For my senior capstone project, I wanted to give back to some of the organizations in my neighbourhood that I have spent countless hours in or around over the years. The best way to show appreciation is to spend time doing something or making something for someone, which is exactly what I did. I decided to build sets of cornhole boards as they are the perfect gift for the type of organizations that I will be donating them to. One of them is my local recreational centre and a Boys and Girls Club that do summer camp programs. I figured this was the perfect gift that people of all ages can play while still staying socially distanced.

Link to slides showing the process: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_JVWDh1FhejhYDH_KFpnwhPKkWsrz203aG9vjU9galk/edit?usp=sharing

Link to Annotated bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ZBno1oNUZkmss5FB1sUX8vNYLgCJlRvDp4eoucfaGE/edit?usp=sharing

Treat Others how you Wish to be Treated Jackson Shumard

In a picture, taken by Vadim Ghirda there is a lot of people doing different things. We can see about a dozen men, knee-deep in a flowing river doing various tasks. Some of the men look to be holding one man back from the others. Most of the other men are standing around watching this happen while a man in the back stands around with his camera taking pictures. At the same time, we can see a baby being passed from man to man which seems to be in hope to get it away from the water. Although it is a very chaotic photograph, it is obvious the baby is the focal point of the picture.This picture was taken to show that even in a time of chaos there will be ones who put other priorities first and feel an obligation to others. This is significant because there is a wide range of responses people have in situations of despair. Growing up, and to this day I commonly hear the phrase “treat others how you wish to be treated” and I keep it fresh in my memory. This phrase holds a lot of weight when having a discussion about obligations to others. Obligations can look very different when dealing with people of varying importance in your life. Most people would say they feel the most obligation towards their family and friends, but what about strangers? I think that when dealing with strangers peoples obligations greatly vary. Many people feel little to no obligation to strangers and no pity to those in situations below theirs, but there are also a ton that are the complete opposite. For example, the people that serve in the military, the fire department, first responders, teachers, and policemen are all careers that are based on serving the needs of others who are almost always strangers. But even more specific than that, what about the people who do more to help individuals? The ones that feed the homeless, or help people cross the street, or even holding the door. What caused such the variation in levels of obligation people feel and what obligations (if any) do we have to strangers? While reading “Enrique’s Journey” there was many obvious examples of people helping strangers they had never seen and probably never would again. “Enrique is stunned by the generosity. In many places where the train slows in Veracruz-at a curve or to pass through a village-people give. Sometimes twenty or thirty people stream out of their homes along the rails toward the train. They wave. They smile, they shout, and then they throw food.” In this scenario dozens of people ride the tops of trains for days through mexico, few with money for food or water. In the small and very poor town that this train is traveling through countless families come out of their homes on the regular to give a portion of what little they have to the migrants on the trains. I found this significant because of how much it is related to the question of what obligations people feel towards strangers. In this case these people feel obligated to feed the countless different people coming through their village every week when they themselves have very little. When it is looked into more closely, many people can’t afford to be giving away food or water, but they do. “These are unlikely places for people to be giving food to strangers. A World Bank study in 2000 found that 42.5 percent of Mexico’s 100 million people live on $2 or less a day. Here, in rural areas, 30 percent of children five years old and younger eat so little that their growth is stunted, and the people who live in humble houses along the rails are the poorest.” If this information is true, and they still give away little of what they have why is it rare to see someone help a stranger at in Philadelphia? The variation of obligation people feel to others is something that I think exists a lot less in America. I think for the most part Americans are greedy. Many have ten times what those people in Mexico do, but won’t share a penny to someone who needs it. I think that the level of variation that people feel towards others is a response to how a person grew up. It is much more likely for someone who has struggled themselves and gone through hardships to recognize when someone else is and lend support. That is why so many of the Mexican families living along the tracks feed others, because they too have been hungry or poor at a point. In a place like America the attitude is different. There is a stigma to work and get it on your own and little pity to those who rely on others. While in certain situations this may be the appropriate response, I think that many people just need a little help or proof that someone cares about them to get them back on their feet. If everyone would show a little more obligation to help those around them it would benefit everyone.

https://politiken.dk/fotografier/art5849931/Click-the-black-background-and-switch-on-their-reality Pg.106 “Enrique’s Journey” Pg.105 “Enrique’s Journey”

My goal for this essay was to make people think about their obligations to others. When we look at how people treat strangers it varies from person to person with a wide range of responses. I am proud of how I examined the responses of the people living in Mexico along the train tracks. using the book “Enrique’s Journey.” It greatly shows the difference in how strangers are treated there compared to other places in the world and bring up the question of why that is.

