rough draft

I am observing Mrs. Webb’s fourth grade class. The eerie morning bell just rang and students are filing into the room with a surprising excitement that high school students definitely lack. I realize that this joy the students share is not the only thing that is unique to elementary school. The walls are brightly decorated with attention-grabbing posters and the students’ artwork. The cubby holes start filling up with book bags and lunchboxes as more of the curious children enter their classroom.
“Back to school” time must be a more joyful experience for primary school teachers than for intermediate instructors. The carpet in the back of the room with smaller rugs waits patiently for students to bring a book during story time. Nearby, the hand washing station is ready to fight all of the germs that can spread around this bacteria-infused room. On the back wall hangs the homework board where the teacher neatly writes the objectives for the week in the typical teacher handwriting. The board contains a total of three assignments. Those were the days.
The fourth graders have a morning procedure they are responsible to do every day. There are numbered toothpicks they must move to specify whether they are packing or buying, and the numbers correspond to the labeled makeshift lockers. The children then proceed to get out their notebooks and work on class work that is on the board. This is intriguing to me. I think it would be virtually impossible to get high school students to do bookwork before the school days officially begins.
On the overhead projector is the morning work that they kids are happily working on. There is confusion written all over their nine year old faces as they try to comprehend the Goliath-sized words “subject and predicate”. Once Mrs. Webb begins to explain what these terms mean, her pupils listen intently; treating every word like it has great significance. She could say absolutely anything and these kids would believe it.
One aspect of elementary school that I had forgotten was tattling. As a senior, there are some unwritten rules including, “never tell on anyone else”. This rule does not apply in the fourth grade. This little boy in the back row enjoys picking on the girl in front of him. I didn’t imagine he would do something like this with me sitting here observing him, but now that I think about it, that could be why. He throws small pieces of eraser at the petite red-head girl.
There are many aspects of elementary school that I had forgotten until now. Some things are missed, but overall, the high school setting is slightly more mature and sophisticated. While grade school was much easier, more fun, and care-free, high school has taught me more life lessons. It’s going to be interesting to see these kids once they get to high school!

county chorus

Yesterday was county chorus auditions for Lancaster and Lebanon counties. This is always an interesting day. There are people from literally every walk of life. Every single race, religion, and orientation is clearly represented. Here is a brief summary of what occurs at county auditions:

+10-40 people from every school in the area arrive at McCaskey High School -7:30 am (unless you are NL in which case 8 people arrive at 8)
+The students sit in the auditorium for about an hour while the directors are in a meeting. This time consists of massage lines, creepy warm-ups and nervous breakdowns, while a few of us watch and laugh.
+Next the head director tells each voice part what portion of the song they are going to use to audition
+The students split up and go to their respective rooms according to voice part to practice and begin the auditions.
+Unfortunate numbers one through five have to go. Those of us who are number 43 wait for three hours.
+As soon as soneone exits the audition room, you can probably tell if they will make it or not. Tears are a good indicator.
+Once everyone auditions, we wait for the results to be posted, followed by leaving and having and van ride home full of singing.

From our school, four of 8 made it. That isn't terrible, but not good either. Ryan Weis got first bass one and Becky Guldin got fourth for alto II, which is also my part. She beat me by two, which means she made the chamber choit and I didn't. But im still happy with my position. It was better that I thought I did. The other person from our school to make it was Alex Bailor. I'm excited for Districts!!

Our School Smells

Our school is located in Fredericksburg aka "Chicken Capital USA". Therefore our school always smells like dead chickens. Right near our school is a huge chicken plant, where I'm told hundreds of chickens are slaughtered everyday. Gross, right? Well the stench isn't too terrible typically. We get used to it. Some days are worse than others, and it seems to be stronger around the tennis courts, but I have no idea why. Anyway, today there was a very interesting and out of the ordinary stench. It was poop. But not just a faint sent of a diaper or anything, it smelled like there was liquid manure poured all over the school, and more specifically the English hallway. Some suggested that it was spreading manure from the nearby fields, but I think that even an immense amount of that stuff couldn't be as powerful as what we inhaled all day today. Distracting, to say the least.

Arsenic and Old Lace

Arsenic and Old Lace is the name of a play, and it happens to be the play that we are doing this year. For decades now, Northern Lebanon has done a junior class play and a senior class play. However, this year we decided to mix it up. Right now we are praticing for the senior/junior combined play. Arsenic and Old Lace is about two old ladies who murder men. They are very proper about what they do, and don't see anything wrong with it. They call their thirteen victims their "gentlemen". They are two pleasant old women who have a "charity" of putting old men out of their mysery and loneliness. Practices are going relatively well for now. But its still early...

