Augustana Essay

Here is the essay I have been promising to some of you. I finally have it closed to finished. They called me tonight to remind me they were still missing it but every thing else looks amazing they said! ~Kelli J. Lair

I have done many things within the short eighteen years of my life. Some I have been extremely proud of and others not so much. All of my actions have changed me in one way or another, but I consider joining the faith based drumming group, Sheltered Reality, one of the best and most beneficial decisions in my life.
I decided to join the group the weekend before starting my junior year. I had seen the group perform many times and loved their message of success. They have six steps to success that they teach to their audiences and want each member to apply to their lives: take a chance, never give up, be willing to do whatever it takes, believe in yourself, be a friend, and believe in God.
I went to my first practice and fell in love with the drumming. Two days after that practice, I went to watch my site play at a show, but little did I know I would be playing! After the show was finished, I was able to talk with site members and start making friends. One of these friends was a girl named Amanda. We did not know that we would soon become like sisters and be inseparable, even after one of us moved over a thousand miles away.
The next weekend I started to travel to more shows with Amanda, and making friends across Minnesota and Iowa. I had found my niche in the world: performing with Sheltered Reality. Three months after I joined the group, Steve Schlosser, the executive director and founder and I were having a conversation. He brought up starting a practice site in Northwood, Iowa in order to reach more kids in northern Iowa. He decided that I had learned enough in my three months that he would place me in charge of the site!
It would be a challenge, but I was willing to take it on. We did not have a sound system, and most of the kids were really young, so it was my turn to learn how to teach with few resources. We had to use an iPod dock for music and chairs as drums for most of our kids. It was a learning experience teaching children fourth grade and younger how to play songs. It has taught me patience with young children and to break concepts down to an understandable level for elementary age kids.
Steve also thought it was time for me to take another step in my Sheltered Reality journey; it was time for me to start leading shows on my own. Every show that we do has someone lead the drumming and do most of the talking. I had been telling the story of the day or teaching the steps of success at shows, but I had never done anything like this. My first show on my own was scary, but the friends I've made were there to support me the entire time. It may not have been the best show Sheltered Reality has ever had, but it was a true learning experience.
In the fourteen months I have been in this group, I have gained many close new friends, met hundreds of new people from across the United States, led multiple practices in different states, and traveled almost 3,000 miles to perform in a total of fifty shows. Through all of it, I have gained new skills and made many contacts I can use the rest of my life. I feel joining Sheltered Reality was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I hope to continue participating in the group throughout college and possibly the rest of my life. I have learned to apply the steps to success to my own life and how to teach others do the same. My dream is to one day travel around the country with Sheltered Reality to spread our message. I hope to be a positive adult role model to kids just like Steve Schlosser has been to me.

My Memior, Birthday Party Disaster

Here is the memior that I wrote for my English 12 B class that I have been promising you guys.  Sorry it has taken me so long to get it up, but I can only work on it at school. ~Kelli

Birthday Party Disaster

            Today was supposed to be the best day of my life.  Today is my birthday, I am eight years old!  I got up and ran around my big blue bedroom getting excited for all my party guests to arrive.  Reaching up on my tiptoes to my highest potential I grabbed my blue summery dress.  I dressed in my best tea party outfit I could find. I had invited all my friends, or at least I thought I did.  Little did I know that today was going to turn out to be the worst birthday of my life.

            It was three o’clock and my party guests were arriving.  “Happy birthday Kelli!  I hope you like your present,” they all said as I greeted them at the front door.  We were all excited to head up to Albert Lea for the tea party adventure we had been imagining for weeks. A total of two vans full of two adults and eight excited seven and eight year olds.  We made it up to the Turtle Dove Tea House after what felt like ages.  Onlookers saw eight little girls bouncing out of the vans and running into the teahouse.  What must they have thought?

            We sat down around the biggest round table I have ever seen.  It seemed to expand across the entire room.  The owner of the teahouse was a family friend, and my mom’s boss.  She came out with enormous platters of triangle cut tea sandwiches, filled with meat and cheese, and teacups of juice for every single girl in attendance.  There was an abundance of food, but some how we managed to eat it all.

            After having a bite to eat it was time to make our special party hats.  My mom had seen the idea to make hats from a magazine, and we had been practicing all week.  Everyone took a gigantic piece of packing paper in their favorite color and had my mom or grandma help to form the hat.  After the hat had been formed, each girl had the chance to decorate it to her hearts content.  There were pink, purple, blue, and green hats decorated in ribbons, bows, and jewels.

            We ran out side showing off our new party outfits and decided to take a few pictures to take home with us.  We played outside for what seemed like only a minute and then it was time to go back inside for presents and cake.  My dad had made my cake, just like every other year. Hats, gloves, pearls, and teacups decorated the cream frosted cake.  That cake was the most delicious thing I had to eat all day.  Everyone was excited to see their present opened up.  Babies, jewelry, and dolls followed each other out of every box.  Smiles were all around.

            It was five o’clock and time to head back to Lake Mills so everyone could be returned home safely.  I sat in the very back of the van with Gretchen and Ashley.   In the middle seat of our van I heard whispering so I tried to listen carefully.  I heard the girls whispering, “Did you see her dress?  It is so ugly!  She is such a dork, I don’t like her.  I’m not actually her friend, I pretend, I swear!” but I couldn’t quite hear whom they were talking about.  As I listened even more carefully I heard “Kelli.” My name and then they laughed. 

They were making fun of me, on my birthday, while still at my party!  I was crushed.  I thought they were my friends, but I guess I was wrong.  They were not my friends; they just came so they could make fun of me. I got home and I marched straight up to my bedroom step by step, threw myself on my bed, and cried.  I was heartbroken.  “Why me?  Why do they have to pick on me, especially on my birthday?!?”  It was the end of the world to me.  I thought I had no friends.  I felt horrible and never wanted to see any of these girls again.  They were mean girls and I was afraid all they would do would be the same thing over and over again.  When school started that fall I stayed away from all of those girls because of what they did to me at my party.

Looking back I see this as the worst party of my life.  I learned a life lesson that day even though it was just a harsh reality.  I learned that not everyone is friendly in the world and they are not all going to be nice.  I learned that girls in my grade can me mean and nasty towards other people.  To this day I am a still not friend with some of the girls in my class that attended that party.  I have made amends with some of the girls, but not many.  Gretchen was there for me the next day and I learned she really was a friend.  Looking back I feel that this birthday party was a time for me to learn a very rough, but true, life lesson that I now appreciate.  I now am careful with who I hang out with and talk to.  All in all even though the party was a bust in my book, it was a great learning experience.

Hope you all liked it.  It isn't finished for me to turn it yet but it will be within the next to class periods.  Let me know what you think, or what you would give me as a grade.  Feel free to leave comments on any of my blogs because feedback, no matter what it is, is always good for a person to hear.  Also check out some of my friend's blogs:

thomaslang19.wordpress.com

srdummer101.wordpress.com

thelifeoftonia.blogspot.com

mmjmikaylablogs.blogspot.com