When I have free time, I love to ride bicycle and run with my uncle who is a fitness fanatic. Sometimes I hang out with friends or siblings to watch films—Citizen Kane, the Scarlet Pimpernel, West Side Story, Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, The Importance of Being Ernest, Emma, the Phantom of the Opera, An Affair to Remember, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Pride and Prejudice are some of my favorites. My preference is classical music, but I enjoy a variety of styles. I also play music in concert band, marching band, jazz band, and pep band. Instruments include alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet, oboe, tuba/sousaphone, and some piano.

            At school, I take advanced chemistry, college English, American government, and band. I have taken three years of Spanish and two of French. High school classes last 41 minutes. I just completed an exam for psychology, which included 2-hour lectures with a 5-minute break on Mondays and Wednesdays. A normal Wednesday schedule would go like this: psychology, 7:40-9:00am; high school, 10:15-2:41; tutor, 3:30-4:30pm; work, 5:00-10:00pm.

            I am in several leadership programs. Last year I was in cross-country (running distances of 5K). I have volunteered in the community at nursing homes, assisted living centers, and the local hospital. I currently work at a fast-food restaurant and meet new people all the time. I have also had jobs as a newspaper carrier, ranch-hand, babysitter, and tutor (for a 3^rd and 7^th grader).

            Two years ago, my sister and I both got our own rooms when our parents decided to add on to the house. My mom has been in the medical field for many years and does not want our grandparents to go into nursing homes, so we have added on to create room for them and to provide a place for visitors to the church when the space is needed. Generally, I study in my room or in the school library when I have a study hall [free period]. I am open-enrolled at a school 7.5-8 miles (11-12 km) away. I drive my Cutlass Ciera 1990 and ride bike there and back every weekday.

            My mother is a phlebotomist, draws blood from donors, for the Red Cross Association. My dad is a salesperson who travels, sometimes leaving for three or four days, selling heaters. My older sister, Rachel, accounts for the product sold. She is saving money to go to England to be a nanny in January 2008. My father is also an accountant during tax season.

            I live in a county [Crawford County] where farming is dominant in rural areas. I live in the middle of town. The state capital, Columbus, is about an hour and a half away. The house market and economy of Galion is decreasing, but I like being here. I go down to the creek to paint in watercolor or be inspired to write poetry. I have had two poems published. As of 2000 census, we have a population of 11,341. Our industry is heavy equipment—road graders, road rollers, and earthmovers.

            The creative part of me is artistic, musical, and athletic. I have taken three years of art, working with red and white clay, charcoal, oil pastels, colored pencil, sketches, mixed media, and oil, acrylic, tempera, and watercolor paints. I took alto saxophone lessons when I began going to public school in 6^th grade. By the first audition I achieved first chair in concert band. As a freshman in high school, I played tuba/sousaphone. My sophomore year, I played tenor saxophone. This year I play sousaphone for marching and pep bands, am learning oboe for concert band, and play alto sax for jazz band. I also play clarinet for the worship team at church. In cross-country, I made it on the varsity team (top 5), but then again I come from a small school with a class size of 80. Over this past summer I rode 25 miles a weekday on bicycle to nearby Bucyrus and back, and in Texas to several distance-related places. My experience in world travel has opened my mind to many aspects of life, and I do not want to miss a single one. In 2003, I went to Costa Rica on a mission trip with Teen Mania Global Expeditions for three weeks ($1500). I had saved money from my paper route and was able to pay for this all at once. In 2004, I decided to go to Europe (Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and France) as a student ambassador with People to People for three weeks as well ($5000). I used money from the route, worked summers on a ranch in Texas, sent out support letters and received donations from local businesses and paper route customers, and sold candy bars and baked goods to name a few of many fundraisers. We, a group of 40 kids, each stayed with an Austrian family for a week. That is my favorite memory. Venice was my favorite place. Both trips were worth the time and energy; I have friends throughout the United States and even in other countries of the world.

            There are a couple things a do not like. I do not like foul language or inappropriate actions.

