There is only one object I could possibly choose for this Personal Essay: my YMCA Camp St. Croix coffee mug. This is not only because of my passion for coffee, but also because of my love of my second home: YMCA Camp St. Croix, located in Hudson, Wisconsin, just East of the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. For two weeks every summer since I was five years old, I have gone to camp and spent time with some amazing people; counselors, campers, and program staff alike. Camp has opened so many doors for me and has introduced me to a wide variety of activities, activities that I would never have tried had it not been for the supportive and energetic community I was placed in. Through camp, I have been able to sail in the Apostle Islands, sail across Lake …show more content…
It has had to be super glued once before, after I let a camper hold it and she proceeded to drop it on the floor of the Dining Hall. This is also representative of my time spent at camp, meaning that it has not been all super amazing all the time. That just is not realistic. For example, two years ago, I, along with the rest of the counselors in training, sailed from Bayfield, Minnesota to Isle Royale National Park. The trip was scheduled to be week and a half long, and by the second day, everyone but me had become seasick. It was cold in the middle of Lake Superior, and the waves were not kind to us. One day we got lost without any point of land to target, and another day the waves were so bad that we almost tipped over. Our captain gave me the choice to either turn back to Bayfield and cut our trip short or to continue on to see Isle Royale, which we had begun to refer to as “The Promised Land.” I remember running through the four core values and how they each applied to the situation. It was a tough decision, but after some critical thinking, I was able to make the right one—that is, continue on to Isle Royale. Within a day, the rest of the people on my boat started to feel better. By the time we reached the Park, everyone was in tip-top shape and excited to explore. There, at the Park, secluded from the rest of the world, we were able to grow together as a team and as individuals. I learned to rely on my gut as well as to invite criticism. Others learned to take Dramamine. Either way, we all took away something valuable from our trip of a
No one makes wise choices all the time, but those who follow their own aspirations make a person feel more alive. In fact, the people who go out and follow their dreams are explorers or achievers, but the vision of their dreams can become fatal. The reason for this is because they are following their dreams. Chris McCandless was a hitchhiker who went out into Alaska to get away from society and follow his “‘great Alaskan odyssey. (Krakauer 45)’”
A journey of hundreds of miles lies before you, through swamp, forest and mountain pass. Your supplies are meager, only what can be comfortably carried so as not to slow your progress to the Promised Land – Canada. The stars and coded messages for guidance, you set out through the night, the path illuminated by the intermittent flash of lightning. Without a map and no real knowledge of the surrounding area, your mind races before you and behind you all at once. Was that the barking of the slavecatchers’ dogs behind you or just the pounding rain and thunder? Does each step bring you closer to freedom or failure?
It was our fifth day in the Philmont Scout Reservation in New Mexico, the halfway point of the trek. I as the Crew Leader was responsible for the other 11 members of the crew, including 4 adults. I was in charge, and amazingly the adults rarely tried to take over, although they would strongly advise me what to do in some situations. Phil, with the exception of me, the oldest scout and the Chaplain for the trip, was my second. Together we dealt with problems of making sure everyone carried the right amount of stuff in their pack to who had to cook and cleanup each day. The trip had gone well so far, no injuries, and the worst problem had been a faulty backpack. As I walked I thought about the upcoming campsite. Supposedly this one had running water from a solar powered pump—so had the last night’s site but the tank was too low to use for anything but cooking because the of how cloudy it had been of late. But today was bright and shinny, and hot, so I didn’t think there would be a problem.
Commitment: For the crew of the USS Indianapolis their commitment to one another is one of the biggest factors in their survival. At times the men were required to restrain each other others they were required to comfort one another. Each man was dependent one another for survival, through the faltering and wavering grit of each man as he was tested, another Sailor, a shipmate in the truest sense of the word , would step up and support his
My leadership Philosophy. I challenge and expect each person assigned to CG Station Fire Island to adhere to the Coast Guard’s Core Values of: Honor, Respect, and Devotion to Duty. Together we must strive for SAFETY, and PROFESSIONALISM on and off duty and never take a routine evolution for granted and become complacent. Seek growth for personal knowledge and professional development, and through doctrine and training we will pursue excellence in completing our missions.
