Current Discrepencies

You may have forgotten, but I entered this class late. I began with comics, never got to a class and switched into yours. There were three reasons for this switch. The first begin that I like to experience different teachers, and you had just returned from Australia and I never had you as a teacher before. The second was that my advisor, Mr. Johnson, told me that Comics with Mr. Howland, my former English teacher, was a very difficult class that required a lot of homework and reading. The third being that Sean and John told me that it was a sick class and that we got to talk about tons of different topics ranging from drugs/prostitutes to politics, and this is something thing that sounded very interesting. Some my expectation of this class was to talk about loads of things that are going on in the world and than write about them on our own website. Form doing this I gained a great knowledge, which I did not have before, about how the government works, about politics, about our future presidents, about blogging in general, etc. This really was a fun knowledgeable class that taught me a lot. There was really only one point when the class differed from my expectations. This took place after Sean Bouchard wrote about the Olympics and that they should not protest, and John Wilsterman wrote about how we should protest, and than you made us debate it. I did not like this for I just do not like to argue. I do not think I gained anything after that class. I feel that this was by far my most organized, interesting, informative, blog. The first point you make is it cannot be interesting if your not interested and sailing is very much so interesting to me so that is good. The topic was relevant to me for I sail on a daily bases and am part of the varsity sailing team. It is relevant to the class in a way that we won nationals last year and no one knows what we do, so I explained it a little. This blog was on topic of team racing which is the kind of sailing that we do on a daily bases. The connection to the rest of the world is really just to the sailing community, but the sailing community is huge people just don’t know it. I was not vague at all in the blog. I gave specific information about sailing, winning combinations, and the aspect of the game. I honestly would recommend that class. I thought that I learned a ton about general information, which for some reason I did not have before. I mean a class like this gets kids thinking about, for example global warming, or an alternative to fossil fuel. Topics like this are so important and the best way for the world to change is to beat it into kids, so they grow up with the intent of fixing it, or at least trying too. Thank you very much for everything we did this year. I am sorry that I was lazy, or annoying at times, but it is senior spring. I hope you have a wonderful summer and future at Tabor.

How can four years of your life go by so quickly?  I can remember being questioned as an 8th grader by the high school principle about being ready to become a freshman.  He was asking about being able to handle kids picking on you, the pressure to drink and do drugs, the intimidation felt when walking around the school, and the workload.  It honestly seems like this hour of questioning took place just the other day; yet, today I am being asked all the same questions, except this time about college.
My high school career really has been fantastic.  I spent my freshman and sophomore year at my local public school in Weston Massachusetts.  I got all right grades, but the best part was what I learned there that you couldn’t learn at a school like this.  I learned all about drugs, drinking, parties, cops, sex, and fighting.  The things, which are good to know in the real world, street smarts.  When I came to Tabor it was because I had become to involved in the wrong thing and I needed to get my grades up and attitude fixed.  The only benefit I saw in coming was sailing.  Now that I have spent two years at this school that has ever rule imaginable in place, I can say that I really got a great high school education, if not the best.  I got two great years of grades and studying in at Tabor, which give me the confidence that I will be fine in college regardless of the workload.  I also got a taste of the real world and knowing when to walk away, and when to keep your mouth shut, what to do if put into a situation where your only choice is to fight, and how to deal with cops in a calm respectful way to give you the best chance of walking away from a poor situation free.
High was an absolute blast and I cannot wait to see what college is like.  I hope that life does not continue to go by as fast as it has, but I can only hope for I know it will.  Knowing that I will take advantage of every opportunity I am given and I will live my life to the fullest.

