So Close
By: Brittany Plate
Looking up at the crowd, seeing my moms worried face looking down on me, lights shining on me while the sweat drips down my face, I start to get paranoid. I step up to the soft bouncy blue floor, as I walk to the middle and hold my position for my routine. I take a look at my three judges sitting at the table waiting for them to give me the ok to start. Thoughts start running through my head, and the judges don’t look nice. One of the judges raises her head to signal that she is ready, while the other two are still filling out the score sheet from the last gymnast. My arms are starting to get tired as I’m still holding them above my head, waiting for the music to start. I take a quick look at my teammates and then finally my coach. My eyes start to fill up with water, I’m getting really nervous, my couch whispers “You’ll do great Brittany” as a couple of my team members shout “Come on Brittany, score a ten!” I know that I have to at least score higher than a 7.8 to get our team in first place. Finally, after what seemed like twenty minutes all three judges nod their heads giving me the “Ok” to start. I count to five, and give my coach the “Ok” to start the music. I was off! Nobody was going to stop me, I had practiced my floor routine every day for the past week. I knew it by heart. It was the last competition of the season, and I had to end it with a bang!
That was the start of what I thought was going to be the best day of my life. Ever since I was five years old I have been in gymnastics. I guess you could say that I started young. It was my favorite thing to do; every week, I looked forward to going to class and at home I would make my mom help me practice my cartwheels. In second grade, my gymnastics teacher told my mom that I had something special; I was very limber and was ahead of all the kids my age. She bumped me up to the next level. This couldn’t stop me. Going to gymnastics class was not enough; at age eight I felt like I could be doing more so my mom signed me up for a one on one class just me and the couch. Now I was going two days a week. By the time I was ten I was going to gymnastics every day to practice. Well I wouldn’t call it practice, more like fun. We even ended up making our downstairs living room a gymnastics floor by buying soft mats. By the age of ten I was going to my first meet.
I remember being the youngest and having all the other kids look down on me, even my own teammates. They didn’t think that I should be competing and most them felt threatened. The meet was at home so I was comfortable with the surroundings. I was so excited, even though everyone had their doubts. I kept thinking that this was my time to shine. All those years of practicing were going to come out today. I was going to prove that it doesn’t matter how old you are; everyone deserves a try. I kept looking up at my family, everyone was there to watch me. My first routine was on vault, this was my favorite. All I remember is running as fast as I could and jumping on the spring board and over the vault I go. I landed it perfectly. Looking over at the judges I awaited my score. I take a glance up at my mom, and I see her smiling from ear to ear. I couldn’t take it anymore, I knew I did good, but this was the first time I have even been to a competition. Finally I hear 8.2! My mom starts to scream, and my coach is jumping up and down. It takes me a few seconds to realize what I just did. This was amazing, I no longer had to prove myself because in one event I have already shown that I’m ready. As I start to run to my couch, I can hear her saying “ I told you, that you could do it”. There was nothing now that could stop me. I was on fire! The rest of the day went amazing. On beam I scored a 7.8, bars a 8.0, and floor 8.9. From that day on I knew that gymnastics was what I wanted to do. It was the only way that I could express my self. It was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I had to set a goal and reach it.
The next day at practice I had a meeting with my coach. She told me that she wanted me to join the traveling team and go to different states to compete in gymnastics meets. But because I was only ten years, old my mom decide that I couldn’t join and that I had to stay in school. This just meant that I could travel around the state of Minnesota, but could not travel outside. All through middle school, my dream was to be in the Olympics. I would watch the gymnastics videos and want to be just like them. I knew I was good enough; I just needed to get grow up faster and talk my mom into letting me travel outside of the state.
By the time I was fourteen, my mom finally gave in and let me join the traveling team. It was during the summer, so I wouldn’t have to miss school. In the three months of summer I travel to fifteen different states. I received eight first places when combining all my scores from bars, vault, beam, and floor. Three second places and two fourth places. The trophies were amazing, every chance I went home I would put them all over my room. I couldn’t ask for anything better to do with my life.
I just turned fifteen and the summer was coming up again, time to start my traveling. I have waited all year for this. Our team was going to try and make it to 15 more different states again. My body was starting to get drained and taking a turn for the worse. I knew this was what I wanted to do but I was still so young and I couldn’t keep up with the energy. I found my self getting tired. The worst part of it all was that everyone depended on me. I couldn’t mess up, I was the best on the team and always the last person to go so I could pull our team through. I tried so hard to keep a smile on my face, but gymnastics was turning into something that I no longer enjoyed. It was turning into almost like a job with a lot of responsibility. I was at my last competition for the summer doing my last routine. All I needed was a 9.0 or higher to win. My last routine was the floor, which is my favorite because it’s all tumbling and it’s a good way to end the day. Or so I thought…
I hear the music come on and for a split second the room gets really quite and super cold. I pull myself together and before I know it I’m doing my routine. I pass right through the first floor move getting ready to start my second. As I make my way over to the corner, I take another quick glance at my coach. I know this is the biggest part of my night. I have to accomplish a Randolph back handspring, back tuck, back aerial spring. I see the tape in the corner across from me which is where I need to land, not one foot out. I take a deep breath and start to run, Randolph back handspring, back tuck, back aerial CRACK! I hear the sound of my ankle just make the worst noise I have ever heard. The sound makes my stomach cringe! The pain started rushing through my body, as I try and finish my routine. Taking a few steps back getting ready to do my front flip I jump up, tuck my legs and flip. I landed it! The sweat is dripping off my face from all the pain I’m in, my body starts to shake as I fall to the ground. My coach comes running up to me, as I lay there not knowing really what just hit me. All I could keep thinking was that I lost, I didn’t win. It’s the end of everything. I didn’t want this to be it, my team needed me!
I lost everything that day. I shattered my left ankle. I now have three screws and two plates. The worst thing I did that day was shattered my growth plate. My left foot is now never going to grow. The doctor told me that if I went back to gymnastics and I land wrong on my ankle, that I would never walk again. From that day on I have never been able to do gymnastics again. This was probably both the worst and happiest day of my life. Gymnastics was my everything and I couldn’t imagine what my childhood life would be like with out it. Gymnastics was starting to come to the point where it was no longer fun. I had to be so serious. It crushed me every time when I would walk out to start a routine and I had to fake a smile. Its not that I wasn’t grateful, I just think I was to young and everyone wanted me to be so perfect that they forgot I was still young.
I miss gymnastics now, its really hard to look back at all the memories and think that I can no longer do my dream. I still do a couple things here and there but nothing more. My dream was shattered. It felt like I was going through retirement at age fifteen.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Porifolio Paper #2 Comparing and Contrasting
Comparing And Contrasting
Flying vs. Driving
By: Brittany Plate
Whenever people go on a family trip, the first question that comes up is usually “our we driving or flying?” Its usually split up half and half among the family members when it comes to deciding. Before making this decision you have a lot of things that you need to look at. There are pros and cons with both driving and flying. Sometimes it can be pretty obvious which one you should do, other times it wouldn’t hurt to hear the statistics. If you are only going to be traveling a few hours away, then driving would be the better way to go. If you were going on trip a couple states away, here is where the question comes into play. Would you rather fly or drive? Which way is cheaper and safer?