Introduction: My goal for this essay was to show how baseball-related to life. More specifically how baseball has taught me how to deal with wins and losses in life. I have found that keeping the same mindset that I do when playing baseball, I don’t get stuck on failures and stay humble with successes. I am proud of the descriptive language that I used in this essay and how it helped tell my story with detail. Next essay I want to finish it earlier so I can review more and get more peer reviews.

Final Draft; Wins and Losses As I waited my turn I felt the tension rising. The game was getting more intense as the score between the two all start teams went back and forth. I stood behind the batter watching the pitcher throw strikes right past him hitting the catcher’s glove causing a loud smack. This is when I started to feel nervous, the pressure was on me as the batter struck out and the 2 runners advanced on base. As I took my last practice swing I could feel my coach put his hands on my shoulders as a sign of reassurance that I was prepared. I stepped out of the cage feeling both nervous and eager to hit the ball. I positioned myself parallel to home base and took a second to take everything in. At this moment I could hear my mom in the background; “Let’s go Jackson!” and my team starting a chant. Seconds later it was silence, a split second when it only felt like it was me and the pitcher. He threw his first pitch and it sped by me, “STRIKE!” was the only thing I could hear after that. I repositioned myself, watched carefully as he gripped the ball and then “STRIKE!” another one before I knew it. This is when I felt the pressure like never before, I took a step back and knew what I had to do to make sure we won the game. I returned to the plate and played what felt like a starring game with the pitcher. I was ready this time, two fastballs went by and I wasn’t letting the third. The pitcher lifted his leg to start his throw and I started moving my bat. In an instant, I felt my bat make contact and watched as I sent the ball flying over the left fielders head. “RUN RUN RUN” is all I heard my coach screaming as I rounded first base and headed towards second. As I ran I noticed my teammate running to home plate so kept on running towards third base. As I approached my third base coach gave me the signal to slide and I did headfirst into the bag. When I got the chance to stand up and wipe the dirt off of me I realized what happened, I hit a triple and got two RBI’s. I felt a great feeling of pride knowing that I helped my team take the lead.

That story is significant to me because of the feelings I remember after finishing that game. I felt happy and accomplished and celebrated with my teammates which made it even better. That win felt so good because of how many times my team and I were the ones that lost and after that game, we left the field with our heads high. Another story I have about baseball is when I was on the losing side, and to be able to win you have to learn to lose first.

It was a windy day with a light drizzle. I had been up to bat countless times before but this time the stakes were high. It was two outs in the last inning and we were down two runs. With my teammate on third, we had a chance of scoring and continuing the game if I hit. I took my last practice swing, took a deep breath and stepped to the plate. As the pitcher started to wind up I could feel the tension building. The first pitch he threw passed me before I eve started to swing my bat. I took a step back, adjusted my feet, and focused on the baseball and the baseball only. This time I had a great swing, I lifted my foot just on time and twisted my hips in order for the best possible hit. Once again the ball flew past me and my bat threw me off balance because of the amount of power I put into the swing. Now I knew I had to hit, my team was counting on me and the fate of the game was up to me. I walked back to home base with ambition and focus. I knew what was at stake and tried to block it all out as I watched the pitcher dig his spikes in the sand. My team started a chant as I tried my hardest to ignore everything around me. As the pitcher released the ball coming towards me I knew it was a good pitch, right down the middle. I squeezed the bat as hard as I could and swung it around me waiting to hear the crack of the ball hitting the bat, but it never did. All I heard was the smack of the baseball hitting the catchers glove and saw the opposing team rushing the field to shake hands and celebrate.

I chose to write about these two experiences because they have taught me a lot about how to deal with wins and losses in life. Although baseball is just a sport I think that the emotions and mindset when dealing with successes and failures relates to other aspects of life. I also feel that I have had a lot of first-hand experience that no one is perfect through playing baseball, I have seen the best player on the team make stupid errors and the last batter hit a triple.