Is Hillary Clinton really as good as people made her out to be in the beginning of her campaign?  I kept hearing how she has a good background, is ready and well prepared to make hard decisions on the spot, etc.  Once the campaign was underway, Hillary and Obama where going at it to see whose name would be on the pole for the Democrats.  Initially people thought Hillary was all strong and ready to be president, while Barack Obama was just a very smooth speaker.  As the campaign went on the same ideas stuck around and the two of them are still neck and neck in the race.  Now, there is some recent news about Clinton that greatly makes me question weather or not she is ready to become president.
Hillary being all prepared and ready to take on any task made some huge mistakes in her campaign.  This is in the news under the heading “The Five Mistakes Clinton Made.”  These five mistakes are, she misjudged the mood, she didn’t master the rules, she underestimated the caucus states, she relied on old money, and she never counted on a long haul.  Those are five big mistakes and I will explain them for you and how it has changed my views on her.
Hillary ran with the intention of winning because she has the Clinton name behind her.  However, the first mistake, “she misjudged the mood” made all the Clinton and democrat supporters shy away from her.  She went into this campaign where the people were looking for a huge change, and did not give it to them.  The next mistake, “she didn’t master the rules” was a big problem because she hired the wrong people.  She hired friends who thought of her as perfect and the best, instead of people who were going to let here know what she was doing right and wrong and not set up her campaign based on one huge initial win.  The third mistake was, “she underestimated the caucus states.   The caucus states are worth 12% of the pledged delegates and they made no attempt at visiting or speaking there for a reason stated by one of her great advisors, “caucus states were not really their thing.”  What an idiot!  The fourth mistake was, “she relied on old money,” which ended up being a big problem.  Obama made a website where you could give money to his campaign in sums of 5, 10, or 50 dollars.  He raised roughly 100 million dollars this way.  Hillary had a set amount and thought it would be enough; however, it was not and she ended up taking over 10 million from the family account they did not like to touch.  And the final mistake was, “she never counted on a long haul.”  She thought that she was going to win big in the beginning and that was going to be the end of the race.  This did not happen and she is now struggling and having to take money from the family to stay alive.
How can a person making such stupid mistakes have a reputation of being organized, ready to take on challenges, etc.  I think she went into this all cocky cause of her family name and thought it was going to be a walk in the park.  Well, she was wrong and personally I do not think our country needs this kind or person who seems to lack general skills in charge especially in current state of our country.

On Monday April 28th, an email was sent out that honestly put me in a bad mood.  It did not put me in this mood because we had to go to school, or because I now had homework to that night, but because we balled on New Bedford for no reason.  The contents of this email said that the all school community service day to New Bedford was postponed due to potential rain.  I want to emphasis on potential because the following day we had maybe 30 minutes of drizzling.
New Bedford is a town that has drastically gone downhill.  At one point in time it was the richest town in the world and recently it got the rating of one of the towns with the most drug trafficking.  We as a school go to this town were there are still very nice people leaving and pick up trash, read to kids, paint, etc.  Last year the trash consisted of needles used for heroine of a drug of the same sort, numerous straws people use to snort cocaine, and the worst a mangled gun.  This town is crawling with kids and it is simply not a safe place for them.
The part that made me mad was that Tabor is so fortunate, and we let a little rain scare us off.  Also, the year prior to this it rained the whole day and I do not think that a single person complained about it.  If it rains we take our nice raincoats our parents bought us and still go.  Now, with the rescheduled day, some people cannot attend due to AP exams.  Also, the entire freshman class, which was the student body that was going to read to little kids, has another obligation that day, and the whole idea has been dampened along with the hope of the town.  I do not think the rain was a big deal and many teachers and students agreed that it was not either.  I enjoyed last year’s event, and unfortunately I will be one of the students attending an AP exam that day.

When the “Day of Rest” was announced I was completely shocked. Last year a rumor went around that we were getting a day off and I did not believe it, and then I really did not believe it when the day never came. However, this year was very different. I heard in Chemistry that something big was going on this week. I assumed that it was going to be an all school attendance to Patty’s funeral, or something along those lines. When I heard Mr. Stroud say we were getting a day of rest I was ecstatic. At my old school we had snow days, or days of school canceled cause it was just to cold out, but never in mid April when it is sunny and 72 degrees. I planned to take full advantage of this day to completely relax and have no obligations on my mind and that is exactly what I did.