Starting with driving there can be lot of pros. If you are only traveling a couple hours away it would be cheaper to drive than fly. Even though gas prices do get high in the summer, when you look at plane tickets it’s around a hundred dollars if not more per ticket. Another good thing is when you drive and you have a big family its not like you have to buy every member a ticket to get in the car. Instead you buy a tank of gas and its for all of you.
Another good thing about driving is you can take stops and see new areas. Most of the time when you go on trips, there is no time limit that you have to arrive within. This allows you to relax, get out and stretch. Some people like driving better because they feel like they are in control. It’s a way of making them feel better and safer. They like to know that they can make the decisions. When you are driving you are also on the ground and everyone else around you is the similar in the same height. This can make you feel more comfortable and relaxed. The reason I think a lot of people like to drive is because, you get to see your surroundings which makes you more comfortable and you know everyone that’s in your car so makes you more relaxed. A lot of people I know that don’t like is because they just like to know their feet our on the ground.
If you plan on traveling a long distance and don’t plan on staying long then flying is probably the best way to go. If it’s just you traveling, flying is going to get you there a lot quicker. Its also not as boring, you can sit and talk to people that are seated next to you. In most cases flying can be cheaper when you are talking about a long trip. Usually depending on where you are going you get a round trip ticket for under 200 dollars. And if you drive a bigger vehicle its going to cost you around 80 dollars jus to fill up your tank. Well if you are traveling at least a couple states away you are going to need to fill up your tanks at least three times, which in just one way is already over the price of a plane ticket. When you fly you don’t have to worry about stopping and getting gas, or about much cash you have on you. There is no need for a map, because you cant get lost. If you are traveling at night, flying could be safer. You don’t need to worry about drunk drivers, not being able to see, making sure that you are going the right way.
Along with having pros, everything has some cons. Driving at night you have to worry about people leaving the bar, either being tired or having had a little to much to drink. “In 2000 an average of 100 gallons of gas were being wasted each peak period road user” (Opposing Viewpoints Internet) This was happening by people driving to much and not carpooling, letting their cars idol to long in the winter. That’s a lot gas and oil that is being wasted. Also driving pollutes the air when you sit there and let your car idol, you are putting gas chemicals in the air, which some researchers say are causing global warming. (internet, Yahoo Answers) About 100,000 teens die each year from a car crash. So that would make it around 100 people a day who die from being in a car crash. Another con with driving is the weather. Not all weather is suitable to drive in and you could get stranded, unlike flying. Most of the time when you fly you always get where you need to go! If your car dies or breaks down, and you don’t know how to fix it then you have to try and find someone that is going to stop on the side of the road to help you. That could turn into more problems then just your car.
When it comes to flying not many things could go wrong. There has been seven airplane crashes in 2006 that has killed more than twenty in each. There has been other crashes, that has happened in private flying. The worst thing about flying is that you have no control over what’s going on, a lot of people don’t like that. If something was going wrong with the plane, you have a lot of time to think about your family and start to panic. One of the most important things to remember when you are flying is that you if you are staying for a long period of time, once you get there you don’t have a vehicle. Plane tickets are usually cheap but then once you arrive you have to then pay to rent a vehicle. Also when you fly the only thing you get to see out your window are some clouds, there are no pit stops to take a look at the new surroundings.
All in all, if I was to go on a long trip I would rather fly. It’s better in the sense of its a lot quicker and you don’t have to worry about getting lost. If you are traveling with a big family driving with them could get really annoying and make your trip start off on a bad note. When flying, kids are usually pretty good because they think its interesting, and don’t fly very often so it’s something new. I look at It this way, its less likely to crash on a plane, then in a car so to me that gives me more comport. Driving is always a good idea for some short couple hours but just remember it can take you two days to get to California and only three hours by plane. Which would you rather pick?
Flying vs. Driving
By: Brittany Plate
Whenever people go on a family trip, the first question that comes up is usually “our we driving or flying?” Its usually split up half and half among the family members when it comes to deciding. Before making this decision you have a lot of things that you need to look at. There are pros and cons with both driving and flying. Sometimes it can be pretty obvious which one you should do, other times it wouldn’t hurt to hear the statistics. If you are only going to be traveling a few hours away, then driving would be the better way to go. If you were going on trip a couple states away, here is where the question comes into play. Would you rather fly or drive? Which way is cheaper and safer?
Starting with driving there can be lot of pros. If you are only traveling a couple hours away it would be cheaper to drive than fly. Even though gas prices do get high in the summer, when you look at plane tickets it’s around a hundred dollars if not more per ticket. Another good thing is when you drive and you have a big family its not like you have to buy every member a ticket to get in the car. Instead you buy a tank of gas and its for all of you.
Another good thing about driving is you can take stops and see new areas. Most of the time when you go on trips, there is no time limit that you have to arrive within. This allows you to relax, get out and stretch. Some people like driving better because they feel like they are in control. It’s a way of making them feel better and safer. They like to know that they can make the decisions. When you are driving you are also on the ground and everyone else around you is the similar in the same height. This can make you feel more comfortable and relaxed. The reason I think a lot of people like to drive is because, you get to see your surroundings which makes you more comfortable and you know everyone that’s in your car so makes you more relaxed. A lot of people I know that don’t like is because they just like to know their feet our on the ground.
If you plan on traveling a long distance and don’t plan on staying long then flying is probably the best way to go. If it’s just you traveling, flying is going to get you there a lot quicker. Its also not as boring, you can sit and talk to people that are seated next to you. In most cases flying can be cheaper when you are talking about a long trip. Usually depending on where you are going you get a round trip ticket for under 200 dollars. And if you drive a bigger vehicle its going to cost you around 80 dollars jus to fill up your tank. Well if you are traveling at least a couple states away you are going to need to fill up your tanks at least three times, which in just one way is already over the price of a plane ticket. When you fly you don’t have to worry about stopping and getting gas, or about much cash you have on you. There is no need for a map, because you cant get lost. If you are traveling at night, flying could be safer. You don’t need to worry about drunk drivers, not being able to see, making sure that you are going the right way.
Along with having pros, everything has some cons. Driving at night you have to worry about people leaving the bar, either being tired or having had a little to much to drink. “In 2000 an average of 100 gallons of gas were being wasted each peak period road user” (Opposing Viewpoints Internet) This was happening by people driving to much and not carpooling, letting their cars idol to long in the winter. That’s a lot gas and oil that is being wasted. Also driving pollutes the air when you sit there and let your car idol, you are putting gas chemicals in the air, which some researchers say are causing global warming. (internet, Yahoo Answers) About 100,000 teens die each year from a car crash. So that would make it around 100 people a day who die from being in a car crash. Another con with driving is the weather. Not all weather is suitable to drive in and you could get stranded, unlike flying. Most of the time when you fly you always get where you need to go! If your car dies or breaks down, and you don’t know how to fix it then you have to try and find someone that is going to stop on the side of the road to help you. That could turn into more problems then just your car.
