Volunteer!

Volunteer!

Have you ever tried to do something in your life that has made you proud of yourself? Volunteering is a great thing to do and will always be something that you will remember. Being a volunteer, allows you to experience a lot of different things in the world. There are many places and things to volunteer for.

A place you can volunteer for can be something that you want to do when you become older. If you want to become an elementary teacher, you can volunteer at an elementary school and see what it is like. Volunteering in a category that you are interested in doing later on in life can help you decide if it is really what you want to do. If you volunteer at an elementary school and realize that it is a too young of age to teach at then you know you need to move on to higher grades such as middle school or high school. By volunteering at an elementary school during high school you already know what you liked and didn’t like about elementary students and can change what you want for college. Instead of being an elementary teacher you can be a middle school teacher.

Volunteering in a category that you want to be when you grow up is something very intelligent to do. This will help you decide on a lot of things when figuring out college courses. I know that I am always told by my parents to volunteer. You can volunteer just for fun also. If you are not involved in a lot of activities out of school then you should definitely try to volunteer somewhere.

College applications are also something that you should start to be thinking about. If you don’t have many things to put on your college application, then you should try very hard to volunteer someplace. Colleges always want to see students who have volunteered somewhere. I know one popular place to volunteer is the hospital. The hospital gives a ton of opportunities for young adults to volunteer. There is lot of different units you are allowed to volunteer in which is very helpful having a variety to choose from.

If I were to volunteer in a hospital I would choose to volunteer with the new born babies. I love to hold babies and I think it would be a blast to see what it is like when a baby is just born. You get to see how the family reacts with a new born and get to be involved in helping the parents with their newest child.

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The Color Purple

The Color Purple

If you were asked the question, “What is your favorite color?” what would you respond with? I know that my response would be purple. I would have to say that purple has been my favorite color since I was in middle school. If you were to ask any of my friends what my favorite color is they would have to know it. Actually, someone who doesn’t even know me that well could most likely figure out that purple is my favorite color.

I say that because I own a lot of stuff purple. One big thing in my life that is purple is my room. My room is a dark purple with a lime green stripe across the top of my walls. I don’t think that I will ever have to change the color of my room considering purple will probably be my favorite color forever. One of my main pairs of shoes are white with purple outlining. My basketball bag is purple also and to every game I wear my purple shoes with my purple bag on, if that doesn’t show it than I don’t know what does.

Also for every sport that I play I wear either black or purple pre wrap. Most of the time I wear purple pre wrap. I have been made fun of for wearing purple pre wrap when the colors of my uniform have not one thing of purple on them. I find it annoying that they even care but it makes me laugh because all I say is, “Well purple is my favorite color.”

People ask why me why it has been my favorite color for so long. I never know how to answer this question because I have just always liked it. Most people must change from which color they like best. I know that the color of purple will always be my favorite. You never know, I might have a purple house someday in the future.            (326 words)

Double Header Basketball Games

Double Header Basketball Games

                As I stated in a previous blog, there is a major problem regarding fans at the boys and girls basketball games. The girls will never have more fans show up to one of their games than the boys do. It is very irritating towards the girls because they most of the time do not have any students from the school at the game cheering them on.

                I mentioned that there is a solution to this problem but I didn’t quite explain it. The solution that that has been brought up is to have all boys and girls basketball games become double headers. This will allow there to be fans at both the boys and girls games. I am not just saying to have double headers at the inner city games; I am talking about every single game. Some Des Moines schools have been doing this for a while now, and they love it. I have a friend that attends Grimes High School and she absolutely loves having double headers.

                This idea has been brought to the administration and they say that it will cause schools to lose money. Which I do not understand that because if you have both the boys and girls game at one school, they will earn more money by having twice as many people that attend. There might be less home games which they probably believe would cause them to lose money but really it doesn’t matter. If you have only eight home games compared to twelve, you are still probably making more money considering there will be two sets of fans coming in on one night, the boys’ and the girls’ fans.

                If our school decided that it would be a good idea to have every game a double header then they would most likely have to make sure the other schools in the conference wouldn’t mind it. Having double headers for each game would be beneficial in a lot of different ways. For one, the girls would be very pleased to see that they have more than just one row of students in the bleachers. I am not exactly sure, but I believe the school would actually make more money from admissions than what they do now. Also, the atmosphere of the games would be so exciting all the time instead of just the four times we have double headers now.

             I do not know if the administration is ever going to pull this splendid idea off, but I know they should definitely try considering it. It would make not just the girls happy but the student body. Everyone is excited for double header basketball games. Hopefully one day they will see the benefits it could possibly make.
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It's Christmas Time!

It's Christmas Time!

            It is never too early for Christmas. This past weekend my family and I celebrated Christmas together at my house. Yes I agree, that is very different and odd. Every person who I have told that I had Christmas this past weekend ask why. Their expression on their face is priceless because it looks like they are totally jealous, which I bet they are! The reason why we have Christmas so early is because my grandparents leave for Arizona in a couple weeks so we have to have Christmas before they leave. They are usually in Arizona for a couple months including the whole winter because they don’t like the cold much.

            A couple weeks ago as I walk in the front door, I see my mother setting up a little white Christmas tree. As it begins to be completely set up, she then starts to add the decorations to the tree. I ask her what she is doing because we have never had Christmas at my house, we usually go to my Uncle’s in DeWitt. She replied saying everyone is coming to our house for Christmas this year. That really surprised me but I was excited for a change. With lights going up and down the tree and ornaments wrapping the tree, it really started to feel like Christmas.

The best part is having Halloween and Christmas decorations up at the same time. Especially when Halloween hasn’t even occurred yet. It is funny seeing friends walk into the house and their expression on their face from the Christmas tree and snowman sitting in the dinning room. They laugh and say what is that doing here. It’s always a good conversation starter.