Bridal Showers

Today after church I had both the priveledge and the obligation to attend my cousin's bridal shower. This wasn't my first one, so I wasn't completely unaware of what the happenings would include, but every one is different from the last. Nellie's bridal shower turned out to be one of the less awkward that I've ever been to. Sometimes the gifts are focused on sleepwear more than pots and pans, and, while that may be more fun, makes everything really odd for future inlaws. All in all it went smoothly. I spent the last hour carrying the strangely shaped gifts to the car and throwing away bows. Good times.

Deleted blog

Yesterday in class I blogged. It was about three to five things that I am interested in or curious about. One was sky diving and another was country music. That intrigues me. I don't know why. However, my laptop couldn't handle the strenuous work it was required to do. The school was testing the system to see how much was too much, and apparently mine was too much. Long story short, my blog about the wonders of country music, sky diving, and a few other things that I don't happen to recall, was deleted.
Today was a rough day, but now I have a weight lifted off of my shoulders to have it over with. (oops, yet another cliche) I had three tests that I was, unfortunately, not prepared for. I know there is no one to blame for this other than myself, but I still like to complain every now and then; somehow it helps. Then I had a tennis match. We played Lebanon at their courts. We won, and if we hadn't I think we all would have just handed in our rackets on the spot. All of the singles matches won but seemed to take much longer than typical. Then Erika Baluch and I went back out to start the number one doubles match. We were playing an 8-game pro set since it was already late. Basically the most annoying thing that can happen in tennis is to always split sets so you remain tied for a long time. We were always up, but then they would tie it. It ended up being seven to seven so we had to play a seven-point tiebreaker. We continued to split points here, and since you must win by two ended up winning 10-8. Painful? You bet.

Monday, Monday. Ba ba, Ba ba ba.

Mondays are always interesting days. I don't usually happen to enjoy them, but I get through. Today was pretty typical- the last thing I wanted to do in the morning was wake up, yet somehow I did and got to school looking half-decent with time to spare. Classes went as they normally do and after school I had a home tennis match. Ironically enough both our number one and our number two players were gone today, the day we played Lancaster Mennonite. Therefore, everyone was moved up two spots from our normal ranking, making us even more uncomfortable and nervous. I played number four singles and actually surprised myself with how well I did even though I lost the two sets 6-3 and 6-2. In tennis, a score like that doesn't ever fully reflect the overall match because we got to deuce four or five times some games. Once I was done I had my ten minute break and got back out there for number two doubles, where Alicia Snyder and I did even better than singles, losing the eight-game pro set 5-8. We were done with this match at about seven, at which time I was officially a half-hour late to LEADS meeting for my youth group at my youth pastor's house. I drove there in record time (completely legally) and participated in the majority of the metting. After leaving at 9:13, I came home and showered to get rid of the dead rodent smell from having played tennis for 3 consecutive hours and now am doing school work. Funny how that always takes the back burner... (oops, that was a cliche)

Sunday afternoons

Sunday afternoons are known to be a relaxing time. People enjoy going home from church and having lunch with the family followed by laying down for a nap or watching some football. Today, after a far from typical church service, my family went to the Hinklefest for lunch. At church today my father and I were on praise team and everything went smoothly which is good. However, as the second service was letting out, some kids were playing around in the lobby and knocked over a podium which then fell on a woman's ankle. This doesn't seem like it would be a big deal, right? Wrong. Someone called 911. She was lying on the ground bleeding profusely. Some good Samaritan thought they would be kind and prop the bloody leg up with some of the cushions from the new couches nearby. Why in the heck!?!? That's really all I know about the incident... I tried to distance myself from the group of about 283 people who stood nearby gawking. Anyway, lunch was fun. My family ate all kinds of various chicken products and then played some BINGO, a seemingly innocent form of gambling. Now we are home and everyone is asleep except me. I am blogging and writing an article for Psychology class, and let's just say there is a little pressure to succeed in that class.

