I was going through my old writings and I came across this. Since I am in Korea on foreign exchange thanks to the help of Rotary, I thought that all of you might want to read the application that helped me get where I am today. I think I wrote these answers in October 2004, so picture me in the fall of my Junior year of high school as you are reading this. Don’t forget to keep scrolling and read about my life in Korea though. I just added so many new pictures last night. Pleasant blogging…1. What are your school interests and activities? What offices or leadership positions have you held?
This year I like to joke that I am majoring in English. I enjoy English classes and right now four out of seven of my classes are English. I also enjoy foreign languages. I am in my third year of Spanish this year and hold the office of Spanish Club Treasurer. I am also a member of Student Council, Interact, our school newspaper, Knowledge Bowl, and Stage Manager for the fall play. In the Spring I plan to participate in Speech and the School Musical.
2. What are your hobbies and accomplishments? (e.g., art, music, sports, etc.) Elaborate on your interests in these areas. (e.g. Why did you become interested in the activity? How long have you been interested? How much time do you devote to the activity?)
When I was younger, I loved to play sports. I played softball, track, basketball, and volleyball. (When I was very young I played soccer, but I moved and they did not have soccer where I moved to.) Then as I grew older sports became a win or lose game instead of playing for fun, and I became a fan instead of a player. Now I am more into the arts, as one could notice from the above question. I have always been interested in both of these areas, but it is difficult to pursue both at the same time. I don’t know if this is the category which it would fit into, but at our school we have “letters” which one can win if they meet certain requirements for their activities. I have an academic letter, a band letter, and a drama letter. Along with two bars, one for academics and one for drama, this means that I received those twice.
3. What are your future plans and ambitions concerning your education and future career? Why?
My highest interest of study is International Studies. I have been looking at colleges and their majors. If I am accepted to my first choice college, I hope to double major in International Studies and Linguistics. A requirement to graduate from this school is to be fluent in a second language, but I hope by then to be fluent in about four, although, I can only speak English and some Spanish right now. While in college I will study abroad for a year, but since I am striving for an International understanding I would like to be abroad in different places for even longer. After school, I plan to find a job where I can travel the world and help other people: possibly as an interpretator, or maybe a teacher. I’m not sure exactly what I want to be yet, but I do know that I want to understand and help people from all areas of the world.
4. What do you specifically hope to accomplish as an Exchange Student, both during your year and when you return?
As an exchange student I hope to increase my knowledge of another culture and even become part of it. I hope to become fluent in another language, which will help me become immersed in a completely new world. I also want to educate other people on what life is like in my community and as an American in general. I plan to make lifelong friends that I will be able to visit as an adult and that will have a place to stay (my home) if they ever travel to the United States. After my return I will educate other possible exchange students about the country that had been my home for an important year of my life and also share my experiences with anyone who wishes to listen. As an exchange student I want to become part of a family and part of the country and community, not just a tourist from an outside world. While I am abroad I plan to still write for the Cannon Falls school newspaper as a columnist from abroad to share my life and the community which I am in overseas with the community of my hometown.
5. Elaborate on the occupations of your mother and father. (e.g., What product or service does each make or perform? What is her/his position or title?)
My mother, Theresa, is a factory worker. She works the night shift at a place called Cannon Equipment. She “makes metal shiny” or plates metal. She makes international products anywhere from metal signs for stores, security cards for Ford, or luggage carriers for Royal Caribbean.
My dad, Jim, is a crane operator. He runs various types of cranes and tower cranes. He hoists many types of materials used in building high-rise and other types of buildings: pouring concrete, setting iron, etc.
6. Tell us about trips that you have taken outside your country. Why did you take these trips, with whom, for how long, etc?
The only time I have ever left the United States is a trip to Canada when I was about two years old. I don’t remember any of it. I feel that I leave the country in some books that I read or movies that I watch, but it is only in my mind. I have always longed to travel, but lack of time and money has always confined my family to stay home and not take vacations. Next summer I will be traveling to Spain for two weeks with about fifteen other students and three teachers in my Spanish Club. This will show me another culture and help me to practice my Spanish language skills. Another trip that I would be able to take after my senior year of high school is called the “Humanities Trip”. Around fifty students along with teachers tour Italy, Paris, and London admiring beautiful architecture and art that they have learned about in the past two years. I will probably not go on this trip, because I plan to already be over seas on exchange. I do plan to travel Europe on my own someday and visit the beautiful places I am learning about from the Renaissance period.
