MOSAIC: voices from Polson High School

Welcome to Mosaic.
Be honest. Be kind. Be temperate.

Chance’s American Dream

The American dream has almost always been a want and not a necessity. It’s what we want out of life and who we want to be, not what or who we need to be. This is what makes America, well, America. Our wants and expectations of our selves are always moving up; we are always pushing the bar just a little higher. Each generation wants what the last one had- with a cherry on top. And I suppose that I am not any different.

My number one priority is to graduate high school with a 3.5 GPA or better. It will be extremely hard but I think that I will be able to pull it off. Another top priority is my car, a 1972 Plymouth Satellite. It’ll have a semi-chromed engine, with black and yellow engine accents. It will have a black body with yellow racing stripes that will slide over it, a black and yellow interior and re-chromed front and rear bumpers.

For me, this car will be more than a car, because my grandpa and I are rebuilding it together. So this gives it a rather high sentimental value as well as a big dollar sign, not that I would ever sell it. After my home school mechanic teachings and high school, I want to put myself through a tech school and become a certified mechanic and auto body specialist. I want to learn enough to take a piece of junk car found in the woods, and turn it back into an American classic to sell at a high profit. Classic car restoration would only be a hobby though. Opening up a mechanic/auto body shop in the valley is what I would really want to do. A good mechanic that doesn’t over charge in a small town almost sounds too good to be true.

Speaking of too good to be true, you can’t forget about the perfect day. It’s either on a Saturday or Sunday, playing catch with your kids or talking with your friends and family around the grill. The type of day where work just seems to disappear and you have no worries whatsoever. The smell of the BBQ pork chops in the air and you just don’t want it to end. That’s the real American dream isn’t it? A loving wife, your family and friends close to you in a place that you call home, guess it doesn’t get much better than that.

The phrase life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are all equally important to the nation, but to me as an individual the most important might just be the pursuit of happiness.  Pursuing and obtaining our wants and self-fulfillment are what make us happy. Or, is obtaining them directly out of the question, can we only care for our family and friends and enjoy life to make our selves happy? I don’t know, but thirty years from now when I’m standing around the barbecue with my wife and friends, and somebody brings up the question of where I would want to be, I’d reply, “Right here my friend, right here.”

My “American” Dream-Juho

I can say that I’m living my American dream right now, in sort of way. Well, mostly it is that I’m living in America, but for many people I know, it is a dream.

My name is Juho. I am an exchange-student from Finland, the country of forests, thousands and thousands of lakes and technology. I have lived there all my life, until this summer. One year ago, in September, I talked with my dad about going to an exchange program. I decided fast, applied to the program and they accepted me. I came here in the end of July.

My main reasons for coming the United States were that I want to learn to speak English more fluently, get to know the new culture and get a bunch of new friends. All those things are happening all the time. I could say all those things were my American dream. However, I didn’t consider it that way. To me, American dream means the same thing as to everybody else, a same boring good education, a well-paid job, a beautiful wife, a pretty house somewhere in deep forest nearby a little lake and a bunch of awesome kids. That could be my Finnish dream also. Like it is to me. So there’s no point calling it the American dream.

So let’s go deeper. What is my dream, whether it’s American or Finnish? My dream is to be a good, interesting and wise person, who will be remembered by his family, relatives and friends after his death. Basically I’m saying, that I want to leave a memory of me to this world. How this could be done?

As always, it starts from myself. I have to realize what are my goals, and more importantly, how I want to achieve them. Let’s say there is an English test. If I want to pass it, I don’t have to probably even read on it, just guess and write what comes into my mind. If I want to get a good grade of it, but I don’t want to read on it, I could cheat, ask and check what my friend wrote.

It’s obvious that those ways to achieve anything are the wrong ways. If I want to get a good grade from that test, I should read on it and concentrate on test and do my best. That’s the way to do it. And that is just example, which works in every situation. If you want to achieve something, you have to do work for it.

In my life with other human beings I believe in the golden rule, treat others as you would like to be treated. Whenever my old neighor needs to cut his lawn, I would go over there and do the job. Whenever my friend needs help with his car, I would go over there and check that problem with him. Whenever my kids are having problems with homework, I would help and work with them through them.

