Define Fun, then Work.

When I was a younger, everything I wanted to do, I wanted it to be fun.  I didn’t want to work.  Skating rather than studying, drawing rather than reading, or swimming rather than running, were just a few examples.  The activities that I saw were “fun” began to turn into “work” when I got older.  I started realizing that having “fun” began to be “work.”  When I became a bit older, my sister was still in the “fun” stage.  She would ask to go skating, I would cringe at the thought of the hot sun, or the tight skates, or even taking the skates of after.  She would ask take a cool swim on a hot day, I would think about the cold water, the freezing sprint into the house to grab towels, or even the tired feeling after and refuse.  It saddened me at first.  I was becoming older, lazier, and not “fun.”  Fun turned into work and as soon as I realized my “unfun” ways, I began to have fun.  I would swim with my sister; I would skate with her and her friends.  I would put down the videogames and the cell phone.  The two things that became my source of fun.  I wanted to be “fun.”

I now understand why kids resent authority, adults, and “work.”  Fun evolves when you become older.  It becomes skating and drawing, to smoking and drinking in a blink of an eye.  Would must all stay young when it comes to having “fun.”  It is a universal term that kids, teens, and adults all should relate too.

When All Else Is Lost...Call Your Grandma.

My Granny, Brenda Nix, is most influential women in my life.  From constant rides to the skatepark when I was in the skater rat stage, to serious cash during Christmas, thanksgiving, and “early” birthdays.  Other than the typical grandma acts, my Granny did something that other grandmas could not compete with.  On a day that wasn’t Christmas, thanksgiving, or even an “early” birthday, my Granny gave me the best gift of all…HERSELF!  After a horrible day at school, a grumpy experience with my dad, and I crying phone call to my Granny, she decided to move right next door to my great grandma’s house. She told me to relax, play a game or something, and that she was on her way over.  Little did I know, she was coming over for good. It was the best gift anyone could have ever given me.

My grandma is someone who I will always go to, love, and cherish.  If I could pick any women to have in my life it would be her.  Her personna encourages great characteristics that everyone should acquire.  Traits such as selflessness, encouragement, and motherly love.  Brenda Nix is a great, and life-changing women in my life.

Give Everyone A Chance, It May Be Their Last

When I was 11 years old, my Dad remarried for the second time.  It was not a joyful event when he told me.  “I don’t want you married anymore Dad, I want it to just be me and you.”  I didn’t understand the loneliness of a thirty six year old man obliviously.  About two weeks later, it was the moment of reckoning. I had to meet my new stepmom.  It was a cold day at the Rave Theater.  I walked up the steps of the concrete entrance and met the short, brunette, thirty one year old women and her daughter.  I did not want to meet her, I did not want my dad to marry her, and I did not want get along with her daughter.  One month later, they were married, I loved her ever since.  For four long years I adored my stepmom.  We were bestfriends.  From long car rides to the cheese farm, to cold nights at the Greek festival we were always getting along.  She left three weeks ago, she moved to her beach house, my parents are separated.  I miss my stepmom.  I’m glad I gave her the chance when I did.

I learned to never be afraid or stubborn to meet someone, because they may impact one's life in way someone could never imagine.  I finally came around to wanting to meet her, living with her, and eventually loving her.  She was a major impact on my life and now she is gone, and I never want that to happen again.

Enjoy What You Have, Rather Than Wish For What You Don't

I was an exuberant, energized, excited nine year old boy. Okay, let’s face it, I was a wild, hardheaded, and spastic child.  Only being in 4^th grade, I really didn’t know much about...you know...the “talk”, the birds and the bees, you understand?  After my parents divorced, when I was three, and my dad remarried when I was seven, I didn’t think about my life with siblings besides my older sister.  I would’ve just assumed living alone with my dad until I graduated, but that was unrealistic.  It wasn’t until my dad talked to me about having another brother and sister, that I started thinking about the rest of my life.  He told me “Son, what do you think about having another sister?” I went ballistic.  What? Another sister?  I want a baseball playing, guitar strumming, B.O. smelling brother!  I was young, stupid, and unaware of what was about to take place in my life.  On October 10, 2003, my baby sister Alexa was born.  My first sight of her was at my house two days later.  It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

You may have something planned to obtain or want something you don’t have, but in the end, you will receive what you deserve or need.  I wanted my brother.  The countless games of catch, the shared burps, the talking of girls, that’s what I wished for, but in the end, I got what I needed.  A received a sister.  A girl I need to protect, a child I should steer away from boys, and a baby I will live with the rest of my life.  I love you Alexa.

See Things As Though You Will Never See Them Again.

My mother’s parents divorced when she was very young, her father, her real father, was my Pawl Pawl Terry.  However, Pawl Pawl Terry didn’t raise my mom like a real father.  He was a very busy, hard working construction worker, had very little patience, and did not have his priorities in line.  This caused a unfilled gap in my mother’s life when she was very young, a gap that was attempted to be filled by her stepfather, her father, my Papawl.  A stern, loving, and very humorous fisherman, Papawl loved children as much as he loved his wife, fish, and cars.  Papawl was there for my mother when she had no father.  He cared for her, clothed her, put her through school, and eventually filled the gap that formed in her heart.  This caused her real father to become a stranger in my eyes.  Throughout my childhood I never realized who my Pawl Pawl Terry really was.  On occasion, I would mistakenly call him Uncle Terry or Mr. Terry.  Later did I find out that this made him realize that the gap that he formed was much wider than he thought.  Over the years, I slowly started to see my Pawl Pawl Terry, but not as much as my beloved Papawl.  From searching for pecans in the backyard, eating pomegranate seeds, and fishing, my adventures with Papawl would never compare to the awkward family events I experienced with Mr. Terry.  It wasn’t until I was twelve years, and after my Papawl died, that I started seeing the true side of my Pawl Pawl.  He began to coach my baseball team, he came to our house to visit, and he slowly was starting to fill the gap he formed.  I started to see my real grandfather who he really was.  This experience went on for two years, but I didn’t realize it, I took for granted, and began to fade away from my Pawl Pawl after the second season of baseball.  Then, Pawl Pawl Terry died unexpectedly of a heart attack, two weeks before baseball season. 

This experience showed me that not only do things not last forever, but the way you see someone won’t either.  I saw my real grandfather as just another family member and sometimes even a family friend.  My whole perspective of him changed in the end of his life and I only began to see the man I wanted to see for a short time, and the only thing that made me realize it was his death.  This made me lead to this conclusion.

Take in everything you experience, see, feel, taste, love, cherish, meet, or want, because there is a high possibility that you may never get to experience it again.

This is Me.

My name is Scooter.  I am fifteen years old and I am currently working on a project in my Honors English class.  In the book I have just finished, The Last Lecture, a man named Randy Pausch is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  With little time left on earth, he writes on his past life, his memories, his knowledge, and his life now. He also explains what he wants to achieve before he dies and what he wants to leave behind after his departure.  The project that coincides is explaining the lessons humans learn from teachers in our life.  We must explain who our teachers are and the lessons that we have obtained from them.

Enjoy.