...My Junior year My junior year was one of my most exciting years in high school. I was preparing for the ACT and College, participating in Junior Varsity volleyball and preparing for a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. I was part of a team of twelve students and four leaders from Willow Creek Community Church, Eight days to serve a local community church. We spent months preparing for this trip. We worked on team building and becoming a tight group, slowly developing into a family. We knew what was going on in each others lives; And knew that this trip would test each of us in a difficult way. Departure day had finally arrived. Throughout the flight to Miami we talked about what it would be like when we arrived and how the people would respond to us. After landing in Miami We waited a few hours for a small plane that would connect us to Santa Domingo. This flight was very different. By now we were all on edge; feelings of impatience and anxiousness set in. Our unexcpeting group arived in Santa Domingo durring a typical power outage, the first of many throughout the coming week. Each day was a new adventure, filled with fun, friendship, and humbling experiences. The people were full of love and life. I met two men Rowel and Josueph, who have changed my life forever. They acted like brothers, showing me their hobbies and talents, and their every day lives. Each day with them gave me a rush of joy and a sense of accomplishment. I felt loved like a family member...
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...Dynamics in Society It is a fact that society is not monotonous but is constantly evolving. However the rate it changes at is usually slow. After asking the three generations that I have at home about their young days, I see a difference in my grandparent’s life, my parent’s life and my own life. I see changes at many areas like social norms, rules at home, accepted ways of thought, communication and behaviour, the role of family and their values, allowances etc. These changes that are slowly being woven into the fabric of society are gradually being absorbed as the new norms, without shaking the core. If I compare my life to that of my parents at my age, there may be some things that I do which would be totally unacceptable to my grandparents. When we have family dinner time there has been so many instances where my father has told me about his past and how it is so different to my generation. My father shared stories to my brother and me stating that when he used to come late at home, my grandfather used to not open the door for him, so he was left out in the cold until the next morning. My father does not do this to me when I am late; instead he merely asks me the reason for being late and if valid ends the topic. My mother her entire life was not allowed to wear short skirts. It had to be well below the knee. She comments on the girls as we pass by in the car saying that they weren’t allowed to wear shorts and skirts like this when she was small as society would look down upon...
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...verge of death there is an experience that person goes through. That experience is called the ‘flight or fight’ response. What most people don’t know is that a person goes through the same sort of experience when first put into a stressful situation. They begin with two options to back away as far as possible, the flight response, or to face the problem head on to try and fix the problem, the fight response. There is a difference in the response when on the verge of death and in a stressful situation of course, but it is all up to the same instinct that drives you through life. As of last year I was the person to run away from the problems, which saved me in a few situations but also held me back with my potential to grow as a person. After taking some time at the end of my freshman school year, I began to realize some of the things I was missing out on. I could have gotten out of my comfort zone and really made a difference, but I did not. At that point I made a vow, I vowed to get out of my comfort zone and really work hard to get somewhere I wanted to go....
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...Noonan, the father of my family tends to have the most intriguing stories to tell from his childhood and time living first in Baltimore and then Northern Maine. His life stories are very important on how they shaped him as an individual, and how they taught him life lessons that he would need in the future. I choose him because he has had a lot of unique experiences with sports, farming and many more that were told to me during this interview. My dad was born in Baltimore, Maryland on November 18, 1985 where he lived with his parents and partially his grandparents. By the time he was five and had just started kindergarten, he moved to Littleton, Maine. He grew up on a farm, and found himself working picking potatoes and doing...
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...Good or Bad, Hard to Say Every day may not be good but there is something good in every day. Good or bad hard to said. I have a new life with my husband in Houston. Well, something has to be changed for when I decided to marry him. First, I have moved to Houston and study English. Second, I need to get a drive license and drive by myself every time I go out. Third, I have to adapt myself to new environment here, meet some new friends. Fourth, my parents oppose that I moved to Houston. I was born in Taiwan. Except my parents in my family members, I have a younger brother, a sister-in-law and two nieces. When I was 7 years old, I started learning how to dance. My major was Chinese Dance and Ballet many years ago in Taiwan. I was a dancer and...
