10 episodes

English 6th Period

English 6th Period lea wilson

    • Society & Culture

English 6th Period

    Kimberly Thompson

    Kimberly Thompson

    This is believe

    • 1 min
    Kelsey - This I Believe

    Kelsey - This I Believe

    Kelsey Bhola was born and raised in the US Virgin Islands. She is a senior at the Good Hope Country Day School. In her essay, she shares her thoughts on hard work and why having a reason bigger than yourself can make working hard easier.
    In this world, working hard is a necessary evil to attain success. But as the name implies, working hard is no easy feat. We all go through phases where it’s hard to work at peak efficiency because it feels as though there is nothing more that you could possibly give or because the motivation is just not there. It is completely natural not to have the drive to work hard at all times or to get tired of working because your efforts seem to be in vain. After all, we all need a break at some time or another. However, the key to getting back on track is reminding yourself of why you’re doing what you’re doing. I believe that working hard is less difficult when you’re doing it for a reason bigger than yourself.
    When I went to the JSA Summer School at Stanford University in 2018, there was a guest speaker who came and talked to us about her career in politics and important lessons she had learned. In her speech, she talked about beating the odds and making it into Stanford University. She told us that she was from a small town and did not have all that much growing up, but that she made the most of what she did have. She said that the beginning of her time at Stanford was exceedingly difficult for a multitude of reasons, but that in times when she felt like quitting, she reminded herself that she was not just doing this hard work for herself. She was doing it for her family, for the people in her small town, and for everyone that believed in her. Her lesson was to remind yourself of a reason bigger than yourself that motivates you to work hard. That stuck with me, not because it was a new, groundbreaking concept, but because it was a reminder to be more mindful of my motivation for working as hard as I do to ensure that I have the drive to continue.
    I have many reasons to keep working hard, but the one reason that has continually motivated me, even in the toughest of times, is my grandmother. I distinctly remember one night, where we sat on my grandmother’s front porch for hours and just talked. She told me about her parents’ emigration from India, her mother dying when she was very young, her stepmother pulling her out of school in the first grade, her arranged marriage at age fifteen, and other defining moments in her life. I was in complete awe of her. My grandmother and I used to talk on the phone at least once every day. And every day without fail, she gave me the same advice: never take your education for granted and never stop working hard.
    My grandmother passed away in 2014. Although I cannot talk to her anymore, her words stuck with me and still do to this day. When things get difficult, I remember that I am pursuing a quality education for more than just myself. I am doing it for myself, my grandmother, and everyone who believed in me and made countless sacrifices to get me to where I am today. I am determined to achieve what my grandmother never had the chance to, and for her, I will never stop working hard.

    • 3 min
    Donny - This I Believe

    Donny - This I Believe

    I tell the story of the time I participated in a championship basketball game and why a team is only as good as it’s weakest link.

    • 3 min
    Gus - This I Believe

    Gus - This I Believe

    When I walked into our school’s “petting zoo” in fifth grade, I wanted to play the viola or the trumpet. The petting zoo is the term we give to the process of choosing the instrument that you would play in middle and high school. I eventually put my bias aside, and went with the instrument that felt natural. At the time, I didn’t realize how much the decision to play standing bass would mean for my confidence, and how much of a passion it would become for me. I earned a spot for Junior Western Regional Orchestra both years that I auditioned. I went on to become one of the leaders in my section as a freshman in high school. It’s ironic that after this experience, my passion turned from the sound of beautiful melodies to the sound of silence.

    After my freshman year of high school, I moved from North Carolina to St Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was a time of transition made more dramatic by Hurricanes Irma and Maria just a few months after I arrived. The new school that I attended lacked a strong music program, and it is hard to maintain the condition of instruments on an island. It was time for me to discover a new passion.

    I had always thought that once on St Croix, I would do a lot of fishing. It turns out I have fished only once since moving to the Caribbean. Instead, I decided to try scuba diving. I enjoyed snorkeling with my family, but I had always yearned to be able to swim at depths with the amazing wildlife that this island offers. I believe that diving and orchestra are related to each other.

    The feeling of Zen that I get when at depths of over 100 feet is comparable to only one feeling I’ve ever had. It reminds me of the feeling that I get when I used to play the standing bass. Maybe this is because both of these are my passions, or maybe it’s because the two are somehow related. I thought about the two for a while and came to the conclusion that it isn’t the sound of the bass that I loved so much, but rather the feeling of relaxation that i had when playing it. This is the same feeling that I get when scuba diving. Watching the fish move simultaneously is similar to the sight of the bows of violins moving simultaneously. I can see how it seems strange that I would compare these two but hearing is just one of our six senses and I believe that these two activities have more in common than meets the eye.

