Personal quote journal

"Everyone is a genius but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." - Albert Einstein

I like this quote because of how true it is. No matter how smart sombody appears to be, there is always going to be somthing that you know that they don't, and there will always be lessons that you can learn from each other.

Mccandless project

For my experiment I decided to leave my phone at home for a day. I knew this was going to be hard for me because I use my phone almost every day. When I left my house without my phone I felt wierd. It was like I was cut off from everywhere outside of my personal space. Nobody really reacted any differently to me. My biggest challange came during study hall where I normally am on my phone for almost the whole hour. That was probably the most productive study hall I had ever had. When I got home I was happy I had my phone. I will probably never do this again

Sam Hackett

Mrs. Belden

5 October 2014

The Outbreak

Its been about 5 years since the first ebola outbreak in the US. It feels like it was just yesterday. The media told us they had it under control, that everyone exposed had been quarantined and everything would be fine. They couldn’t have been more wrong. Nearly the entire US was infected within two years, the entire world within four. The world fell into chaos. Groups of looters and marauders prowled the streets looking for easy targets to rob and kill. Of course there are a few survivors here and there. People like me who have survived only through dumb luck. My best friend George and I have been held up in an abandon high school with two other survivors for a few months. Glenn a short young man with dark hair, and Eric a chubby, balding middle aged man that we had only met two weeks ago. We figured a school would be safe with all of the metal gates, long winding hallways and places to cook and sleep. It was getting late and I was getting hungry I headed over to the lunchroom where Glenn was cooking a pot of rice. I got a bowl and headed to the courtyard where George and Eric were sitting by a fire. It was fall and starting to get cold, but it was still nice to sit by the fire. George was sitting next to Eric. and they were speaking to each other in frantic whispers.

“what’ya talking about?” I asked

“I saw a group of people out by the front gate this morning” said Eric. “I think they were looking for a way in.”

“Its probably just people passing through. Nothing to worry about.” I said casually.

“yeah, but I still think we should have our guard up.” said George

“Yeah whatever” I said

I finished my dinner and went to bed I woke up to George shaking me

"Wake up! Wake up!" He said frantically

"What do you want?" I groggily said, slightly annoyed

"A group of people are here, they are trying to break in" said George

I sprung to my feet

"Where?" I said

"Over by the front gate" said George

We ran over as fast as we could. We stopped at our makeshift armory, which was nothing more than an old walk in refrigerator. Eric and Glenn were already there. George grabbed an old hunting rifle, while I grabbed a small .38 caliber revolver and the 12 gauge shotgun. We started to run over to where we heard the commotion. Suddenly I heard an explosion so loud I thought my ears would bleed. The blast came from just around the corner. I ran over to see what had just happened. When I turned the corner there were about five men standing there, with more flooding in. I ducked behind the wall just as a bullet hit the wall behind me.

"They blew open the gate. There is to many of them" I said to George.

“Eric! Glenn! Fall back to the lunchroom, George and I will head toward the gym”

Eric nodded, and they sprited away.

George and I ran fast as we could. I am much faster than George and ran ahead of him quickly. I stopped and waited for him to catch up. He was already out of breath.

"We can't keep running" panted George

"What else can we do" I said

George took cover behind a  wall.

"This is crazy" I said, also taking cover.

We heard rapid footsteps headed our way. I aimed down the sights of the shotgun and waited.

The second I saw a person turn the corner I squeezed the trigger. *click*

No ammo.

How stupid could I be. In all the commotion I forgot to check if the gun had any bullets in it. I looked at George. He had already emptied his magazine and was beginning to reload. I pulled out my small .38 revolver and fired all six shots. but there were still more people coming, it seemed endless. I had no more ammo in any of my weapons. If I didn’t get out of here soon, there was no chance a would escape with my life. I dropped both the shotgun and the .38 on the ground. George looked up from his rifle

“ W-what are you doing” George said with a shaky voice

“Im sorry” I said.

I turned and ran

“Wait!” I heard George yell from behind me

I didn't look back. I just ran as fast as I could through the hallways. George did his best to keep up but I was to fast for him

“Stop! Wait for me!” I heard again from behind me. His voice sounded farther away, and it echoed through the empty halls. I was running through a long hallway, as I reached the end I stopped and looked back too see George rounding the corner out of breath, still trying his best to keep up. I could see the shadows of the intruders dancing on the walls, growing ever closer. As I turned to run again I heard a loud *thud* I looked back. George had tripped. The intruders were rounding the corner and were on George in an instant. There was nothing I could do now. I ran for my life as I heard my best friend scream in agony as the Marauders tore him limb from limb.

Choice Book

Over the summer I read the book I Am A SEAL Team Six Warrior  by Howard E. Wasden. The purpose of the book was to show that courage and perseverance are the key to getting far in life and reaching your goals. There are many times in the book where Howard is faced with difficult challenges but overcame them by being courageous and not giving up. One example is from his childhood. Howard lived with his mom and his stepdad. His stepdad was very strict and often even abusive. whenever Howard forgot to do his chores or did something he didn't like, he would beat Howard with his belt, sometimes to the point of him bleeding. Howard was also sent to work on his dads watermelon farm. His job was to pick and load the watermelons onto a truck. Work was grueling in the heat, but Howard never complained. It took courage and perseverance for Howard to live through the beatings his dad gave him, and for him to get through the long days of work on the watermelon farm. When Howard graduated high school, he decided to join the Navy. He decided he wanted to be a rescue swimmer. That decision took courage because being a rescue swimmer is one of the most dangerous jobs you can have in the Navy. Howard was stationed on an aircraft carrier for most of his service. There was one mission where Howard and a few other people had to escort a Russian submarine with the use of a helicopter. The mission seemed Mundane and casual until something went wrong. Suddenly the helicopter started to fall out of the air towards the ocean. The crash was so violent it knocked the wind out of Howard. After he caught his breath, he realized that the helicopter was filling with water and he had to act fast. He activated the self inflating life raft and dragged himself and the rest of the helicopter crew on. After several hours of waiting a second helicopter came to pick them up and took them back to the aircraft carrier. It took courage for Howard to act the way he did, and because of his bravery, someone mentioned he should become a Navy SEAL. Howard looked into it and thought being a Navy SEAL would be amazing. He decided to give it a shot. Navy SEAL training is the hardest military training in the world. It is six months long and has up to a 90% dropout rate. It took courage for Howard to go to Navy SEAL training and it took a lot of perseverance to not give up. There is a one week long portion of training where candidates go for a week with only about four hours of sleep and run up to 200 miles. It took perseverance not to just give up and get some rest. Because Howard did not give up during training, he got to become a Navy SEAL and eventually got to be in one of the most elite special operations units the world, SEAL Team Six.