Long time, no post

Due to my hectic last few weeks of high school, my summer laziness, and starting college. I have severely neglected this blog. As a freshman in college, I had no way to continue Firehouse Jewelry, so it is on a temporary hiatus until after I graduate. On to the good news, I am doing well in college and got a summer job. My job is located in Mount Rainier, Washington. In honor of this job, I have started a new blog for this experience and the rest of my high school career. The new blog is called “Thoughts of Paradise” and can be found here.

Driving the Inspirations

As I mentioned early on in this blog, my buisness's name was inspired by my dad's 1955 American LaFrance Pumper truck. I decided that one day during my senoir year I would drive the truck to school one day, well that didn't quite work out due to some family issues. But today, my dad and I went out and I learned to drive the firetruck.

Valedictorian Speech

Many Roads, Many Choices

We are the one hundred and first class to graduate from Lenoir City High School. That means that one hundred others valedictorians’ have struggled as I have to come up with a speech and say something new, fresh, and interesting. Over the past few months, the class of 2009 has been overwhelmed with decisions to make. How many graduation announcements to buy? Where to go to college? Can I get a job somewhere? What to wear to prom? Should I wear clothes under my graduation gown?

As a class, we are leaving behind the safety as security we have always known. Many of us has lived and gone to school with each other since kindergarten while others joined us throughout our school years. For the last twelve years, our routine from August to May has always been the same. Wake up, go to School, Extra-Curricular Activities, Homework. This phase of our lives is now over.

Many us are leaving our friends behind. Although our friendships may be physically separated due to college or job choices, hopefully, we’ll be able to maintain our friendships. And even if our friendships drift apart, we will always have the memories we had made in high school – the sports we played, the games we watched, the tricks we pulled, and the trouble we should have gotten caught for…..

Robert Frost’s most famous poem starts with “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both”. The poem is about making choices, and some choices are easy and some are hard. Each of us must evaluate the paths available and select our own path, even if it means taking the road less traveled. Or, for some of us, where no path exists, we will forge ahead, and make our own road.

Up until this point, we’ve had many to help guide us in making the right choices, our parents and families, teachers, coaches, religions leaders, and more. But, we can no longer expect our parents to be there to guide us at every turn. We are now fully responsible for our actions. Our decisions are our own.

We start this next phase of our lives with a clean slate. The decisions after this moment will play a direct role in defining who we are and the world around us. What we must remember is that we can define our future through decisions we make over the next few years. Very often our paths will diverge; we will be faced with two paths. Sometimes our decisions will lead us in ways we never imagined. We must move on and live our lives. Despite how we try to control our world, we can never predict the exact results of our actions. In the end, all that really matter is that we work hard and trust ourselves. In the immortal worlds of Winston Churchill “Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.”

Long Delay

It has been a busy couple of weeks, between filling out scholarship applications and deciding on college, finishing school, and finally writing my speech for graduation

College Decision

After weeks of debates and running though many different scenarios, I have finally made a decision on which college I would like to attend. I spend several day and one sleepless night thinking about my options. I finally came to a decision that despite the increased cost in my heart I knew that I belong at the:

University of Florida

I am looking forward to getting out of my hometown and meeting a brand new group of people. I plan to get involved in the Sailing Club, inter-mural soccer and anything else that strikes my interest.

Its Official

I am Lenoir City High Schools Valedictorian.

Book Review

I have decide that I will start reviewing books that read seeing as I read one a week during most weeks.
My first book is Dean Koontz’s novel Life Expectancy. This book is about a young man is born on the same night his grandfather dies. Before his grandfather died, he made several predictions about his grandson. The most important of these predictions is the five terrible days. On each of these days, Jimmy Tock will face many challenges and a crazy family of clowns. The story has many twist and turns and always leaves you guessing.
Most of the humor is not for those who enjoy crude humor. This book is very good but Dean Koontz’s fans be warned, this book is very different from all of his other books.