Emily

For my National Honors Society application, I'm required to write a one page essay about a time when I showed good character, and a time when I was challenged to show good character. My essay is below and I would appreciate any critiques and editing! (Grammar especially!)

Character Essay

I have instilled in myself a strong set of morals, morals which I find myself putting to use daily. Life as a high school student presents itself with a wide variety of ethical issues and choices that need to be made. A person’s true character soon becomes evident as their merits dictate the course their decisions will take them on. Whether it be through not cheating on tests or turning down alcohol, my own merits have come into play consistently. One way in which I frequently demonstrate good character is helping people with their homework. One particular case was when I helped a friend who was struggling in her classes get back on track in school. I helped her prioritize her homework every week and assisted her in any assignments she didn’t quite get. Over the course of the year in which I was helping her, she became very organized and hard-working. I taught her some of my most effective study methods and made sure she was keeping up with all her work. Her grades began to steadily climb, and by the end of the year she had achieved the A’s and B’s that she’d wanted. I’m always willing to help with homework, and inspiring a positive change in someone’s life is certainly a benefit. However sometimes, it becomes more complicated and difficult to make those changes. Although I push myself to display good character on a daily basis, I still am a flawed individual and recognize the room for self-improvement. My experience has brought me to the realization that it is the times when we most struggle to make the right choice that we improve in the greatest increments. One such defining time in my life had to do with dealing with a friend’s issue. I knew my friend had been dealing with some problems, but I had no idea the extent to which these troubles had affected her until I saw the scars on her arm. I was frankly stunned. She had always confided in me, and I in turn had always talked her through whatever she happened to be facing. I soon realized though that self harm is not something so easily shared. It has its roots in secrecy and she attempted to keep that secret. Staying silent however, was not an option for me as I knew I had to confront her about it. That in itself was hard enough- hard enough to see that sort of extreme pain in someone you care so much about. While I had helped her through her problems before, it was when she revealed her contemplations about suicide that I knew that I alone would not be assistance enough. She wanted me to keep her secret, but I knew for her own sake that I couldn’t allow that. I was scared at the prospect of possibly losing one of my closest friends over exposing her secret, so scared that she wouldn’t understand why I had to go against her trust in me. Though ultimately I knew I had made the right decision in contacting her school’s counselor, even if it was an arduous one to make. I had helped my friend, maybe even saved her, and that was enough. I’ve come to realize that our most emotional experiences truly are the ones that shape us the most and show our true colors. That experience along taught me a considerable amount about life and how hard it can really be to make the right choices. I feel so very indebted to those certain people in my life who lent me a piece of their character to adopt into my own. I’ve become both assiduous and amiable- an overall conscientious person. I regard my character to be the greatest set of ‘life skills’ that I have yet attained.

I have to write an essay detailing some 6 hours of community service I've done for National honors society. Please look at it and suggest anything I might do to improve it! (This is the expected length)

Service Essay

A considerable portion of my community service has always come from my participation in clubs. It’s largely due to this that I find clubs to be so essential and fulfilling to be a part of. Arguably my most active club, S.A.F.E Youth, also has the most opportunities for service. This year started off with our highway cleanup. We go out onto our “adopted” highway for about an hour and pick up trash in the ditches. However, before this school year even started, I had already partaken in some S.A.F.E Youth sponsored service. In the summertime I volunteered to be stationed at one of the markers along a 5K race, passing out water to the incoming runners for an hour. S.A.F.E Youth also does some form of service for the holidays. This year I was the November leader, meaning that I was responsible for planning our Thanksgiving activity. In preparation I bought the necessary materials and cut all the paper for our pie-baking and card-making event. We spent about two hours baking different types of pies to donate to Grace Place, as well as making cards for various teachers and community members. For our Christmas service, we spent about an hour making tie blankets which we also donated. S.A.F.E Youth is not the only service heavy club that I am a member of however; FFA also has a large number of opportunities for service. Perhaps my favorite yearly FFA event is ‘Breakfast With Santa’ where Santa comes to Farm and Home and FFA members volunteer to help out while the kids visit him. Most members are tasked with making breakfast for the kids who come, but last year I was in charge of the craft table and helped the kids make their own ornaments for 4 hours. Another FFA service activity I find to be fun is when we went to Deerfield in the past year and played bingo with the residents of the nursing home for an hour. We also brought different animals for them to see and pet. Both clubs and the advantages they provide in terms of community service have genuinely benefited my character and attitude.