Yet Another Eventful Day

Today was busy, but fun. I think I am over-involved. Okay, I know I am. Today was Saturday, also known as my only day of the week to sleep in. But that would just be too nice if I actually could. I decided about a month ago to join the church worship team as a keyboardist and vocalist. I realized one Saturday morning that I had almost two whole hours of free time, so I figured I needed to find something to take that away. This was what I chose. Sometimes I get quite angry for doing these mindless things to myself. Anyway, I had practice this morning, but was unable to go because I had two other simultaneous commitments. As we have already established, I play both tennis and cross country, and they both had their county competitions this morning. Both were at Cedar Crest. Both were at 9 am. I chose tennis (who wouldn't?). I played number two varsiry doubles for our school and, although my partner and I lost, did suprisingly well. I played with Erika Blauch. She is one of my good friends this year, since most of my closer friends graduated and already forget anything or anyone related to this dreaded building. Erika is a junior, she's fun. She's a little better at tennis than I am, but I hustle a little more so it balances out. We played ELCO (no one likes them) and lost but it was very close, so we were proud of ourselves. After I sweat nonstop for about three hours I left and came home and showered. I had a few loose ends to tie up around the house and, since I was home alone, was able to do that fairly quickly. I picked Erika up from work in Hershey at four and we shopped at the Hershey outlets for a while. Shortly thereafter her boyfriend and three of his friends met up with us and my evening had just become incredibly awkward. Erika's boyfriend goes to Annvile High School. I used to go to Annville. I had a best friend who went to Annville... I know a lot of people from Annville. Since our schools hate each other, many many jokes were cracked about us "farmers". This went on for about three or four hours until I decided I wanted to go home. I had homework. So I left Erika to fend for herself with the boys. I got home at about 930 in time to find my dad waiting for me to go to church to practice for tomorrow. Uhgh, not what I had in mind. It is now 1106 and I just got home. Yeah, ridiculous, I know. Now I am blogging and then eating maybe and going to bed beacuse I have to be up at seven. Night.

Tennis, Tee shirts, and a Tired me

Lately, my life has been decently hectic. That is a HUGE understatement. Playing a sport for the school is a large time commitment; I choose to be playing two. Tennis and cross country are both sports that I enjoy a lot. However, they make me extremely busy. This year, since I am a senior and the only four-year player, I am team captain. This adds yet another obligation. For some reason, our school loves some sports more than others and tennis happens to fall into the "other" category. The largest indicator is that we don't have uniforms. At this point, it is over half-way through the season, so to order anything would be virtually pointless. But we are teenage girls and these kinds of things are fun so we want tee shirts at least. Therefore, I, as captain, must collect the money and do the ordering- a seemingly simple task that ends up being extremely time consuming and stressful. Yet another thing to add to my list! So the tee shirt ordeal seemed overwhelming, but I thought I could place the order and then work on collecting the money with the other captain. I should have known that it would find a way to complicate itself soon!
I think standing in the rain all day at work is getting the best of me. I'm getting sick and its not fun. When I run, my nose runs with me, just faster. This proves to be quite an annoyance. I am also very tired all of the time. I find myself falling asleep in my more boring classes (not English, don't worry Mr. Miller). I look for a solution to this, but with sports and school work and all of the other things I am involved in, there is just no time for getting to bed early. So until further notice, I will make due with getting to bed at eleven and waking just 6 hours later.. good night.

Too much? I think not.

Today is Tuesday. That means school. It also means Cafe, the student-led bible study that a group of kids from the school organize. We meet weekly at 6:30 am to start out our days on a good note! However, this means waking up nearly an hour earlier. Since I decided to be a high spirited fan and attend the high school boys' soccer game last night at Pequay Valley, I only got home at about eleven, which was when I began my school work. Needless to say, I was tired. I also have a bit of an issue called overinvolvement. I do everything, and am very busy. For exapmle, today in homeroom (normally a time for students to get ten extra minutes of sleep or finish homework or just relax) I had an Honor Society meeting and I am an officer so I had to be early to take attendance etc. Then I left for Chamber Choir where we sang for a period while I was filled in on all of the drama that I missed the previous eveing. We rehearsed for the upcoming Madrigal feast, a mini musical of folk songs. Second period is my free period to get things done so I decided to try out for the class play. I need one more thing to do, right? Auditions went well which I think is a good thing, but its looking like I won't have much time to attend practices anyway. In yearbook, I ordered the teeshirts for the tennis team, since I am the captain, which was actually a much more painful process than you think. Psychology came next which consisted of notes and a lecture. Lunch was boring, followed by English. Spanish is full of work as usual, and Calculus wasn't any less stressful than a typical day. After school, I was planning on going to my cross country meet, but it was cancelled due to rain. Instead, I would attend tennis practice, but that was cancelled as well. So went to auditions again!

