Iola High School
Iola, Kansas
Teacher: Loretta Arnold

My Community
By Matthew Catron
12^th Grade

A community is a place where everybody is connected to each other in some way.  They may be family, they may be friends, or they may be neighbors living in the same area.  Everybody can have an effect on what goes on in that community, and everyone can make a difference no matter how large the community may be.  A community helps each other in times of need.

The world works as a community by pulling together to help certain regions of the world when they are in need.  …People donate money, food, and medicines wherever it is needed to help the unfortunate who have lost their belongings in tsunamis and earthquakes around the world.

A community on the national level is similar to a community on the global level.  People donate to certain regions of the U.S. that need help, such as Katrina victims.  Also we vote for people we feel will do the best for our country and who will keep our communities strong.

A local community is usually a little more familiar with the people within it.  Living in a small town allows people to get to know a higher percentage of the people in the community.  In my community, we know practically everybody’s name, which makes the community feel more personal.  People will be more likely to help around the community since they may know their neighbors personally.

A nuclear family may have moments of hate but it is conceived [in] love.  Families may fight but it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other.  Siblings can argue before school, but if one of them gets in a fight later that day the other usually backs the other up, no matter what.  Kids may not always agree with their parents, but most of the time the parents just want to do what is right for the kids.

An extended family can be quite large or it can be small.  The people in an extended family are not as close as the people in a nuclear family.  Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and step-relatives all belong in an extended family.  I have sixteen aunts and uncles and twenty four cousins.  I am closer to my extended family members on my dad’s side than on my mom’s side.

 Knowing about our ancestors can give us a sense of pride because of what they accomplished in life.  I don’t really know too much about my ancestors.  My mom was adopted from Greece along with her twin sister. She doesn’t know anything about her birth family.  My dad has never said much about his family beyond his parents.  I never met them because they died before I was born.  With all this, I still have a sense of heritage, which is a type of community.

The community that is probably most personal to me is the community of my close friends.  I can relate to them better than others. Good friends encourage me to be a better person and they help me if I have a problem.  Some friends can get me in trouble if I give in to peer pressure and do something that I normally would not do.  Learning to make the right choices has helped me determine what kind of friends I have.  My friends and I act very similar.  We all have the same sense of humor.  These similarities make us a closer community.

My own unique community would have to be my high school tennis team.  Some of us weren’t very good friends until we got to know each other on the tennis court.  Now we are a team that works together to help each other get better.  We cheer each other on, helping each other stay in the match and guiding each other to victory.  Theoretically, the coach is the leader of this type of community.  My first tennis coach was a great leader and teacher of the game.  He helped us all work together and become good friends and teammates.

Community is an important part of one’s life.  To feel like you belong to something gives you a sense of security.  If you feel alone and that there is no one that you can turn to for help, then your sense of community is gone.  You can determine how connected you are to the different types of communities discussed above.  If you volunteer for your church, or if you run for a public or political office, you are helping your community and are establishing yourself as a leader in the community.  There are many different types of communities and all of them include people wanting to help people.

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