Update!!!!

I know I haven’t blogged in a long time so I think it’s about time!  :D  Well, it has been a almost a month since we were in Poland.  I am STILL telling my story to people and they keep on asking.  It is just amazing and sometimes I am speechless because some of my pictures make me emotional while explaining them.

On Monday (April 14th), we sat in class having a conversation.  We all were remembering Poland and specific times, events, special/funny moments, pictures, and much more.  I remember we were all talking at once and then someone came up with a thought about our trip.  It was one of those thoughts that everyone heard and just paused to listen.  After she finished saying what she had to say, the room was silent.  As Amanda said, it was not an awkward silence but a moment where we were all together mentally.  I’m sure people have had that strange silence where everyone just looks at each other and doesn’t know what to say, and this wasn’t one of those moments.  This is just something that only the “Poland people” could understand.  Maybe you have been in moments like that with some at some point in your life.

As far as presentations go, I’m actually pretty busy with it.  I’m surprised at how many schools and people want us to go speak to them about our experience.  So far I have presented at Westover Jr. High and at the Harrington String Quartet.  Some of us are scheduled to speak at River Road, Palo Duro, Travis, and I’m waiting on a call from Randall High (which is where I graduated from).  We also have an event coming up on Monday and Tuesday.  Monday is the Town Hall “get together” with the people that made our trip possible.  On Tuesday, we have a group of 8th graders coming in from a small town (I’ll be sure to get the name asap) and they are touring our school.  After the tour, some of us will be speaking to them.  I’m sure we have had more requests such as Pampa and other small towns, but as far as I know, there are no dates set up.

Have you heard about what happend in Florida with the 16 year old girl?  Well if you haven’t, there were 8 teens (6 girls and 2 boys) that beat the 16 year old.  The teens ranged from 14-18 years old.  To make a long story short, the teens lured her into a house, beat her unconcious, and when she woke up they beat her some more.  She ended up having hearing loss in her left ear and her eyesite in her left eye is partially gone.  Now the teens are being tried as adults and facing some major punishments.  If you need more information just look it up!  :D  Well, I brought that story up because it goes back to what we are trying to get across to our youngsters.  When we spoke out at Westover there were the typical “brats” that always interrupted and I’m almost positive they were the bullies.  The bullying is what can cause another thing like the Holocaust to happen again.  Relating back to the story, the teens supposadly beat this girl because of things on myspace.  How ridiculous is that?  This bullying stuff has to stop!  Our army (WT Readership Ambassadors) will definately try hard to fix this, but it will take some time.  We will not give up; because every speech, conversation, and act of kindness will spread, and hopefully it will reach the ones who really need change in their life.

Well, that’s about it for now!!  IT’S TIME TO EAT!!  haha!! 

*Desiree’*

The End

1^st Year of College

Summer is almost here! I cannot wait to go back home and well, EAT! I cannot wait to see my family and my friends from Azle. This semester has gone by so fast that it seems as though I haven’t accomplished much.  It really saddens me that it is nearly over and that next semester will be nothing like this one.

1^st Semester

[August]             

On August 24^th at 11:00 AM I pulled out of my drive way and began my journey to West Texas A&M. This was one of the hardest days of my life because I was leaving a lot of my friends and most importantly my family. I have two little brothers and a cousin who are only in the grades, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and second grade. I also have two sisters who are in the third grade and a senior in high school. As I was pulling out I began to think about everything I was going to miss in their lives, especially the young ones. [Seven hours later] I finally arrived in Canyon, Texas. I entered the Jones-Parking-Lot and I parked and sat in my Explorer while I contemplated whether to go inside or just drive back home. After about an hour of sitting I stepped out of my car and slowly but surely entered Jones Hall. I was greeted and I filled out all the paper work that was required and then I finally began to unpack my car and officially moved into my room on the seventh floor. I was ready to go back home already.

[September]

                My uncle died. This was a really hard part throughout the semester. I went back home for a weekend to hopefully see him because I knew he was sick and didn’t have much time. I went home and he passed away that same weekend. I came back to Canyon without telling my family goodbye, I was really upset and I didn’t know how to express any feelings. My birthday was also in September, it was the first birthday when nobody around me wished me a happy birthday. The only people who remembered were my friends and my family. That was also a sad day. The rest of the month went by, sadly and it felt as though it would never end. I was ready to go back home still.

