After high school

After high school, I am not completely certain about what I wasn’t to do yet. For starters, I do know that I will be going to college for sure. Without a college education, I probably won’t be very successful in life. When I am in college, I would like to somehow stay around football. I am considering playing D3 football at a college somewhere, but I am uncertain about where I would want to play, and if I even want to or not. If I do play football, one place that I am considering is Alfred State so that I could play with my friend Nick Foss. Also, I do think that I have the grades to get into that school, so that is one of my potential options. But that would be a really great experience to be able to play football with one of my best friends again. I also would need to get a job after high school ends so that I could pay for living expenses while dorming at college. I will need to pay for food and things of that nature, so a job would be essential. Also, I need to find some way to get a car before college starts, so that I can get around when I am at college, and I won’t be confined to such a small area. And if I get a car, then I need to pay for gas, and car insurance, and all that good stuff. But some options that I have been considering studying at school are some time of sports management, or something along the lines of a personal trainer. These are two things that I am extremely interested in, and that I would passionately pursue when I get out of college. Also, being involved in them would mean I get to stay around football for the majority of my life, which is what I want to do.

Teacher

Throughout the years, I have had the distinct privilege of having many great teachers and coaches. There were so many that I took into consideration, that it was hard to pick just one. But when it came down to it, I feel confident that I made the correct decision in choosing Mr. Domino. I had Mr. Domino for Environmental Science my sophomore year, and I must admit I was far from thrilled when I first entered his classroom, as I had no interest whatsoever in learning about the environment. But there was so much more that I gained from this class through learning about the environment. I learned that everything that we do as human beings either directly or indirectly affects nature, whether it be positively or negatively. I also had the opportunity to learn a lot about how our sports fields are managed around the Alden district, and I now understand some of the limitations that our grounds crew is held to. I learned so many things that I probably would’ve never taken any time to learn about without taking that class. But the main reason that I found this class so enjoyable was because of Mr. Domino’s unmatched passion for teaching environmental science. He used fun, engaging activities that got us out of our seats and involved with what we were learning, rather than just sitting back and taking notes for 80 minutes straight. He also was able to use his own personal life stories to teach us the curriculum because he involved with so many programs involving the environment. His interest in this subject is what got me interested. I constantly found myself sharing things that I learned from him with my parents or friends or telling them the next witty joke he made in class that day. Mr. Domino, you’re the man.

Alex Morgan

Since I was given the choice to write about whatever I want for this blog, I have decided to take this opportunity to write about Alex Morgan. Alex is a forward playing for the Western New York Flash, and has developed into one of my favorite athletes over the past few months. Morgan first caught my attention this past summer during the FIFA World Cup. Prior to this summer’s tournament, I had absolutely zero interest in soccer in general, let alone woman’s soccer.  However, as I watched the underdog American team come back time and time again, I was captivated. Particularly when they played against Brazil, and it looked like they were down and out, until Abby Wambach scored late to eventually send the game to penalty kicks where USA took down the Brazil powerhouse. Through all of this excitement, one player really caught my attention with her finesse abilities, ravishing looks, and her signature pink headband.  That was Alex Morgan. I continued to follow her to the very end of the tournament until the United States lost to Japan in penalty kicks. Although I was heartbroken because at the loss, I was ecstatic to find out that she played for Western New York’s home team in the WPS, the Western New York Flash.  I even created a Twitter account so that I could see what she is up to at all times.  Finally, I was able to get some friends together and go to a Flash game out in Rochester. The night was a gloomy and soggy one, but it in no way was a symbol of my mood. I was thrilled just to breathe the same air as this human being. The game itself was pretty boring, but after it ended was when the fun really began. I was the first one down to the edge of the stands to greet the players as they walked off the field. Morgan must have been captivated by my dashing looks, as I was the first one she decided to come sign for. So, to make a long story short, she signed my ticket, and I toughed her hand. NBD

Favorite Class

Throughout my many years of school, there have been a lot of enjoyable classes. But my favorite was without a doubt when I took 20^th century wars my sophomore year with Mr. Kryszczuk.  I enjoyed this class for many different reasons, but mostly because we got to learn about something that really interests me, which is war. Also, I had a lot of friends in that class with me, and I even had my sister in it too, so if I was ever stuck on the homework, we could just work on it together.  The way in which the class was instructed was the best part. What we did was briefly learn about the war, and then watch a movie that related to it. For example, we would learn a little bit about world war 2 for a day, then we would spend 3 days watching Saving Private Ryan. And the best part of all of this was that I had it first block, so it was a nice way to sort of ease into the stressful day of school that was ahead of me. And if for some reason I didn’t have my geometry homework done that was due second block, I was usually able to get it done in this class during the movie, because movie days were usually pretty laid back. Another part of the class that I liked was playing the role playing games. Basically we would split up into pairs and were given a country and would have to make alliances with the other countries around the classroom to try and further ourselves in the game.  The game was full of back stabbing and distrust, and it was a lot of fun. However, I always found my team being knocked out in the first round because I made too many alliances, and was stabbed in the back by people I thought I trusted.

