What Excellence is to me

What does excellence mean to you? Is a definition in a dictionary really the only definition of excellence? Every person perceives excellence differently. Everyone can achieve excellence in their own way, for example winning a State Volleyball Tournament, or even getting an A+ on a school paper. There are many ways to achieve excellence either by winning a title, just doing better than thought possible, or never giving up!

A great example of excellence is winning a State Volleyball Championship! To be able to achieve excellence you need to train hard everyday even when you know that no one is watching you. It takes complete commitment and learning from you mistakes. It doesn’t take just want to create excellence. You can create excellence within a team. Excellence isn’t being perfect, it’s pushing yourself farther then you thought you could be pushed. If you make a mistake and learn your excelling, because you know not to make that mistake again. When you create excellence within a team it’s more then just playing the game. Every person has to believe in each other and believe in the team no matter what players you have or how big your players are it does not matter. If you believe you can accomplish the never thought possible by beating an undefeated team in the championship game, that is what I call excellence. Excellence isn’t always about winning the title, it can be about taking the risk to excel. Excellence is a great thing but sometimes taking the risk to excel is the toughest part.

After reading “The Crooked Tree” by Benjamin Hoff he used an example of excellence that really shows the risk you take when trying to excel. A cat is good at catching its prey, it was born to catch its prey. But when a cat is focused on its prey it’s making itself vulnerable to be caught by a net. This shows that you may be excellent at something but taking the risk to go outside of your box makes you vulnerable to the outside world. The cat has the ability to not be afraid and go for what it really wants. I think that everyone shouldn’t be afraid of the possibility to fail. If you fail by stepping out of your box and attempting what hasn’t been attempted you are already excelling. Excellence can be made into a win, win situation. Sometimes it’s just about not giving up and going for what you want! You can never excel if you fear failure. It’s always better to just not give up and go for it.

The most important factor of excellence to me is not giving up! Three knee surgeries in a year for me has taught me that you can not give up. Excellence can be achieved within you, within your ability to fight. Sometimes life throws obstacles at you and it is so easy for us all to just give it up. When the odds of breaking your knee cap are 1 in 1000, and it still happens to you. That moment would be a perfect time to quit! Maybe it’s your body fighting the odds. Making it through years of physical therapy is excellence to me. Committing yourself and keeping a positive attitude that you can get better and pushing yourself to rebuild. Not giving up is excellence, because we all know giving up is the easiest thing so when you fight and beat the odds. You are excellent!

The word excellence can mean anything you want it to mean. No matter if it’s winning the State Volleyball Championship, going outside of the box, or never giving up. There are many more definitions to excellence this is only what it means to me. What is excellence to you! Have you excelled in your life. Maybe you think that you have yet to do something excellent. You might have already excelled in your life, it might be time to stop and think about what you have done!

References

Hoff, Benjamin, "The Crooked Tree", pg. 170, Seeing Metaphors

Ludwig, Mark Donald, "Look out for more Blairs", 2004, Quill Magazine ; pg. 34

Link to Grammar for College

http://mhsgrammarforcollege.blogspot.com/

What is Education

Jordan Stiefel
Grammar For College
Education Essay
April 20, 2008

When you mention the word education most people think of the words teacher, homework, lectures, tests, and so forth. What really is education? Education can’t be summed up inside of a book. If you can sum up education in a book then does that mean you can sum up life in a book? Education isn’t just about school, it can happen everyday outside of school just by taking a chance and learning from it.

Sometimes in life things don’t always go the way you plan or want. Just like the summer before your Junior year when you are forced to move 2 hours away from the place you have lived all your life. I know sometimes it seems that putting your tail between your legs is the easiest solution. Or else there is always another chance for you to better yourself. Every new opportunity is a learning opportunity, if you decide to open up and look forward to what's a head of you. I looked at this new opportunity as a chance to walk into a new place where I could be anyone I wanted because no one knew me. Doing that taught me that when you forget about caring what people think, or caring about anyone who chooses to judge you. This is a perfect example of how education is not just school work. Whenever you come out of any situation and you learn from it, that is education.

