Final Fight
“You don’t do anything here anymore and your never home.”
“Ever? So I just sit out all night, I never tell you what I’m doing, where I am, who I’m with?”
Words were coming from me faster than I could understand them. For everything he said I had a comeback, we had gotten good at this. Fighting and yelling is what we do best. We had always fought ever since I was about 13. Disagreements were the norm for us we couldn’t even decide on what color to paint my room, but this fight was different it changed everything for me and my dad.
My day had started out like any other; I was getting ready to leave for school with my brother. Mom and dad had already left for work, so I and Jake left; we locked the door to the house and got in my car. When my day was done I walked out of school and could smell the crisp fall air hit me with the mix of warm sunshine, the bluffs in front of me with the beautiful colors of reds, browns, yellows, and golds. It had turned out be a gorgeous day. I walked to my car and went to pick up my brother. On our drive home we talked about school and how Jake hates his art class. We talked about how nice it was outside as we pulled up to my house. We walked in to the house and strangely my dad was already home. My brother and I could just tell he was already in a bad mood so I told Jake what chores to do around the house and that I would do the rest.
I thought back to all the other times that my dad and I had fought, small little arguments that meant nothing and some bigger ones that really didn’t change anything after a couple of days. I relived those fights and remembered how easy they were; words flowed from us like a waterfall. Everything we said woven together perfectly until we were satisfied with the damaged done.
“You were 10 minutes late last night!”
“I know I had to drop of Chelsea, she lives on French Island and I had to drive across town.”
“I don’t care; you can’t do anything for the next week.”
“It was only 10 minutes and I just told you why I was late…”
“I don’t care.”
I snapped back to what was going on at that very second and the fighting resumed where it had left off.
“You always depend on us for everything. Learn how to do things on your own and maybe you won’t be such a spoiled little b!tch.”
“Because me getting a job at 15 ½ , paying for my car insurance and anything that goes wrong with it, buying my own clothes, doing my own laundry and dishes really means that I’m depending on you and mom right?”
“You don’t even know what responsibility is and you hardly do anything here…your never home.”
“Maybe I’m never home because I work 4 or 5 days every week and I do like to spend some time with my friends. I’m here every night and I always do the chores that you ask me too.”
“Jake does more then you, its ridiculous how little you help!”
“I help out and do more than what you ask of me. What else do you want of me? I try as hard as I can, I work 4 to 5 days a week, I’m going to school, and I’m taking some college classes.
“But you’re never here to do anything! You come home and go to bed.”
“Really?! On the days that I don’t work I’m home for hours normally, don’t tell me that I always just come home and go to bed without doing chores and helping.”
“No, you’re never here to help. Maybe you should just leave.”
I stopped dead in my tracks and thought to myself did he really just say that? I felt like I was a dear in headlights. I didn’t know what to say, but something had to come out. With how much was racing through my mind you would be surprised to find that for what seemed like a lifetime nothing was coming out of my mouth, but finally something did.
“Would that make it easier for you? Because if it does then the day that I turn 18 I can move.”
“Yeah I think that would be best then maybe you can see that it’s not all fun and games. I give you three months then you will be back here.”
“We’ll see, I know I can do it and I’m not going to need your help.”
“Ha Ha, yeah I’ll believe that when I see it.”
“I’m not worried I know that I can do it.”
You get into a motion when you are fighting, like a slalom racer moving swiftly between the large bumps in the snow. But no racer is perfect and they fall at some point in time, the deciding point is how quickly they get up and try again. This time I wasn’t trying the fight again I decided to move to something new.
I walked away from that fight knowing that what I had done was what I needed to do. I had no doubt in my mind that I was in for a lot of work, but it was going to help me in the long run. It would be hard, but moving to live on my own was something that I had to do for me. I needed the fighting to stop so I could move on with school, work and my life in general. In a way I’m happy that we fought, it pushed me to grow up faster and to become independent and be able to live on my own. There are a lot of people waiting to see me fail and it only makes me try harder and work to not fail.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Learning throughout Life
While watching the “TED” video I thought a lot about how I have learned things in my life so far and where I have learned these things. I also thought about what different things I have learned and what purpose they have served to me. Also, how people around me have viewed my failures and successes.
There are many things throughout my life that I have learned outside of school. Much like Gever’s tinkering school many things that people learn in their lives outside of school are learned by doing, trial and error. When you try something new as a kid and you “mess up” your parents encourage you to try again and they tell you that you will succeed next time. Like learning how to ride a bike without the training wheels, you have to learn by doing. You must fall in order to learn how, you go a little bit without your mom or dad holding on and after you go for a bit you fall. But you falling is celebrated because you rode on your bike by yourself for a bit. After that you get back on and try again and after trying again and again you learn how to keep going and ride by yourself on two wheels.
Inside a school we are taught that we need to learn everything and that we MUST pass the tests we are given. We are shown the right way to do things in school and often times we are not allowed the time to try ourselves and fail and then try again and learn from failure. Teachers don’t give students the opportunities to just try something. Instead of feeding students the information for the next test, teachers could try to give the students a new assignment and just let them go and try and learn from mistakes. At a young age in school we are taught that failure is bad and that we need to learn things and do them the right way the first time we try.