For Forensics (public speaking) I'm entering in the Storytelling category. It's exactly what it sounds like, you have to tell a story about a specific topic. I need to prepare 4 stories about four different topics, but I'm having trouble finding any.

Topics:

1. A story from or about Africa

2. A story about a game, contest, or competition

3. A story about mismatched or unlikely love

4. A story about coming of age

If you know anything that would work, please comment! Short stories, fairy tales, and folk tales all work!

*I posted this earlier but I remembered some details*

I believe I read this book sometime in middle school, so it's probably meant for a YA audience.

Anyways the basic plot of what I can remember (some things might be off): It's sort of a coming of age book that starts off with a young girl-probably teenager- whose family is well-to-do. I think it takes place in the 1800s or early 1900s, in New York (Brooklyn?). Anyways we meet the main character at her family house where a man visits them. Her family forces her to marry this man (think he was a businessman or some wealthy guy). They marry and move to his house (in Brooklyn?) It is a beautiful big old house, but she is unhappy as she was forced into it all.

That's all that I for sure remember- if anyone knows this book I'd be so grateful!

Even a list of books that it might be would be sooo helpful!

*I had thought it was historical fiction, but now I'm pretty positive this was written by a female author and is supposedly based on the true story of her grandparents of great-grandparents. I believe the main character kept a diary and the author based the story of that. Above I said she was unhappy, but I think they grew to love each other. (?)

Anyways I know this is vague but anything at all that sounds similar would be great!

I believe I read this book sometime in middle school, so it's probably meant for a YA audience.

Anyways the basic plot of what I can remember (some things might be off): It's sort of a coming of age book that starts off with a young girl-probably teenager- whose family is well-to-do. I think it takes place in the 1800s or early 1900s, in New York (Brooklyn?). Anyways we meet the main character at her family house where a man visits them. Her family forces her to marry this man (think he was a businessman or some wealthy guy). They marry and move to his house (in Brooklyn?) It is a beautiful big old house, but she is unhappy as she was forced into it all.

That's all that I for sure remember- if anyone knows this book I'd be so grateful!

Even a list of books that it might be would be sooo helpful!

For a club I'm in, I'm planning the activities for November. We will probably do one thing for thanksgiving. My ideas so far are:

-serve dinner at a food shelter

-make pies and donate them

-make thanksgiving cards for community members

If you have any other ideas I'd really appreciate it! Also I think will we make the cards no matter what other activity we might do. I asked some people and they said making pies would be fun but I don't know how long or easy that would be.

For a club I'm in, I'm planning the activities for November. We will probably do one thing for thanksgiving. My ideas so far are:

-serve dinner at a food shelter

-make pies and donate them

-make thanksgiving cards for community members

If you have any other ideas I'd really appreciate it! Also I think will we make the cards no matter what other activity we might do. I asked some people and they said making pies would be fun but I don't know how long or easy that would be.

I really want to learn a new language and originally I was deciding between Italian, French, and German, but I ruled out German since i think I'd rather learn one of the romantic languages. So would you recommend Italian or French? I really loved Italy and would definitely want I go there someday, but Id also love to go to France so.. I'm in Spanish 3 so I understand Spanish grammar to a degree, and people say Italian and Spanish go hand in hand. Anyways which language do you prefer and would recommend I learn? If I were to learn both, which would you advise I learn first?

For history I have to take a picture that captures what I believe describes/defines America. It can be straightforward but my teacher said she'd like to have something more symbolic where I'd have to explain the picture for her to understand how it defines America. This has to be something I can realistically take a picture of though, and has to represent America today. So if you have any ideas I'd love for you to share (I'm brainstorming ideas too I just want some outside input)

For history I have to take a picture that captures what I believe describes/defines America. It can be straightforward but my teacher said she'd like to have something more symbolic where I'd have to explain the picture for her to understand how it defines America. This has to be something I can realistically take a picture of though, and has to represent America today. So if you have any ideas I'd love for you to share (I'm brainstorming ideas too I just want some outside input)

For history I have to take a picture that captures what I believe describes/defines America. It can be straightforward but my teacher said she'd like to have something more symbolic where I'd have to explain the picture for her to understand how it defines America. This has to be something I can realistically take a picture of though, and has to represent America today. So if you have any ideas I'd love for you to share (I'm brainstorming ideas too I just want some outside input)

For history I need 10 words from other people that describe America. They can be descriptors (fat, pretty, lazy) or other words that you associate with American society. (Fast-food, reality tv) So using a single word please describe America. Thanks to whoever helps! (Words can be repeated I just need 10 from different people. My mom said "freedom")

I'm wondering..