When it comes to flying not many things could go wrong. There has been seven airplane crashes in 2006 that has killed more than twenty in each. There has been other crashes, that has happened in private flying. The worst thing about flying is that you have no control over what’s going on, a lot of people don’t like that. If something was going wrong with the plane, you have a lot of time to think about your family and start to panic. One of the most important things to remember when you are flying is that you if you are staying for a long period of time, once you get there you don’t have a vehicle. Plane tickets are usually cheap but then once you arrive you have to then pay to rent a vehicle. Also when you fly the only thing you get to see out your window are some clouds, there are no pit stops to take a look at the new surroundings.
All in all, if I was to go on a long trip I would rather fly. It’s better in the sense of its a lot quicker and you don’t have to worry about getting lost. If you are traveling with a big family driving with them could get really annoying and make your trip start off on a bad note. When flying, kids are usually pretty good because they think its interesting, and don’t fly very often so it’s something new. I look at It this way, its less likely to crash on a plane, then in a car so to me that gives me more comport. Driving is always a good idea for some short couple hours but just remember it can take you two days to get to California and only three hours by plane. Which would you rather pick?
Porifolio Paper #1 Entrance Essay
Entrance Essay
By: Brittany Plate
Why do you think you would be a good candidate for the NIU nursing program?
All my life I have always been interested in helping people. Its one of those things that comes naturally to me. When I was in elementary school and the teachers would always ask you to draw a picture of what you want to be, every year I would draw the same thing: a doctor. I love helping people. Even if it would come to animals I always wanted to be there to help. I remember growing up as a child and having this doctor kit that I would use on my toy baby dolls. Every time I would see an ambulance, I would beg my mom to follow it so I could see what happened. Being a doctor was something that I wanted to do and I was going to do everything I could to be one.
When I was in high school we had the choice of choosing between Chemistry, Physics or Anatomy. Anatomy was a two year class, so I decided to take it my junior and senior year. I loved it. I enjoyed learning everything that was taught in that class, even when it got hard. As the weeks got longer in the first year, I was noticing that fewer and fewer kids were showing up for class. I knew this class was hard and had a lot of memorization, but I couldn’t understand how you could just drop out. Anatomy was something fascinating and everyone should know it. It was about your body and how it worked, how could you not find this interesting? Although there were a few parts where I would struggle, I never gave up. I loved the part in Anatomy where I could do it hands on. The best part was when we could dissect different animals. It was all on paper and in the book. Most of the other things in Anatomy I could see the visual and do it myself. Using my hands helps me understanding.
I remember talking to my teacher, and she told me that it would be a good idea for me to take the CNA course at the college for the summer. It was an eight week course and by the time it was done I could start working in either a hospital or a nursing home. That was the best advice she could have ever given me. I loved taking the class, it was so interesting and it really made it come real of what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life. Clinical was so fun, following around real doctors and watching how they handled emergencies, was probably the best part of the class. I am now CNA certified, and I started working in a nursing home in the fall of 2006. Coming to work every day, to be able to help people and take care of them put a smile on my face. Not very many people can come to work and say that they really enjoy doing what they do, but I can.
As I was coming up on my senior year I was beyond the credits that I needed to graduate. The only classes that I needed were Basic English, Global Issues, and History. I still had my second year of Anatomy and also decided to take a Child Care Practum class. This involved me going to a daycare everyday for about three hours and helping with the kids. It was amazing! The kids made my day, watching them grow and learn. Each kid was different in so many ways. For part of this class I had to come up with activities to do to help them learn. Although it might sound easy, there were a lot of things that came in the way. I had to learn what they liked, how long they could stay focused, which ones could cut paper and which ones couldn’t. At the end of my semester, I had to do a test on each child, testing them on what they know and how much they had improved. There was also a nurse that came in to help me measure them and check for how healthy they were. I learned a lot from seeing her coming in and how she handled different circumstances. Working at the daycare is where I decided that I wanted to be some kind of nurse that dealt with kids. Kids always make me put a smile on my face.
I could be a good candidate to considering accepting to the NIU nursing program because I enjoy working with all different age groups. I’m very outgoing and always try the best I can in whatever I do. I have done everything I could to be where I stand now. Every change that has came my way to help increase my nursing ability I have taken. This is something that I have been dreaming about since I was a little kid. I’m going to Waubonsee right now taking my basic nursing classes. By the fall of next year I will have completed all my general classes and will be ready to start the program. I have never failed or had to drop a class throughout my college year. I take college very seriously and I’m very responsible. You won’t be disappointed in accepting me to attend the NIU nursing program.
By: Brittany Plate
Why do you think you would be a good candidate for the NIU nursing program?
All my life I have always been interested in helping people. Its one of those things that comes naturally to me. When I was in elementary school and the teachers would always ask you to draw a picture of what you want to be, every year I would draw the same thing: a doctor. I love helping people. Even if it would come to animals I always wanted to be there to help. I remember growing up as a child and having this doctor kit that I would use on my toy baby dolls. Every time I would see an ambulance, I would beg my mom to follow it so I could see what happened. Being a doctor was something that I wanted to do and I was going to do everything I could to be one.
When I was in high school we had the choice of choosing between Chemistry, Physics or Anatomy. Anatomy was a two year class, so I decided to take it my junior and senior year. I loved it. I enjoyed learning everything that was taught in that class, even when it got hard. As the weeks got longer in the first year, I was noticing that fewer and fewer kids were showing up for class. I knew this class was hard and had a lot of memorization, but I couldn’t understand how you could just drop out. Anatomy was something fascinating and everyone should know it. It was about your body and how it worked, how could you not find this interesting? Although there were a few parts where I would struggle, I never gave up. I loved the part in Anatomy where I could do it hands on. The best part was when we could dissect different animals. It was all on paper and in the book. Most of the other things in Anatomy I could see the visual and do it myself. Using my hands helps me understanding.
I remember talking to my teacher, and she told me that it would be a good idea for me to take the CNA course at the college for the summer. It was an eight week course and by the time it was done I could start working in either a hospital or a nursing home. That was the best advice she could have ever given me. I loved taking the class, it was so interesting and it really made it come real of what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life. Clinical was so fun, following around real doctors and watching how they handled emergencies, was probably the best part of the class. I am now CNA certified, and I started working in a nursing home in the fall of 2006. Coming to work every day, to be able to help people and take care of them put a smile on my face. Not very many people can come to work and say that they really enjoy doing what they do, but I can.
As I was coming up on my senior year I was beyond the credits that I needed to graduate. The only classes that I needed were Basic English, Global Issues, and History. I still had my second year of Anatomy and also decided to take a Child Care Practum class. This involved me going to a daycare everyday for about three hours and helping with the kids. It was amazing! The kids made my day, watching them grow and learn. Each kid was different in so many ways. For part of this class I had to come up with activities to do to help them learn. Although it might sound easy, there were a lot of things that came in the way. I had to learn what they liked, how long they could stay focused, which ones could cut paper and which ones couldn’t. At the end of my semester, I had to do a test on each child, testing them on what they know and how much they had improved. There was also a nurse that came in to help me measure them and check for how healthy they were. I learned a lot from seeing her coming in and how she handled different circumstances. Working at the daycare is where I decided that I wanted to be some kind of nurse that dealt with kids. Kids always make me put a smile on my face.
