Here in our high school, Great Oak, we have an acronym called S.P.I.R.I.T. Today I will focus on the P and the first I. They stand for Passion and Involvement. For passion, I enjoy horseriding the most. I love it because it helps me unwind all my stress and I get to hang out with some of the coolest people I’ve come to know. The horse I ride is a crazy animal, but to me that just makes the ride more fun. I love how the wind blows on your face as you ride, or just being able to be with this huge, gentle creature known as horses. I will be enjoying this activity for years to come, maybe even out of high school. Every weekend I go down into wine country and ride my big ol’ pinto named Beamer. I love this horse like no tomorrow, even though I’ve only gotten to know him for the past two years. Sometimes I fear that I will go down to see him and get the news that he died, but I know now that he is crazy and will live for as long as he can. Going into involvement now, we have a horse club at school and an equestrian team. I hope to become involved in these next year because I just love doing what I do best and that is to ride my darling Beamer. Just as a bonus, I can get community service hours at my barn for helping out. We normally just clean all the tack and run the horses around, but it just helps with my knowledge of the equipment that I need to stay on the horse and control it.
Integrity
Integrity may have many meanings to different people, but the universal meaning is to be honest and have strong morals. In school this can mean, if you get a better grade then you should have. For example, if you get a three hundred instead of thirty on a test, you go and tell the teacher; but most of the time they’ll give you some extra points for being honest. Or maybe you see some kid getting bullied and they don’t want to go tell the teachers, you do it instead; but in my own opinion you shouldn’t stick your nose in other people's business. Though they may appreciate the thought. Like some say, it’s the thought that counts. word count: 118
Reflection
Over this past year, I think that I’ve grown as a person, become more independent and happier. The reason I feel more independent is that my parents put their trust in me to do my work, and believe that I’ll get good grades. The reason I’m more happier, is that I get to spend more time doing things that I love, like horse riding or just sleeping. I’ve come to love sleeping more now, and really regret not taking those naps when I could. I’ve grown as a person because I’ve seen some different types of people, whose lives differ greatly from mine. I hope that I’ve become more open minded, and maybe a greater person in general.
Scholarship
To be a scholar you need to be able to understand most situations and analyze any problem with a simple equation. To have these qualities you need to be smart and agile. To get up to these places you will have to study and learn different things from different people. One of these things is reading. Three of my favorite stories that I had the chance to read are The Cask of Amontillado, A Sound of Thunder, and The Scarlet Ibis. I love each of these stories for different reasons. For The Cask of Amontillado, it has an plot that took you on different spins. Or how the main character was crazy and wanted to kill this man for such a disturbing reason. For A Sound of Thunder, it went into the mind of someone who thought so high of himself, but when the time came for him to be brave he left those with him behind and did what he was told not to do. In the end, he paid the ultimate price for his decision. And finally for The Scarlet Ibis, this young boy only wanted a brother but when he finally got one he thought so less of him that he trained him to be normal, and in the end it seemed too much for his weak little brother. Each story has it’s own lesson, you may or may not see it but it’s there. And these lessons are there whether they know it or not.
Teamwork
Teamwork... that’s a hard word to work with, many think that they know teamwork but don’t actually do it. There are things known as ball-hogs, attention-hogs, or just people that do things to get attention. Like some say, there is no “i” in team, which does have it’s meaning, how can a team work correctly if one person doesn’t do things like the rest. My grandfather would say, “... a team is like a machine, each person does their part, but it wouldn’t work if the oil didn’t do it’s job...” He may be old but he has some good words. What he means is that nothing works as well as when people join together and work hard. There are some people that think others will just hold them down, and they may be right. Some people work better by themselves, while others need to work with others. There’s an old game I think you might know, it’s called chess. When you play chess, do you just use one piece. The answer is no, you don’t, each piece works just as hard as the other to protect the king. Nothing works at its prime by itself. word count:195