1. How many kids are in your family including yourself? (In other words, how many siblings do you have)

2. What was it like growing up and living with that size of family/number of kids?

3. What did you like about it/ the pros?

4. What did you dislike about it/ the cons?

5. Do you wish you had fewer or more siblings or just the same?

6. Finally keeping in mind your own experience, how many kids do you ideally want/have? Why?

I'm just curious to know other people's view, answer what you can!

I myself am the youngest of 4 kids and while I loved the feeling of a bigger family than the norm, and there was always someone about, money was always a bit tight!

I'm wondering..

1. How many kids are in your family including yourself? (In other words, how many siblings do you have)

2. What was it like growing up and living with that size of family/number of kids?

3. What did you like about it/ the pros?

4. What did you dislike about it/ the cons?

5. Do you wish you had fewer or more siblings or just the same?

6. Finally keeping in mind your own experience, how many kids do you ideally want/have? Why?

I'm just curious to know other people's view, answer what you can!

I myself am the youngest of 4 kids and while I loved the feeling of a bigger family than the norm, and there was always someone about, money was always a bit tight!

While episodes of Doctor Who like Blink are absolutely great, my favorite episodes are the ones that are fun, goofy, and funny. While no episode is entirely happy- not even mostly happy- there are those episodes that are full of comic relief. So on this criteria alone, what is the best episode (only on this criteria, I'm not talking most brilliantly made or anything)

So I'm not getting married but I got the idea that maybe movies would be cute as wedding favors.

For example if each table is named after a great classic romantic movie or named after the couple in the movie, then each guest's favor would be the movie of the table they were at. The movie could have a cute note attached to it comparing the bride and groom's love to the movie romance.

I was just wondering if you think that's a cute idea or cheesy? I just don't like all the useless wedding favors with the bride and grooms name on them. Why not give guests a movie they can enjoy?

The company my dad works for owns a vacation home out three hours from where we live that they allow their employees to stay in if they want. It's not anything fancy, but it's a nice house that's meant to house 10-15, and it's my dad's turn for 3 days in the beginning of august. I know it's a ways off, but I can bring a friend and I need to decide who to bring. I could bring either

A.) My best friend of a long time, thing is we've had a lot of conflict this past year, and I've found that sometimes we run out of stuff to talk about. However this could be a great opportunity to repair our friendship and get back to normal..

B.) One of my other best friends. We only became friends this year, but we have tons in common, and were fast friends. We'd have plenty of things to talk about, but she hasn't really been around my family before, so 3 days might be a bit much. This could be a great way to become better friends though!

So do I repair an old friendship or strengthen a new one? I know this seems like a silly problem, but I love them both and am sorta torn! Obviously I would take the other if one couldn't go, but assuming they're both free whose do I choose?

For my dad's birthday/father's day (same day) I made him a tardis card. The tardis' doors open to a space where I'm going to write something related to doctor who. I was thinking of writing "Like the tardis, our love for you is bigger on the inside," but I realized that sounds kinda corny. I just want a clever saying to put in it. It can be an actual quote or just something made up, so long as it relates to Doctor Who and something that would fit in with his birthday/father's day.

I'm getting a new phone and what I want is either an iphone 4s or galaxy s3. Both will cost me 40-50$ and both have 16GB.

Galaxy s3:

Pros = 4g, fast, big screen

Cons = The phone is a bit too big for me

Iphone 4s:

Pros = Better size for me, I like the look better

Cons = No 4g

So what would you say? Does the iphone 4s' features and nice size make up for no 4g, or does s3's 4g and features make up for large size? If you have either tell me how you like them and please tell me your opinion!