I could be a good candidate to considering accepting to the NIU nursing program because I enjoy working with all different age groups. I’m very outgoing and always try the best I can in whatever I do. I have done everything I could to be where I stand now. Every change that has came my way to help increase my nursing ability I have taken. This is something that I have been dreaming about since I was a little kid. I’m going to Waubonsee right now taking my basic nursing classes. By the fall of next year I will have completed all my general classes and will be ready to start the program. I have never failed or had to drop a class throughout my college year. I take college very seriously and I’m very responsible. You won’t be disappointed in accepting me to attend the NIU nursing program.
Journal #15
School is almost done for the semester! I cant wait tomorrow is like my last final day of school! then this weekend and finals! WOO WOO! haha well anyways so my friend Amanda from back home is coming to see me next friday. i cant wait its going to be so much fun. she has been a really big part of my life since 9th grade and has been there for me and my family. its been really hard living here and not being able to see her alot because i was so use to spending every min. with her. so ya she is coming up for five days. im so excited that i already know what we are going to do down to the tee. haha. she flys in on friday and im going to take her to meet some of my friends from here and then saturday we are going down town to do some shopping and so she can see how wonderful chicago! saturday night we are probably going to go back out with some friends and then sunday we have to drive down to iowa because on monday is my grandpas surgery!! Amanda doesnt know this but my grandma is getting a cake made for her cause it was her birthday last week. She is going to love it. As hard as its going to be waiting for my grandpa to have surgery im really glad that amanda took the time to come with me! i have my family there with me but its nice to have her cuz she can relate to what im going through because last year she lost her grandpa to cancer. well anyways its getting late....
Monday, December 3, 2007
Journal #14
ok so this is the last week of classes and im getting really scared seeing how this is my first year in college its getting kinda over wellming with all the work! i hate how colleges have finals all in one week thats alot of studying in a lot of classes! im glad though that my teachers dont make our finals over everything we learned over the year because i would never be able to do it! Its not that i hate to study i just get all worked up and then when it comes to memorizing things i think i learned everything and when i get to the test i forget all the easy stuff. I just dont want to ruin my good grades cuz I got nervous!! So hopefully ill do just fine. Im really excited for break thought because its going to give us some time to relax and not think about school for awhile that way when school starts up again ill be refreshed haha! I wonder if my family is going to go somewhere warm.. i sure hope so. i think im going to have a problem asking for time off of work. seeing how its the busy time of year they dont like it when i have to ask off... its just hard cuz my family lives in a totally different state then me so i cant get to them all. i guess thats what happends when you move away and go to college!
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Journal #13
On friday my mom woke me up at 5 in the morning to go shopping on black friday! it was crazy i so didnt think that she was serious about getting up that early and going shopping and if i knew she was then i wouldnt have got home so late because i didnt get home tell 2 30 so that means i didnt get very much sleep and to spend the whole day with pushy people was not was i looking forward to. first we ran to target because my mom wanted to get gutar hero 3 for my brother cause it was on sale for 84 dollars and when we got there it was gone... then we drove like a hour away to duluth minnesota to go shopping there and we found gutar hero at best buy so that was good. the people were crazy everyone was yelling and pushing it was not fun. this one lady like almost ran me over to get to these sweatshirts WHEN there was like a 100 left! i think people take this day a little to serisouly
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Journal #12
For thanksgiving i went back up to minnesota to see my family. It was really nice being able to see everyone and plus all my friends that i graduated with were home to so i had the chance to see and meet up with all my old friends. I flew up there on tuesday into the cities and my mom, step dad and little sister picked me up from the airport! My little sister is probably the hardest person that i miss just because she is so little and im scared that she is going to forget about me because she is only 4 years old. So it was really nice and made me feel alot better when she saw me she ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug ever. Well up in minnesota i live soo far up in the bonnies so i had to travel another 3 and half hours north just to get to my house! so by the time i even got to my home town it was not tell 10 at night then i went over to my ex house. I dated this kid for 4 and half years and only broke up because i moved here and we didnt want to do the whole long distance stuff so it was really nice spending time with him and his family. The next day i got to see alot more of my friends it was so nice!! its moments like that is when you miss high school just because you sit around and talk about the old days haha it was so nice. then thursday i had thanksgiving with my family it was really nice.. even though i missed my daddy! i felt bad that he was in chicago and didnt have anyone to have thanksgiving with! But anyways it was really nice my mom is a good cook so it all tasted really good! ok enough for now ill finish the rest on my next journal
Monday, November 19, 2007
OUTLINE-- final paper
By: Capital Punishment
Brittany Plate
1. If you kill someone does that mean its ok for a judge to make the decision that your life is also going to be taken by legal injections? Or should you be able to sit in prison for the rest of your life? Do you think that the person in crime should get the choice if he wants the death penalty or to stay alive in a cell. This is a big debate that we the United states struggle with. Capital punishment has been around for many decades even before is was legal. All around the world people were killed from doing something wrong. But does this make it ok? Capital Punishment, should it or shouldn’t it be allowed?
2. Background about Capital Punishment
A. There are 37 states that include the Death Penalty
1. 13 states without
A. these include Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin
B. Each year there are about 250 people added to death row
1. 35 executed. (according to deathpenalty.org)
2. According to the Death Penalty Info Center 3, 350 people are currently on death row
3. California has the largest number with 660 people
C. Harshest form of punishment enforced in the United Sates today
D. Once a jury has convicted a criminal they go to the second part of the trial,
1. the punishment phase.
E. Once a jury has convicted a criminal offense they go to the second part of the trial, the punishment phase
1. lethal injection is the most common form used today
F. There was a period from 1972 to 1976 that capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
1. Their reason: cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment.
2. The decision was reversed when new methods of execution were introduced.
3. From sentencing to execution there is about a seven to eight year wait
II. Safety guards for Capital Punishment
A. Some people feel that innocent people will be wrongfully executed all in the name of justice
1. Persons below eighteen years of a age, pregnant women , new mothers or persons who have become insane shall not be sentenced to death.
2. Capital punishment may be imposed only when guilt is determined by clear and convincing evidence leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts
3. Also capital punishment shall be carried out so as to inflict the minimum possible suffering
III. The strongest argument against using capital punishment is the argument that capital punishment is cruel and unusual punishment. The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, condemning cruel and unusual punishment, is used to protest capital punishment. ( as cited in Carrington, 1978. p. 87).
A. The argument is that it appears to be a red herring argument, one that takes attention away from the facts of the case.
B. Other problems that can occur in the death penalty is
1. Wrong person
2. Suffering and slow dieing by giving not enough median
IV. Pros
A. By legalizing the death penalty in your state could lower the crime rate.
1. There would be no more over crowding in jails and prisons so we can place people with minor crimes in them.
2. We are not giving our tax dollars to put murders and sex offenders in
jail.
A. on average it cost 22,000 of our tax money per prisoner each
year
B. for example The 883,593 prisoners are costing the American taxpayers approximately $19.4 billion plus another $61.7 million for the construction of the 1,143 spaces needed. Even if the prisoner spent 20 years in prison the cost would be approx. $1,520,000.
