The REAL First Post

For the real first post I am supposed to write “Who Am I? Write a blog entry that defines who you are. Explain to the class what makes up the person you are. What are the biggest influences in your life? What are your goals/purposes?”
            Personally I feel this is too difficult for me to answer through writing, but seeing as this is an assignment I guess I have to. It’s much easier I think for someone to see who I am by meeting and talking or being in my class with me.

To summarize who I am is something I don’t normally think about doing. But I would say I am very different than many of the people who live around here. While people around here may like going outdoors, I truly enjoy being in the outdoors. I’m an avid hiker, climber, and skier. Unfortunately living where I do, I am unable to do those things without having to travel quite a bit. One cool thing that I can think of about me right now is that I plan to climb and ski down Mt.Elbrus is Western Russia this coming summer. Mt.Elbrus is the highest point in Europe at around 18,510 feet. It also is apparently home to the world's "Nastiest Outhouse" said Outside magazine in 1993, I'm really looking forward to that.

I care for the environment, but would consider myself a very hypocritical person when it comes to it. That is probably because of the Edward Abbey books I have read so far (Desert Solitaire, and The Monkey Wrench Gang), along with the book Hayduke Lives!, which I just started reading. These books are written by their eco terroristic author who uses his own past experiences to tell fictional tales of characters. I believe these books have changed who I am in the past year, especially how I feel about the environment since I first read one of his books. I would say that he is one of the influences on my life. I would also say that all my peers, teachers, and the rest of the world are my biggest influences in my life because I don’t really look up to anyone in particular.

At this point in my life, I don’t really know what my goals or purposes in life are. I have a few things on my bucket list, which I guess could be used as “my goals or purposes in life” for now. A few of those things are climbing the 7 summits (highest points on each continent), hike the Appalachian trail, Kayak down the Mississippi River, ride behind the Tour De France for the entire race, and a few other things which come and go as I remember them or as I gain new interests. My other goals are to get straight A’s for the rest of high school because I didn’t do so well freshman or sophomore year (2.455 GPA Freshman year, 2.8 GPA Sophomore year). I was able to get straight A’s and get a 4.1 GPA last year (Junior year), and I hope to also get straight A’s this year because I must for 1^st semester of this year if I want to go to the college of my dreams. That is another goal you could say of mine in my life right now, is get straight A’s so that I can get into the college of my dreams, which is Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado where I could also play Divison 3 lacrosse. I am way below their average GPA to get in, but I would be the 3^rd generation of my family to go and 5^th member of my family to go if I ended up going to CC. Other than that I can’t recall any other goals, but I’m sure I will remember them later. I’m sorry if this is a bland summary of “who I am” but the only thing I can say is that it would be better to meet me and see how I act in class and around people.

Here is a 3D model of Mt.Elbrus is Western Russia...
Elbrus_3D_version_1.gif‎

And here is a video of the CC Division 3 lacrosse team about You vs. Them... I think its a pretty sweet video, but thats probably because this is where I want to go and play lacrosse.