Watching the world as time flies
From beginning to end
Standing strong in tough times
From cold winters to hot summers
Watching us grow old.
Swaying in the wind
Providing cover in the rain
And shade in the sun
Providing a place to rest
A place to ease the pain
We don’t appreciate it
How lucky we are
They gave life to us all
The sweetness we cut down with greed
One by one they fall
As will we
This year I learned that there are two types of Christmas trees: a noble and a douglas.
I was standing in the parking lot of Lowe’s, searching the fenced in barn for this year’s tree. To my left, there were the douglasses. I knew that any one of them would look great in my living room. They had the classic Christmas tree feel, and I felt satisfied with the quality.
Then, I looked to my right. Propped along the wooden fences were the plush, green noble trees. And they were, indeed, noble. The trees looked as though they came straight out of a holiday hallmark movie. The branches looked as though they grew to meet cold winter snow, and I could not picture any kind of tree that represented the holiday better.
I again turned to my left. The douglass trees then looked drab. Dying, even. The only thing that made them more appealing than the tall nobles was the pricetag. I sorted through each of them, however, and found one that would suit my living room. I admired it and it’s imperfections seemed to disappear. But I again turned towards the nobles.
The contrast in beauty was striking. The tree I had found did not seem as beautiful anymore.
We went home with a noble.
A wise man once said to me that your trauma is not something that can be resolved. A person must take what has happened to them and learn how to survive alongside the pain, and instead of it consuming you, it becomes apart of you.
A wise man once said to me that I was meant to be great. I am not destined to do one monumental thing, he said, I am destined to be monumental.
A wise man once said to me that life was a seed that everyone is encouraged to plant. Some will plant their seed with the best of soil and it will still fail to grow. Some will grow in the crevice of two boulders, striped of all nurtience, and explode into an extraordinary tree.
A wise man once said to me that reading stories about the crystal blue sea or the towering mountains that forever reached to the heavens was not enough. He said to me that I must dive deep into salty water, and let the cold chill take over my body. He told me that I must drown in experiences, and that I must lay above the clouds.
A wise man once told me that my life is a piece of nothing in the scheme of infinity, a single electron in the sun’s ever-burning fire. He told me that beyond my sunken world there was a blackness that stretched out so far that if I were to walk the path of infinity for my entire life, I would not reach the starting line.
A wise man stared at me as I stared at him. The fogged mirror didn’t affect how clearly I saw the man looking back at me. As he gripped my eyes he said, don’t waist Oxygen trying to survive, use what you are given and try and live.
I woke up late this morning, and everything just seems a little bit weird to me.
I was eating my cereals with black grapes in it, and somebody knocked on the door.
I reluctantly put down my cereal bowl and got up to answer the door. It was two package delivery guys with two gigantic TREES.
Right, trees, taller than me, I saw two actual trees outside of my door. I even wonder how they fit them into the elevator.
They checked the address with me, and that was correct indeed.
I thought this is a prank from my silly friends or something. So I asked them who ordered these trees, and they told me that they didn’t know, they just knew they need to deliver them to here.
I called my mom, and she said just put them on the balcony.
Am I still dreaming?
Anyway, I couldn’t just let two delivery guys wait too long. So I told them to put the trees where my mom told me. And then they left.
So… now I’m sitting outside with these trees, and writing down what just happened here.
If I may,
through ye rivers
through ye trees
it is you who have suffered
by the hand of me
with starlets faded
and trumpets drowned
ye murky streams
stood idle
held fast in winter sounds
– you’re a river –
ancient winnings left unsung
you’re my peer, my equal
yet you still leave me stung
ye valley, ye hillside, ye marbled dismay
covered in oleander
onward ye May
ye gargling, ye moving, ye ponderous brook
(struck through me!)
a center it took
“Tear me to pieces
cut out where my eyes cease to look”
and just then will they open to see
the face of summer laughing at me
with eyes open wide
my love it did wander
for bitter I was
my heart it did squander:
ye forest, ye mountain, ye breeze
ye sunglass driving, ye proliferate bees.
Suppose I am the offspring of thine shepherd:
you are the hunt,
that which I am after.
and with the fall comes the rapid convergence:
mine sweet love’s resurgence
But once again the autumn leaves took
to a different stream or babbling brook
and forevermore I am wandering in a forest ever stranger
of perilous rot
and cavernous danger
All that which a summer could bring!
but once again I am searching for a longer sting
and what of the prospect? What this winter will bring!
while more I could say might strengthen the pressure
I leave with you no words, no rhyme, no measure
that might contrast mine song of May
it tingles, it trickles, and just may delight
in telling a story of our precarious plight
with the sincerest intentions on an immeasurable scale,
all that you’re left with is a tacky email
and no words, no sermons, no divine light
could bring you back the way it would
into my life.
minutes later you answer:
true love is true love’s killer
How do you feel when the Winter comes?
How do you feel when no one understands your loneliness and sorrow?
How do you feel when they cut your bodies and burn them into ruins?
I see you standing there alone and sighed with grief.
You are afraid of being treated as your friends.
But now you have no worries, because right now there is only me.
Tell me your pain. Tell me your despair.
You have no reasons to fear, because now it’s the time for us to realize how important you are. Tell me your concern. Tell me your anger!
You are the gifts from nature. You are the painter who decorates our world into a colorful heaven.
You are the guards of danger. And you have beautiful names – trees.