(according to Abel Martinez)
In conclusion I would pick to have the death penalty in every state. If we would pick up the paste and not have it wait so long from the time they are sentence on death row to the time they are put down then it would make a lot of since. It doesn’t make any since for them to sit in jail all there lives. Its causing back up which is meaning that more and more people that is suppose to be sitting in jail for maybe a DWI are getting the easy way out because there is no room to lock them up. I seriously believe that maybe if everyone knew that the death penalty is real and you are going to get it with in a year then it would slow down crime rates. I think that a lot of murders think that going to jail is the easy way out, most of them want to go to jail because it’s a home. But if they knew that no matter what they were going to get the death penalty maybe some would realize that its not a good idea.
Brittany Plate
1. If you kill someone does that mean its ok for a judge to make the decision that your life is also going to be taken by legal injections? Or should you be able to sit in prison for the rest of your life? Do you think that the person in crime should get the choice if he wants the death penalty or to stay alive in a cell. This is a big debate that we the United states struggle with. Capital punishment has been around for many decades even before is was legal. All around the world people were killed from doing something wrong. But does this make it ok? Capital Punishment, should it or shouldn’t it be allowed?
2. Background about Capital Punishment
A. There are 37 states that include the Death Penalty
1. 13 states without
A. these include Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin
B. Each year there are about 250 people added to death row
1. 35 executed. (according to deathpenalty.org)
2. According to the Death Penalty Info Center 3, 350 people are currently on death row
3. California has the largest number with 660 people
C. Harshest form of punishment enforced in the United Sates today
D. Once a jury has convicted a criminal they go to the second part of the trial,
1. the punishment phase.
E. Once a jury has convicted a criminal offense they go to the second part of the trial, the punishment phase
1. lethal injection is the most common form used today
F. There was a period from 1972 to 1976 that capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
1. Their reason: cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment.
2. The decision was reversed when new methods of execution were introduced.
3. From sentencing to execution there is about a seven to eight year wait
II. Safety guards for Capital Punishment
A. Some people feel that innocent people will be wrongfully executed all in the name of justice
1. Persons below eighteen years of a age, pregnant women , new mothers or persons who have become insane shall not be sentenced to death.
2. Capital punishment may be imposed only when guilt is determined by clear and convincing evidence leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts
3. Also capital punishment shall be carried out so as to inflict the minimum possible suffering
III. The strongest argument against using capital punishment is the argument that capital punishment is cruel and unusual punishment. The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, condemning cruel and unusual punishment, is used to protest capital punishment. ( as cited in Carrington, 1978. p. 87).
A. The argument is that it appears to be a red herring argument, one that takes attention away from the facts of the case.
B. Other problems that can occur in the death penalty is
1. Wrong person
2. Suffering and slow dieing by giving not enough median
IV. Pros
A. By legalizing the death penalty in your state could lower the crime rate.
1. There would be no more over crowding in jails and prisons so we can place people with minor crimes in them.
2. We are not giving our tax dollars to put murders and sex offenders in
jail.
A. on average it cost 22,000 of our tax money per prisoner each
year
B. for example The 883,593 prisoners are costing the American taxpayers approximately $19.4 billion plus another $61.7 million for the construction of the 1,143 spaces needed. Even if the prisoner spent 20 years in prison the cost would be approx. $1,520,000.
(according to Abel Martinez)
In conclusion I would pick to have the death penalty in every state. If we would pick up the paste and not have it wait so long from the time they are sentence on death row to the time they are put down then it would make a lot of since. It doesn’t make any since for them to sit in jail all there lives. Its causing back up which is meaning that more and more people that is suppose to be sitting in jail for maybe a DWI are getting the easy way out because there is no room to lock them up. I seriously believe that maybe if everyone knew that the death penalty is real and you are going to get it with in a year then it would slow down crime rates. I think that a lot of murders think that going to jail is the easy way out, most of them want to go to jail because it’s a home. But if they knew that no matter what they were going to get the death penalty maybe some would realize that its not a good idea.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Journal #11
So my grandpa finally decided to have surgery! its a big stress remover.. let me tell you. At first he wanted to just do radation but because he lives in a small town the hospital didnt give radation he had to go ahead with the surgery. Which im glad that is what i wanted him to do. i felt like radation was not getting rid of the problem it was just helping the problem, and now that he is having surgery he can be done and its going to be over with. the doctor said that he would be out of the hospital the next day and within 3 weeks he should have his kidneys back. thats the only thing my grandpa is worried about he just doesnt want to have to wear diapers again. because he having prostate surgery he has to relearn how to use his kidneys again that is why he has to wear diapers. Ok so when my grandma made the date of his surgery she put it on Monday the 16th... which really stinks because that is the weekend that my friend from minnesota is coming up and i dont want to drag her down to iowa and have her deal with my grandpa having surgery.... she is very close with my family so its not like she would care i just dont want to put her through that. She is suppose to be coming up to have fun not worry about my problems. Also that tueday we have tickets to the bulls game that we really want to go and that we were taking my friend amanda to. so that means that on monday we have to drive down to Iowa stay for my grandpas surgery.. probably stay the night down there and then come back up on tuesday.. and she leaves Wendesday in the morning. I just hope everything works out this is alot of stress that is getting put down on me and this is the last thing that i need when i have alot of finalls coming up. its really getting the best of me.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Journal #10
So my grandpa has his final meeting with the doctor today and im kind of scared! by monday he has to know what he wants to do with his cancer. There is a part of me that thinks he is just not going to want to do anything and that is going to make me really sad. i want him to do something that is going to make him feel better.. so i really hope he thinks about all the options!
but anyways so last week i got a speeding ticket in a construction zone!! ya ouchy it was the first ticket that i have got since i got got my license. it really stinks i hope that it doesnt make my insurence go up to much.. because i jsut got it down to 100 dollars a month. when i first got my car it was 220 because i have a sports car and a V6 engine.. ya i wish i really would have known that before i bought the car. So anyways i have a puppy that i got for graduation and she just turned 6 months so i have to go get her all these shots that IS NOT cheap!! its getting really hard to pay for my bills because i try not to work alot so i have time for school work and a social life. pretty soon i have to get a new car cause for some reason why car is acting up! I just need a more realiable car.
