The Story of Diesel

For Valentine's Day in 2014 my boyfriend, Evan, decided to buy me a 6 week old puppy. Someone from his school had a large litter of German Sheppard/Black Lab puppies for sale and he knew I loved puppies! When we got to the house that the puppies were at, they escorted us to their barn. When they turned on the barn lights around thirty puppies from two different litters come sprinting out of a pile of straw bales.  They were all trying to jump up on our legs to grab our attention but I noticed one just sitting off to the side waiting patiently.  I went to pick him up and he snuggled right under my chin and I knew he was the one! He was black with a white strip on his chest and white on his paws. They let us take him home that night and on the way home Evan and I had to think of a name. I had already had a name in mind and Evan agreed it was a good fit, Diesel. It was the middle of winter so we kept our little 6 pound puppy in the house. I started teaching him tricks as soon as possible. He was best friends with all of the cats we had and he was about the same size! He definitely wasn't the shy, calm little puppy that he looked like when I picked him out. Today, Diesel is two years old and my little boy weighs 110 pounds.

Audience Awareness

Being aware of your audience is important in marketing, professions, and other sources of communication. Using proper language, pictures, music, etc. in advertisements can sway certain people. In the Apple iPhone 6 advertisement they are aiming to persuade people that don't have iPhones to get one. The phrases "If it's not an iPhone, it's not an iPhone" and "99% of people that have an iPhone, love their iPhone" are trying to persuade people that the iPhone is the way to go.  Also, they are aiming at younger to middle aged people because of the type of upbeat music. They appeal to this age because they have grown up with smart phones a greater portion of their lives and are more likely to use one.  The Samsung smart TV commercial is appealing to younger to middle aged males as they use a pretty, young woman. They appeal to this audience because that generation is more into technology and it is a stereotype that males watch more TV.  The Mercedes Benz commercial appeals to parents. Parents want their kids to be safe and have them enjoy a car ride. Mercedes Benz targets parents and uses the child getting lost to show them that their vehicles ensure safety. We need to be critical of intended audiences in ads so that it appeals to the group that is most likely to buy or use it.

Rewarding Moments

There have been many moments in my life where I have experienced my hard work being rewarded. There are three instances that have seemed to me to be the most important.  The first instance is during my eighth grade year when our basketball team beat Holgate in the GMC championship game. Our whole team was very close and never missed practices. We worked on and off the court together and put in many hours to make ourselves better. Winning the GMC championship game really showed the team how much our hard work paid off. The second instance occurred my senior year in high school with my softball team.  There were eight seniors on the team including me. We had been through so much during our high school softball career. We were a tight knit group as we all played spring, softball, a little bit of fall softball together. I had been a catcher ever since I was in Pee Wee softball. Once I got into high school I had to out play other girls for my position and I worked day in and day out to achieve my goal of being on varsity. All of my grade of girls had gained varsity positions at the beginning of high school.  We all just clicked on the field and worked very well together after the many years of playing with each other. We were pretty decent for our freshmen, sophomore, and junior years, but our senior year is when we brought our best. We made a run in the tournament and beat the school record for most wins in a softball season. Also during our season we, a division III team, beat the undefeated first place division II team, Greenville, which had won state two out of the past three years. We lost at districts but were very proud of our season.  We knew our hard work since elementary school had gotten us to where we were.  My last notable time of my hard work paying off is this past summer at the county fair. I had been taking dairy steers for around eight years and had practiced walking, showing, and fitting these steers to perfection.  My years of work finally paid off last year as I won first place in Senior Dairy Beef Showmanship, second in Overall Senior Showmanship, and Grand Champion Dairy Steer. Taking care of my steers is one of my favorite things to do and seeing a good thing happen after waiting for many years was very thrilling.

First Day of Preschool

It was the first day of preschool and my mom was just about to drop me off at the front doors.  My stomach was twisting and turning at the thought of being in a room with a bunch of kids and teachers that I did not know. My mom knew I was nervous and kept reminding me that she would be back in a few hours to pick me up.  As I slowly jumped out of the vehicle tears were already filling up my eyes. We walked in the two glass doors to the school and two nice ladies came to great us. I saw a group of around twelve kids sitting on a colorful rug off in the corner. As soon as they took my hands and told my mother goodbye, I went crazy. I started crying and screaming and the teachers instantly took me to the play area to try and get my mind off of things. They were showing me a pretend kitchen center and I was interested in all of the little supplies.  Once I had calmed down they had me join the rest of the kids sitting on the large rug. On the rug was circles with different animals on each one, I was assigned to sit on the frog circle. As all the kids finished getting there and finding their place on the rug another girl with short brown hair was sitting on the circle next to me. I was too shy to say anything but she had glanced over at me and said, "Hi, I am Cayla! What is your name?".  I had looked at her right in the eyes and was so amazed that someone could have the same name as me. I happily answered, "Well, my name is Kayla, too!". We both giggled and that is when the teachers started to discuss what we would be doing and learning for the day.  During our free time we played in the indoor sandbox and got our snack together. During snack we talked and laughed and I spilled blue juice all over my butterfly jean capris.  Starting that friendship made it much easier for me to go to preschool and almost be excited for it. I am not sure what happened to Cayla after preschool but she was one of my first best friends and made my transition to preschool a better experience than I had planned!

