially when faced with some type of adversity, whether that be due to school, home life or relationships with peers. Lacking mental strength can be a deciding factor as to if you sink or sail in many things in life.

Just this past summer, under the hot, and sticky sun, we pushed our car to the limit, on our 1,000 mile journey to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, although in actuality we might have pushed our fears to the absolute limit. Flipping through the Colorado vacation brochure proved to have posed some interesting vacation destinations, such as "Big Bear Lake" and Trail Ridge Road. With the intent to get high in the sky, our family headed out the next morning to Trail Ridge Road, which is a road that takes you up to a staggering height of 12,000 feet. Although optimistic, we imagined of the vast fields of green, the glacier-topped mountains, and the valleys that undertake the them. As we climbed up to the peak, it seemed apparent that there

Crammed in a 1992 Ford truck that is supposed to seat three people, my brother, sister, dad, and I surprisingly arrived at my dad’s favorite park; it just happened to be over an hour away. This mini trek felt as if it lasted for hours. At first, I dreaded piling up to listen to my family complain about having each others’ elbows touching for more time than I would have liked. I soon discovered the uncomfortable ride would be worth it. Once we reached the winding road where we significantly decreased our speed from the highway, my siblings and I grew with excitement to finally be able to stretch our legs and go hiking. We unloaded the truck to spend a couple hours at what we called Great Falls Park.

We setout with our nalgines full of watter and we thought that we would not even use halph, But we undermested the heat and the terain of the trail. At first it was nice and shadie walk through nature. There where lots of trees and felids of crops surrounding us, and I loved it. We where all happy untill we had to climb a 200 foot h, and to make things even worst the clouds have moved and now the sun is bakeing. When we made it to the top, we where all

“I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” - Thomas Jefferson. I'm a firm believer in this statement as wise sounding as it is because I've found it to be true on multiple occasions. In life academically, athletically as well as personally it seems that there is no problem that cannot be fixed without hard work, The “luck” that Jefferson is referring to is the rewards for working hard and that is relatable through the good grades, the wins in games, as well as personal fulfillment in life. In the beginning of the year taking multiple advanced classes as well as participating in varsity sports was overwhelming however i eventually became accustomed to it and it was only a matter of time until i excelled.

Once my dad arrived, we were on our way. I jumped out into the first park that we came to and the fresh new powder exalted me. We then rode over to our friend's cabin to say hello and have a Pepsi. We asked our friend, Bob to come along for the ride and he was delighted to join us. From there we cut across flat lined Twin Lake and then across the untracked Eggleston Lake. To my unpleasant surprise, we approached the lodge, and sleds were buzzing around like crows on road kill. Ten miles down the road I expected to, at least, see some other people riding, but we had the whole mountain to ourselves. We rode from mountain to mountain, crossing open drainages and gigantic playgrounds of snow one after another.

This past summer my family went on a vacation out west to Zion National Park, Utah. In Zion, we saw many amazing things, but nothing could compare to our trip to the top of Angel's Landing. The morning of our hike we were scheduled to leave our hotel by six o’clock. It was cold and foggy and all I had on was a pair of shorts, a tank top, and my new black hiking sandals; nonetheless, I was freezing. When we finally got to the shuttle bus stop there were very few people there. On the shuttle bus ride, my anxiety about going on this hike was growing even more.

For my sophomore project I did a three week course that consisted of river rafting ninety miles down the Deschutes and backpacking the Three Sister’s wilderness. The first week was spent mostly on boats, rafting through the summer sun twelve miles a day with tarps supported by paddles to sleep under at night. As physically and mentally straining as was, it only got more difficult in the next two weeks. We moved to our starting point miles away from the Sisters Mountains. I spent the next fourteen days hiking long distances with a fifty pound backpack on, very limited food, and bleached water. The most impactful part of this trip was the forty-eight hour solo. Two days with no food or company is a very interesting experience that most people

Throughout my life I have faced various challenges that have led me to believe that you always have to try, and make an effort. My parents have always told me, as well as expected me to try my best. I personally think that you can accomplish almost anything if you simply put in a good effort and try to overcome obstacles or challenges in life. I have experienced a lot of doubt and pressure in my life. In order to conquer these struggles I have always had to try hard and put in a solid effort.

From the time I was a seven years old till the current day, as a Sophomore at Benedictine University, I have wanted to become a teacher. The four years of high school, Oswego High School, I truly become passionate to become a teacher. I took the necessary general education classes, and my elective classes learning about child development and early childhood education. Once I graduated high school, I felt confident to become a teacher, but I discovered that special education was what I truly wanted to do. From the first day or first grade up to now, I have become a success student, which I can’t wait to become teacher I want to be an aspirational teacher one day to my future students.