PT Eric's Blog

What’s your worst feeling?  Is it when your hearing the list for kids that made final cuts on a sports team?  Or is it when you get a Math test back?  Is it when your on stage for a play?  Maybe it’s when your favorite team is playing in the Finials and their only down by one point.  Or is it when you get a letter from a school you always wanted to go to and it’s to see if you get in or not? Don’t you hate when you get that feeling?  Feeling like you’re going to throw up because your stomach has the butterflies and your going crazy because you just want to know whats going to happen.  What’s your worst feeling in the world?

Did you know that in the year 1880, a man by the name of  John Carter invented the first liquid fueled tractor  in Sterling, Illinois.  This tractor was lighter and made it easier to do field work and existing implements.  That invention made and powerful social and economic influence on rural life in Illinois.  By the year 1970 nearly 5 million liquid fueled tractors were in operation.

During class, my Social Studies teacher told our class about an interesting quote. The quote was “Do great leaders make history? Or does history make great leaders?”  The quote stunned me and I thought real hard and believed that history doesn’t make great leaders, it’s great leaders that make history.

One day when it was raining outside I started to watch Man vs Wild.  The show was about a man named Bear who travels around the world try to survive in any kind of environment.  After the show, I noticed how great Bear was at being a leader.  He has the ability to survive in any environment, the passion for wildlife survival, and the confidence that nothing is going to stand in his way.  Every Episode  he is always faced with the challenges of every outdoor expedition they throw at him.  Even though he doesn’t have followers, he still would make a great leader.

For the past 2 weeks my Social Studies class had a huge project.  The idea was to find an object with insignificance and write a story about it in American History to make it seem significant.  Then we would tell our object in front of the whole class on the Internet and then people would bid on it and all the money would go to Clinic Monique, a hospital in Mali, Africa. This auction project to me was especially hard to come up with an object and a story but in the end it all worked out and I found the perfect object. I chose a pillow and the story had to do with George Washington’s Farwell Address.  It was hard work but in the end it all worked out and overall I think I did a pretty good job.  Not just was this project a great experience, but are class also donated to a great cause.

A leader must have courage, discipline, strength, and smart.  But most of all leaders must have respect for their followers and listen to what they have to say.  Leaders aren’t born to lead, they must learn to follow before they can lead so that one day a follower can look up to you and become a leader someday.  Good places to become leaders are the Army, Police Force, and Hospital or Rescue Teams.  The time when I was a leader was in school when I was in a group for projects in the sixth grade.  I remember telling my group members what to do and I taught me how to lead and on the way I learned some new facts in school.  But then there was the time I was a follower in track and field when I was a seventh grader and I looked up to the Eigth graders.  That experience taught me how to be a better leader.  I am usually a leader when I am sure I can do something and can help others guide them to the knowledge I already know.  But when I don’t know something I let others help me towards their knowledge.  Anyone can be a leader if they choose to help others an guide them to lead someday.  My strongest ability is intelligence because I can show what I know to my followers so they can teach their knowledge to their followers someday.  I can consider myself a leader in front of people whom I can lead.  All that is what a leader is.

Every item has a story, just like this item right here.  You see this is the menu of a restaurant that my Uncle owns in Connecticut.  My family has 3 generations of baking and it all started with my great grandfather Johnny ” The Baker” Cappiello.  It all started in the 1900′s when my great grandfather came to America from Italy and started out his life as a bus driver.  Then he got bored from his career and went to New Haven Connecticut and opened up his own pizza business with his wife (sorry I can’t remember my great grandmothers name).  He was then known throughout all of Connecticut as Johnnythe Baker.  Later the business went on to his children who took care of the restaurant for over 10 years.  But now today my Uncle Mike opened  up a new restaurant Cappies Apizzain honor of the old restaraunt Cappiello’s.  And that menu was the first menu my Uncle made of his new restaraunt.

On this very date this will be the time when I finally graduate middle school!!!  This is going to be so exciting because not just is summer vacation coming but I also get to go to high school next year.  I can’t wait to see all my friends and experience one of the greatest times of your life, but college is much better.  No matter how fun high school might sound it’s still a lot of pressure because almost everything you do goes on your permanent record and might ruin your future.  I might be looking too far into my future but I can’t wait until I go to high school!!!!

This week I was studying the naval act of 1794.  I learned that when  the Colonists issued a Navy they only had six ships.  It was my job to study one of the ships so I chose the USS Chesapeake.

You wouldn’t believe the differences this ship has between a naval ship today.  First of all, ships like the USS Chesapeake have captains in all their ships, but ships today have Commanders and generals running those ship now.    Not just that, but old navy ships  had up to 400 hundred crew members on one ship, but navy ships today have up to a thousand crew members on a huge boat like that!!  Also on ships like the USS Chesapeake, there were only 44 guns on an old ship like that, but today navy ships are armed with millions and millions of weapons.  When the first navy ships appeared they  needed sails to make them go faster by the winds, but now navy ships are motorized by professionals controlling the ship.  Navy ships back then didn’t  have really any bathrooms are facilities in them, today’s ships have bathrooms, facilities, lunchrooms, cabins and break rooms to give soldiers proper care and good hygiene. Finally, The crew members on ships like the USS Chesapeake weren’t as properly trained as sailors today.  See how much progress our army has made in the past  216 years!!

I bet you have all heard the story of  how George Washington as a youth chopped down his fathers cherry tree with an hatchet and told his father he cut it down without lying to him.   I did a little information on that story and wanted to find out if it was a legend or fact.  I came across a peculiar website and found out that the story was told by a pastor named Mason Locke Weems.  He told everyone he knew about that story and it spread throughout the world in country’s  like Germany and France.  He wanted to show how that little boy who told the truth grew up to become President of the United States.  But the big question here is if it’s real or not.  Well I believe that story is just like asking your mom and dad if the Easter Bunny lives on Easter Island or if the Tooth Fairy exists.