Kirsten

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 The minute you forget your past is the minute you forget who you are and where you came from. I think you should always remember who you were versus who you are now, and how you have grown for the better. I think to be successful in life you need to know exactly who you are, and where you came from because that made you who you who you are today. Everyone is successful in their own way. ======

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For example, Bill Gates is a multi-millionaire who donates millions of dollars a year to charities worldwide. Bill Gates has not always been a successful businessman; he didn’t wake up on his eighteenth birthday and inherit the million dollar family business. He has worked for everything he has earned while remembering who he truly is, and is a very successful man for it. He started out breaking down computers, learning how they work and rebuilding them with his friend in his garage. Then moved on to writing programs that are in every computer today. ======

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Everyone is successful in their own way all the way from beating out the smartest kid in the grade on a math test all the way to becoming a millionaire by rebuilding computers in their garage. If you remember getting the best grade on a math test once, you know it is possible and you can do it again. Remembering your past is a great thing; it helps you learn from things you have done wrong and learn that if you can do something once you can do it again and again. ======

**//__﻿College Essay Prompt __//**
Names are often given to us to honor a relative, a god, or represent a personality. I asked my dad about my name and he said that he wanted a name that was unique, but not //too// unique. Which lead to the search for my name. I recently discovered that if you take the “i-r-s-t” out of Kirsten it makes Ken, my dad’s name. Is that a coincidence? He swears it is, but I don’t think so. It’s very ironic that my dad’s name is part of my own name because I do think we are very similar people. We are both quiet, slightly reserved and keep to ourselves. Once I had been given the name Kirsten, the problems arose.

People have had problems saying my name for as long as I can remember. The first time I remember someone messing up my name was in pre-k. There were three girls with names starting with “K” in our class and we were all friends. There was Katlin, Kirsten, and Katie which our teacher constantly got confused about who was who. From then on our teacher assigned us numbers and she referred to us as K1, K2, and K3. When we received our numbers I thought it was actually pretty cool because we had nicknames and other kids didn’t, but then again the other kids called us by our real names and soon forgot that we even had nicknames.

** My family, like many others, has gone on a lot of vacations that we want to remember forever. Something my mom loves to buy when we go on vacation is ornaments, even better ornaments with names on them. My mom would go over to a really cute ornament that has our vacation spot and some decorations on it. They have one with Kirstyn, Kiristin, and Kristin but no Kirsten! I know that is a foolish thing to get upset about, but I do. **

In my opinion a person’s name is very important because it is how someone is identified. When people say my name wrong, to me it is a sign of lack of respect. I understand if someone mistakes it for a different one once. I normally correct people when they say my name incorrectly but if it happens continually after I correct them I have learned to deal with it. I have come to terms with the fact that teachers and distant family friends might say my name wrong. I have become so immune to people saying it incorrectly I almost expect that they will say it wrong. My friends and I have joked around on the first day of school before the teacher takes roll saying “How much do wanna bet the teacher says it wrong again?”

In some ways my name can be very irritating because people cannot pronounce it nor can they spell it. Normally people read the name Kirsten but mix up the “I” and “R” saying Kristen instead. Since people frequently mispronounce my name I try to make sure to say other’s names correctly because I know how aggravating it can be. ** However if I could somehow go back in time and change my name to anything I would make it something simple, that is easy to spell and pronounce. **Since I cannot do that I am content with the name Kirsten, K-**i**** - ****r**** -s-t-e-n. **

//__**﻿﻿Blind Man **__//
 **Original:** Down the road late at night, the blind man went. He made noise with his stick. He wore something shading his eyes and was bent over. He said he lost his eyes helping England and King George.

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Stick flying, the man, blinded at war, went down the road. His stick was an old branch, broken and flimsy. His body, tiring out, shifted right and left swaying along the road. When the man, looking confused and exhausted, stood up straight revealing his blindfolded eyes. ======



__//** Every House Has A Story - July 11 ** //__
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I have lived in the same cul-de-sac on the same street for fourteen and a half years. My cul-de-sac is full of interesting people and stories. My neighbor and I have been friends for eleven years now. There are about six houses in our cul-de-sac. I never really bothered to learn their real names because my neighbor and I made up our own names for them. To the right of my house was “Pit-bull People”, next to them was “Dog Lady”, and the “O’Malley’s”.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Pit-bull people used to live in the city and had trained dogs that were mean and ready to fight. They had six pit-bulls, wherever they went even to the mailbox or the pool, they had a dog with them. One time two of them charged after my neighbor and I. Heart pounding we ran through the garage and into her kitchen and slammed the door shut so hard the house shook. Dog Lady bred and sold dogs; she would have six or more dogs in her house at a time which made for a noisy night. She also had every dog decoration and artifact ever made. The great part for the neighbors was that half of those artifacts were on her front lawn. I could see Dog Lady's House, small and rundown, with clutered with dog sculptures in her yard. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Then last but not least there is the family who have motivational posters and donation boxes around town, the Cindy O’Malley Hope fund. The story has been told many ways, and this is the way I heard it. When Cindy was a senior at Lassiter High School, she was tanning in her driveway because of a half day at school. Her dad owns a monster truck. Driving carelessly went up the driveway and ran over Cindy. He thought he had hit something and backed up, running over Cindy again. Cindy has been paralyzed ever since then, just recently becoming able to use her arms again. But the story doesn’t stop there. The O’Malley’s had raised over $70,000 to get Cindy a surgery that would let her walk again, but her dad responsible for the whole thing went out and bought a sports car that just sits in their garage. These are some of the many stories from the cul-de-sac on Chancery Place.