Lyrics Post

Matthew West   Survivors

You've been dropped like a dream to the floor
You've been told not to try anymore
But you're wakened from yesterday's war
Cause you're a survivor

And your strength has been stolen away
And your faith has been worn to a fray
But you live to live on one more day
Cause you're a survivor

And nothing can stop you now
Nothing can back you down
You never give up
You never give in
You're a survivor

For the phone call that tore you apart
For the fear that gripped your heart
For the moment you saw who you are
And what you're made of

For the cancer that stole all your hair
For the smile like you just don't care
For your hope in midnight prayer
You're a survivor

And nothing can stop you now
Nothing can back you down
You never give up
You never give in
You're a survivor

I'm convinced neither death nor life
Neither demons or angels of light
Shadows present a future bright
Can separate us

From the love that will lead us on
To the hope when all hope is gone
Til the day heaven calls us home
We are survivors

And nothing can stop us now
Nothing can back us down
We never give up
We never give in

And nothing can stop us now
Nothing can back us down
We never give up
We never give in
Cause we are survivors

We are 
We are
Yeah
We are survivors
We are survivors

          This song has so much meaning and emotion behind it for me, and it is by one of my all time favorite Christian artist, Matthew West. I love the message behind this song. It is saying "never give up" or lose hope because God is there and you have so much to live for.

          My dad is a survivor of two heart attacks. So this song reminds me just how thankful I am that my dad is still alive. I was at my church's youth group when my uncle called and told me that my dad was in the hospital with chest pain. I knew right away it had to be another heart attack. The line "For the phone call that tore you apart" reminds me of that moment when my uncle told me.

          The mother of the two kids I have babysat a few times and who goes to my church is a survivor of stage three breast cancer. Whenever I hear "For the cancer that stole all your hair" it reminds me of her husband, her two children, and of her.

Video Post

          I absolutely LOVE this music video!!!! I read the description under it on YouTube and it said, "This video was created by using a LITE-BRITE branded toy board and 700,000 pegs. The LITE-BRITEscreen images are not computer generated graphics or effects."  I love how they didn't use a computer to make the video. It is so simple yet so technical at the same time, and that is the way I try/want to live just simple. They made the paper birds carrying the words and made it look like the flower at the end was growing and growing. Who has the patience do all that when you could just use the computer and made the video in a fraction of the time.

          I choose this video because I love the whole story line of it, and I really like how simple the idea is yet so time consuming. I have no patience so I couldn't make a video like this. I would have just used a computer and made a video.

Persuasive Essay

Dear Little Nanny,

          You have been staying in the upstairs room since the house was built in 1970, and I understand that staying upstairs in that room brings back lots of good memories. At one time there was you, your husband, and four children staying in the house, but now three of the children have grown up; one child and an incredible husband/father have passed away, and now it is just you and a twelve year old Bearded Collie. Please consider allowing my dad, Duncan, and Joe to move your things to the downstairs room that you and your husband built for the two of you when you were no longer able to go up the stairs. I want you to consider this because I love you and I don’t know what I would do if you fell down the stairs and passed away when the family could have prevented it.

          You are retired and have no earned income to pay for bills. If you lived downstairs you wouldn’t have to run the lights, and the heating and air conditioning so your electricity bill would be lower because you would be using less electricity.

            You like having a nice, clean house and you love having family over at holidays; we all love getting together. You wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning what is now the guest room because we would all know that it is your room.

          I really want you to move downstairs because I don’t want you to fall and get hurt. Falling is to be taken seriously among elderly Americans. Someone’s risk for falling is doubled every five years after they reach the age of fifty. More than 350,000 elderly Americans fall each year. Only about a quarter of elders that fall fully recover, and of the people who do recover half of them will need a cane or walker. Nearly twenty percent will die within the next year of their fall. An elder’s home is where almost sixty percent of falls occur. (Smith) One in three Americans older than sixty-five fall each year. About thirty percent of falls needs medical attention. In 2005, just under half a million elderly people were hospitalized due to a fall, that same year one point eight million older Americans were sent to a doctor to be treated, and a little over 16,000 Americans died due to a fall. (Philips)

            
          Please consider this letter in making a decision soon. It is in your best interest to move downstairs for a lower electricity bill, less upkeep, and most importantly for safety. I hope you will consider it.