7. We all dislike certain things. List those things which you dislike. (e.g., what kind of foods, certain animals, certain treatment by other people, etc.)
I am not a picky eater, and I love animals, except for birds inside the house (they make it absolutely impossible to concentrate), but I do dislike some treatment of people. I do not like it when people make fun of other people, especially if they don’t even know the person. I also dislike clutter and disorganization.
8. List what you feel are you strong characteristics.
My strong characteristics are that I am well organized, ambitious, open to new ideas and friendly. My room is usually clean or easy to clean, and I have a specific place for most of my things. I have ambitions. This is apparent in question #3. I am open to new ideas and like to listen to other people’s opinions even though I might not agree. And I am very friendly. At school I do not belong to one “clique”, but I am acquaintances with at least one person from every “clique” and might even have best friends from groups that are completely opposite each other. I make friends very easily and usually keep them for long periods of time. I have made many friends who are foreign exchange students, if they were here for a year or even just three weeks.
9. List what you feel are your weak characteristics.
My weakest characteristic is that I procrastinate. I set high goals for myself, but keep putting them off until the last minute along with my homework. I usually finish the things that are important to me at the very last minute. I am a procrastinating perfectionist: I wait until the last minute but things need to be perfect. This creates a lot of stress in my life. If I can overcome this trait, my life will become much easier.
10. Describe a typical non-school day in your life. (e.g., What do you do when you have free time?)
Unless it is summer, on a non-school day I usually have a lot of homework to do, but I still like to have fun, so I will usually procrastinate on finishing the homework. I usually wake up around 8am or 9am on a weekend morning. I walk out of my room and usually find the kitchen a mess, so I will put it into some sort of order. Then I might do a little bit of homework. Some weekends I work at a place called the Dairy Inn, which sells ice cream and burgers, but luckily it closes at the end of October and I won’t have another job during the school year. If I don’t work, I might go to a movie or bowling with my friends, or else to one of their houses to watch a movie. Another activity we particularly like is just to drive around in the county and talk. I’ve learned a lot about people from this. If I am out on a weekend night I will usually come home around 1am, because one of mine and my friends’ favorite things to do is to lie outside and star gaze. The stars are best late at night, and we lose track of time. Then sometime during the weekend I do get my homework done.
11. Describe what you do at your school. (e.g. How many subjects do you take? What are they? How long are the classes? What is your daily schedule during your school year? Start with your wake-up time and discuss only one typical day’s schedule.) If you have course choices at your school, tell what and why you chose as you did.
On a school day I will wake up somewhere between 5:45am and 6:30am. On most days I still have homework in the morning and will finish that before I drive to school. Classes begin at 8:05, but on many days I have to be at the school by 7:30 for a meeting of one of my activities, otherwise I arrive around 7:55. A school day is made up of seven classes with a lunch-break after 5th hour. I begin the day with World History/Geography after 55 minutes the next bell rings, we have a five minute passing time and I am in a different classroom for Advanced Placement Literature. Next, is Creative Composition, then Chemistry and Spanish 3 before lunch. Lunch is thirty minutes in the cafeteria or after we are done eating we can talk right outside the building. After lunch I have Advanced Placement Composition and Humanities. In grades 9 and 10 we were only able to choose two electives (classes) along with a math class, but this year I have chosen all of my classes except for World History which is required. I decided not to take a math class this year, because I am two years above my class in math, and it is not my favorite subject. After school I will either have a meeting right away or else half an hour of free time before play practice. Then, I am stage manager for “The Curious Savage” from 3:30pm-5:15pm. After practice I go home and try to do homework all night with a break for dinner or talking with family. I usually go to sleep between 10pm and 11:30pm.
12. Describe your home. (e.g, Do you have your own room? Do you share your room with others? Where in your house do you study? How far is your home from your school? Do you drive, ride the bus, or walk to school?)