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...through in life; life is like a hail of arrows (impact of the giant diving bell) that you continuously maneuver through with an open mind (mind takes flight like a butterfly). This story is about a person going through “locked-in syndrome” which is paralysis from head to toe after resuscitation from a brain stem accident and despite all of that, they are still able to see the brighter side in life. Day in and day out, people look for the easiest possible way out. Choosing wants over needs, a person’s poverty becomes another person’s luxury. On the eight of December, “I was brutally introduced to the importance of the brain stem when a cerebrovascular accident took my brain stem out of action.” You are able to survive, but you survive with a symptom known as “locked-in syndrome”. The inability to move, your own mind imprisoned within yourself, doesn’t that sound familiar? The feeling of paranoia and anxiety seeping through your heart with every beat as your life takes a wrong turn. Your feelings constricted, the exact way your soul is when deciding to listen your heart or your head. There are times when listening to your head will suffice when compared to what’s being said in your heart. Persistence comes to mind; your “diving bell becomes less oppressive, and your mind takes flight like a butterfly.” You are what you eat; the same mentality is embedded in life. You are what you experience and experience builds character. Take a look at everyone who has succeeded in life, would they...
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...My Max My Story --- February 2, 1984 – January 4. 2014 Day 1 -You really can live when your heart has exploded into a million pieces January 4, 2014 ~ I missed a called from Monya getting a call from her is the norm. We had been on vacation for the holiday and were just heading down 101 heading for the 5 back to Sacramento. Well I tried to return Monya’s call and it was busy. So I was calling my voice mail, when her calls comes in so switched over. My world as I know is forever changed. She is distraught crying and telling me you are gone, as in you’re dead. You need to understand Max; this is not how it is supposed to be. I could accept it when my dad died back in 2001. I was devastated because I loved him and thought I would have him in my life forever. But he was the dad and he had lived a good long life. I still miss him, but the pain is minimal. But my son nothing about your dying makes any sense to me. You were 29 years old. You were brilliant, you were such a kind, generous soul, you were beautiful and you were loved so much by so many. Life went downhill from that moment in time, first I had to break this to your dad. You well know we are the kind of couple that reacts to any given situation with more hostility then love. Driving 75 hours a mile down a 4 lane freeway is not the place to destroy someone’s life. So it is my first thought that we have to get off the freeway, so I started yelling for him to get off the freeway. You know your dad and...
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...As young as I can remember, I have always been a little different. In 2003, my mom and dad decided to adopt a child from China. Looking through profiles of young foster children, they found a child that was right for them; a girl named Jin Feng (My former name in China). After months and months of paperwork, they flew across the Pacific Ocean to get their future daughter. The moment when I met them changed my life. I did not want to leave my home that I was used to. They had to barricade their hotel door, listen to me scream and watch me eat every spicy food out there. The flight back from my hometown – Nanchang, China – involved a lot of sleeping and crying. When the plane finished its flight, my family greeted me at the gates. For two years...
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...Taking Flight I will never forget the day my life changed forever. I know a lot of people say that about a lot of things. I’m sure you’ve heard many earth-shattering stories about death and despair – but mine is different. You see, on this day, I was thrown into the unknown. Alone, scared, and extremely clueless about why this was happening to me. Everything in my life became utter chaos -- quite literally, overnight. It was a Tuesday. Or maybe a Wednesday? A week day, for sure. I was supposed to be getting up for school. Seventh grade, not necessarily my favorite. Usually Sabine would come in right at 6am, throw my blinds wide open, unlock the window and slide it up to let the cool morning air in. She did this to wake me up, which is to this day the most effective way to tear me out of bed. But not this morning. Today, Sabine flung the door open and flipped a switch. I awoke blinking at my ceiling light. As I rolled over and glanced at my alarm clock, I saw that it was 4am. 4am? What in the world? “What’s going on?” I asked, sleepily, confused. No answer. Sabine was my stepmom; she had married my dad when I was four and then blessed me with my little brother, Michael, when I was six. She is your typical German woman: Tall. Long, dark hair. Not big, per-say, but strong, and endlessly intimidating. But she had one weakness; her face always told her heart. On this crisp January morning, she was blank. I remember watching her, straight-faced, slowly walk over to my closet....
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...The book Sully: My Search for What Really Matters shares the life story of Captain “Sully” Sullenberger. Chesley B. Sullenberger was raised by his mother and father on the outskirts of Denison, Texas. His mother instilled in him an appreciation for learning, and his father taught him the value of working hard by involving the whole family in continual home improvement projects. He also learned to put family first from his father. His dad would spontaneously take days off work and drive the family to Dallas, Texas to get dinner and see a movie. Sullenberger knew he wanted to be a pilot by age five. He doggedly started toward that goal by taking flying lessons from his neighbor Mr. Cook. He got his private pilot certificate at age seventeen, on October 28, 1968. He was then given a merit based congressional appointment to the Air Force Academy in 1969. When he graduated, in 1973, he was named “Outstanding Cadet in Airmanship”. He went on to earn his Master of Science degree in industrial psychology from Purdue University. Then he went to Undergraduate...