Sincerely,                   

Samantha McIver

 

Works Cited

Smith, Ian K., M.D. “No Fall Insurance.” Times 29 Jan. 2001: Web. 17 Sept.2012.

Philips, Cheryl, Dr. "Falls Are Top Cause of Injury, Death Among Elderly." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 19 July 2008. Web. 17 Sept. 2012. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/19/AR2008071900814.html>.

Comparison and Contrast Essay

Chick-Fil-a Vs. McDonalds

We all have our favorite restaurant whether it is a fancy sit down or fast-food restaurant. Most Americans eat out at least four times a week.

Chick-fil-a was started by S. Truett Cathy, a strong Christian. He decided that all Chick-fil-a restaurants would be closed on Sundays. McDonald’s founder, Ray Kroc, was a Satanist. What the two restaurants are structured on is one thing they have in common.

I think Chick-fil-a‘s food is really good and never get tired of it. They have so many delicious options and it is much healthier than McDonald. McDonald just doesn’t have very many things on their menu that sound appetizing to me. 

My dad and I were in a hurry so we got dinner at Chick-fil-a. The employees had big smiles on their faces and bent over backward to take our order. We ordered our food and they said they would bring it to us. So my dad and I sat down at a table. About two minutes later an employee brought us our food. It was like we were at a sit down restaurant. Whereas with McDonald I feel like the employees don’t want to be there and ordering is just a process. They don’t seem to be as well trained as the employees at Chick-fil-a.  I went to McDonald’s with my dad before the big Hoggard vs. Laney football game and I asked for honey mustard with my kid’s meal, but they forgot to give it to me, so I had to go back. There were two registers open and five people wanting to order food. I went to one and asked for honey mustard again. I waited for about two minutes and still no one gave me honey mustard, so I went back to the table. My dad decided to go up.  He asked for the honey mustard and the employee stopped what she was doing and got one for my dad.

                Chick-fil-a and McDonalds are both very popular restaurants and we all like them for different reasons, but everyone has the freedom to choose their favorite place to eat out.   If I had to choose between the two, my choice would be Chick-fil-a hands down.  

This I Believe

“Samantha the police are out here looking for two girls that messed up the Yacht Club’s bathroom don’t come out,” my dad told me over the phone.

            My friend Anna and I met the summer when we were eight years old down at the beach. Our families were staying at the Hanover Seaside Club. While my family went to the lobby to check in I went to the TV room where a girl with long, wavy, blond hair was watching TV.

            “Hi I’m from Russia,” I said wanting to get her attention.

            “Me too,” she replied with her eyes now focused on me.

            We talk for five minutes yet it felt like one. We learned enough about each other that we could have been friends for years. Then we had to go to our rooms. We hung out that whole week, and we have been best friends ever since. Anna is funny. Anna is unique. Anna is Christian. Our families go to Myrtle Beach every January, and we have so many good memories. One hot summer Anna and I were at Wings. Looking around upstairs, Anna and I were really bored.

“Anna I have to go to the bathroom,” I say.

“We can go back now,” she replies.

Starting to walk back to the Seaside Club, I say, “I really need to go.”

“How about we go to a house and ask them if we can use their bathroom?”

“Absolutely not!”

“Why not my friend and her mom did it once.”

“Because we are two thirteen year old girls and I would rather go in my pants.”

“Fine.”

Approaching a church, Anna suggests we try to find a bathroom since it was a church and it should be safe. I agree. So we walk up to the church and try to find an open door. We couldn’t. Then we walked a few stairs to a door. Right as Anna started to open the door I say, “I’m about to poop in my pants.” Then everyone in the sanctuary turns around and looks at us. We run. Once we stop I tell Anna we need to go back and find a bathroom. So we do. We went into the sanctuary. This time quietly. We asked a man, standing in the back, where the bathroom was. After I used the bathroom we continued our walk to the Seaside Club. As we past the Yacht Club Anna said, “I have to go to the bathroom.”

“Ok we can go to the bathroom here, I know where it is and they won’t care if we use the bathroom.”