My home is close to ten miles south of Cannon Falls. I live between a cornfield and a bean field in the break between two clumps of forest. Although this sounds like the middle of nowhere it is only forty-five minutes south of Minneapolis. My house is a small country home: right inside the front door is the kitchen to the right is the living room, then an open office and the bathroom. From the kitchen one can go up a steep set of stairs to my brother’s room, my parents’ room, or a closet that we use for storage and clothes. Beneath the house is an unfinished basement also used for storage and outside are about 12 building including the original homestead house. My bedroom is straight through the kitchen from the front door. I shared it with my older sister who is also my best friend until she left for college this fall, and am now sharing it with an exchange student, Kaori, from Japan for about three months. My room is without competition my favorite place in my home and the place where I will most likely go if I need to think or study. Other places for me to study are at a desk looking out the window in my upstairs hallway, the kitchen table, or the computer in the office. Outside is also a very calming place to be in my quiet corner of the countryside. Since I live about 10 miles out of town it takes around 15 minutes to get to school, and I drive there each morning along with Kaori.
13. How many brothers and sisters do you have, what are their ages and what do they do? (e.g. Do they live at home? Are they in school, university? What are they studying (degree goal)? If working, what is their job?)
As I have already hinted I have one brother and one sister. My sister, Jaime, is 18 and attends college in Middletown, CT at Wesleyan University. This is her freshman year, but she plans to do a double major in Anthropology and Art History. My brother, Bobby, is 14 and going to a charter school in Northfield, MN. He did not like the regular school atmosphere, but enjoys the freedom he has at this new school. He still lives at home and Jaime will return for Winter Break and Summer Vacation. I also have one more “brother”. His name is Erik Peterson. He’s not in any way related to me except that he is one of my best friends and acts like a brother. When it comes to me dating he will tell me if he thinks the guy is good enough for me or else if I just need someone to talk to, he is there for me. I also have this relationship with my sister Jaime. Kaori, my exchange sister, is also like a sister to me.
14. Describe your community. (e.g., location relative to a major city, population, industry, economy, etc.)
Cannon Falls is a “small town” of about 3,600 people. It is located on a major highway halfway between Rochester and Minneapolis/St. Paul. Its name is derived from the Cannon River which flows through the town. There is a famous bike trail that runs twenty miles from our town to a near by town and makes it a tourist location. There are numerous factories on the outskirts of town along with locally owned shops in the small downtown area. Although we still have a small town atmosphere our population is beginning to grow and fast food restaurants like McDonalds are finding here to be an ideal location. The population is mainly a Caucasian Christian Middle Class.
15. What is your favorite book and author? Why? About how many books do you read each month?
My favorite author without any doubt is Barbara Kingsolver, but it takes a little more thinking to choose my favorite book. I enjoy Kingsolver’s books because she writes from the point of view of more than one character, and I can understand each of the characters. She incorporates culture and strong beliefs into her writing. If I had to choose one book it would be “High Tide in Tucson”: a collection of essays and articles both fiction and nonfiction of hers that have appeared in newspapers and magazines combined into one book. I have been reading books since I was about three or four years old and loving them the whole time. Since I am reading much longer books than when I was younger it takes me a slightly longer time to read them. During the summer I probably read about three books per month, but now that school has started it is much more difficult to find the time to read. Right now I am listening to “Catch 22” for pleasure as a book on CD while I drive, and reading “Heart of Darkness” for my AP Lit class, but it is very difficult to find the time to sit and read a book for pure enjoyment with my busy schedule.
16. Identify four major issues confronting youth today. Select the most major issue and tell us why it is of personal concern.
1. Drugs/Alcohol
2. College Preparations/Desired Occupation
3. Sex or No Sex?
4. Politics (even if we can’t vote)
The most important issue of these four that concerns me is the drugs and alcohol. I know that I don’t want to have sex until I am older, that I need to prepare for college and I am already forming my own opinion on political views, but the issue of drugs and alcohol is always right in front of my face. It is a temptation that I could easily give into every weekend. I am a teenager and as a teenager many people start to do things because they are “cool”, illegal, or they just make them feel good, for example: drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or do illegal drugs. A number of my friends and classmates follow this ideology, but I was never sucked into obtaining these values. I sit and watch as other teenagers become alcoholics or addicted to nicotine, losing brain cells and ruining their lungs, but regardless of any efforts I make to stop them the abuse continues. Information on underage binge drinking and smoking needs to be more highly enforced. Many youth participate in these activities purely because they are illegal and they receive a rush from the rebellion of it. Addiction to cigarettes and alcoholism most commonly begin in people under the age of eighteen. I do not desire to see my friends and classmates become subject to these problems any longer. Drugs and alcohol are a lifelong problem for youth.