but anyways so last week i got a speeding ticket in a construction zone!! ya ouchy it was the first ticket that i have got since i got got my license. it really stinks i hope that it doesnt make my insurence go up to much.. because i jsut got it down to 100 dollars a month. when i first got my car it was 220 because i have a sports car and a V6 engine.. ya i wish i really would have known that before i bought the car. So anyways i have a puppy that i got for graduation and she just turned 6 months so i have to go get her all these shots that IS NOT cheap!! its getting really hard to pay for my bills because i try not to work alot so i have time for school work and a social life. pretty soon i have to get a new car cause for some reason why car is acting up! I just need a more realiable car.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Journal #9
Its halloween and i had to work. Work went all right we were not very busy because everyone was out trick and treating, but for some reason it went by really fast. I know its a kids day but still i wanted to be home and hand out candy! haha i think im still a kid at heart. I was kind of sad that I couldnt be back in Minnesota today to see my little brother and sister dress up and go trick or treating. It made me realize how much i miss home. But i get to go home in about 2 weeks for thanksgiving. I cant wait! Just to see my family and all my old friends, its going to be the best time. Im just staying for 6 days, i think that is going to be long enough though. Its a really small town up there and not much to do at this time of year. I have a house on a lake up there so in the summer its really fun cause we go boating and jet sking.. and during the winter we take out the snow mobiles! But in the mean time of all that there is nothing ever to do up north.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Narrative
So Close
By: Brittany Plate
Looking up at the crowd seeing my moms worried face looking down on me, lights shinning on me while the sweat drips down my face, I start to get paranoid. I step up to the blue, soft bouncy floor, as I walk to the middle and hold my position for my routine. I take a look at my three judges sitting at the table waiting for them to give me the ok to start. Thoughts start running through my head, and the judges don’t look nice. One of the judges raises her head to signal that she is ready, while the other two are still filling out the score sheet from the last gymnast. My arms are starting to get tired as I’m still holding them above my head waiting for the music to start. I take a quick look at my team mates and then finally my couch. My eyes start to fill up with water, I’m getting really nervous, my couch whispers “You’ll do great Brittany” as a couple of my team members shout “Come on Brittany, score a 10!” I know that I have to at least score higher than a 7.8 to get our team in first place. Finally after what felt like twenty minutes all three judges nod their heads giving me the “Ok” to start. I count to five, give my coach the ok to start the music. I was off! Nobody was going to stop me, I practiced my floor routine everyday for the past week. I knew it by heart. It was the last competition of the season and I had to end it with a bang.
That was the start of what I thought was going to be the best day of my life. Ever since I was five years old I have been in gymnastics. I guess you could say that I started young. It was my favorite thing to do every week I looked forward to going to class and at home I would make my mom help me practice my cartwheels. In second grade, my gymnastics teacher told my mom that I had something special, I was very limber and was ahead of all the kids my age. She bumped me up to the next level. This couldn’t stop me. Going to gymnastics class was not enough at age eight I felt like I could be doing more so my mom signed me up for a one on one class just me and the couch! Now I was going two days a week. By the time I was ten I was going to gymnastics everyday to practice. Well I wouldn’t call it practice, more like fun. We even ended up making our down stairs living room a gymnastics floor by buying soft mats. By the age of ten I was going to my first meet.
I remember being the youngest and having all the other kids look down on me, even my own team mates. The meet was at home so I was comfortable with the surroundings. I was so excited. My family was there to watch me. My first routine was on vault, this was my favorite. All I remember is running as fast as I could and jumping on the spring board and over the vault I go. I landed it perfect. Looking over at the judges I await my score. I take a glance up at my mom and I see her smiling from ear to ear. Finally I hear 8.2. My mom starts to scream, and my coach is jumping up and down. It takes me a few seconds to realize what I just did. As I start to run to my couch, I can hear her saying “ I told you, that you could do it”. The rest of the day went amazing. On beam I scored a 7.8, bars a 8.0, and floor 8.9. From that day on I knew that gymnastics was what I wanted to do. It was the only way that I could express my self. It was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I had to set a goal and reach it.
The next day at practice I had a meeting with my couch. She told me that she wanted me to join the traveling team and go to different states to compete in gymnastics meets. But because I was only ten years old my mom decide that I couldn’t join and that I had to stay in school. This just meant that I could travel around the state of Minnesota, but could not travel outside. All through middle school my dream was to be in the Olympics‘. I would watch the gymnastics videos and want to be just like them. I knew I was good enough I just needed to get grow up faster and talk my mom into letting me travel outside of the state.
By the time I was fourteen, my mom finally gave in and let me join the traveling team. It was during the summer so I wouldn’t have to miss school. In the 3 months of summer I travel to 15 different states. I received eight first places when combining all my scores from bars, vault, beam, and floor. Three second places and two fourth places. The trophies were amazing, every chance I went home I would put them all over my room. I couldn’t ask for anything better to do with my life.
I just turned fifteen and the summer was coming up again, time to start my traveling. I have waited all year for this. Our team was going to try and make it to 15 more different states again. My body was starting to get drained and taking a turn for the worse. I was at my last competition for the summer doing my last routine. All I needed was a 9.0 or higher to win. My last routine was the floor, which is my favorite because its all tumbling and it’s a good way to end the day. Or so I thought…
I hear the music come on and for a split second the room gets really quite and super cold. I pull myself together and before I know it I’m doing my routine. I pass right through the first floor move getting ready to start my second. As I make my way over to the corner, I take another quick glance at my couch. I know this is the biggest part of my night. I have to accomplish a Randolph back handspring, back tuck, back ariel spring. I see the tape in the corner across from me which is where I need to land, not one foot out. I take a deep breath and start to run, Randolph back handspring, back tuck, back ariel CRACK! I hear the sound of my ankle just make the worse noise I have ever heard. I try and finish my routine. Taking a few steps back getting ready to do my front flip I jump up, tuck my legs and flip. I landed it! The sweat is dripping off my face from all the pain I’m in, my body starts to shake as I fall to the ground. My couch comes running up to me, as I lay there not knowing really what just hit me. All I could keep thinking was that’s I lost, I didn’t win. It’s the end of everything.
That day I lost everything. I shattered my left ankle. I know have three screws and two plates. The worst thing I did that day was shattered my growth plate. The doctor told me that if I go back to gymnastics and I take one wrong land I could never walk again. From that day on I have never been able to do gymnastics again. A couple things here and there but nothing more. My dream was shattered. I felt like I was going through retirement at age fifteen.
By: Brittany Plate
Looking up at the crowd seeing my moms worried face looking down on me, lights shinning on me while the sweat drips down my face, I start to get paranoid. I step up to the blue, soft bouncy floor, as I walk to the middle and hold my position for my routine. I take a look at my three judges sitting at the table waiting for them to give me the ok to start. Thoughts start running through my head, and the judges don’t look nice. One of the judges raises her head to signal that she is ready, while the other two are still filling out the score sheet from the last gymnast. My arms are starting to get tired as I’m still holding them above my head waiting for the music to start. I take a quick look at my team mates and then finally my couch. My eyes start to fill up with water, I’m getting really nervous, my couch whispers “You’ll do great Brittany” as a couple of my team members shout “Come on Brittany, score a 10!” I know that I have to at least score higher than a 7.8 to get our team in first place. Finally after what felt like twenty minutes all three judges nod their heads giving me the “Ok” to start. I count to five, give my coach the ok to start the music. I was off! Nobody was going to stop me, I practiced my floor routine everyday for the past week. I knew it by heart. It was the last competition of the season and I had to end it with a bang.
That was the start of what I thought was going to be the best day of my life. Ever since I was five years old I have been in gymnastics. I guess you could say that I started young. It was my favorite thing to do every week I looked forward to going to class and at home I would make my mom help me practice my cartwheels. In second grade, my gymnastics teacher told my mom that I had something special, I was very limber and was ahead of all the kids my age. She bumped me up to the next level. This couldn’t stop me. Going to gymnastics class was not enough at age eight I felt like I could be doing more so my mom signed me up for a one on one class just me and the couch! Now I was going two days a week. By the time I was ten I was going to gymnastics everyday to practice. Well I wouldn’t call it practice, more like fun. We even ended up making our down stairs living room a gymnastics floor by buying soft mats. By the age of ten I was going to my first meet.