So we went to the bathroom again. Once we got to the Seaside Club we told our families what happened. Then Anna and I went to her families’ room. Then I got a call from my dad, “Samantha the police are out here looking for two girls that messed up the Yacht Club’s bathroom don’t come out.” I told Anna about the police. She was freaking out! “But we didn’t do anything but use the bathroom. We didn’t mess it up.”

“I know.”

We were really nervous and confused. So me, being curious, looked out the window and saw our parents at the sound, but I didn’t see any police. So Anna called her dad. She knew he was lying when she asked him about the police. We ran outside to our dads and told them we were so scared. They just laughed at us. But now we laugh about the whole thing too.

I believe in friendship because Anna has been there for me through everything. We cry together and laugh together. We always support each other.

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/25667/ -- Favorite Essay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av2jgY8c85E -- Video Essay

This I Believe

I believe in Love.

I believe in being loved, no matter what I have done.

I believe in God loving me even when I haven’t thought about him or asked him to help me with school.

I believe in Christmas and that Jesus came on this earth just to died for MY sins.

I believe that if I had been the only person on earth that Jesus would have still died for me and my sins.

I believe in doctors, that they know what they are doing.

I believe in the American Heart Association and that they are saving lives like my dad’s.

I believe in hope that my grandmother will get her strength back.

I believe in the fruits of the spirits and that’s how I am suppose to live.

I believe in God and God believes in me.

"I just want people to see

Christ in me

I don't even care if they know my name

as long as they get to know

my God"

I love this quote so much, it is an amazing quote, and I try really hard to live by it. This verse really helps keep me grounded.

Who Am I

The two words to describe me would be energetic and fun. I am a want to be a so called popular kid at school that everyone wants to hang out with, but I’m not! I’m starting to become more comfortable with that.  I’m the type of person who isn’t real sure of how they feel about things or why they are friends with someone. When I’m around people I don’t know or that I don’t have much in common with I’m really quiet, it may seem as if I’m not there, but as soon as I’m with my friends I’m one of the loudest. I can’t stand being alone, especially on the weekends and Friday nights, but most of those days I am alone unless there is a Friday night football game, and then I just sit with my dad. I am not quite sure why I sit with my dad; I mean I see my friends at the games, but I just sit with him. I’m starting to think it is because I don’t want my dad to be alone and with him I can actually sit and watch the game instead of just walking around the whole time- why pay four dollars just to walk around with friends I mean you can go to the park and do that for free. That is one thing I will never understand. I don’t want my friends to think I’m too loud and annoying but I AM loud! I suppose I like to sit with my dad because we understand each other, he is one of my best friends- if you haven’t noticed I’m a big- what some people call a daddy’s girl.

My absolute best friend lives near Charlotte NC so I don’t get to see her very much except when her family comes down to the beach for a week during the summer or when me and my dad, again me and him,  meet her and her dad at a Carolina football game, but that’s just for a few hours. I hate when football season is over.

Even when football season is over me and guess who, my dad, go to a lot of UNCW and Hoggard basketball games. If you haven’t noticed I love watching sports, volleyball, soccer, basketball and my favorite football- seeing guys in those tight pants, *hesitates*- I mean I didn’t say that, I like football because it has lots of action where as the other sports they just run up and down the court, hit the volleyball back and forth, or soccer where they run around on the field with hardly any physical contact.

Now Saturdays I think I am just waiting for my friends to ask me to hang out when I should ask them, but it seems like every time I do something comes up last minute and they can’t anymore so I’m just home alone with my dogs and family, ugh, I get so tired of being with my family.

God is HUGE in my life. I try to live the way he wants, but I know I don’t. I am at church almost all day Sunday. “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary, and no one can measure the depths of His understanding. He gives power to the weak, and strength to the powerless. Even youth will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion, but those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint” Isaiah 40:28-31. I have loved this verse since I was little. I’m not sure why I like it so much.

That is a small look into me. That’s Who I Am!

I love the book titled The Life Book by Carl Blunt



It is a summary of the bible with four students that makes notes and ask questions all through The Life Book. An adult also comments throughout the book. The book is really easy to understand and it makes reading the Bible a lot more enjoyable. I am at my church about two to three days a week so if I ever don't understand something I can look it up in this book.