The simplest thing like a movie can educate your mind and change your perspective. In the movie “The Dead Poets Society” a young group of boys faces a teacher who challenges them with all their weaknesses. One of the young boys Todd Anderson was the one boy who did not talk and did not want to participate. One day the poetry teacher Mr. Keating assigned the boys to write a poem. Todd was next to present his poem but had not done the homework. Instead of allowing Todd not to do the work Mr. Keating brought him to the front of the class and helped him write his poem with his eyes closed. This opened up a whole new world for Todd. This scene showed taught me that when you don't believe you can do something you in fact maybe able to do it better then anyone, with a small push in the right direction. Sometimes all it takes is a 5 minute long scene in a movie to change your view about things you don't believe you can do or your greatest weaknesses. The best way to make a weakness a strength is to try.

In the Essay “A Homemade Education” a young student has a hard time expressing himself in his letters. He knew that the only way to fix this problem was to try and fix it. He started by writing down everything on the first page of a dictionary, waking up the next day thinking about all those words and things he learned. Excitement rose over him so he kept on writing the pages of the dictionary and he learned all of these new words and history that he never knew. You can learn anything you want from a book or you can use life as your book of education. In the Essay “Two Ways of Seeing the River” Mark Twain writes about how life is a book created by man. Life is a book that can never be avoided, and someone can never come along and skip the page. The book of life can never be forgotten or lost. This essay looks at the things life brings us like the water, grass, trees, and sunsets as the most important part of the book. A book isn’t just a book, a sunset isn’t just a sunset. There is always something more to every book every page in life and everyday we educate ourselves by learning the facts of life.

Education isn’t always about going to class everyday to learn. Education is about learning something new about life and about yourself. How can you learn if you don't take a chance and try. Ask yourself this question and maybe you can open your mind to make a mistake and learn. No matter how much school you pursue or how smart you are, there is always more room to learn and make mistakes.

Work Cited

Dead Poets Society. Dir. Peter Weir. Perf. Robin Williams. DVD. Touchstone Pictures, 1989.

Malcolm X, and Alex Haley. How I Discovered Words: a Homemade Education.Twain, Mark.

Two Ways of Seeing the River.

Personal Statement

Cover Letter

1110 Paris Road Apt. 1004
Marshall, MN 56258
April 8, 2008



Ms. Sara Johnson
Director
Graphic Design Studio 10
Marshall,MN 56258


Dear Ms. Johnson
I am enclosing my resume in response to your advertisement in the Independent Newspaper, April 1, for an assistan director for the summer. As someone who loves to learn and from my sports I have learned always to keep a posative attitude no matter what the situation I hope you will consider me for this position. I do not have much experience working in a Graphic Design studio, but I have taken many art and design classes at school and know that it's something I want to persue in my future.

This job would be a pefect oppurtinity for me to see what Graphic Design is all about and how to learn on the job. I have learned from moving my Junior year to a new High school that you really have to adjust quickly and adapt to a new environment. When coming into the work world I think Graphic Design assistant is a perfect time to apply that. This would be a dream summer job for me and I hope that you could help further my career into being a Graphic Designer.

I hope I will have an oppurtinity to meet with you as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
Jordan Rae Stiefel

Resume

Jordan R. Stiefel

1110 Paris Road Apt. 1004

Marshall, MN 56258

(320) 815-5933< jordan7stiefel@hotmail.com>

Objective: Summer Oppurtinity to work more with the art of Graphic Design to prepare myself for my career in the future.

Education: Senior at Marshall High School, Marshall, Minnesota

(Graduation June 2008) G.P.A: 3.5

Activities

and skills : President of the Marshall High School Womens Choir

-Helped keep track of attendance

-Organize set up help for concerts

High School Volleyball(grades,9-12) and Basketball(grade,9,10)

- Won the Southwest Conference title for volleyball

- Won the 2007 Class 3AA State Volleyball Tournament

- Created a posative energy for the team

- Helped play a leadership role as a Senior for our volleyball team

- I learned what hard work is and how important it is

- Voted a captain Junior year in Alexandria for Volleyball

Work

Experience: Table Runner, Bug-a-boo Bay, Alexandria, Minnesota, Summer 2006

- Helped run food to tables

- Helped with preparing food on the plates befor it left the kitchen

- Restocked the food from the freezer so the sauces and dressings didn't run out

Ticket and Merchanise, Alexandria Beetles Baseball Field, MN, Summer 2007

- Ran ticket sales before the games

- Helped out selling Beetles souvenirs

References: Availabel upon request

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