I remember being the youngest and having all the other kids look down on me, even my own team mates. The meet was at home so I was comfortable with the surroundings. I was so excited. My family was there to watch me. My first routine was on vault, this was my favorite. All I remember is running as fast as I could and jumping on the spring board and over the vault I go. I landed it perfect. Looking over at the judges I await my score. I take a glance up at my mom and I see her smiling from ear to ear. Finally I hear 8.2. My mom starts to scream, and my coach is jumping up and down. It takes me a few seconds to realize what I just did. As I start to run to my couch, I can hear her saying “ I told you, that you could do it”. The rest of the day went amazing. On beam I scored a 7.8, bars a 8.0, and floor 8.9. From that day on I knew that gymnastics was what I wanted to do. It was the only way that I could express my self. It was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I had to set a goal and reach it.
The next day at practice I had a meeting with my couch. She told me that she wanted me to join the traveling team and go to different states to compete in gymnastics meets. But because I was only ten years old my mom decide that I couldn’t join and that I had to stay in school. This just meant that I could travel around the state of Minnesota, but could not travel outside. All through middle school my dream was to be in the Olympics‘. I would watch the gymnastics videos and want to be just like them. I knew I was good enough I just needed to get grow up faster and talk my mom into letting me travel outside of the state.
By the time I was fourteen, my mom finally gave in and let me join the traveling team. It was during the summer so I wouldn’t have to miss school. In the 3 months of summer I travel to 15 different states. I received eight first places when combining all my scores from bars, vault, beam, and floor. Three second places and two fourth places. The trophies were amazing, every chance I went home I would put them all over my room. I couldn’t ask for anything better to do with my life.
I just turned fifteen and the summer was coming up again, time to start my traveling. I have waited all year for this. Our team was going to try and make it to 15 more different states again. My body was starting to get drained and taking a turn for the worse. I was at my last competition for the summer doing my last routine. All I needed was a 9.0 or higher to win. My last routine was the floor, which is my favorite because its all tumbling and it’s a good way to end the day. Or so I thought…
I hear the music come on and for a split second the room gets really quite and super cold. I pull myself together and before I know it I’m doing my routine. I pass right through the first floor move getting ready to start my second. As I make my way over to the corner, I take another quick glance at my couch. I know this is the biggest part of my night. I have to accomplish a Randolph back handspring, back tuck, back ariel spring. I see the tape in the corner across from me which is where I need to land, not one foot out. I take a deep breath and start to run, Randolph back handspring, back tuck, back ariel CRACK! I hear the sound of my ankle just make the worse noise I have ever heard. I try and finish my routine. Taking a few steps back getting ready to do my front flip I jump up, tuck my legs and flip. I landed it! The sweat is dripping off my face from all the pain I’m in, my body starts to shake as I fall to the ground. My couch comes running up to me, as I lay there not knowing really what just hit me. All I could keep thinking was that’s I lost, I didn’t win. It’s the end of everything.
That day I lost everything. I shattered my left ankle. I know have three screws and two plates. The worst thing I did that day was shattered my growth plate. The doctor told me that if I go back to gymnastics and I take one wrong land I could never walk again. From that day on I have never been able to do gymnastics again. A couple things here and there but nothing more. My dream was shattered. I felt like I was going through retirement at age fifteen.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Journal #8
My dad went away this weekend for work and i had to take care of my grandpa. They live down in Iowa but we went down to pick them up on wednesday so that way we can help my grandma take care of him. This means that they are going to be living up here with us for a while. My grandpa has a meeting with a doctor from up here on november 2nd that only does work on cancer patients! so hopefully he can help my grandpa make up his mind on what he needs to do to get better. I was kinda scared for them to come up here because i still havent talk to my grandpa about it. I jut hate seeing him like this. But he was really good this weekend and being my self i thought i was going to freak out but i didnt! Friday they toke me shopping and me and my grandma hung out! I do have to admit im pretty spoiled! My dad is the only child and im my dads only child soo... i know im spoiled!! but that is enought for now..
oh.. im a cowboys fan AND THEY kicked butt today!! wow wow
oh.. im a cowboys fan AND THEY kicked butt today!! wow wow
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Journal # 6
(I wrote this on my way home last night in the car)
Im driving home and its about 8 at night. We just went over the river that is practcaully the border if illions and iowa. so we still have about 2 and half hours tell home. That makes it that we wont be home tell around 10. I havent even started typing my contrasting paper yet. So tonight when i get home im going to have to stay up really late and type this paper. The hospital that my grandpa was at was about a hour and half away from his house so i could never get to a computer to start my paper. So today was my grandpas final doctor appointment. The doctor said that cancer is rated on a scale 2 - 10 and 10 is being the worse and my grandpa as a 8. He has a couple different things he can do. The first choice is that he can have surgery but then he cant work for 6 weeks and has to wear depends for 6 weeks and just like a baby has to re learn how to control his kidneys. The second choice is to do radiation everyday for 6 weeks, but the bad part about that is that he has to travel about a hour and half to get to the right doctor. The third thing is that he can take this new medicine call "pepples" that just slows down the cancer. I dont like that one.. i think that we should fix the problem and stop it before it grows. So i told my grandpa that the third choice is just not happening.
Im driving home and its about 8 at night. We just went over the river that is practcaully the border if illions and iowa. so we still have about 2 and half hours tell home. That makes it that we wont be home tell around 10. I havent even started typing my contrasting paper yet. So tonight when i get home im going to have to stay up really late and type this paper. The hospital that my grandpa was at was about a hour and half away from his house so i could never get to a computer to start my paper. So today was my grandpas final doctor appointment. The doctor said that cancer is rated on a scale 2 - 10 and 10 is being the worse and my grandpa as a 8. He has a couple different things he can do. The first choice is that he can have surgery but then he cant work for 6 weeks and has to wear depends for 6 weeks and just like a baby has to re learn how to control his kidneys. The second choice is to do radiation everyday for 6 weeks, but the bad part about that is that he has to travel about a hour and half to get to the right doctor. The third thing is that he can take this new medicine call "pepples" that just slows down the cancer. I dont like that one.. i think that we should fix the problem and stop it before it grows. So i told my grandpa that the third choice is just not happening.
Journal # 5
Again I know im writing this on Thursday but im just coping what I wrote from my peice of paper that i kept my journal on.
Its monday night and im trying to get some sleep, I just emailed my english teacher to tell him that im going to be in class tomorrow for my rough draft talk. That really stinks because i know those are big days and they help out alot. I really havent even started yet working on my paper becuase i cant get my mind off of things. Its so hard to focus when i know that my grandpa is dieing. We still dont know how bad his cancer is and i think thats the worst part of it all because now i have all these things going through my head. I keep thinking of the worse possiable things that could happen. My grandma keeps telling me that he is going to be ok but i hate when people say that because he is not ok thats why he is in the hospital! I guess i just dont understand I know that my grandpa is not the only one that has cancer in this world but its just a really hard time for me. Were not driving back home tell late wednesday night after my grandpas next doctor appointment where we find out if the cancer is in his bones. Right now he is just laying in the hospital bed. The doctors want to keep a good eye on him tell his doctor appointment on Wednesday. Its horriable i hate this place.. its so sad and depressing.