I always will set an alarm, even on the weekends. I decided I was not going to set one on this particular day. I ended up awaking at 9, which is when my alarm goes off on a regular weekend. It was already 65 degrees so I put my running shoes on and hit the roads with no route in mind or distance of interest. I got back 45 minutes and 6 miles later, and I could not have been in a better mood. At 11 I headed down to the dinning hall with a backpack containing mesh shorts, a tee shirt, and soccer cleats just to get there and remember that this was appropriate attire for the dinning hall on this particular day. I had a great brunch and hit the fields. A bunch on us played two games of stickball. The team I was on won the first game, but lost the second. After that I made my way to a game of tackle football. I played for about 20 minutes and decided I had to go swimming. I also only played for a little because I was getting really burnt on this 72-degree sunny day and I had wanted to swim all day.

This was the most enjoyable day of my Tabor career. The best part about the day was the sense of community. Everyone was playing together, out on the fields, swimming, and mainly smiling. No one had a single obligation that day except his or her sport, but for me that was sailing and there is nothing I enjoy more than sailing. This day was greatly appreciated and I am so happy it happened. It really made the end of the school year easier for it was an unexpected, yet completely needed day off. I think this should be awarded to the school on a gorgeous day every year in mid April.

The Boston Bruins did not have the greatest season.  They have most definitely been improving over the past couple years.  They were fairly strong back in 2004, which was the last time they played Montreal in the Stanley Cup.  After that year, I believe the NHL moved up to Canada for a couple years.  Coming back the Bruins were weak, got strong over the course of two years, and were the last team to get into the Stanley Cup this year.
The Stanley Cup takes place at the end of every season.  It consists of 16 teams, 8 from each of the two conferences, and only one winner.  The teams will play each other within there own conference and than the winner of each conference will play for the Stanley Cup.  Now, it is not just one game between each team to move on.  It is a best out of 7 series for every round right through the finals.
The Bruins for the first round of the Stanley Cup got matched up against Montreal.  The Bruins are the last seed, and Montreal is the first seed.  At the end of game one it looked like it was going to be a blow for Montreal won 4-1.  The Bruins being a team that never gives up without a fight still lost the second game, but in over time with a score of 3-2.  Game three also went into over time, but the Bruins walked away with the win and a score of 2-1.  Montreal quick shot down their hopes in the next game with a win.  This put Montreal up 3-1 in games.  This means that in order for the Bruins to win that have to win the next three games.  Game 5 was an amazing win for the Bruins.  The won 5-1 in Montreal and scored during one Montreal’s power plays, which is unheard of.  Taking that momentum, the Bruins returned home for game six and won that one as well 5-4.  Montreal was one up or tied the entire game until the last couple minutes.  This brings the Bruins, which were supposed to be long gone by now to game seven versus Montreal back in Montreal.  Sadly, Montreal played like they did in the first game and walked away with a 5-0 win.
The Boston Bruins season came to an end right there; however, there heart that was put into the game will not be forgotten.  I hope that they come out next season and play all season like they did in the Stanley Cup, with heart and a strong desire to win.