As one human being, I am now standing out to tell you that we will keep working to rebuild you a comfortable home with hope and green.
People of the Earth, our environment is getting worse these days with the development of industries and political issues. For example, the variety of life on Earth, including “the number of species of plants, animals, microorganisms, the enormous diversity of genes in these species, and the different ecosystems on the planet”(Shah, Anup), is decreasing these years.
Fortunately, most of us know the danger and are trying to change the situation by doing lots of works in different countries. In China, people begin to pick up trash in streets, parks and schools as a community services. In Japan, “FUJITSU TEN is widening the circle of voluntary environmental action, with each and every employee fulfilling his or her responsibility as a member of the community. In addition, we perform tree planting and stock waterways with fish to help maintain biodiversity.” (Global Environmental Protection)
Take the action now and begin to do the smallest things.
Starting from picking up trashes and saving energy. Do not forget the easiest ones which can change a lot as a result.
How will you feel if the air is filled with clearness and fragrance?
How will you feel if the sky is colored into bluish-green as a mirror of beauty?
How will you feel if our friend nature starts to sing out with joy again?
I see your smile with desire and hope.
Therefore, let’s stay together as a whole family to resist this crisis with confidence and courage! We can not live without each other because this is a world of GREEN!
A small sapling planted in the ground staring up at the sky and its giant sequoia brethren. Nature develops huge structures through light, carbon dioxide, and water. The forests of the world began as small seeds that became these massive structures.
This is a fitting metaphor for the human experience because everyone around us used to be a microscopic organism in the womb of your mother. We all have a personality and individual experiences, but we all started from the same place.
We built giant cities that rivaled the massive sequoias, built with steel and machinery, but in 200 years which will remain. Will the huge industrial structures of today or the ancient structures that are trees.
It is about that time in my life that college becomes a hot topic.
Where do I want to go? Where can I get in? Can I play sports? Do they have the sports I want to play? Where is it? How big is it? What do I want to study?
So many questions and ultimately all of these questions have to be answered to narrow down the long list of schools to one.
Recently I have been doing some research and I have started to look at schools so I started to put a list of schools together so it is all laid out.
| College | Location | Sports |
| Texas Christian University | Fort Worth, TX | FootballHockey |
| Duke University | Durham, NC | FootballHockey |
| Stanford University | Stanford, CA | FootballHockey |
| University of Southern California | Los Angeles, CA | FootballHockey |
| University of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh, PA | FootballHockey |
| Brown | Providence, RI | FootballHockey |
| Chapman University | CA | FootballHockey |
| Boston University | Boston, MA | FootballHockey |
| University of Denver | Denver, CO | Hockey |
| Vanderbilt University | Nashville, TN | FootballHockeyLacrosse |
| Northeastern University | Boston, MA | FootballHockey |
| Northwestern University | Evanston, IL | FootballHockey |
| CU Boulder | Boulder, CO | FootballHockey |
| University of Oregon | Portland, OR | FootballHockey |
| Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD | FootballHockey |
In the coming months I will be adding and deleting schools as I compare and contrast the pros and cons of each on the list, and as I discover other schools that will fit into my plan.
I am looking at majoring in either Molecular Biology, Human Biology, Kinesiology, or Sports Medicine.
I have wanted to become a doctor for a very long time.
I want to be able to introduce myself as Dr. Keaton Shiffman, having that prestigious M.D. at the end of my name.
My ultimate dream would be to be a team physician, working on the field or on the ice with the best football or hockey players.
I know that has gotten very specific, but I feel that if I stick to what I want to do that I will make it happen.
As much as I don’t think I will be able to come out of my school and play high level intercollegiate sports it is always worth a try.
The worst thing that could happen is I won’t play, but best case scenario my dream comes true.
I am obsessed with the song Samson by Regina Spektor. Ask my roommate, she knows.
What I love the most about the song is not the beautiful, velvety vocals but the lyrics (to be specific, the meaning behind them).
It tells the story of Samson through the eyes of Delilah, his deceitful wife. Samson was blessed by God with incredible strength (he could even kill a lion with his bare hands). With that strength, Samson fought off wicked people and God was pleased. Samson was good. He was obedient and he loved God. So, God promised Samson his strength as long as he never cut a hair off his head.
Delilah had given into sin by accepting the bribes of the Philistines. Blinded by money, she sought to find Samson’s ultimate weakness and to bring about his downfall. Every night, he incessantly asked her husband where his shortcomings lied. But every night, Samson gave her the wrong answer. After being given the answer, Delilah called the Philistines to her house to attack her husband, just to have Samson fight them off.
Finally, one night, Delilah got to him. She had told him that if he truly loved him, he would confide in her.
and he did.
Samson lost his hair that night and Delilah sold her husband to the Philistines. Tied to a pillar in their palace, Samson watched as the Philistines celebrated with a feast. Samson, deceived, guilt welling up in his chest cavity, prayed to God for one last chance. He asked for forgiveness and he asked for his strength. And for the last time, Samson got up and used his power to break the pillar that he was tied against, killing all inside the building, including himself.
This story is particularly moving to me because it shows how easily mankind can fall into sin’s trap. Everyday, the story of Samson lives on in every one of us. We are the deceived but more often, we are the deceivers.
Once you branch off from the straight path, like a tree that has grown crooked, you can never go back and straighten in out again. The past will always remain in the past. But life’s goal is to turn back once a mistake has been made. You must live and learn. Let the present be something you will never regret.
OVS Journalism Blog 