I wouldn’t ask anything back for those chores. If my friends think in same way, I will get my prize. And the prize is not always needed. You can help each other sometimes just because it makes you feel good. It is sad that this kind of thinking is dying in the modern life. But if everybody would think that way, everybody would help each other. A good example of that kind of thinking is my grandpa. He lives in small village where everybody knows everybody. If somebody needs some help with their potato field, he would take his tractor and plant all seeds in a field. And he wouldn’t ask anything back. It is just the old manner and that’s the way it has been for always.

My other grandpa died two weeks ago. He was also just one great guy. Everybody in town knew him. And everybody mourned his dead. He was loved. He also helped people, asking nothing back. My grandma has had so many visitors who had came to ease her sorrow and just to tell her how great guy my grandpa was and how much they miss him now.

I want to be that kind of guy. That is my dream. When I die, I want to be remembered by people I dealt with and who I helped. People I loved. I don’t want to be remembered about how much property I had or what did I do for living in this life. And it is possible achieve all these goals. It depends from yourself. You need other people on your way but it all starts from you. Just like Pilgrims surviving their very first year in America. They were not alone. The Indians were there for them even they knew how cruel the white people can be and how they have kidnapped and killed many of their sons. The Indians gave what they had, asking nothing back. I just admire that from bottom of my heart.

Whether it is in America or in Finland, to achieve your dreams, you need other people to make those dreams come true. It starts from you. You have to realize what you want, what you want to be, what you want to do and with who you want to be. Getting there is a beginning.

The End

My American Dream

My dream comes from a love for babies; I can remember growing up with 27 baby dolls and always taking care of them as if each and every one of them were real.  I have never lost this love for the innocent little babies and feel that in my nursing education I will focus in the neonatal field.  With my mother in the nursing field I know of many opportunities that exist and I also know of the education necessary to achieve these goals.  I feel that I am a very caring, loving and helping person; this will help me in understanding and caring for these very special and fragile lives.

My American dream is to be able to create a healthy life for myself while being able to help others.  As I work through my last two years in high school I have a focus of becoming a nurse.  This choice helps me to become financially healthy, while being in a position to help others in their time of need.  It is important to my dream that I am able to support myself and not rely on the help others, especially financially.

My dream of being a nurse is also something I get from my family.  My mother cared for the wounded soldiers in the Iraq War for a year in Germany.  Many of the soldiers that fought next to her lost their lives so that we could live our American dream.

Being born in America offers all of us the opportunity to live our own American Dream.  With many of my family members having served for our country gives me a huge appreciation for this opportunity. For example, my great grand father who fought in World War Two in Germany, my grandfather who fought in Vietnam, and my mother who cared from the wounded soldiers from the Iraq War for a year in Germany. 

I know that my family will always a part of this dream. It is important to me that I can be in a position to help my family.  My family has always been there for me and has helped shape the dreams that I have.  The community that I grew up in and that has shaped who I am, I want to be able to go away to school and come back to help families that I know personally.  Community is a big part of the American Dream you are able to share your ideas, lead projects that will better your community.  An example of this is my volunteer work at Cherry Valley while in high school; it means a lot to be able to help the little kids at lunch and to do the right thing on the playground. 

At some point when I am through with college and a year or two into my career I would like to start a family of my own.  I have thought about this a lot and know that I would like to have a stable relationship and start out with a small family.  I think it is important that when you take on the responsibility of having children that you are able to give them the skills and values to be able to appreciate where they were born.  My dream is to work hard and be financially responsible so that I am able to retire at the age of 55 and enjoy my retirement, my children and if I am very lucky my grandchildren.

Megan Richardson’s Rip Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle was an irresponsible but like-able little Dutch man. He slept through the entire Revolutionary War, missed the death of his wife and his dog. I think if Rip was more responsible his wife wouldn’t have nagged on him so much and quite possibly he may have not slipped into a stress induced coma that lasted twenty years.  All in all Rip was a nice guy but missed a huge part of his life and was saddend by it all because of his irresponsibility.  On page 163, seventh paragraph it says, “ Rip’s heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his home and friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world - every answer puzzeled him too by treating of such enormous lapses of time and of matters which he could not understand.”

