* The 2014-2015 senior student signature series features area senior class students – and their own “signature” outlooks on a topic of their choice. A new outlook will be posted on Cross-Counties Connect each Friday. The series opens with point of view comments by seniors from Mountain Lake Public High School. The opinions can be found by clicking on the Family & Faith link on the website’s header, and scrolling down to, and clicking on, Outlook. Their teachers are Brenda Feil, Kim Syverson and Debby Jass.
A Day in the Life of Me
“Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.” (Theodore Roosevelt)
This quote is important to me and explains why I have such a crazy daily schedule. I usually start my day at 7 a.m. and am at school or school-related activities until at least 6 p.m. or later. Every other night I am at school until 9 p.m. for FFA contest practices or play practice. On top of that, I still have to go home and do homework. My weekends end up being about the same schedule, but with other activities, such as trap shooting and 4-H.
I barely have time to think during the day, but I enjoy being involved in as many activities as I can, which I think is very important. Being involved in school, sports, fine arts and other leadership activities has grown me into the person I am today and pushed me to be more responsible.
Fine arts, including show choir, jazz band, choir, band and plays, take up a lot of my time in the day, but from them I learn the obvious skills of how to play an instrument, how to sing and how to act. In addition, I learn the more hidden skills of how to work with others, determination and patience. Creativity is an important skill that I have learned from fine arts, along with being more organized, which I used to struggle with greatly. All these benefits have made fine arts activities worth the time and effort I have put into them.
Obviously, fine arts keep me really busy, but I am also involved in golf and football, which both teach patience and lots of teamwork skills. Football is my favorite sport because it is fun to play and requires teamwork; if someone slacks off, the whole team is affected. This relates to the real world when people are part of a team project and must work together. Golf is more of an individual sport, but the team still gets a score, so improving each individual score helps the team improve. For me, golf teaches life lessons such as how to handle frustration after a bad shot or ending up in a hazard. On top of that, it is also a sport people can play the rest of their lives, unlike most other activities. Sports also are the reason many kids stay on top of their grades and even helps me not slack off on assignments.
Although sports can build character, other activities like FFA and 4-H are really important because they teach real life skills. For example, in FFA we learn skills like cooking, how to manage money and how to be an effective leader. Plus, we get to compete in contests, through which I have learned most of the skills that an agronomist, a farm manager and a forester go to college for four years to learn. 4-H is a lot like FFA, but is out of school, which means no class times for planning out tasks. It is still a great experience because I get to show swine and present different exhibits at the Cottonwood County Fair. Through FFA and 4-H, I have learned how to be an effective leader as president of both organizations, and try to do as much as I can to make them more intriguing so that other people join.
All the activities I am involved in have helped grow me into the person I am today by helping me develop different skills and characteristics, such as organization, patience, teamwork, leadership and life skills. Even though my days are very jam packed with various activities, each organization is well worth the time I invest in it.