Bullying

Bullying is a major problem now a days amongst teens throughout the entire world. People see someone that is different or not exactly like them and they feel the need to put them down, or raise themselves above these individuals. The fact that people think they can tell someone that they are worthless based off of stuff like their appearance or sexual orientation is just sad. This is an extremely disappointing and hurtful topic for many people, and it must be dealt with, and now people are taking more serious steps to preventing bullying as a result of a 14 year old boy from Western New York that took his own life as a way of coping with bullying. Jamie Rodemeyer had been tormented and teased by his peers to the point where he could not take it anymore and committed suicide. Jamie was an avid fan of Lady Gaga, and she was one of his biggest fans because of her support for homosexuals like himself. Bullying is something that cannot be easily prevented, but teachers in schools everywhere are doing their best as a result of this particular incident. I believe that there should be no toleration for bullying, and that if swift action and discipline is taken, that it will show others what will happen if they decide to bully somebody and then they might not go through with it. Also, if people are being bullied, they need to tell someone of authority immediately, because it will in most cases be dealt with before that individual lets the anger and frustration build up so much inside that it gets to the point where they see taking their life as their only possible option. If kids talk about it, and bring light to the subject, it is more likely to be stopped, but talking about these types of things are hard for many adolescents.

Restaurants

Alden is home to many of my favorite restaurants. Some of these include Carbones, Geoffano’s and Subway. But when I think of my favorite, there is only one that stands out in my mind. John & Mary’s. I think that John & Mary’s has the best overall food in town. Their pizza is min my opinion their only weak point. Usually when I order myself a pizza from John & Mary’s, it tends to be extremely doughy and does not taste as if it has been cooked fully through. And being a person that prefers their pizza crispier than the average person, you can understand why I would see this as a problem. But besides that, everything else is phenomenal. Their subs are second to none around here. My personal favorite that I find myself getting most often when I order from there is a hot ham. This sub comes with hot ham, melted provolone cheese, mayo, fried hot and sweet peppers, and fried onions. To most people this seems pretty nasty and disgusting. But to me, is to die for. In fact, I just had one last night for dinner, and let me tell you, it was out of this world. Next on the list of John & Mary’s best subs is without a doubt just your plain, basic turkey sub. As I mentioned before in my blog about my favorite foods, turkey sub was right up there with the best of them. The roll is toasted to perfection, and the turkey is the perfect amount. Unlike at Geoffano’s, who puts excessive amounts of turkey on their subs. Then, just like on the hot ham sub, you need to add the fried hot and sweet peppers, and onions to top it all off. Finally, the chicken wings at John & Mary’s are pretty decent, but would lose horribly if were they put up against Geoffano’s.

School Lunche Rules!

Of All the school lunches, my favorite is without a doubt soft shell tacos. Tacos have been my favorite school lunch for as long as I can remember. I really don’t know what it is about them that makes them so good. The meat is pretty good, and it has a unique flavor to it, which I really do like. Then you must add a lot of hot sauce and salsa to your taco. Finally, you add jalapenos, cheese and lettuce. Finally, you have the perfect school taco. But with the taco comes even more delicious side entrees. It comes with tortilla chips, corn, and my personal favorite, churros. And if you feel like adding even more flavor to your already delicious taco, you can do what I do and put your chips and corn right into the taco for that extra blast of flavor. Although taco day is my favorite lunch, there are a few very close contenders that I would like to take some time to recognize. First of which would have to be chicken patties. The patties are always very crispy and are served with mac n cheese which is really good. Also, they put out blue cheese and hot sauce to smother your patty with, which is my favorite part. After chicken patties would have to be grilled cheese day. Grilled cheese day is usually every other Friday, and I almost always find myself getting a double lunch every time it rolls around. The grilled cheese is smothered with butter and is extremely crispy, just the way I like it. Also, you can get tomato soup with it, which by itself isn’t all that special, but when you dip your grilled cheese in it, it makes for one excellent combination of delicious cafeteria foods here in Alden.