American Dream for Success-Amanda

Most Americans think of the American Dream as money or other types of material positions but the American Dream to me is none of those things. To me the American Dream has always been more centered on myself. I want for myself to live a happy life. I feel that to achieve this I have to have a successful job that I love doing.

I have always excelled in math. When other kids were playing games on the computer I was busy playing with numbers. That was my way of having fun. In fourth grade I was doing math the middle school kids were doing, and in eighth grade I was doing math the high school kids were doing. Even know as a high school student I am in advanced math classes, and am able to tutor kids at lower math levels. Math has always been a passion for me because I understand it so well. My teachers, especially, saw this in me, and they have always told me that I should look into a career that is very involved with math. They suggested stuff like becoming a teacher, but the one thing that really caught my eye was accounting. After hearing this over and over again, through my years in high school, I did research on the career of Accounting. I fell in love with the job after finding that most Accountants are very successful in what they do. I new this was the job that was going to help me obtain my American dream of having a successful job that I love.

I have done many things to help me become an Accountant. The one thing I know I did that helped me keep on trying for my dream was the Montana State Math competition in Missoula. This is a competition Missoula holds every year for high schools around the state. Anyone can sign up for the competition but you have to do well to place. I was only in the 8th grade but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I was determined to go. They had four different types of test. A pot luck test which is all subjects in one test. Then they had a geometry, algebra, and group test. When they sat me down to take the test I remember looking through it and knowing that I was going to do well. I never thought that I was going to do as well as actually I did. When all test were over we had to wait a week before getting the results, but when we got the result I found out that I did really well. I didn’t take 1st or 2nd not even 3rd, but as an 8th grader I got Honorable Mention in two of the test categories. I got honorable mention in pot luck and in group team. If you got an Honorable Mention that meant that you had placed in the top ten. This wasnt the best, but out of more than 100 kids taking the test that was pretty good.

I still have a lot to do to become an Accountant, but this is stuff I know I can get past. The things I know I must do to become an accountant are things like going to college taking the five years program and passing the national test. I also think it would be fun to do and internship for a couple summers just to get a little taste of what it will be like when I am on my own.

I just know this is the job I was made for, and hope that this will make me achieve my all time American dream of having a successful job that I love. If not then I guess I’m out of luck because this is what I have been preparing myself for all my life.

Candace Durham: My American Dream

The world is cold. Weve all heard of rape, abuse, Meth, alcoholism, and violence. Why do these terrible things even exist? Simple, people are stupid.

Have you ever seen a new born infant? Their little fingers twitching, eyes struggling to open and view the world they were so forcefully brought into. Their skin as soft as can be. Their hair is so thin and frail. The smile they flash at you, toothless and adorable. Everything about them is so innocent.

Day after day, night after night, this infant grows. Everything they sense with any of their five senses is stored away in their undeveloped brain. These are all learning experiences. Growing up is a scary and difficult thing for every child. On the other hand they learn the most during this period of their life.

When I was a child, I began learning from the day I was born, as does every child. I was taught who my parents were, who my sister was, that fire is hot, what is and isnҒt food, and most important, what noӔ means. At the age of two I learned what immense physical pain is.

My sister and I were wrestling around in the post office while our mother stood patiently in line. She briefly scolded us to stop before someone gets hurt. Within a matter of seconds I was screaming bloody murder. My sister had gotten the last shove and I fell over and landed on the old sharp metal lining around full sized glass windows. It split the back of my head open to the skull. It was only about two inches long but very deep. My mom, who had already been frustrated with us, grabbed us both without even looking, briskly walked us out of the post office to the car. As she stepped off the sidewalk she scooped me up, seeing as how I was only two years old and may be only thirty pounds. As she got close to the car she felt something wet trickling down her forearm to her elbow. She looked down to see her toddler gushing blood out of her head. She got us all in the car and asked my four year old sister to hold a diaper wipe onto my head. Naomi, who was terrified, refused and my mom was forced to hold pressure on my head while driving. We drove to the dentist office where my dad was just sat down in a room to be seen. My mom hurried him out the door, me still in hand. When we made it to the ER it was busier than ever. There must have been lots of traumatic accidents happening that day for me to had to have sit in the waiting room for a half hour and another half hour in the room waiting for a doctor.