    • 3 min
    Ariel- This I believe

    Ariel- This I believe

    Ever since I was a little girl, I have enjoyed doing arts and crafts in my spare time. At a young age, my mom showed me how to make moko jumbies and weave baskets from palm leaves. By the age of ten, I was taking apart old beaded necklaces and making my own jewelry. Using the method I had learned from weaving baskets, I was even able to create earrings with materials such as electrical wire. As I began to perfect my skills, my mother realized that I was interested in and good at jewelry making, so we visited our local arts and crafts store to purchase a few supplies. I bought a variety of beads in different colors and sizes and began to create eye catching pieces of jewelry. Once my family noticed, they were all amazed by my creations and suggested that I make money off of it. So almost every week I’d go with my mother to her office to sell the jewelry. Her coworkers started to get really interested and I even had to take orders because requests kept coming in! They even requested for me to create the jewelry in other colors and styles so I was soon creating custom pieces. A lot of people really admired how I was so young yet so passionate. I felt proud of my skills and the creativity that went into making them.

    In high school, I got an internship at a handmade jewelry store named Crucian Gold. Before I got the internship, I was a huge fan of their jewelry and wore at least ten of their silver bracelets on my wrist and one of their rings on my every finger every day. They noticed how dedicated I was to the store, from my everyday looks to how hard I worked during the internship, that they offered me a summer job. During my internship I mostly worked in the store, selling and showing off the jewelry, but once they saw me work on making jewelry in the studio, they were impressed by my skills and let me be more involved in making jewelry over the summer. When working in the studio you have to be very cautious. I remember using the hand drill and slicing my ring finger on my left hand open. It was very painful and took a while for the cut to close but now that it’s healed I look back and remember how far I’ve come. I worked Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm that summer and got better at jewelry making. From soldering, to rubber wheeling, to buffing, working in the studio has exposed me to the other side of jewelry making that I’ve never experienced. If it wasn’t for getting this job, my abilities wouldn’t have increased and formulated. I was excited about all aspects of the job and began to enjoy working to sell the jewelry in the store as it helped build my confidence and public speaking skills. After working for a month that summer, they offered me a permanent year-round job which I accepted. I believe that working at what you’re genuinely passionate for, results in your best work ethic.

    • 3 min
    Carolyn - This I Believe

    Carolyn - This I Believe

    Carolyn Grimm is currently a senior at Good Hope Country Day School. An avid writer, she often draws inspiration from the world around her, not only for her writing but also for her life. Her essay goes into detail about how she stays optimistic by appreciating the little things, even during tough times.

    Life is defined mostly in big, momentous occasions - in sweet sixteens, in first kisses, in category five hurricanes. But in the space between the milestones are small, quiet moments - the nuances of color in someone’s eyes, the hastily scribbled skeletons of would-be poems in margins, the ringing out of a guitar long after the final chord has been strummed. These little wonders are the ones worth living for.

    And that’s what I believe in - little wonders. I believe in hot tea on rainy evenings and in laughing so hard that your stomach hurts. I believe in magic, in the beauty of contours in shadows, in the joy of drinking a cup of coffee on Sunday morning. I believe in details and wide-eyed curiosity, and, most of all, I believe in never passing up the opportunity to dance in the rain.

    There’s a lot that’s wrong with the world. If you don’t take the time to find beautiful things in dark places, you’ll spend your life thinking that the world is an ugly place.

    Take, for example, Hurricane Maria - a storm that upended trees, powerlines, roofs, and, in a way, my life. Despite us being a thousand miles away after the storm, our neighbors tried to kick us out of our house and filed a lawsuit against my mom’s coworker. That month following Maria was spent in freefall, not sure whether or not I was moving back to the states, or if I still had a home waiting for me if I were to return to St. Croix. On top of that, my mom was struggling with some health problems. The whole situation was, in a word, awful.

    Coming back was a tough transition. I didn’t sleep in my own bed for over a month after my return, instead living in hotel rooms that reeked of cigarettes and overpriced rentals that were 45 minutes away from school.

    But despite the ugly facts of my reality, I felt lucky - being in a less-than-ideal situation pulled into focus all of these incredible moments of beauty that I hadn’t noticed before.

    I watched sunrises from our condo out east - took pictures of rainbows and the day’s first rays of light, sat out on the porch and listened to the distant sounds of the ocean. I soaked in the music playing in town as we walked back to our tiny hotel room - watched as people laughed and danced and found a sense of normalcy in the wake of the storm. I took a moment to stop and stare at the things I found beautiful - blue-tarped roofs were a bitter reminder of what was lost, but the people who came together to fix the wreckage were a quiet reminder of what was found.

    Hurricane Maria made me a believer in the power of noticing and appreciating little wonders. Now I know that there is beauty in all the places that light touches, and even in those where there is only darkness.

    • 3 min

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