[October]

                Midterms were approaching. Could life get any worse? Actually, no, not this time. Sometime in October I decided to check my WT Email, just because I had this feeling that something big was about to happen. I checked it and I read the first words of the many that would forever change my life, “On behalf of the Essay Contest Committee, I would like to congratulate you on being chosen as a semi-finalist for the Poland trip.” I was beyond excited, but kind of unsure of it, I didn’t know if it was real or not. I decided to take a nap and hopefully wake up to reality. I took a nap and then woke up a few hours later to check my email again. Nope, it was most definitely real; the email from Wes was still there.  A few weeks went by after that first email; those weeks included an interview with like 10 professors and peer leaders and finally a one-on-one meeting with Dr. Lowery-Hart. At this meeting he congratulated me and told me I was off to Poland! I was ready to go home, actually I had a flight to catch that afternoon. LOL

[November and December]

                These months went by fast just because the end of the semester was upon us. I was super excited about the upcoming semester and about going home. I was ready to go home again and I did during the Thanksgiving holiday and for a whole month during the winter holiday. I was HOME!

2^nd Semester

[January]

                The long-awaiting countdown has begun for the semester! I was back in Canyon and for the first time looking forward to this semester. I was ready to begin all the work that needed to be accomplished before heading to Poland. I went back home four days after I came back to Canyon to pick up my passport in Fort Worth. I came back and everything just flew by.

[February]

                Nothing really interesting happened…

[March]

                Okay, so I go home a lot, but for good reasons. I went back home for a weekend so that I could go to the mall, because Amarillo doesn’t really have one. I said my goodbyes to my family and headed back to Canyon, where I would soon be boarding many planes to Poland. Before I knew it we were in Poland, and before I could blink we were back in Canyon again. After our trip to Poland we had many presentations and some speeches that most of us have taken part of.

[April]

                The first presentation I was part of was at Westover Middle School in Amarillo. Our goal was to make the kids realize that “hate” is wrong and that it shouldn’t be something to even mess with.  After all these presentations I realized that I use the word “hate” every day of my life, sometimes more than once or twice. Even if I really don’t hate something I will say it anyway, like math for instance. I absolutely don’t like math at all. Anytime that I look at my algebra book I think to myself, “Man, I really hate math.” I feel bad for saying this word, which is why I have cut back and seriously thought about why I use this word. The truth is, I really don’t hate anything or anybody and this makes me feel a lot better. We, the readership ambassadors have been talking a lot about changing the world, or at least to start with, our school. Last week, some of the ambassadors took part in “No Shoes Day,” a whole day where none of them wore shoes in honor of the 40% of people in the world that don’t have shoes. Two nights ago I, along with Brant, Eva, and Lindsey took part in “Displace Me ’08.” The purpose of this event was simply to raise awareness of the 1.7 million displaced people of Uganda due to the last 21 years of war. During this seventeen hour camp out, the people that took part in this wrote letters to some congress men, senators, and the president of the US to encourage them to help achieve our main goal, which was to raise awareness. Education is very powerful and it is something that cannot be taken away from anyone. I believe that educating people is the first step in ending the war, because “We believe every war has an end.”

[May – Not here yet, but my plans are…]

Stress, finals, saying goodbye, and leaving! The end of the semester is in a few days. Last semester, all I could think about was about going back home and wanting to be with my friends back home because I really didn’t know anybody. It is almost May and I feel as though time is only a glimpse of what life really has to offer. I have been spending a lot of time with friends that I have made, not just the ambassadors but also the ones outside this amazing group. I cannot wait to be back home, but I can already tell you that I am going to miss almost everything about WT during this long summer.

[Today]

                I don’t know what else to say. I don’t know if this is going to be my last blog, or if I can find some time and blog again, but whatever the case is, I would like to say that, “It was worth it!” This entire semester has been a gift from God and it can never be taken away. I will never forget the faces I’ve met along with their personalities, the places I’ve visited, and most importantly the lessons I’ve learned.

 

Goodbye and Good Luck,

DAVID MERAZ

THE END