FIRST IMPRESSION: ON SELF-RELIANCE

My first impression of the article "On Self-Reliance" was that i thought it was speaking many truths that we don't really talk about but we subconsciously think about. I like the way the author worded the essay because it wasn't simply straight forward it was more complex but that is what made it more understandable.

STORY OF MY LIFE

About two years ago in summer I was invited to go to a six day training in Florida for an organization I am in. The time is different over there than it is here in Santa Maria because Florida is three hours ahead of us. Since I was not used to the time there I would usually fall asleep around two in the morning. On the third day I was in Florida my room mate and our friend decided to explore the hotel we were staying in so we took the elevator to the highest floor. When we got there it seemed as if someone else had just gotten there too because the elevator in front of  us had barely opened as soon as we arrived to that floor. We though nothing of it so we just walked out of the Elevator and walked down the hallway. We kept hearing the elevator beep as if someone kept pressing a button for another floor. After we explored the highest floor we decided to go back down so we went back to the elevator and as we walked closer the sound of the elevator was still going on. So when we got to the elevator we tried to take the other elevator that was in front of the creepy one but when we pressed the button for that one to open the elevator that had been acting weird opened instead. My room mate and our friend got scared so we decided to take the stares but we got scared at how creepy it was. We ended up going back to the creepy elevator and tried to go down back to the lobby but for some reason  the elevator wouldn't move. On every floor that we presses the elevator would close then open back up. We tried one last time and it was finally going down. As the elevator was counting down from eight to one the elevator went farther than one and went one more floor down. At that point I was thinking that I was in a scary movie but when the elevator opened all we saw were two more elevators in front and things crashing into each other so we went back in and presses the help button in the elevator and told security that we were stuck on that floor. We didn't want to wait long for the security to come so we decided to go to the other elevator and try to go back to floor one. We finally got to the first floor and as we were walking to our rooms the security guard stopped us and asked if we were the ones who got stuck . They ended up asking us questions and we were all scared because we didn't want our advisers to find out that we had been wondering around at two in the morning. This whole experience was scary but at the end we all laughed it off and ended up sleeping on one bed since we were tired and our friend didn't want to go back to her room.

THE VALUE OF MY TIME

For me ever since my freshman year I have enjoyed volunteering not because it looks good for colleges but because I am able to meet new people from everywhere and create new friendships. Community service relieves my stress and gives me a sense of success because when I come straight home after school everyday I always feel like my life is a depressing routine that goes on forever, but whenever i'm volunteering i feel good because i'm usually always doing different things that are fun and at the same time I am helping and fighting for our community to be a better place for everyone.