McPherson High School
McPherson, Kansas
Teacher: Robin Long
Community
By Nate Hammar
12th Grade
I connect with my community in many different ways. Some of those connections include helping out in my town, helping my friends, and serving my country in the form of the United States Marine Corps.
I do not help out in my town a lot but I do from time to time When I got out of bed at 5:30 in the morning to go and help at the McPherson Pancake Feed is an example. The money that was raised went to the Kiwanis. I have also helped out in the school, cleaning and getting ready for basketball games or plays.
Along with helping out in my town I also help my friends. Helping out my friends is where you will see me most the time. If one of my friends asks for help I will be there for them. I have spent many countless hours under the hood of many of my friends’ cars or trucks fixing anything from dead car batteries to putting in new differentials. If someone’s car stops running, I will try to fix it.
Maybe some of my friends do not need their cars worked on, maybe they need someone to talk to. If my cell phone rings at three or four in the morning and it is a friend needing someone to talk to then I will listen to them as long as they need me. My friends talk to me about relationships, having a bad day, or maybe they just got in a fight with their parents. Most of my friends are like family to me and I even refer to some of them as brothers and sisters. Some of my friends I have known since the second grade while others I have only known for a year or two, since most of them are pretty much my family. If someone thinks that they can threaten or fight any of them, I will be there to help my friends out, even if that means getting in to a fight. I hate when someone tries to fight or threaten one of my friends, it just makes me mad to the point where I want to fight.
After I finish my last year of high school, I am going to serve my county in the United States Marine Corps. I enlisted on August 7, 2006, and I leave for boot camp June 25, 2007. Right now I go to meetings called Pooly Function. At a Pooly Function I train so I will be better prepared for boot camp. In McPherson, the town that I live in now, I am kind of a recruiter for the Marines. I keep track of all the guys that are enlisted. Most of them are friends, so it is not to hard to keep track of them. I talk to a lot of people who are interested in joining but are not sure if they want to join. I tell them what I know about the Marines, and that information has pushed a lot of them toward the Marines instead of joining the Army or Navy.
Boot camp is going to be intense and demanding on me mentally and physically. It is the hardest training the United States military has to offer. This will prepare me for anything that might happen in battle.
My friends and I will protect what we believe in no matter the cost. We know what we singed up for even though some people think we have no clue. We are not just going to some place that no one can pronounce to die. Marines do not die, we either go to Hell to regroup or go to Heaven because who else would God trust to protect the gates?
The Marines is the way that I will make the biggest impact in my community. I will also impact the whole country because, like others, I will put life and limb on the line to protect this country and my friends that live in it, and that’s one reason I need to go and fight in a war.
My
friends, family, the Marines, and limited community involvement are the ways
that I connect to my community. I think that community is a group of people
ranging from something as small as a family to something as big as the country
and I connect in both small and large ways.