Finally my parents were informed that I was going to have to get staples. The only doctor that was available was a very new doctor. She had never operated on a patient this young before, or with an injury as serious. I still to this day do not know why the hospital would put a brand new doctor on a child, who is only two years old, and this seriously injured. This doctor buckled under pressure. She asked the nurses if she should five me numbing before she stapled. Of course, the nurses werent sure, it wasnҒt their job to know, it was the doctors. So she just decided to go ahead and staple my head without any numbing. So lying on a table, face in a pillow, I felt six head pounding staples go straight into the back of my head. Somehow I managed to keep consciousness long enough to scream louder, for a moment or two. It was the most horrific physical pain I have ever experienced.

After that painful rendezvous with an idiot, I continued on with my life with much milder physical ailments; however, I did manage to make my way into a very awkward adolescent phase.

Around my third or fourth grade year, I began to develop a sense of style; a style that slightly disturbed my parents. I began wearing pants that were black, and lots of gray shirts. This did not affect them, but the fact that those became my only articles of clothing in my wardrobe began to worry them. AT this time I also began to isolate myself from my family and friends. I would participate in activities with my family only if it was something I chose; I became miserable on a regular basis. I spent a lot of time in my room by myself, thinking. I dont remember these years very much, but I remember coming out of that phase really well.

I overcame my awkward stage after being enrolled in Polson Middle School. When I went school shopping I tried to avoid black pants and gray shirts. When I started school I had no friends. I was separated from my sister for the first time. We had been in the same grade since before I could remember and essentially we grew up as twins. The school held my back a year because of my age. They could have held me back two years, but they were afraid that that would make me loose academic potential. So they decided on a happy medium and enrolled me in Mrs. PetersonҒs sixth grade class.

I finally was accepted by some girls and made some friends. I was even asked to be in their friends groupӔ. This group was just some friends in a group and we would take our lunch to the counselors office and eat there and play games. I felt accepted for the first time even though I was labeled as a ғnerd. About half way through the third quarter of my sixth grade year, I made new friends. I then got to sit at their table, a ԓcool table. Dakota and I always sat on the end of the table across from Erin and Ashlee. Dakota and Ashlee were friends, so naturally Erin and I hated each other. In seventh grade, however, I stopped sitting there and began sitting with girls like Megan, Anna, and lacey. At the same time I ԓconverted so did Erin. Soon after we started hanging out with them, Erin and I became best friends. We even started a ԓnew table by the middle of eighth grade. We also shared a locker in our glorious last year of middle school. Our normal locker, as opposed to our band locker, was the epitome of disgusting. At one point I think there was a total of nine latte and hot chocolate cups in the top of our locker. All of these cups were not completely finished. Erin and I eventually drifted away to where we were still friends, but not best friends about our sophomore year in high school. This was just doe to lack of much in common.

As my life goes on there seems to be a pattern every time I come out of a phase I go straight into a different one. I am currently in a phase that began around the middle of my sophomore year. IԒm not quite sure of the cause, maybe it was high school, maybe it was family, or even boyfriends. Whatever the case may be, it began a vicious cycle. In this phase I have acquired a disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). For example, the volume in my car has to be on a multiple of five. I have to color coordinate my skittles, I can just stop doing whatever Im doing, and I have to have my cell phone on my person, always. I also have deathly fears of weird things such as feet, electrical tape, stink bugs, and rolling up body parts in a car window. When my compulsions are out of order I get very upset to make them right and I have to get away from my fears. This has put an impact on my relationships with family and friends. When I get upset I get violent. It is very stressful on me. I wish I could just let things go without blowing out of control. Again, I do not know what the cause of this, but I hate it. I donҒt like having to just deal with it all the time. I hope that this will not affect me for the rest of my life. It would definitely put an impact on my work life.

I want to go college and major in business management and minor in architecture, or vice versa. Then eventually start a family. This is my American dream and how it came to be.

