Paoli High School
Paoli, Oklahoma

Teacher: Melinda Alfred

Improving the Quality of Life
By Julie D. Travis
12^th Grade

 

Many special qualities about a town come in to my mind when I think about looking for an unique place to settle down and start a family. Those qualities should include a good school, good friendly neighborhoods, a very low crime rate and other qualities that reflect a safe place to live. Paoli is a small country town that, to some degree, has all of these qualities. It is a good place to live and raise children. However, a few things could be done to qualify Paoli for "Town of the Year." Some of the things that we could do to improve Paoli are clean up the look of our town, be better role models for the younger kids who may need someone to look up to, help out the older people in our town, and find good homes for all the stray animals that wonder around our town.

           

Something we could do to make our town look a little bit nicer would be to add curbs and sidewalks. People of the town could volunteer to do the labor to help put in these curbs and sidewalks. Curbs and sidewalks provide many benefits. For instance, sidewalks provide a place to walk, jog, ride bikes, or even to skate. They make the town safer as well as more accessible, especially to handicapped people. Curbs help people know where the streets end and the sidewalk begin. They also provide barriers that may stop a car from running in to houses or people. A third function is keeping water from flooding the lawns in our town. Another thing we could do to make our town look a little better is to start a competition among the citizen of Paoli. We could have a committee pick out the best-kept yard and reward that yard "Yard of the Month." The owners of the yard could then be rewarded by having their water bill paid by the city for the next month. That would encourage people to get out and try harder to make their yards look nicer. That would in turn make the entire town look better.

           

High school students should take a stand and be role models for the younger kids in our town that don't really have anyone else to look up to. We should offer them rides when they are walking, cheer for them at sporting events, help them with school work or athletic work, talk to them about things that may be going on in their life, or maybe just listen to them. We should basically just be their friend, let them know they have somebody good to look up to, and make them feel like someone cares for them. This will bring our small town even closer together and in the long run help the whole town to improve.

           

Our town is made up of mostly older people. Most of them are lonely and can't get around as good as they once were able to. The younger and more capable citizens of Paoli need to take the time to reach out and care for these older people. We should go over to their house whenever we are able and clean it up for them, help make their dinner, and talk to them about what has been going on in the news, weather, in our lives, and even their lives. They always have interesting stories to share. We should also go out and get their groceries for them whenever they cannot get out or help them work in their gardens or in their yards. We should just mostly be their friend and let them have somebody who cares about them.

           

The number of stray animals in our town is very large. Every time I turn around in Paoli I see many skinny cats and dogs. I feel we should gather them all up and find them loving and caring homes. We need someone that will love them the way they deserve, give them the food the need, and make sure they are safe at night. Without all of the stray cats and dogs our town would look much better and also be safer. Often these strays can carry diseases.

           

Paoli is a very nice town. It has all the qualities that I would want in a town to raise my own family. Our small town has a great school with a carrying faculty, good neighbors that look after each other, and a very low crime rate. All of the improvements that I have mentioned in the past few words would only add to the many wonderful qualities of our fine town.

 

Answers To Questions

 

1.a) In the USA the society invests in marriages by helping out the married couples a little more by giving tax brakes and having counselors.

  b) Manus' society doesn't really have the traditional marriages they'd rather invest in economic exchanges.

 

2.   number of years       #of times married                      advice

   a)    22                                    1                      communication

   b)    22                                    1                      respect each other

   c)    16                                    1                      patience

   d)    17                                    2                     stay out of his way

   e)    9                                      2                     trust

   f)    26                 don't want to answer          give 100% 

   g)    26                                    1                      keep your mouth shut

   h)    23                                    1                      forgiveness, compromise, love    

   i)    15                                      1                   think before you speak    

   j)    1                                       1                      communication and trust

 

3. He feels that our goal dematerialized society without reducing the quality of life.

 

4. A goal for our community should be to concentrate on our youth and realize the problems that most of them have.

 

5. I don't think that a doll would be a good replacement for a mother figure. I know I wouldn't want to do that.

 

6. a) lawyers just don't make deals they counsel and plan. They enforce rules and structure in relationships.

   b) Because the bigger we are the more people and problems we have the more we need help, counseling, planning, and informing rules.

 

7. I prefer punitive damages because I fell that the people actual get what they derisive and it might just stop them from doing other bad things.

 

8. These people "the baby bloomers" are the healthiest and most educated generation so far. So these people that are retiring wont really Reiter they will probably start over, making a business on there own. Making more jobs for other people as well as the next generation.

 

9.

 

10.  One thing that Truett Cathy and Tom Lewis is that they both had a love for kids and wanted them to be successful another thing they both worked really hard in their lives and did a lot for the people around them another thing is they both started a kind a business.