I am a very dynamic character; I know that what I believe in can be refined. I do not like be labeled, because I am always changing. I am always observing and learning. I had to grow into my dreams, so I cannot be hurt by anyone’s dislike of them. I think about consequences before I carry out an action because I realize that others are always watching. I love to help out, in any little or big way. I want to discover new things on this trip, about myself and about the world I think I know. When I get angry or frustrated, I tend to block people and voices out and retreat to a quiet place. But I usually am okay within a short period of time, sometimes days. I am both outgoing and shy. I can make no predictions as to how I will react to anything until it happens.

I plan on attending a community college after this foreign exchange trip, then going to main campus. I am going to get a degree in Western medicine in the States, then go overseas to mainland China where my education will be recognized as a doctor, M.D.

I hope to conquer “the most difficult language to learn,” Chinese. It seems impossible at the beginning, so I plan on solving the difficulty by emerging myself in your language, learning about your life and family culture. I need to come to the point of breaking so I can understand others and find the weaknesses in myself that ought to be strengths. I want to continue to be shaped into the young woman I need to be for my calling and career.

I finally finished reading it! The Pilgrim's Progress is a wonderful story using metaphor, relating a "dream" the narrator {John Bunyan, not related to Paul Bunyan!} had to the Christian walk. In fact, there is a character named Christian and he meets people along the way like Prudence, Much-Afraid and Fearing, Mr. Sagacity and Timorous, the Interpreter and Great-heart. Part II of the book goes on to explain this man's legacy, how his wife and children decide to pass through Wicket Gate and face the trials of Christianity. They, of course, have more guidance. Somehow more is always expected of men! (not necessarily)

This hill, though high, I covet to ascend;/The difficulty will not me offend,/ For I perceive the way to life lies here./Come, pluck up, heart; let's neither faint nor fear./Better, though difficult, the right way to go,/Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe. (p45, 2001 Penguin Putnam Inc. publication)

Come in, come in;/Eternal glory thou shalt win. (p38)

Pru: Do you think sometimes of the country from whence you came?

Chr. Yes, but with much shame and detestation. Truly if I had been mindful of that country from whence I came out, I might have had opportunity to have returned; but now I desire a better country, that is, an heavenly. [Heb 11:15-16] (p52)

Chr. I was born in your dominions, but your service was hard, and your wages such as a man could not live on, for the wages of sin is death; [Rom 6:23] therefore when I was come to years, I did as other considerate persons do, look out, if perhaps I might mend myself. (p 58)

The trials taht those men do meet withal/That are obedient to the heavenly call/ Are manifold and suited to the flesh,/And come, and come, and come again afresh;/That now, or sometime else, we by them may/Be taken, overcome, and cast away./O let the pilgrims, let the pilgrims then,/Be vigilant, and quit themselves like men. (p 72)

Out of the way we went, and then we found/What 'twas to tread upon forbidden ground./ And let them that come after have a care,/ Lest heedlessness makes them, as we, to fare;/Lest they, for trespassing, his prisoners are,/Whose Castle's Doubting, and whose name's Despair. (p 101)

Let Ignorance a little while now muse/On what is said, and let him not refuse/Good counsel to embrace, lest he remain/ Still ignorant of what's the chiefest gain./God saith those that no understanding have/(Although he made them), them he will not save. (p 115)

Sag. There are few houses that have heard of him and his doings, but have sought after and got the records of his pilgrimage. Yes, I think I may say that his hazardous journey has got a many well-wishers to his ways. For though when he was here, he was fool in every man's mouth, yet now he is gone, he is highly commended of all. For 'tis said he lives bravely where he is. Yea, many of them that are resolved never to run his hazards, yet have their mouths water at his gains. (p 163)

Chris. I have now a price put into mine hand to get gain, and I should be a fool of the greatest size if I should have no heart to strike in with the opportunity....The bitter must come before the sweet, and that also will make the sweet the sweeter. Wherefore, since you came not to my house in God's name, as I said, I pray you to be gone and not to disquiet me further. (p 169)

Interpreter. You must learn of this sheep to suffer, and how to put up wrongs without murmurings and complaints. Behold how quietly she takes her death, and without objecting she suffereth her skin to be pulled over her ears. Your King doth call you his sheep. (p 186)