Final Draft of Photo Essay

Photo essay draft 2

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New Summer

I really don’t get what is going on with the weather. Normally there is some sort of transition period between winter and summer (spring) but this year it feels like spring got skipped. As such I am either expecting desert hot temperatures during the summer or for occurrences of snow as status quo has been for this year. On the topic of summer heat, I really don’t enjoy it as much as I do the colder months. I like to feel cool at night when I am going to sleep and I look forward to wearing big jackets to protect me against the cold. I always say when this subject comes up in conversation that “you can always get warm but you can’t always cool off” and that’s why I really enjoy the cold. However summer is not all bad and I do look forward to it for many reasons, going to the pool and wearing shorts and short sleeved t-shirts are enjoyable parts of this time of year. I don’t have allergies so unlike most I enjoy the blooming of all the various foliage around town and also I always look forward to the break between semesters where me and all of my friends who have gone off to various colleges can return home and spend some quality time together. I do miss them. Yet this summer I may not get to enjoy that luxury. Instead I may be in Iowa for an internship opportunity. It is only eight weeks long leaving me with one or two extra weeks of summer (and it is paid) but as I previously stated I need to see my friends. Whenever I think of this time of year it reminds me of every single summer since my childhood and also all the good times that I enjoyed with the people I grew up with. I hope to never lose these individuals and I strive to keep in touch. Maybe I can just Facebook them if I get the internship as I’m sure they want to keep in touch. This is just going to be a new experience for me if I am chosen and although I feel it will be a rewarding one I am at the same time as unsure as I am before any other new experience. Hopefully it will all go well and this will be another summer that I can fondly look back on and nostalgically remember.

Driving the Future

I love technology (most of the time) and this love has sparked me to watch shows on the science channel and there is one in particular I will always watch and it’s called “How it’s made.” I find this show intriguing because it showcases factories and how everyday items that people use (or eat) are made extremely quickly and efficiently in these establishments. For example, one show that I watched showed a pharmaceutical companies pill making machine which produced an astonishing five thousand pills per minute! Another episode that I recently watched traveled through the factory as walnuts went from shelled to processed and sorted into many different sizes and for many different products. Some that were large and whole were packaged to be sold as walnuts, and the smaller bits of walnuts were shipped off to various bakeries to be used as baking ingredients or toppings. This show is so amazing to me (as a future scientist) because it is my idea of technology at its best. When I watch and see assembly lines of robots that can put together the body of a car (not completely) in only eight minutes I am amazed. Not only have we come far but we have used our minds to create so many versatile inventions and combined those inventions to further ourselves and science. To be able to create or discover something new and helpful is just one of the many driving factors leading me down the path of science. I want to be a part of this technologically driven society and to further it (I have no idea how I am going to do this but that is why I am learning as much as I can every day). After all, technology has done great things for us. Without radios, televisions, or the internet our rate of information transfer would be much lower and we would probably still be back in the early nineteen hundreds (technologically). Also, mass production of foods, goods, and technologies has served to enhance the lives of millions if not billions all over the world and I feel will eventually lead to the prospering of every nation or at least ending the suffering of the less fortunate. Technology is our friend (most days) and I thoroughly embrace it every single day and even at this moment as I type this blog and I can’t wait to see what comes in the future.

Brushwork Freedom

I have lived in the same house since I was only one year of age. This house has stood for almost twenty years now and has undergone some major transformations since it was first built. The majority of the structure itself has not seen change, yet the walls inside my home have dynamically existed throughout this house’s life. What I mean is, every single wall has been painted and repainted as time has gone on and my family has done all the painting. No we are not professional painters and yes we could have hired painters to do the job for us, but I feel a certain sense of satisfaction whenever I gaze upon the hard work of my family. In particular, my room, my brother’s room, and my sister’s room stand out in my mind as they have had the most detail put into them. My mom did most of the work in these areas as she is the skilled artist of the family and she painted all of our rooms to our liking. Mine is painted a combination of deep blue and light blue (emphasis on the darker) with a sponge technique and then me and my mom placed stars and planet stickers all over the ceiling so that it resembled space. Then on one of the walls my mom painted a rocket ship blasting off into space, and on the adjacent a large bright yellow sun with a mirror for a center seemingly lighting up the room. At night the stickers would glow and shed a blanket of subtle light over me as I drifted off to sleep. My brother’s room is painted of a jungle with green on most of the walls, yet one wall has a very large oak tree which trunk extends to the ceiling leading to the branches and leaves which extend over the ceiling as if shielding him in a jungle. Amongst this tree on the wall my mother painted various animals such as an elephant and a large giraffe. She even got some rope and tied it in the corner of the ceiling to hand a monkey stuffed animal from! It all looked so good when she got finished with it and it still looks the same even today. My sisters room, my mom painted with a much more feminine touch. It is garden themed with flowers and various birds painted vibrantly and in detail across all four walls (I sometimes think that this was her dream room growing up and that’s why she put so much effort into it for my sister). Then on the ceiling surrounding the fan are puffy white clouds amidst a light sky blue background which lightens up the room and completes the outdoor and scenic feel. Although as I said all the other rooms have been painted also, they are mainly just solid colored walls that were very easy to paint once taped off. I actually just repainted my dad’s office last week a light green to match the new hardwood floor he had put in (not green hardwood but an accenting color) and it looks wonderful if I do say so myself. I really believe that in the future I will continue this practice in my home as it both saves money, is very rewarding, and provides ultimate freedom of creativity so that I may forge my home the way that I (and my family hopefully) see fit.