Newell-Fonda High School
Newell, Iowa
Teacher: Connie Doonan  

Community and How I feel It
By: Alyssa Buckendahl
12^th Grade

How does somebody feel something that cannot be felt by any of our five senses? Simple, somebody doesn’t necessarily have to be able to see, touch, taste, smell or hear it; they just have to [pay attention to] their heart. They may not know anything about it but [knowing is not how community is expressed]. There’s a cornucopia of communities surrounding everybody’s every day life.

So what exactly is community? By definition community is a unified body of persons who have common interests while living in a particular area.… Community brings people from all different…backgrounds together for a common good.  Granted not all things about community is good.

I do not know enough about the world community to be able to say [much] about it. Whenever people turn on their televisions they see the good, the bad, and the ugly although it is mostly the ugly considering that we are currently in the middle of a war on terror. The media is having a big impact on the perception of the people because it tries to cover up by saying that the United States is trying to do what is best for the ones involved in the war.  I feel [curious about] the world community.

Now onto a smaller but not [necessarily] less powerful community. Our nation’s community is something that I disagree with almost all of the time. I feel that our country’s leadership ability isn’t as [good] as it could be.  [I’m confused by the national community and the politics that go along with it]. [I feel similarly toward] our local community. Local community is a lot like national besides the fact that local is just a little bit smaller. The same things go on and it still leaves me [confused]. 

My nuclear family is divided into two considering that my parents are divorced, so I live in both places. My permanent address is where I reside most of the time with my father. How I feel community there is by helping out with taking care of my little brother who is 15 years younger than I. Community in a nuclear sense is helping one another out whether it be doing the dishes or taking out the garbage. My nuclear family at my moms house is very similar to the one at my fathers except for the fact that I am much more reluctant to help there. Regardless of their differences I know that [I can depend on] both sides of my nuclear family.  They will always be there for me.

My extended family is way too extended. There are too many branches for me to reach. I’m pretty close with most of the family that I know.  [It seems like] everyday I’m finding out that I’m related to somebody new. It’s crazy. How I feel community for my extended family is getting together for all those wacky family get togethers, and we all have to learn to put aside… differences. It may be hard at times but that’s what this community is all about, sticking by each other through thick and thin.

Reaching out a little farther, we get to the most fundamental part of everybody’s communities – ancestry.  Ancestors…are what make every individual unique.  We all have different stories [related to] family history. My ancestors from my mom’s side came from Denmark, and the ancestors from my dad’s side came from Germany. The way I [experience] my ancestor community is by having curiosity about [it].

The biggest community in my life would definitely have to be my close friends because they are the ones that I depend on every single day. I have two completely different sets of close friends that I can depend on.  I have my close friends of seven years compared to the friends that I have had for four years. I feel that I can rely more on my friends of seven years rather than the ones of four because they have known me longer and therefore know more about me. Granted, I’m not saying that I would trade any of my friends for anything. A way that I feel community through them is by being supportive of them as they’re of me and helping them through anything that is bothering them also. I know that I can trust them all, well most of them anyway, with my life.

The next community ties into my close friends community quite well; it is high school. High school is a VERY stressful time for all of America’s teenagers. In high school everyone really wants to make sure they have good friends they can rely on because the main thing that high school is made up of is drama. A way I feel community in my high school is by sticking by my friends through all of the crazy drama that surrounds us every day.

Community brings people from all of the different classifications of “community” together. It is about being self-less and putting our feelings aside while helping others for the greater good. It isn’t something we feel with our senses; it is simply something we do. It is an action we take to make ourselves feel good while making somebody else’s day better as well.

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