College Changes

When starting my senior year of high school at Tinora I was excited to be in the final stretch of thirteen long years of my grade school career.  When walking into my first class with Mrs. Brown my whole class received a rude awakening as the guidance counselor was already telling us about what we should have done for college. The rest of my senior year consisted of reminders everyday of what we need to be doing to stay on top of college applications, scholarships, and FAFSA information. I wasn't worried about the transition to college because I was planning on staying at home and commuting to Defiance College. When the first day of classes rushed upon me I got a little nervous. I got to thinking about the different environment, schedule, and professors that were going to appear before me. After a few weeks of classes I realized college was much different than high school.  My schedule and time management was very different. In high school I had the same schedule from 8 in the morning all the way until I went to bed, everyday.  In college I had to balance different classes each day, manage my clinical experience in the classroom for my major, my work schedule, and still leave time for homework. I had random places of extra time that I needed to use wisely. Another transition from high school to college is the class work and tests.  In high school I could pretty easily get a good grade on a test without studying, but in college I found out soon that I needed to study for exams. The classwork was worth more to the final grade in the class so full effort was needed in each assignment given. The last major transition from high school to college is the teachers and professors. In high school the teachers would come to the students that were struggling in their class and help them out.  In college the students need to contact the professors or other services when they are struggling and cannot expect any special treatment from the professors. College was definitely a new experience for me but I have been getting use to it more each day.

Night of Revenge

As I wake I feel different, not good different, but weird different. I have a pounding headache threatening at the back of my head. My bed seems much harder than normal and the sun from my window isn't hitting my face.  I open my eyes and look around the floor for my dog that normally sleeps on the ground beside my bed.  Instead I see a room full of cement. I obnoxiously jump out of the thin, dusty mattress that I had somehow gotten into the night before, head spinning. I'm still wearing the jeans and American Eagle sweater I had put on the day before. The last thing I remember is my friends coming over to help me forget about the job I had just got fired from. You know what that consists of, alcohol, ice cream, and more alcohol. I was very upset, mainly at my boss, for firing me for no apparent reason. As I was pacing around my cell I reached into my jean pockets and found five objects, and then I had gained some remembrance of last night.  Staring intently at a ripped piece of paper with a pencil scratched phone number on it I remembered a guy giving me his number at a club. The girls thought it would be a good idea to go to a club and dance the night away. This guy thought he would be nice and tell me I was too wasted to talk so he wanted me to call when I was sober. As I started thinking about how I was definitely not going to call that guy I snapped back to what I was previously thinking about, how I got here. I then looked at the next two items from my pocket, a rusted nail and a clear, sticky spoon. It then came to me that after we got tired of dancing we went to an old, abandoned building a few blocks from where we were. I needed to vent and we decided to stop at this building to sit around and talk. Oh, and the spoon? Well venting means a lot of ice cream, remember? I knew I was coming closer to finding out how I had gotten in this rancid smelling pen. I then found a receipt. My eyes widened and my heart started beating a little faster as I read "10 inch butcher knife, $40.86 and 2 gallons of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, $19.94". I started thinking, "Did I murder someone? Am I going to be here forever? Who did I kill? "Where did all that ice cream go?" and "Why did I spend so much money on a knife, didn't I have coupons?". That's when I found the last thing in my pocket, some pieces of a fern plant. Then it hit me. I wanted revenge on my boss for firing me for absolutely no reason. So, the girls drove me to the building I worked, knife in my hand. I went in the back, hidden exit that we leave unlocked for late night needs. I hustled up the 3 flights of stairs until I got to the floor that my boss's office is on. That's when it happened, I vigorously started stabbing at his favorite fern plant in front of his office door. I knew he loved that plant as much as I loved my job so I wanted him to feel the same pain that I was in. Unfortunately, one of my previous co workers went back to the office to grab some late work that she needed to complete before the next morning. The co worker saw my knife and immediately had the police on the line. I guess I'm in here for being crazy, murdering a plant, public intoxication, or possibly all three of those reasons.