            All of this is the beauty of fall. I love the feeling of having Christmas before Halloween, being able to meet up with my family again. Sharing memories and pigging out on all of the food has to be the best. I do have to admit it is weird receiving presents this early especially when they are wrapped in Christmas paper.

            I think it would be weird though if the Meier side of my family actually celebrated Christmas around Christmas time. We have been celebrating Christmas this early for at least six years. When the actual Christmas day comes around, we celebrate with my other side of the family traveling to where my relatives live. I know either way, before Christmas or Christmas day I love to celebrate with my family. I don’t know what I would do without them and I love them for everything they do for me.

           

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Afternoon vs Morning Practice

Afternoon vs Morning Practice

            Are you in sports? Well if you aren’t in sports this blog will most likely not interest you, but feel free to read it! If you are in sports, what would you rather do, have morning practice or after noon practice?

            If I were to answer that question I would say it would depend. If we had to have morning practice every single morning, I would absolutely hate that. Morning practices for volleyball start at 5:30am and are done around 7 or 7:30. Having to wake up at 5 every single morning would become very hard for me to be able to do.

            Our afternoon volleyball practices start at about 3 and end at about 6. So morning practices can be an hour and a half to two hours long and afternoon practices can be up to 3 hours long. This might help you decide what you would rather prefer, morning or afternoon practice.

            It is nice when you have morning practice to be able to go home right after school, complete my homework and then have the rest of the night to do whatever. Also having to wake up at 5 in the morning is not very fun. After my afternoon practices, I usually do not get home till about 6:15 or 6:30 and by the time I start my homework its 7. By the time I am done with my homework I am too exhausted to do anything else and I just go to sleep. That is what really stinks about afternoon practices.

            If it were up to me to make a practice schedule I would make Wednesdays and Fridays morning practice and Tuesdays and Thursdays afternoon practice. All of us volleyball players prefer to have Fridays be morning practice that way we are able to start our weekend earlier. Having Friday morning practice allows us players to actually be a high school teenager and get ready with our friends for football games. When we have afternoon practices we don’t have any time to get ready for games and end up showing up late. When we show up late, we don’t get a good spot in the student section, which is not fun at all.

            So if you were given the decision to have morning or afternoon practice, what would you do? Would you give up sleeping in an extra hour or two so that you don’t have afternoon practice? I know that I would and I bet you would too.

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Read Much?

Read Much?

                Reading is something that every person should do daily. Especially, teenagers should be reading more often. I know that for a fact most teenagers do not read. I believe that needs to change because you learn a lot from reading. Most teenagers do not have a decent vocabulary, including myself. Reading will help change that and will later give students a larger choice in their vocabulary.

                To just read a book, is not going to benefit you as much as you could. You need to read a challenging book.  A book that you don’t know vocabulary and that will make you think about what is going on. Some people think that if they don’t know the vocabulary they will not understand the book, but that is not true. If you don’t understand a word that you come across, look it up. It will help you remember the word and its definition the next time you come across it.

                Most teenagers will say that they hate to read and that they will not do it. I think that if they actually had a book that had a topic they were interested in; more teenagers would start to read. So many teenagers out there do not read and I feel like that will hurt them in the end. I know reading is time consuming but really once you get into a book, you may actually start to like reading.

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It's Fall Time

It's Fall Time

If you were ever asked what your favorite season is of the year what would you say? I know for sure my answer would be the fall going into the winter. I love the sweatpants and sweatshirt weather so much. It is the most comfortable outfit out there. Most people would disagree with me on their favorite season because it feels like everyone loves summer. People love the summer because there is more to do. People like to play outside, tan, go boating, go camping, and grill out. Don’t get me wrong I love to do all of those things and I do love the summer but the fall is by far my favorite. 

When I think of fall I think of football, leaves, Halloween, haunted houses, sweatshirts, and volleyball. Probably the best thing about the fall is being able to go to the Iowa football games and watching my cousin play. He is an offensive lineman, number 60. Yes, every time we get together as a family he eats all of the food and I mean all…he is a pretty big guy. The Iowa football games are so fun. You are able to experience so many different things when attending an Iowa football game. It will always be a memory of mine after attending one.

         Now I would have to admit the next best thing about fall is the cuddling in your sweatshirt on the couch watching movies on Sundays’. I look forward to Sundays’ every day because of the fact that I get to be lazy most of the day. During the week I am so busy with my sports and homework that I never have time to just sit on the couch and watch TV. It is actually kind of depressing. I hate coming home to see my family all together in the living room while I have to go straight down stairs to do my homework…not fun.
        
          Also Halloween and haunted houses...how could you not love them! Halloween you receive tons and tons of candy and haunted houses you get the crap scared out of you. Both of these events are what make fall, fall. Not attending a haunted house during the fall would break my heart. I have attended a haunted house every year with my friends and am always the one that has to lead the pack. I hate that because you are the one that has to feel around to figure out where to go when it’s completely dark.
        
         Volleyball is another reason why fall is my favorite. Volleyball takes place during the whole season of fall. It is one of my favorite sports and I have always enjoyed playing it. Towards Halloween, our team goes on a scavenger hunt as we are dressed in our Halloween costumes. That is a memory that I will never forget.
        
        The last thing that I love about the fall is that it’s almost Christmas time. Christmas is by far my favorite holiday. People then ask why isn’t winter your favorite season and that is because I don’t like when it is extremely cold. I can handle the 40 and 50 degree weather but once it becomes colder, it is not my thing. Fall is my favorite season of the year and I don’t think I will ever think differently.

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