The United States of America is the powerhouse of the world.  The United States is also the most hated country in the world and it is due to our actions.  There are many different views about how we should handle foreign affairs.  Some think we should stay out of them and not try and control and baby-sit every other country, while others think we need to get in there and solve the problem.
A recent issue has come up where the U.S. has quickly come up to speed with and is trying to decide what to do.  Iran has recently begun to install centrifuges in Natanz in their country.  They are not only installing some they are installing 6,000 of them according to CNN.  Centrifuges are put in at uranium enrichment plants to gain uranium for missiles or to fuel a nuclear reactor also according to CNN.
Now the problem the United States has is that there is a band against the enrichment of Uranium and Iran continue to break international demands and will not follow any rules.  So, we get to a point were the government has to make a choice, do we go to war with them if they do not stop what they are doing or do we stay away?  The democrats would say let’s stay away, no war, war is bad.  On the other hand, which are the republicans, thinks we should go and shut it down if they wont.
People think we are to involved in foreign affairs and should not be so controlling, but when we are not controlling attacks happen on the United States, and other countries, along with countries building things which are against the law.  Regardless, there are many people that think we should let it go and that it is not our problem.  Well, it may not be our problem until one of those bombs ends u in our back yard.
It is far too dangerous of a world and far to many people hate the United States for us to sit back and let countries break agreements. Iran has broken and agreement along with bombing us in Iraq from their boarder and since we are not at war with them we cannot go into Iran and fight back.  What if Iran had a plan to take that Uranium make a bomb and shoot it at the United States and we sat back and watched it happen.  Just for that possibility I think we should go and attack them.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/08/iran.nuclear.ap/index.html

The April Fools Invite is the first regatta every year for the Tabor Academy Sailing Team.  It takes place the first weekend we all return from spring break.  This meet is a great meet simply because of that.  It is so early that we have only been on the water as a team for four days and it shows us where we stand in comparison to usually the four other teams that attend.  This year the four team that attended were Brewster, Greenwich, Martha’s Vineyard, and Xavier.  Although none of these teams are very strong, they have been on the water sailing as a team for about two weeks come the day of the meet.
Considering the size and strength of our program, coach Hurd creates two Tabor teams to compete against the others.  This year he split us up into a boys and girls team.  The boys team with the name Tabor White, and the girls team with the name Tabor Cardinals.  The boy’s team consisted of Sean Bouchard, Declan Kelleher, Gordon Lamphere, and myself.  The girl’s team consisted of Sabine Becker, Lauren Burke, Alyson Metscher, and Haley Olsen.  The Tabor White team raced against Martha’s Vineyard, and Brewster while the Tabor Cardinal team took on Greenwich, Xavier.  Both teams were able to come out of the day winning all the meets and not giving up a single race.
Team racing is very different than the sailing that most people do in the summer with their yacht clubs.  In team racing there are three boats to a team and you compete against one other team at a time.  So, you are sailing three versus three and the team that finishes the race with a combined score of 10 points or less wins.  For example, a 1, 2, anything wins because 1 + 2 + 6 = 9, or a 1, 3, anything wins because that adds up to 10.  However, you do not just sail the course as fast as you can, you have to slow up boats, set mark traps, sail the wrong way around the course to go spring one of your boats free so that you finish the race with a winning combination.  This makes it a very interesting and action packed type of sailing.  Team racing is also not just one race and you are done.  You will race each team either best out of three or best out of five.  We tend to do best out of five and even when one team has won will continue to race all five races just for practice.
The first time I got into a boat I was one and half years old.  Now this boat I am talking about is not a nice big cruiser or yacht it was a 12-foot sunfish six inches off the water.  Once I was old enough to compete I always did fleet racing, which is every man for himself.  I always found this to be the most fun and even when I team raced here and there I hated for I was never any good at it and I did not understand it.  When I came to Tabor Academy and all we did was team race I fell in love with it.  It is the most fun type of sailing I know off.  It does not require just the skill of being able to sail fast and get good starts, but it requires the ability to make decisions in less than a second, take out other boats to move your team ahead, and loads of strategy and teamwork.  Sailing is a sport I love and a sport I will be able to continue until I am dead.

