Calvert Hall College High School
Towson, Maryland
Teacher: George Kropp  

Community
By Greg Herpel
11th Grade

Community is defined in the Webster’s Dictionary as a “unified body of individuals,” and “the people with common interests living in a particular area.”  Community to me is defined as a group of people, large or small, that interacts with each other.  Every person has their own definition of community depending on the communities they are involved in or how they view communities.  Everyone lives in many communities throughout their everyday life.  Whether its work, school, sports, family, friends, or neighborhood, we are constantly living in different communities and that is what makes us interact with other people, however we decide to interact with them.  We are in strong or weak communities with others we interact with everyday but we are still living in many of them.  We might not like the communities or have a disagreement with some of them, but we are still a part of that community.

I know that I am and was involved in many communities throughout my life and now.  Some of the communities in my life that I feel are my strongest are school, family and friends since I am constantly living in them everyday.  I feel that I am constantly involved in a community or communities throughout everyday and I feel that I have my responsibilities and involvement to each one.  Most of the communities that I live in are positive and enjoyable communities but not all of them are perfect and some communities have some negative aspects to them.  Sometimes my age limits the involvement or participation I can give to certain communities but I try to give something back to all of them.  To me, community is nearly impossible to avoid and is a part of everyday life that we are active in whether we choose them or not.

I am in many communities that listing all of them would take pages to put down and some I might not realize that I am in.  One of these many communities that I and everyone else is a part of is the World Community.  Everyone is part of this world and we all live here with each other in peace or conflict.  Most people in this world have little to do that would affect the world community and I know that I can not do much for this community.  Some people are more involved in this community and some not but we all are part of it. 

Nationally, in the United States, we the people have a lot of involvement and duties in our democratic government.  I am not old enough to vote or make a real impact in this community on a national scale but we all have our commitments to it and the people of it.  The local community that I live in, I do have some involvement in it.  This community is the people I live with and interact with maybe not everyday but very frequently.  Of course I cannot participate in our local government but at this level I am able to have some influence in this community. 

My nuclear family is really close and most of my life…revolves around this…community.  From this community, most people are taught their beliefs and moral values [in] their childhood but [what they learn] is not always kept by everyone.  I am greatly involved in my family.  I am the oldest of three brothers so I am given a lot of responsibilities and freedoms from this community.  I have a lot of members in my extended family.  We get along and get together when we can.  Some of my extended family has spread out across this country, from San Francisco to New York, but we are strongly connected and stay in touch with each other.  Some I see a lot more frequently than others but we all are a close family. 

As for my ancestors…I do not know much about them.  I know that somewhere in my ancestral family, there were immigrants mostly from Germany.  I have a hard time relating to them since I do not know anything about how they lived and the times have changed so much from the times they were living. 

I do have a strong community with my close friends.  I normally talk to them everyday, during school or talking to them on the internet over AIM (AOL Instant Messenger).  We can normally talk about anything and are comfortable around each other.  We try to do activities together as often as we can and I enjoy being with this community. 

I have also been involved in many basketball communities in my life.  Every year I play basketball with friends or for a league and I interact with many different people.  We have to work together on and off the court in order to play to the best of our abilities.  I am normally a starter on my basketball teams, so I play a very important part on the teams.  We depend on each other to fulfill each of our duties on the court and we must form a strong community.

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