My American Dream

I was raised a true southern girl. Growing up I was always around animals, mainly reptiles and dogs, and had a true passion for them. My father had all sorts of venomous snakes. Anywhere from king cobras to eyelash vipers. My dad had a huge impact on my life and my dreams. I’ve always wanted to be daddy’s little prodigy.

I was in Florida for most of my life. I was a city girl, but my heart always wanted to be near nature. I never felt quite at home in the middle of all the commotion going on around me. When I would get bored of being the stereotypical city girl, which was just about all the time, I would go out into the woods with my brother and his friends. We would climb trees, build forts, and look for animals. Of course we would always find trouble some where, but it was always worth the adventure. I have always loved being around nature.

In fact we basically had a lot of nature at home. We had up to 30-40 different types of snakes when we lived in Florida. We kept them in our garage where my father would do something called “milking” the venomous snakes. I loved it when he did this because it was so intense, and I never knew what would happen. I think this was the point in time where I fell in love with snakes. Though these were not the only animals my father would bring home. We would go ‘hunting’ down in Florida. The typical animals we would find were mostly reptiles like snapping turtles, snakes of course, and miscellaneous things. I never got bored of doing this. I was always captured by the beauty of animals and their habitats.

With my dad’s help and guidance I one day hope to be a veterinarian. This way I will be able to enjoy my work. With hard work and dedication I hope to make my father proud of me and my dreams.

Rip Van Winkle*~Erin King

The story of Rip Van Winkle recounts a timeless tail of laziness and its following consequences. Rip is a man, living in a dutch community setting, who refuses to do chores, household cleaning, etc. He negletcs his son, wife and house, and spends his time wandering around his village doing chores and minor favors for other families. the book never really explains why this is, but you sort of come to the conclusion that he’s a little mental.  Any who...is wife is a nag, and is always yelling at him for not doing this, or that, ( she sounds like a brat) and finally Rip leaves to go on a so called “hunting trip.”
While wandering around the woods he runs into a little man, carrying a keg full of some alcoholic beverage, and offers to help him carry it down the mountain.  In return he receives a free drink ( and seriously, who accepts stuff from weird old men?) which makes him sleep for pretty much a hundred years. He loses like half his life, which wasn’t much to begin with, and returns to a town that’s almost completely forgotten him.

I guess this story is sort of romantic, because they are extremely unrealistic and require you to imagine extremely far fetched things. All in all, the story was funner when I was a kid =)

Rip Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle was a man. He fell asleep in the woods. He was asleep for twenty years. He fell asleep dreaming very long. He was dreaming about Ashley Archer. He was also dreaming about Candace. The main dream was about Charlee. This dream was long and interesting. Six words equals one full sentence. I hope you noticed that Umphrey. I have done very well today. I have accomplished a butt load. I even made all of my sentences. I only used six words each. You should be proud of me.

Sincerely always and forever,

Candie Ash Inc.!

(1. Sincerely, 2. always, 3. and, 4. forever, 5. CandieAsh, 6. Inc.)

I win, ha ha ha ha!!! (There, that was also six words)

Heather’s American Dream

When asked what my American dream was, it really made me think of what the term American dream really means. Does it mean what you want to make of your life as an American? Or is it referring to who you are and what you want in life? I want to explain to you what the American dream means to me - focusing not on what I want to be, but who I want to be in my life.

There are several big themes in American literature that mean a lot in my life, including: community and family, liberty and freedom, equality and justice, money and wealth, and religion and spirituality. My American dream relies a lot upon the themes of community and family. Family and friends are a large part of the who I am and who I have become. Throughout my life, I want to be a person who has a lot of friends and family who love me even when I am 80 years old.

Liberty and freedom mean a tremendous amount, not only to me, but to everyone in America. Without freedom, who would we be today? And who would we be 50 years from now? Freedom gives us the ability to speak of our thoughts and religious views, and be the person we want to be. Equality and justice play a large role in maintaining my American dream as well. Racial and sexual equality help our nation achieve greater freedom for all and allow opportunity for all of its citizens. In my life, I was to be one to fulfill my duty in remembering our nations involvement in wars to provide all Americans with freedom and opportunity.

Although in my perfect American dream, money and wealth wouldn’t be a large part of it; however, in the society we live in today, sadly, money and wealth are a huge part of who we are considered to be. As I live my life and watch others live their own lives, I dont want my perception of those around me to be influenced by their status in society, cost of their house, or the number of cars they own.