An example that I found that fits for both the in school and out of school learning is when a student learns how to drive a vehicle. A student learns the rules of the road in class and learn what to and not to do while driving. But the time comes when you have to get into the car and actually drive. The first time is a bit shaky, but just like riding a bike you get better and eventually are driving to the best of your abilities. For me the best way to learn is to do hands on, in this example I did best when I got behind the wheel and learned how to drive by driving the car myself. My first time I was a “curb hugger” and made mistakes, but after the first time I got better and better until I was able to take my driver’s test and drive by myself.
In the video Gever says that at the tinkering school, “Failure is celebrated and analyzed, and problems are puzzles.” This is often not societies view on failure. Many times when you fail in “the real world” people like down on you and criticize you. Just the opposite should come from failure as Gever says. I have learned that failure is not a bad thing, it helps me learn to keep trying and do better the next time that I make an attempt, by learning to fail people become better at what they are trying to do. Without the struggle of learning to do something there is no satisfaction or celebration when you learn or accomplish something.
There are many things throughout my life that I have learned outside of school. Much like Gever’s tinkering school many things that people learn in their lives outside of school are learned by doing, trial and error. When you try something new as a kid and you “mess up” your parents encourage you to try again and they tell you that you will succeed next time. Like learning how to ride a bike without the training wheels, you have to learn by doing. You must fall in order to learn how, you go a little bit without your mom or dad holding on and after you go for a bit you fall. But you falling is celebrated because you rode on your bike by yourself for a bit. After that you get back on and try again and after trying again and again you learn how to keep going and ride by yourself on two wheels.
Inside a school we are taught that we need to learn everything and that we MUST pass the tests we are given. We are shown the right way to do things in school and often times we are not allowed the time to try ourselves and fail and then try again and learn from failure. Teachers don’t give students the opportunities to just try something. Instead of feeding students the information for the next test, teachers could try to give the students a new assignment and just let them go and try and learn from mistakes. At a young age in school we are taught that failure is bad and that we need to learn things and do them the right way the first time we try.
An example that I found that fits for both the in school and out of school learning is when a student learns how to drive a vehicle. A student learns the rules of the road in class and learn what to and not to do while driving. But the time comes when you have to get into the car and actually drive. The first time is a bit shaky, but just like riding a bike you get better and eventually are driving to the best of your abilities. For me the best way to learn is to do hands on, in this example I did best when I got behind the wheel and learned how to drive by driving the car myself. My first time I was a “curb hugger” and made mistakes, but after the first time I got better and better until I was able to take my driver’s test and drive by myself.
In the video Gever says that at the tinkering school, “Failure is celebrated and analyzed, and problems are puzzles.” This is often not societies view on failure. Many times when you fail in “the real world” people like down on you and criticize you. Just the opposite should come from failure as Gever says. I have learned that failure is not a bad thing, it helps me learn to keep trying and do better the next time that I make an attempt, by learning to fail people become better at what they are trying to do. Without the struggle of learning to do something there is no satisfaction or celebration when you learn or accomplish something.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
My typical weekend!
This weekend I spent my time like most weekends, working and hanging out with friends. I started my weekend Friday afternoon, I went to lunch with a friend from work and we went to a few rummage sales. I found quite a few nice things for my new apartment! Friday night I went to a friend’s house and played Wii with her and her three adorable kids. Saturday started with an early morning wake up because I had to go to work by eleven, I worked till close and by the end of my shift I had worked almost eight hours and was ready for bed. After work I went home and instead of sleeping I changed so I could go out and meet with some of my friends, two of my friends and I went out to dinner and to a party. My Sunday was spent with family and friends, for most of the day I went to see my grandpa who was having a party for Labor Day and to celebrate life. After me and my family got home from my grandpa’s party, I went to go with some friends to a movie at the Rivoli and eat dinner. On Monday, I had to work from open to close; our store was open for shortened hours because of Labor Day so I was done by six pm. Like most weekends though I ended the Sunday with homework, overall my weekend was eventful and filled with work, friends and family.
Monday, September 6, 2010
A little about me!
My name is Alexandria Heather-Mary Schurhammer, but everyone I know calls me Lexi. I was born in Virginia Beach and I have also lived in Mississippi, but I have spent the past 13 years living in La Crosse. I graduated this past June 2010 from Central High School here in La Crosse. In high school I played volleyball and softball my freshman and sophomore year. I really enjoy photography in my spare time; I also have a job that I have been working at since I was 15 and a half. I am a very independent and creative person; I also love to spend time with my family and friends. I can’t sit and do one thing at a time I have to multitask or I can’t get anything done. I am very quiet and shy around people I don’t know but after I get to know someone I am very talkative and nice. I care a lot about people and I have learned to be careful with whom I trust. I enjoy being outside and seeing new things, I love to travel. I have a 13 year old brother that is in middle school named Jake and a mom and dad named Heather and Jim. I am attending Western Tech to become a registered nurse. I hope to someday after I graduate work in the emergency room in a large city.
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