This past Thursday the entire school went on a trip to Providence Rhode Island.  The school made plans for us to watch the play “Richard III” at a theatre by the name of Trinity Rep.
We departed at 8:15 in the morning on buses.  The buses were arranged alphabetically by grade.  I found it very interesting that only the freshmen were but onto nice big coach buses, while the rest of use hoped onto school buses.  Regardless of my bitterness for being on the school bus where sitting perfectly upright my knees still are hard against the front seat, we left for our hour long bus ride to Providence.  As we arrived we quickly got off the bus and headed into the theatre.  All 500 of use made our way into the theatre to find ourselves in a jam for a small theatre, which holds about 500 people is not designed to have all 500 people enter at once.  I didn’t realize this theatre only held about 500 people till I got to my seat.  To be honest I was kind of surprised at how small the theatre was.
Waiting for the play to begin Sam Heavey pointed out two AK-47’s to me that made me realize this was going to be a modern version of Shakespeare’s play “Richard III.”  The lights went down and the actors came onto stage.  The opening scene was a great scene and by the end of the play it was still my favorite.  The play as a whole I thought was all right.  There were parts, which were great, and parts I did not like.  The things I liked were the stage setup, the props, the actors-mainly Richard who was hilarious, and the fact that they came out after the play and let us ask them questions.  Richard was great!  He came into the stands and made it interactive.  He was shaking hands of students; point out couples when talking about love, etc.  Then talking to us after the play gave me a feel for who they were in comparison to their characters.  There were also things I did not like for example, some scenes, the fact that it was made modern, and that there were long periods of time when the play got very slow and I began to doze off.
The play ended around 12:30 and we made our way home.  I was very excited to be greeted with a subway sandwich, a bag of chips, a pack of Oreo’s, and a drink as we left the theatre and got onto the buses.  The drive back was a little quicker and more interactive than the way there.  On the way there we hit traffic and most of the people on my bus were asleep.  We got back around 2 o’clock and I took a tap and headed over to my last wrestling practice of my life.

As Spring Break approaches I cannot stop thinking about everything I will do over the coarse of three weeks.  I will be traveling from Maryland to California to Oregon to Florida.  I will be with the sailing team, my brothers, my aunt and cousins, and my parents throughout these destinations.
My break begins with a school trip to Maryland with the sailing team.  18 of the sailors will depart Tabor on the sixth for a 12-hour drive to Maryland.  Luckily we are making a stop in New Jersey to spend the night.  Once we get to Maryland we will spend four days traveling around the area sailing out of many different locations.  We will sail out of Georgetown, Annapolis, Severn, and a couple other places.  When we are down there we will also be sailing 420’s and FJ’s.  The main reason for this trip is to practice where nationals are being held.  If we sail and get used to the waters it will give us an advantage if we make it to fleet nationals.
I depart Baltimore international airport at 1:30 on the 11th for San Jose California.  I will be meet by both of my brothers at the airport.  I will be spending a week out at Santa Clara University, which is the school both of my brothers attend.  This part of my break is pleasure only.  I will not being doing or thinking about any work, I won’t have and practice to go to, or any obligations at all.  There was one thing I was kind of worrying about, which was not having anything to do all day why they are in class, but I recently learned that five of friends of Zach’s, Matt’s and mine would also be there.
The next stop will be Oregon.  I will meet my mother out there in the 19th to spend some time with my mom’s sister and my cousin.  I usually try and make my way out to Oregon once a year to give my aunt and cousin a little help on the farm.  My aunt and cousin have had a very difficult life, for the father died and the mother was an alcoholic.  They live on a big farm with horses and lots of things to take car of.  Usually we will take a couple days and go around the property cutting all the trees down that have died.  We will also get bails of hay, clean the horses, restock supplies and food, and give the house a good clean.  This is always so helpful for my aunt and helps catch her with life.
After a couple days of hard work in Oregon I make my way to Florida to meet the rest of the family.  Down in Florida the weather will be nice, golf courses will be open, the ocean will be warm, and there will be lots of food to be eaten especially with no thought of weight for my wrestling career will be over in one week.  I plan to play some gold with my dad, tennis with my mom, and go jet skiing and out at night with my two brothers.
This is panning out to be the best spring break trip of my life.  I cannot wait to travel the country and see tons of people in my life.