While these themes are all important in my American dream and who I want to be, the most significant theme to me is religion and spirituality. All of my life, my Christian faith has been a big part of who I am and who my family has helped me to become. My relationship with God has helped me make it to where I am, and it will continue to help me make it to where I want to be 50 years from now.

All of those who have been a part of my life have a different theory of what my American dream should be; however, it isn’t about what they want me to be, but who I want to be. I want teachers to remember me as a student who was always focused and tried her hardest. I want for my soccer coaches and teammates to remember me as a teammate who never gave up, always gave it 110%, and was an encourager and leader on and off the field. I want my friends to remember me as one who they could always come to with problems, and were always able to trust. I want to be a person who is remembered as a Christian, clean-cut girl who was honest, loyal, loving, outgoing, and fun to be around.

Throughout my life, I don’t want to be just another person in the crowd. I want to be the person that people remember, in a good way, after meeting me just once. I want to get as much out of my life as I can, by being as adventurous, outgoing, and as willing to take a risk as possible. I want to be the person who fulfills all of their dreams, hopefully going to Gonzaga University to major in pre-med, play soccer as a Zag, go on to medical school, become a doctor, get married to a great guy, and start a family. When I’m 30 years old and have started my family, I want to be known as a parent who raises their children upon good, Christian principles, and helps them grow into a great person. As I grow older into my 70’s, and eventually pass away, I want to be the person who everyone deeply loves and looks up to. My grandmother passed away earlier this year from and when I pass away, I hope to have lived my American dream the ways she lived hers. At her funeral she had nearly 500 people attend her funeral because she had made such an impact in so many peoples’ lives. I hope that someday I will have had as great of an impact on as many peoples lives as she did.

Someday at my funeral, I hope that I have fulfilled my American dream and was able to live life to its fullest. I hope that those who knew me, remember me as a great person that was able to accomplish the goals I had set for myself, and that I was able to leave a positive mark in their lives. As I continue living my life, I want to fulfill what the American dream means to me - who I want to be.

3rd Period Blog - Thursday, January 10, 2008

Today in class we discussed parts of Thoreau’s Walden. One discussion brought up during class was what Thoreau was referring to when he told of the battle between the red and black ants. Some students felt that Thoreau was referring to the war taking place at that time period and how each side fights for their needs. We also discussed what Thoreau meant when saying, “Simplify, simplify, simplify.” The thoughts towards this comment were that Thoreau felt that life was too busy and complicated and that people needed to live the most basic life by getting rid of the unnecessary things. We ended class by listening to a reading of the end of Thoreau’s story, The Conclusion.

3rd Period Blog - Friday, January 11

Today in class, after reading Henry Thoreau’s Walden, we talked about the story. As a class we discussed and answered questions 1-6 at the end of the essay on page 246. When discussing these questions topics brought up included the fighting ants resemblance to the Mexican War, the significance of the bean field, and what Thoreau meant by simplifying our lives. We were only able to get through several questions before the end of the period.

3rd Period Blog - Monday, January 14

In 3rd period English today, we had a brief discussion on Thoreau’s Walden. We brought up several key points of Thoreau’s writing and then used the remainder of the period to write a paragraph answering one question from the review at the end of the essay (#1-5, page 246). This paragraph was to have a topic sentence, followed by several details supporting our topic sentence, and was due at the end of the period.

3rd Period Blog - Tuesday, January 15

In English today, we had our graded paragraphs that we wrote on Monday handed back to the class. We were also given a handout of topics from Walden for us to write an essay about. We discussed the handout, and then took an in-class quiz about Henry Thoreau’s Walden. This quiz took up the remainder of the period.

3rd Period Blog - Wednesday, January 16

During English class on Wednesday, Mr. Umphrey handed out a sheet about the ABCD’s of timed writings. We discussed the different aspects of the ABCD’s and how to write a good timed essay. A stands for attack the prompt; B stands for brainstorm possible answers; C stands for choose the order of response; and D stands for detect errors before submitting draft. We began to prepare to write a 40 minute timed writing about Walden.