Faith

Faith is a strong word. Everyone has faith in something. To have faith is to believe in something very strongly. Most people associate the word faith to religion. I have faith in my religion, and believe strongly in it. You can have faith in things other than religion though. You can have faith in anything that you think will happen. I have faith that we are going to win state in baseball. I am not positive that this will happen, but I know we have the potential on our team to do so. I have faith that we can win it all. Last year we went to the elite eight and lost in the bottom of the seventh inning. It was a heart breaking loss. Had we won that game, we would have cruised to the state championship. The team that beat us won the next two games by nearly ten runs. They beat us three to two. They were down two to one in the bottom of the seventh to us. I know that this year, we are nearly as good as we were last year. We lost two good hitters and one good hitter but that is about it. So far, this year we are thirteen and four. We have lost some very easy games so far. We have rebounded very well though. It may be hard for us to go on our postseason run to win the state title, but I have faith in our team. In baseball, anyone can beat anyone else on a given day. To win the state title, you have to be good and lucky. I think that we have what it takes. Last year we were very good, but were not very lucky. This year I hope that we can put both of these qualities together in our post season run. I have faith that we can. Faith is a strong word, and I have plenty of faith that we can do what it takes this year to win a state title.

Family

I have many families. I have my real family that I live with, and I have my football, basketball, and baseball family. These are not a real family in the sense that most people would consider. Our football coach preaches that our team is a family. Just like a real family, we should all look after each other. I think we do a good job of this. Even though my other coaches do not preach the philosophy of "family" like the football coach does, I think that we still do this in the other sports. We all look after each other and make sure everyone is doing what they need to do. My real family is obviously the most important to me. I do not really have a very big family. I have 2 aunts and one uncle. My dad has one brother, and my mom has two sisters. I have five cousins total. One on my dad's side, and four on my mother's side of the family. All of my close family lives pretty close to Springfield. My grandparents on my dad's side live in Springfield and my grandparents on my mom's side live in Ashland. My uncle lives near Peoria. He lives the farthest away out of anyone in my close family. My family is very fun and easy to get along with. My uncle is one of the funniest people that I know. It is not a very big family, but I like it this way. I do not think that I would enjoy having a very big family. I think mine is good the way that it is. My family is very important to me. Many people consider family to be one of the most important things in their lives. I guess I would have to agree with this statement. Your family is always there for you in good or bad times. I do not know what I would do without my family. They do a lot for me, and I do not know how I could function without them.

Spring Break

I had a very fun spring break. It was very short though. I thought that it went by very fast. It was very fun. I did a lot. I played a lot of baseball and hung out with a lot of my friends. I managed to stay very busy over spring break. Over the break I also worked at the school. Me and Jeremy worked for the school a couple days over the break. I think they should make spring break longer than what it is. It went by so fast that it seemed like it was over by the time it was just starting. I stayed very busy over the break. Many of the baseball games that we were scheduled to play got rained out. The last weekend of the break we got to go to Tuscola to stay over night and play. We won one and lost one of the games that we played over the weekend. I was ejected from the first game that we played, so I had to sit out the next one. I was brought into the game after a kid on the other team hit a grand slam. I struck out the next batter and then hit a kid in the back. The kid threw his bat into the screen behind home plate. He was imminently ejected from the game, and so was I. Our coach argued the fact that I was thrown out of the game, but it did no good. I had to sit out the game that we played on Saturday since I was thrown out of the game on Friday. It was not fair, but there is nothing that I can do about it. Overall the spring break was very enjoyable and was very fun. I had a blast and it went by very quickly. I can not wait until summer gets here. Spring break gave me a good idea of what my summer is going to be like. It was very fun and I am really looking forward to it.

Job Shadowing

For my day dedicated to Job Shadowing, I decided to job shadow a fire fighter. The name of the fire fighter that I shadowed was Mark Dyment. Mark was a very nice guy and was very easy to get along with. He did not seem to stop talking the entire time that I was with him. I was not the only one to job shadow Mark Dyment. Will Frey, Max Mcelfresh, Dylan Warrens, Taylor Tapio, and Allen Rosenburger were all there too. When we arrived at Mark Dyment's office, he introduced himself and told us all that he highly recommended the job of fire fighting. Mark is no longer an active fire fighter. His job is to go around to businesses and make sure all of their fire precautions and protocols are correct. Mark also visits schools to speak about fire safety. The first thing that we did with Mark was go to a local business and listen in on the meeting that they had about fire safety in the office work place. Mark went over everything that I could think of. I learned a lot about fire safety right then when he was explaining it to adults. It was a very interesting talk. This meeting lasted about 2 hours. It did not seem to take very long though. It was very intriguing to listen to. After this Mark took us to the main firehouse in downtown Springfield. It was a very cool experience. He showed us around the place and told us the ins and outs that came with being a fireman. Mark is 48 years old. He is only two years away from retirement. All firemen retire at age fifty. Mark says that it is a very tough job and it is not for everyone. He also said that he would not trade it for anything in the world. Mark said that he loves his job very much. Mark showed us the fire engine. While we were in the fire house, there was a call, and we got to see the firemen suit up and go out. It only took them about a minute or two to get fully dressed and out the door. I was very impresses with the procedure. Mark has done it all when it comes to firefighting. He used to be one of the first ones in the fire. He was also a driver for the trucks at one point, and now he is a safety speaker and educator for fire safety. I think that fire fighting would be a very rewarding job. This is also one of the reasons that Mark said he joined the fire fighters. He loves helping people. This is one of the reasons that fire fighting interests me. I do not know exactly what I want to do when I grow up, but I do know that I do now want to sit behind a desk all day. I want to do something hands on, that will interest me. I do not want to do the same thing every day. This is why a fire fighter is one of the careers that interests me. When Mark was done showing us the fire house, our day was pretty much over. He took us back to his office and let us go. It was a very educational experience. I think that fire fighting would be a very good career choice for me.