Messiah application essay

I had to write this essay today to accompany my application to Messiah College. I know its really early to be doing this, but I want to get it out of the way.
I am prepared to be a student whom is intellectually mature in character and faith, while taking my studies seriously. As a student at Messiah College, I expect to be challenged both scholastically and spiritually. The mission statement states that we as students will be encouraged to lead “lives of service, leadership, and reconciliation in church and society.”
For students whom have not been raised already living up to such standards, this may be seen as a challenge. However, I feel that I have been trying to attain a very similar goal all of my Christian life. I have been involved in the leadership of many organizations including clubs at school, my youth group, and community projects. Especially my senior year, I was voted the advisor of many of these groups.
I am a big advocate for service. I have been on five missions trips now; some in the state, some in the country, and others international. Mission trips are a big part of who I am. I love to serve other people and bring joy to their lives as well as give back just a portion of the time and efforts I have been given.
Reconciliation is a big part of maturing. I feel that mission trips are a good way to help bring that healing to other people. However, you do not need to go to another country to help people with such issues. There are times in high school where it is necessary to address issues, and confrontation might need to take place. A student leader’s responsibility is to take the initiative and pursue peace in these scenarios.
I think Messiah College will be able to further prepare me for the world beyond my schooling. I hope that I can work toward fulfilling this mission statement by searching deeper still into these aspects of life and gaining knowledge along the way. I am excited to be challenged and am committed to striving for excellence and doing my best in every aspect of this new phase of life.

Head colds

I didn't think being in the rain yesterday would get to me, but I was wrong. It did. I woke up today feeling kind of like I was hit by a Mac truck while sleeping. Really, it was that bad. My whole body is sore, which is odd cause I didn't even excercise yesterday. And I was supposed to. I can't breathe out of my nose which causes me to use my mouth, leading to a violently sore throat. Additionally, I need a tissue about every 49 seconds. For some reason, I feel like my eyes aren't open all the way, even when I'm fully awake. These are just a few of the sensations I've been able to experience during church this morning. Now I have a lot to get done before this week starts up. I need to:
Buy birthday gifts for Melyssa and Julia
Cash my check, pay parents back
Do my Calculus homework
Find a picture to submit for the student of the month article in the paper
Schedule a time to take the SATs again, and have EXTRA BATTERIES!
Call my photographer and pick up my senior pictures
I'm sure there is a lot more, but I'm unable to think of it all right now. I know this probably isn't the intended use for this blog, but its helping me keep everything strait!

Rainy days

Today is Saturday and its raining, as it has been since I woke up today at about 9:43. That is considered moderate sleeping in for me. I am obviously up before then for school and church six days out of the week, but on a given Saturday where I dont have to work, sleeping until three in the afternoon is very possible. However, today I did have to work. At least I thought so. I woke up and went for breakfast with my parents to have a "calendar meeting". You know the world is a sick place when families have to take their children out one at a time to plan the next two weeks of their lives.
Once I got home from breakfast, I quickly showered and got ready for work. I checked my emials, made a few phone calls, considered blogging but opted not to, and then left for work. It took me almost ten extra minutes to get to Hersheypark, my current place of employment. By the time I got to the locker room, changed, and clocked in at the office, I was thoroughly soaked. I reluctantly went to my post where I stood for about an hour and ten minutes before a supervisor came by and told me to go home since there were about six people in the entire park. I drove thirty minutes home, and officially spent more in gas commuting to and from work than I earned at work.

...The rest of my first draft

At first, the thought of a stranger talking to me in an environment where I no longer felt safe did not appeal to me. But I quickly got over this, realizing that crying on the floor probably wouldn’t speed up the process of being reunited with my parents. The clerk spent a few minutes trying to decipher my tear-filled story and, after understanding that I was lost, acted responsibly and did what any good employee would do; help me find my family. The first step of doing this in such a big place is to announce the names of the either the child or the parents on a loudspeaker that is projected to the entire Ocean City boardwalk and beach area. “Would Dan and Beth Hess please report to the front gate of the water park immediately?” Hearing this announcement I felt some small sense of relief mixed with a lot of embarrassment. I couldn’t imagine how my sister would nag me for this one.

