My Writing
Heroism in My Life

To me, a hero is someone who gives of themselves to help others. I have known
several heroes in my life, but two people really stick out in my mind: Peggy Kemner and
Irma Gall. Two women, who, in the heart of Appalachia, help people in desperate need
from poverty. The past four summers I have traveled to their farm, the Lend-A-Hand
Center in Walker, Kentucky, with my youth group to work with them there and in the
surrounding community. These trips have given me great opportunities to see these
heroes at work and hear their numerous stories.
Peggy, a trained nurse-midwife from Pennsylvania knew that there was great need
in Appalachia when she went there during the sixties. Peggy joined forces with Irma, an
Iowa farm girl who first went there to teach school children. Many times throughout the
years the two have faced many adversities, but have overcome them all.
There are many stories to be told of their lives during the time they have spent
taking care of their community. There are the stories of getting called in the middle of the
night to deliver babies way up in a holler. The story of taking a woman in labor with
serious complications to the hospital an hour away in Barbourville while she was lying in a
chair in the back of their jeep. The times Peggy delivered babies in tiny houses or shacks,
filled with other children and so dirty that she couldn’t even find a clean blanket to wrap
the baby in or a clean basin to fill with hot water. There have even been times that they
would get a call at night and would be met with a shotgun sticking out the window when
they arrived. In some instances, the person involved could have died if not for Peggy’s
presence and nursing skills.
Peggy and Irma haven’t only helped their community with their health needs, they
have taught children, run a Sunday school program, fixed houses, planted gardens, and
helped out in any other way that they could. Most of the people they help are so poor that
their payment is a farm animal or some homegrown produce, but Peggy and Irma still do
what they do out of the goodness of their hearts.
To me, all that they do is heroic. They give of their time and skills to help out
some of the most poverty-stricken people in this country. It is just amazing to me to see
these two women doing so much for their fellow man just because they felt there was a
need, and just because they are so nice! These two women are so remarkable because
they have been doing this for over forty years and are still going strong. I only wish I
could be as much of a hero during my lifetime as these two women are in just one day.
Amazing. Simply Amazing.


Marriage Advice to Lady Macbeth

I have reviewed Lady Macbeth’s case and talked with her and her
husband on several occasions. I have come up with some advice for her to
help rescue her virtually doomed marriage.
First of all, she shouldn’t be so hard on her husband, everyone has their
faults, and it just so happens that one of his faults is that he’s a pantywaist.
She should be patient and gentle with him as he works to overcome this
problem. Also, if she wants him to think of her as a gentle and loving wife
she shouldn’t act and talk as if she’s a raving, baby killing lunatic, even
though she knows this to be true. To persuade her husband to do her bidding,
Lady Macbeth should converse with him in a rational manner, she should give
him ample reason to act in the way she wants him to and not behave like the
mad baby killer she really is. This way, she will get much more
accomplished than if she just yells at Macbeth and tells him he’s a
“yeller-liver’d coward.”
Finally, to keep her marriage intact, she might want to give the poor
man a little more breathing room so he can make some decisions on his own.
As we all know, compromise is one of the keys to making a marriage work,
but apparently her own dysfunctional mother never taught her this. She
doesn’t have to be the one wearing the pants and holding the whip all the
time. Every now and then she can hand over the pants and let her husband
wear them, or at least once or twice a year. So, maybe after some time and
practice, she’ll get used to this new idea of compromising. Also, I am
suggesting some anger management classes. I feel that this would benefit
Lady Macbeth greatly.


My Trip to Spain (College Application Essay)

This past summer I took a trip to Spain and was forever changed. To describe
what happened to me and how I changed while I was there is a very difficult and almost
impossible task. I cannot even think of just one word that would accurately describe my
experience as a whole. Amazing, wonderful, astounding, incredible: My trip was all of
these and more.
When I was presented with the idea of a trip to Spain with a group from school I
only thought that it could never possibly materialize, for me at least. I thought, “No,
there’s not enough money, my parents wouldn’t ever let me out of the country, and that
eight hour plane ride? geez....” Despite the fact that I thought it would never happen, I
tried, and it turned out that the money was there (did I just forget that I had worked my
butt off the previous summer?), my parents were okay with the idea, and, hey, I could just
sleep through the flight. So, for the next nine seemingly endless months, I saved, I waited,
I planned, I imagined. At times I thought I wouldn’t enjoy the time I would be spending
there, but then I slapped myself and snapped out of it. And before long, all at once, it
happened. So fast, I hardly had time to stop and think, “Hey, I’m in Spain.” Finally, I was
there, thank God.
As we began our journey to our hotel, through my heavy, jet-lag eyelids, I saw just
what I had waited to see for so many months. The beautiful countryside, the awesome
architecture one can only find in Madrid, and all those funny little European cars. We had
a short walking tour that night and I got an eyeful and earful of the rich Spanish culture I
had wanted to know so much about. I was in heaven, absolute heaven.
This seemingly average trip began to become a life-changing event for me as I saw
more and more, as I experienced this strange and exciting place first-hand. My mind was
opened to all sorts of things I had never before imagined. It was like a whole plethora of
windows had been blown open by the winds that seemed to push my mind and fuel my
imagination once I was there.
Throughout the trip I began to actually realize how much is out there beyond my
own “little world.” Beyond my home, beyond Springfield, beyond this country’s borders,
and I began to want it all, to explore all of it. To see the Eiffel Tower in Paris, to watch
lions in their natural habitat, to go shopping in Tokyo, to explore the rainforests of Central
America, to learn all I could about everything. I decided that I wanted to see the whole
world, and more. Spain sparked this desire to travel, to go elsewhere, somewhere I had
never been before.
My trip also opened to my eyes to something else. I realized that there is so much
I want to do with my life, so much I could do with my life because I could do anything I
set my mind to. I decided that, yes, I will become fluent in Spanish and be able to talk to
any Spanish-speaking person, and yes, I will do something influential with my life, and yes,
I can do it. I still haven’t quite made up my mind about what exactly I will be doing to
earn a living, but I do know that my life will be exciting, no matter what I choose to do.
“Life is what you make of it” became my motto.
Recently I was asked if I had ever had a life-changing experience. This was
definitely an easy question, and without even thinking I said yes. That experience, I
explained, was Spain.


Rewritten Scence from Macbeth
Act I, Scene 5
lines 39-74

Lady Macbeth: The raven who announces Duncan’s fatal entrance into my home is
hoarse. Come to me evil spirits, rid me of my woman’s infirmity. Make me cruel and
remorseless! I want no feelings of conscience to bother me with my immoral plan. Take
my mother’s milk and turn it into bitter malice you unseen, base forces of nature! Come
dark night, I ask, be black as the blackest hell and hide this crime from all eyes so that
none will see nor stop this sin.
(enter Macbeth)
Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor! Greater than both of these you will be when you
gain the title of King! Your letters have told me of what our future holds.
Macbeth: My dearest love, Duncan arrives tonight.
Lady Macbeth: And when does he leave?
Macbeth: Tomorrow, as he plans.
Lady Macbeth: O, Duncan shall not see the sun of that day. Your face, my Thane,
shows matters of your heart that men may read like a book. You must beguile everyone.
Act as an innocent flower, though you are the snake under it. Duncan is coming and must
be provided for. Put this night’s matter into my direction which shall give us royal power
in our future.
Macbeth: We will speak later.
Lady Macbeth: Look only innocent, to change your expression is a sign of fear. Leave
everything else to me.