Its monday night and im trying to get some sleep, I just emailed my english teacher to tell him that im going to be in class tomorrow for my rough draft talk. That really stinks because i know those are big days and they help out alot. I really havent even started yet working on my paper becuase i cant get my mind off of things. Its so hard to focus when i know that my grandpa is dieing. We still dont know how bad his cancer is and i think thats the worst part of it all because now i have all these things going through my head. I keep thinking of the worse possiable things that could happen. My grandma keeps telling me that he is going to be ok but i hate when people say that because he is not ok thats why he is in the hospital! I guess i just dont understand I know that my grandpa is not the only one that has cancer in this world but its just a really hard time for me. Were not driving back home tell late wednesday night after my grandpas next doctor appointment where we find out if the cancer is in his bones. Right now he is just laying in the hospital bed. The doctors want to keep a good eye on him tell his doctor appointment on Wednesday. Its horriable i hate this place.. its so sad and depressing.
Journal # 4
As i was down in iowa i didnt have a computer with me most of the time because i was at the hospital with my grandpa so I wrote my journals down on paper. I didnt know they were due today so Im just going to write them in like I wrote them.
I have had the worst week of my life! Last friday my dad and I went down to Iowa where my grandma and granda live because he had a doctor appointment to see if he has cancer. The test back that he did have prostate cancer and that they had to do another test to determine if the cancer was in his bones. So all day on friday we were at the doctors and my grandpa had to have a lot of test done. We werent going to find out the answer tell wendesday and also on wendesday they were going to tell us the options of what my grandpa could do to help get rid of the cancer. So here we wait. Im really scared because im super close with my grandpa and i still have all of my grandparents left. So this is really hard for me to take this all in. Im not really sure if im suppose to cry, or what to do.
I have had the worst week of my life! Last friday my dad and I went down to Iowa where my grandma and granda live because he had a doctor appointment to see if he has cancer. The test back that he did have prostate cancer and that they had to do another test to determine if the cancer was in his bones. So all day on friday we were at the doctors and my grandpa had to have a lot of test done. We werent going to find out the answer tell wendesday and also on wendesday they were going to tell us the options of what my grandpa could do to help get rid of the cancer. So here we wait. Im really scared because im super close with my grandpa and i still have all of my grandparents left. So this is really hard for me to take this all in. Im not really sure if im suppose to cry, or what to do.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Journal #3
My weekend went pretty good for the most past! On Friday I went over to my friends house and she has the biggest house I have very seen. I really wanted to move in! But on Sunday I went to the Indy Car Races over in Joliet. This was the first time I have been to a race. Not sure if I liked it or not! Its better then watching it on T.V but it was so loud. I made my dad go buy some ear plugs after the first 2 laps. But before the race started they had a lot of different traitors outside where you could buy shirts and different stuff from the racers. I ended up getting just a T-shirt that says “race girl”. They had a concert going on, I’m not to sure who it is but my dad knew. I know it was a rock band from back in the day. I really wanted to see Danica win. The last 3 laps Danica was in third and she was going to come in for gas but burned out which made her fall back in 11th!! I really mad. If she would have won then that would have been her first race that she won and the only girl that has ever won. Oh well maybe next year!
Journal #2
For the past couple weeks I have been trying to mind a job. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and there was a part of me that didn’t really want a job. But I applied and Marices and a couple restaurants. All the places called me back and I had interviews at all places. After I went to all the places I decided to get the job at Marices, which is a clothing store. Before I moved here I working in a bridal store so I think this job is going to be easy for me to get a hang of things. I love working with people, and working in a clothing store I have to work with people. I hate working with people that are crabby and these managers seem really nice. Every time I walk in there, they are always laughing and having fun. That makes its a lot easier to get up and go to work. Today I went in and got my papers that I need to fill out for taxes and stuff. And my first day is Friday!! So now getting a job is going to help me get out and meet new people.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Journal #1
This weekend it Labor Day and a friend of mine is coming to see me from my home town Grand Rapids, Minnesota. I cant wait! We dated for four years and decide to call it quites when i moved here. I like it better this way. He is an amazing friend, and im glad that we could still keep that kind of relationship. Im not sure what he are going to do yet, I think we are going downtown to one of the many museums. Its going to be nice to catch and talk to somebody that really understands me. Even though i have lived here for a couple months i still dont know alot of people so it can get pretty boring. Every day I try and meet new people and being in school helps so im sure its going to get better.
Homework
I love to do things that are scary, to me that makes me who I am! It makes me feel good about my self after I have accomplished something hard/scary. But I would have to say there is one thing that I would never do again, and that is getting my wisdom teeth pulled. Ok I know it sounds funny, but before this I had never had surgery before. I remember going to the dentist and having them tell me that I need to get them pulled. You know, I was fine with it a little scared but nothing I couldn’t handle.. (so I thought). Ok so the day comes where I go and meet with the Doctor that is doing my surgery. We take a couple x-rays and he comes back to tell me that all four of my teeth are under my jaw bone, which is why I have been having a lot of pain with them. To make matters worse, the Doctor told me that during the surgery he has to break my jaw in four different places. So for someone that has never had surgery before I thought I was going to have a heart attack that’s how scared I was.
The day of the surgery came, the day that I was so wishing would have never came. Everything went fine according to the surgeon, and I should have no problems. Ok so I know that you are suppose to swell and get those awful looking bruises, but there was something else that just didn’t seem right in my mouth. I don’t even know how to explain it other than a really bad infection. It looked like a big bubble. If you felt my check it was this huge bump. I went back to the dentist four times and they would just give me more pain killers and told me that it’s just because you had a really bad case.
So finally after 2 months went by from having surgery, and there was still this huge bump on the side of my face I went back in and told them that they need to fix it! I ended up getting rushed to surgery, where they found that my surgeon left a piece of gauze down in my wisdom tooth hole and when they stitched me up it got stuck down there to cause this huge infection. Luckily I’m all good now. Not only the worse pain I have ever felt, but the scariest thing ever. After that I really hope I don’t need anymore surgery’s!
The day of the surgery came, the day that I was so wishing would have never came. Everything went fine according to the surgeon, and I should have no problems. Ok so I know that you are suppose to swell and get those awful looking bruises, but there was something else that just didn’t seem right in my mouth. I don’t even know how to explain it other than a really bad infection. It looked like a big bubble. If you felt my check it was this huge bump. I went back to the dentist four times and they would just give me more pain killers and told me that it’s just because you had a really bad case.
So finally after 2 months went by from having surgery, and there was still this huge bump on the side of my face I went back in and told them that they need to fix it! I ended up getting rushed to surgery, where they found that my surgeon left a piece of gauze down in my wisdom tooth hole and when they stitched me up it got stuck down there to cause this huge infection. Luckily I’m all good now. Not only the worse pain I have ever felt, but the scariest thing ever. After that I really hope I don’t need anymore surgery’s!
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