Sure enough, within seconds I hear my mom say my name. Not yell my name, just say it. Boy did I feel like an idiot. I turned around in the direction of her half-concerned, half-laughing voice to see my entire family of eighteen sitting together on a few benches not ten yards from where I had been. They were all gathered around three tubs of the Johnson’s popcorn that I knew they were on their way to buy. I ran to my mom and thought I was having a hallmark reunion, crying in her arms. No one else seemed to agree though. She asked what happened, and apparently didn’t even notice I had fallen behind. I told her the story along with the rest of the curious bystanders, who found it intriguing that our presence at the water park was now known to the thousands of vacationers.

Once the shock of the seemingly life-threatening incident had passed, I was able to enjoy some of the fresh caramel corn that we look forward to every year. Although still embarrassed, I could now laugh at the occurrence and roll my eyes when my family says, “Bet you won’t disobey like that again!” Of course, that wasn’t the case and I’m equally stubborn to this day… I just make sure I know where they are going!

First Draft- Personal Experience Essay

Every year since my parents were young, my extended family on my dad's side has traveled to Ocean City New Jersey once a summer where they have spent a week renting a beach house. Once I was born, I was taken along and have many many good memories of our crazy outings to the beach, boardwalk, our favorite restaraunt The Crab Trap and spending quality time around the house with each other. Most of my memories with my cousins from little on up have been made on such trips. My ninth trip there was in 2001. This was just like any other trip to the beach filled with treasure hunts, sun burn, and aloe. However, it was one of my older cousin's birthdays while we were there, so we decided to celebrate with something extra special.

My cousin Caleb was about to turn fifteen so we planned a day trip to a water theme park on the boadrwalk. This was a very exciting new concept for me since I had never been to a real waterpark before. We spent the day swimming in the pools (similar to the ocean, minus the seaweed, salt, and the occasional syringe) and dodging manmade waves. There were some water rides that I found frieghtning at first but then grew to love.

It was an amazing day and everything went well except for one aspect; the waterslide. My four older boy cousins as well as my older sister were tall enough to ride a six-story waterslide. I, however, was not. Once I found this out, every positive aspect from the day was completely gone from my memory. It was as if nothing good had happened all day. In fact, I was officially the least fortunate person in the world... for the time being. I watched my cousins ride the slide time and time again, and grew more and more impatient as they seemed to be having the time of their lives. Soon my parents said it was time for the eighteen of us to head over to the Johnson's Popcorn stand where we always but the world-famous caramel corn, and then go home and clean up before dinner.

Although I had been having what I thought was a miserable time, I did not want to leave. I would not admit it, but I was enjoying watching the waterslide activity. The cousins all prepared for the walk back to the house but I stayed at the entrance to the waterpark. There was one little girl who looked to be about my height but that's not possible because she was on the waterslide and I wasn't. The family threatened to walk away without me, but I knew they couldn't just leave me there. So I stood right where I was like the stubborn little girl I had proved to be. The girl flew over bumps and splashed around turns along the way down the slide, laughing all along the way. Once she was done with her joy ride, I turned around knowing I would find my family patiently waiting for me. But they were gone.

I couldn't believe it! Two minutes ago they were right by my side. Now there I was, nine years old and stranded alone in Ocean City in the middle of July. Needless to say there were a few emotions running through my mind. My first instinct was to retrace my steps, but they were nowhere to be found. My next idea, to cry. I sat down right then and there and waited for someone or something to come save me. I said a little prayer and soon enough an employee of the park came up behind me.... to be continued.

Day off of school

Today is Monday, Labor Day, and we don't have school. I'm grateful for the day off although I'm sure I will be as busy as if we did. I just got home from practicing a few songs with a kid from school that we perform at a coffee house once every month or so. Now I am getting some homework knocked out before I leave for a family picnic at my cousin's house. I can't stay there very long, though, because I have to be at work at noon.
My job is a very intersting one. I started working at Hersheypark at the end of school last year. For the first day of the job, I enjoyed it. Primarily because it got me out of the house and gave me something to do. However, after a week or two, I loathed going to work. I work with people who are visiting the park and are at times very angry. They therefore look for the nearest innocent worker who has no control over the situation and choose to complain to them. Their only goal seems to be to relieve some immediate stress and make this unfortunate imployee's day worse. When the guests are upset, the employees are upset. Simple equation right? Wrong. We as employees are not allowed to be anything but "Hersheypark Happy" all of the time. I find myself smiling while being screamed at and saying, "Hello, welcome to the theatre" while standing in the pooring rain and moving other people's strollers.
Needless to say, what seems like it should be an easy, care-free job, is actually quite stressful and I dread going. And with that, I'm off to work!