This I Believe: Miracles most often come from the most unlikely places.

I still remember my last day of eighth grade like it was yesterday. A very sunny day, my whole class had a fun day to celebrate beginning to the rest of our academic life. There was all kinds of food to eat, and as a diabetic, I could eat as much of it as I wanted as long as I covered it with the right amount of insulin.

Instead of counting out what I ate and doing the shots accordingly like I should have done, I drew up one big shot, thinking I would cover everything I would eat throughout the morning. Not only did I cover for all the food I ate, but I probably did enough insulin to cover what my whole class might have eaten. Being a headstrong 13 year old boy, I did not even how much extra insulin I had done. But I did not even care, because nothing could hurt me, right?

I arrived home early from school that day because all the eighth graders got out a couple hours before everyone else, and I decided to surprise my Dad and mow the lawn without having to be asked to. During my yard work I began to feel shaky and weak, sure signs of a low blood sugar. This was not uncommon during yard work, but I decided to wait until I finished the job to go inside and get something bring my blood sugar up. Little did I know, I was falling into insulin shock, and moved closer to death every minute.

Being in insulin shock with a drastically low blood sugar for more than twenty minuets would result in death. After falling three times in the yard, I made it inside and passed out in the hallway outside my bedroom. I was now home alone, in insulin shock and passed out, with no way of bringing my self out of it to survive.

For reasons unknown to me still this day, my older sister and younger brother got home from school just as I passed out. By this time I had spent nearly fifteen minutes in shock. While my sister frantically called 911 and my Dad, my 8 year old brother, who on any other day of the year would be out with his friends playing on a beautiful Friday afternoon, took a juice box and force fed it into me, saving my life.

Once my blood sugar was at a normal level, I was perfectly healthy with no signs that I was minuets away from death. To this day, I realize that my younger brother being home to save my life was a miracle, and I might never understand why. But had it not been for the love of my little brother, I would not be here to tell this story.

This I belive, that miracels can come from unlikely sources. More than just the miracle of saving my life is the miracle of the love of family, and the unending love and special bond I have with Michael.

In My Life I learned that….

Laughter makes the world go round. Always get a laugh out of life. Smile with others and they will smile back.

It is important to spend time in your life everyday with your friends, who will always be there for you regardless of anything else. It is also important to love and appreciate your family, because no matter how crazy they might drive you, they will always be there for you, love you and support you.

Life flies at a pretty fast pace, don’t sit and let it run by. Live life the fullest, and have no fear. Don’t stand on the sidelines and then later in your life complain to The Coach that you never got to play.

Always respect others, and they will respect you.

Perfection is Boring. Don’t always run with the pack, be an individual!

Humility goes on long way in life. Never fear allowing someone inside during times of trouble. Always, always remember, you are never alone! You can’t take on life by yourself. In life, it’s not about how hard you get knocked down; it’s how strong you get up. The thrill of success is in the hard work to get there.

Life Is All About The People You Share It With. Live it.

Reflections on ED 100's visit to the Gilmour Academy Lower School

I really enjoyed our visit to the Gilmour Academy Lower School last week. The first impression I received was that it is a small, private school. It had a very warm atmosphere that was not intimidating or harsh in any way. The class sizes were much smaller than I expected though. I went to a private, Catholic grade school, and my class size was always about 45 to 50 kids per grade, about 25 per class.

The open air classrooms caught my attention. I had never really envisioned such an environment for a classroom, and I thought it was pretty interesting. I also noticed that in most the classrooms, the students were not tied to their seats during actual class time. They were freely moving about the room, but all the while still very attentive to the teacher and learning as well. This was also a new concept to me, because I never had such free reign during class time. The students were very well behaved during class and if the moving around got to noisy or interruptive, order was restored immediately when the teacher simply asked them to settle down a bit.

The students were also very involved in what they were doing in class. In the 4th grade humanities classroom, I observed the students preparing research papers on various topics. The papers were to be about four pages long. I figured that would warrant about 10 pages of research from online and books. These students however, had binders of information that to me looked like the research for a twenty page high school or university paper. It was pretty impressive. The amount of work the kids were doing and the level at which they were doing it was very impressive.

Overall, this visit strengthened my desire to continue in the field of education. I enjoyed spending time with the kids in the classroom, and observing the teachers in the various classrooms and subjects.