We soldiers set out on foot not too long later, led by the brave general, George Washington. It was December now, and the cold, brisk, winter air sent shivers down my spine. We would eventually run low on supplies, and there were even some soldiers who were marching through the icy, frigid, snow barefoot. As we approached the Delaware River, feelings of doubt crossed my, and I’m sure the other soldier’s minds.
A couple of weeks ago, the class was assigned a personal narrative essay and the prompt was to tell an interesting story of a specific experience that changed how you acted, thought, or felt. To be honest, I was awfully excited to write this essay because talking about myself is the easiest thing to write about sometimes. However, deciding what experience to talk about was challenging because I have already experienced so much in my seventeen years of being alive from dislocating my hip when I was three, to seeing my grandfather die in front of my eyes, from almost tripping off of the trail on the Grand Canyon, to meeting band members at an airport. Writing this essay brought me many challenges, I did not know what topic to choose, I had no
Voyage Of Rediscovery. University of California Press,. Kyselka, Will. A. (1987) An Ocean In Mind. Honolulu, Hawaii.
Even today in reality, the journey is more important than the destination through each of our individual lives. People make choices on their voyage, such as deciding on a college, a job, or even where to live, and all of the choices the adventurer makes is going to affect the future. On the way to their objective, they will gain experience and learn life lessons which will impact their final
The first object I selected to represent myself was an aluminum ring I made in metals class; I chose it because of the significance it holds. Over the years, my development as a person has led me to love engineering and its sisters, science and mathematics. This ring was formed within the Metals-working lab at Rocky; in fact, Metals has come to be one of the most exciting classes I have taken. To make this ring, we used the metal lathe and spent hours laboring in order to perfect it. This ring is so significant to me mainly because it represents my love of engineering as well as all of the knowledge and skills making this ring provided to me. Mathematics specifically has recently grown to be a large part of my daily life, given how I practice it every single day in Calculus. The entire concept of theoretical mathematics has been an amazing thing to lear...
I chose to write about the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty serves as a symbolic fixture of the principles America was founded on. She represents freedom, liberty, and opportunity. The location of the Statue of Liberty is an amazing feat in itself, it is right in the middle of a very wide and a very deep Hudson river, and at the time it was brought there, with the limited technology, was amazing. Adding to the location, The State of Liberty as everyone knows is right next to the old customs ports where thousands of hungry, and poor immigrants fresh off the boat would pass through looking for a better life. The fact that Liberty is a woman is an ingenious idea because a woman tends to be more sympathetic and willing to help, if Liberty was a man the statue would seem more cold, stiff, and even militant. Throughout history statues have been built to represent a great moment but the Statue of Liberty was build to symbolize a great idea and country. At that time in history people were flocking to America because they were either being persecuted in their home countries or they were just disappointed at the status of their lives and wanted to come to “the land of opportunity” to start a new life.
As we pulled out of my parents driveway, the circumstances seemed very surreal. My entire way of life had been turned upside down with only a few hours consideration. I was very much “at sea” in the ...
I travel by BART daily to and from school, getting on at the Colma station and exiting at the Embarcadero station in San Francisco. In the eight (or so) short weeks that I have been traveling via this route, I have easily memorized my routine. Typically, I get on the train at 8:15, right in the middle of the morning commute. From entering the turnstiles at Colma to climbing the escalator out onto the street at the Embarcadero stop, I am inundated by a barrage of stimuli. My olfactory, audial, and visual senses are constantly in use - processing all of the different stimulants. Although almost all of my senses are being utilized, for the purposes of this essay I will focus solely on the systems of vision and memory and how they relate to my morning commute via BART.
We got into our lines, behind groups of excited families and happy little old men and women. As the line ascended up the ramp onto this enormous water vessel, pictures were taken of every group of passengers. Smile, laugh and look happy! Riiight. As a matter of fact, I was pretty anxious. I'd never been on a boat like this, and especially not for a whole week.
It was a maddening rush, that crisp fall morning, but we were finally ready to go. I was supposed to be at State College at 10:00 for the tour, and it was already eight. My parents hurriedly loaded their luggage into the van as I rushed around the house gathering last minute necessities. I dashed downstairs to my room and gathered my coat and my duffel bag, and glanced at my dresser making sure I was leaving nothing behind and all the rush seemed to disappear. I stood there as if in a trance just remembering all the stories behind the objects and clutter accumulated on it. I began to think back to all the good times I have had with my family and friends each moment represented by a different and somewhat odd object.