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...girl. My Barbies had all different careers and were of different races. My mom even convinced my older cousin to give me her MC Hammer doll. Being of mixed race, my mother wanted me to understand diversity through my dolls. The different skin tones that Barbie had, reflected the diversity I saw in my friends growing up. So for that I think Barbie had a pretty good influence on me. When I five years old, I was rewarded for being good at the doctor’s with a new Barbie. I was so excited because all of my friends had one already. I loved playing with my new found friend, but soon wanted more. After two more successful visits to the doctor’s, Ken and several others helped me to start quite a collection. These dolls were not only toys to me, but an extended family. I spent countless hours with them every day for years. They had a permanent home against my bedroom wall that stretched 5ft long. The monstrous house consisted of four beds, complete with linens and pillows that my mother had made. The kitchen was furnished of dishes, pots, pans, and an array of “food”. The living room had a TV that I made from an old cardboard jewelry box that I drew on and mini magazines. When I was seven, for Christmas my grandma bought me a baby blue Barbie Corvette and it still sits up on a shelf in my parent’s garage. One reason why I want them to keep it is because I think it has some monetary value, but more importantly I’d love to see my daughter play with it one day. My dad has...
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...Orville Wright during a flight near Dayton, Ohio in 1905. Bird strikes have caused millions of dollars in damages to aircraft and loss of human life. Calbraith Rodgers, the first pilot to fly across the continental United States, ironically was also the first to die as a result of a bird strike. In 1912, he struck a gull, causing his plane to crash into the water at Long Beach, California. Recently bird strikes have been given heightened notoriety in the public due to the well publicized incident at La Guardia Airport, when both engines of an Airbus A320 were disabled by several birds being sucked into them. The pilot of the US Airways Flight 1549 landed the aircraft safely into the Hudson River, where all 150 passengers survived. Bird Aircraft Strike Hazards are of particular importance to me because about five times a month I work on the flight line at MCBH Kaneohe Bay. About once every other month I am asked to retrieve bird remains from the runway or notify air traffic control of populations of birds intruding our flight area. I have to locate all parts of the bird’s body, place the remains in a bag, and then give them to air traffic control for further investigation. The investigation usually takes place by trained wildlife biologists working at the airport. If not identifiable, The Smithsonian Institution's Feather Identification Laboratory is then given the remains for further analysis. Today, because of the damage of aircraft and loss of life there are many factors...
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...born at that time will ever forget. I Was Six Years Old at The Time and Still remember where I was and when it happened. I remember everything that happened on that day to the tea. Where I walked and where I went to school. Even Though that was Fifteen Years Ago I will always remember the Day Of 9/11 and how it changed my Life. The Day of September 11, 2001 was a terrible Day for people in New York City. On this Day Nobody Would see Three Jets Crashing into some of the most famous buildings in the world at the time. Nor would anybody see a targeted fourth jet heading for the pentagon and another that was said to be heading towards the White House. 8:46 AM would be the change of a new United States and the Security of Our Country since Pearl Harbor in 1941. At 8:46 Am Flight 11 jetliner Crashed into the 1st Trade Center (North Tower). That Created a Hole From the 92nd Floor All the way...
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...Writing 101: Title University of Maryland University College Insert Title Here Throughout my life I have traveled to many countries on four different continents. My occupation is centered around interactions with other human beings, despite their background, culture, language, values, or beliefs. My success hinges on my ability to relate to other people and earn their trust. This in and of itself can be an overwhelming task when dealing with other Americans. Pile on top the stresses of a hostile environment where your country is viewed as an occupier, morally and religiously at odds with the host nation, and the fact neither of you speak the other’s language. This, to some extent or another, has been a large part of my life for the past eight years in the Marine Corps. Other than making me really, really good at party games like Pictionary where you have to communicate without words, I have picked up some similarities through my experiences between the cultures I have interacted with that are shared despite geographic separation, cultural exclusivity from lack of outside influence or exchange, and prior indoctrination of biases through propaganda or limited experiences. In the following pages, I intend to discuss these similarities to assist the traveler when she or he finds themselves in a similar position. While each interaction with an individual in a foreign country may seem trivial to the average American, that may be the only American that foreigner ever...
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...fell away from a bi-pod ramp on the ships external tank 81.7 seconds after liftoff (Harwood). The foam chunk with velocity smashed a hole in one of the protective shields panels that make up the left wing leading edge. Photos and video shows this happening very clearly. What you cannot see is where the foam actually hit. The only thing that is visible is when the foam explodes after it hits the wing. So at this point the damage is done, NASA knows about it, MMT knows about it, and DAT knows about it. The engineers were getting worrisome with not knowing the extent of the damage. Then they all concluded that the foam did not pose a safety risk. As MMT Chairlady Linda Ham famously said at one point, "it's not really a factor during the flight because there is not much...
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