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

Community In My Eyes
By Matt Spaulding
12^th Grade

Community is very important to me because of what it means.  When I think of community, I think of people living in an area that interact with each other.  But community just isn’t a group of people; it can be the whole world.  Every community is special in its own way….  The seven communities that I interact with every day are a big part of my life and without these communities I would be lost. 

I feel my nuclear family community the most.  This is because I’m around this community more than the others.  I have grown up with this community caring for me.  I have the most feeling for this community because they are the ones that care about me the most.  I feel that if I didn’t have this community around me, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today.  I will always be the closest to this community because it’s my family, and I live with them. 

I feel many things from my friends’ community.  How we help each other out when we need it the most is a way that I feel for this community.…  We always act differently around this community than others because we aren’t strict in what we do, and it just has a different feeling than being around elders.  Now that I’m a senior, this community will be splitting up because not all of us will be going to the same college next fall. 

 Another community that I feel every day is the basketball team.  I feel this because I’m a part of this group every day.  We all have special bonds with one another, but some are closer than others.  I feel this community outside of just basketball because a lot of us maintain our friendships.  This community isn’t an all year thing because once basketball is done some of us don’t talk much with the other players.  But the ones that do continue…their friendships [become] a part of my close friends’ community. 

[Then there are] local communities like the school and our town.  I feel the school the most because 180 days of the year I’m connected to it.  I feel the school community from teachers and fellow students that I interact with.  I feel the town community because of the activities that are going on.  These activities usually involve community fundraisers like pancake breakfasts and 100 dollar suppers.  With these kinds of things, usually the whole community comes out to support the cause because we try to help one another out. 

I feel the national community because of the security it provides me.  I feel that I will be safe each and every day because our government is one that we can trust.  Another way I feel our national community is when I vote.  This is a way that everyone is involved and can be doing things that have an effect in the community.  I feel proud to be a part of the national community because of what the United States means for me. 

I don’t really have a feeling towards my ancestors because I don’t know much about them.  I do feel thanks to them because they were the ones that started our family.  They got things started and created a good name for our family.  Without these people my family wouldn’t even exist.  I admire these people because they had to go through a lot to get to the United States and start a life here. 

 For me the world community is a lot harder to feel because we have [little] interaction with the world.  When I think of the world community, I feel the problem that the terrorist have created.  Another thing that I feel is the 3^rd world countries.  These countries don’t have much of anything.  Their communities are living in the past because of the few modern technologies that are available to them.  I think it should be our duty to help out countries like this, so they can improve their lives.

Without the seven communities I would be lost in today’s world and wouldn’t know my place in society.  Community has meant a lot to me in the past and will continue to be a big part of who I am in the future.  I feel that without community I would struggle to find what I am good at.  I have learned a lot from the people that I’m around everyday.  I will always be thinking of these communities, and after I go off to college, I will create a new friends’ community along with my old one. 

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