Subtle Heroism

Someone who I have always valued deeply as a friend, companion, and hero is my uncle, as he has gained the ability to refrain from fatal tendencies that not only saved his life but saved others.

At a young age, my mother's brother indulged into the on the edge lifestyle of a teenage adolescent, where he spent his time living dangerously as a way to cure his unhappiness as his mother was constantly working, which disabled them to have daily face to face communication.

As a young adult, he began smoking as injecting pernicious fumes into your lungs was the contemporary theme of the early nineties. Following the footsteps of his mother, lighting an igniter and seeing the dark fumes slowly leak through his lips became his everyday habits. 

His lifestyle turned from light to dark as an addiction was erupted for the malicious substance, something many people were unaware of in the current time period. Insecure about the gender role and lack of relationship he maintained, his addiction increased and he thought his life was inevitable for corruption and failure. 

Decades later his mother passed away due to mouth and lung infections, all as a result from smoking, I was fourteen at the time. This made his unhappiness reach a pinnacle, yet something changed. 

He realized the more unhappy he is the more he smoked, and realized if he continued his pattern he would end up exactly like her. From that point on he not only never smoked a cigarette again but deeply instilled the consequences of smoking into his nephews. 

This refraining saved his life and saved the potential grief in his family members, to me an act of heroism. A hero is one who places others needs in front of theirs, or doing something that will positively affect others. 

Someone who is not a hero is one of our current politicians running for presidency, Donald Trump. He claims to make America great again, which seems like an act of heroism, yet is not accepting of the underprivileged or any minority that includes ethnicity, gender, or social status. Making America great again does not mean eradicating difference which does not make him in my eyes a hero.

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The Not So Beautiful Game

(The beautiful game referencing a nickname for the globally renowned sport "soccer")

Clear eyes, full hearts, a bright mentality, we had it all. Our orange jerseys shined bright on the field, a fire like glow that set us apart from the others. Our strikers were fast, our defense were strong, we were eager to compete, to push our limits. Not a second went by without a hustle. 

We played under the colossal beam of light illuminating every blade of grass on the field. Although we were determined, we were not the best, with all the bright faces smudged with grass and jerseys twisted and mangled, the score was still seven to zero. 

In spite of our determination, many of us were new to the beautiful game. Simply kicking a leather ball into a net was not all that was required from our team, as one can not simply win a game by himself. What set our team apart besides from the traffic cone looking jerseys was our mindset and our ability to enjoy the game at a level of competition that did not make us uncomfortable. 

From the first to the last day of practice, we played with determination in our eyes and a sense of humor that livened up the team, a new style that not only instilled in our players but our coaches. Our teams ability to not take a loss personally was our best quality as we lost almost every game, and every time trudged back into our team bus without a word of dismal or hatred. 

On the rare occasion of a win, we would respectfully thank the team for their hard work and participation. I not only treated this team with respect but I treated them as a family, a team that has evoked feelings from me I have not experienced in a long time. From this year on, the Polytechnic junior varsity boys soccer team will not be known for their losses, but for a certain mentality that led us to greatness.

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As The First Semester Whizzed By

As the year begun, my goal was not to achieve supremacy in my academic studies nor was to produce an intellectual perfection, but was to do my best work. My initial approach to the new environment (so I thought) of brainy and practically from another world students, I had thought the year would be unsuccessful for me as I would be the one student who was not top of his class and without straight A’s. However, as I ventured into the weeks of quizzes, tests, research papers, and homework, I realized that setting and pace and keeping a calm and undisturbed mindset would pave the best path for me as a student. With that mindset at hand, I feel I have done considerably well considering my progressive and not academically vigorous background as a learner.

Approximately two months into the school year, I had received one of my first excellent grades in English class. The assignment had been to annotate three short fairy tales where I received a 95%. That week we were later given six assignments for homework. That excellent grade had given me motivation, I had a sense of what it would be like to be one of the brainy or out of the world students. I set my mind to the assignments, worked diligently and effectively, later receiving five A’s and one -A. Though these may not have been the most extravagant assignments, they were those that gave me a motive and incentive to achieve what I assumed impossible for myself.

For my first semester of one of the most rigorous and academically stimulating private schools in the United States, I feel I have done quite well. However there are some subjects I would have hoped to achieve a higher standard in. I entered Poly having come from Sequoyah School, a progressive growth oriented community containing approximately two hundred students. The mindset of Sequoyah was completely contrasting from those of Polytechnic as if they were opposites. Having said that, there have been subjects that I have struggled in of those including mathematics. Poly is known for their unique and well renowned math program where the extremely knowledgable teachers and faculty put together a track students could follow, a track different from the norm. Entering into a new environment and mathematical system, I had struggled at the beginning, but have recently begun to understand the criteria in a more comprehensive way. Although I have not achieved the ideal score for me, I have plenty more semesters to understand what I have not been able to.

The E-Learning class begun as a clear and understandable class that introduced new techniques and skills to the class. Throughout the months of E-Learning, I have found the assignments to become progressively more unnecessary and those that take up time I could be utilizing in a more sufficient way. E-Learning takes me well over an hour to complete, a large amount of time I could use to study or work on larger projects. This class is an intricate idea although one that is slightly gratuitous.