Featured Stories

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Featured Stories

The Featured Writer for this issue is:

James Schleicher

Austin, Texas

This 18 year old, fifth generation Texan lives in the hills of Austin. James Schleicher's Primary intrest are running, writing and reading. He recently earned Eagle the highest rank f scouting. When he's retired he hopes to sit on his porch in a rocking chair, watching the texas sun bow below the hills as he bask in the warmth and writes his next novel.

The Moment

The moment. Why must it determine so much? And how do you really control it. Just live the moment. They say what they say, and they say the past isn’t important and the future isn’t existent so live "The Moment" (really your whole life is a moment) to the fullest and never, never regret it.

Details make you envision a story better but sometimes I put to much detail. Short and Sweet that’s the way I like it. But Even if my essay means nothing to you I hope you walk away with this message. When you live the moment you can have a lot of fun.

It all began in the Union Square Hotel on a Friday afternoon in early April. The newspaper trip San Francisco had thrilled me since I had arrived. When the opportunity of going to an Oakland A’s game arose, my heart jumped up and leapt into full sprint. A nice looking brown hared girl in the lobby informed me that the game would start pretty soon.

"You should hurry if you want to go?" she said.

Wanted to go? I had to go. I went back to my room and tried to talk some of my lazy roommates into heading to Oakland with me. They looked at me like crazy man, said it sounded like a lame idea and had their head obviously way too into the TV. I couldn’t have cared less if they wanted to go. I grabbed my jacket and invited my roommates one more time. They said I should come back by 11 as I walked out the door. Lucky for me (on the way out the door) I ran into the girl from the lobby and asked if I could go with her and her friends. As we walked to the subway station she introduced herself, Stephanie and her friends, Alicia, Christine, Anna and Pablo. They were from Los Angeles and seemed just as excited about the Baseball game as I was. The whole time, I never once looked back. All I could think about was baseball and the new yet great seeming people, which I accompanied. In an instant the shaky ride of the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transportation a.k.a. subway) whisked us away from Union Square. Four stops later, we walked down the fenced jet-way to Network Associates Coliseum home of the Oakland Athletics. I paid just $8 for my ticket. The smell of ballpark franks, peanuts, and fresh cut grass engulfed me as I entered. Concrete pillars and ramps led me high above the field level to my designated seat. Upon arriving I looked down at the Diamond and enjoyed the feeling of the ballpark. I felt, all through my body, joy just like the first time I saw the turf at the astrodome and amazement just as I had the first time I laid eyes on the Green Monster at Fenway Park. Elated to be in a big league park for a big league game, my head lightened and my heart sped. I enjoy baseball a million times more in person. For the next six innings I had great conversations with Stephanie about just about everything baseball, a sport favored by both of us. Talking to a great looking girl, about a beautiful game, while watching that game, preformed in it’s greatest light, at the same time, isn’t a half bad way to spend a Friday night. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to a guy much less a girl that much about baseball. I’ve never had that much fun at a sports event in my life despite the fact that neither the A’s nor the Angels are really an interesting team to me (I don’t even remember the score). Baseball always fills a gap.

At about 10:30 we headed back towards home (the hotel). With my horrible knowledge of the SF BART system we ended up on the wrong line. Needless to say we got lost and well, I didn’t make it back to my hotel room until 11:20. That came back to kick me in the you-know-what, over and over.

As I entered the room Dana, Chris, and David looked at me like I had survived some gauntlet never passed through by even the best gladiator. They told me our adviser had stopped by just minutes before and they told her I had gone to Oakland to see a baseball game with a bunch of strangers. They told me to go talk to her upstairs. The rest as they say, is history, at least for the entire publication staff of WHS and to me is all very boring (see side note #1).

I went with the moment, didn’t look back, forgot the past and didn’t plan for the future. I can go back and look at that one moment, when I walked out of the hotel room, over and over again. I can spin it around in my mind like a scene from the matrix. Think of all the other things I could have and probably should have done before leaving that hotel room.

The moment I like most in my little story: looking down at that field from high above, seeing how gigantic, green and alive it is, feeling that feeling I rarely get to feel. A feeling so amazing it’s hard to put completely into words. Even if I could explain it, only those who have experienced it would truly understand. I feel it pump through my body every time I go to a big league game.

There are lots of moments I could have focused on in this story. The two I focused on are the ones that made the evening and effected the outcome of the evening the most. The other moments, like having to call my dad to tell him I was coming home early or the moment when I got on the plane two days ahead of the rest of the group they were not that fun. I consider them tiny parts of the big story. I took the moment for what it was worth right when the opportunity first arose, and to me it paid off. I choose to remember the highlights of this moment rather than dwell on the bad. I love baseball.

College Essay

The last week of summer screamed, "Go hard or Go home!" I groaned as I trudged chest deep in swamp muck, dragging 200 pounds of canoe and gear.

Completing a weeklong, 50-mile, high adventure canoe trek meant more than just paddling and fishing. It meant finding my inner strength in the face of unknown situations that challenged me daily.

From the very start of my Northern Tier adventure obstacles filled the path. Upon arriving in Winnipeg Canada at midnight I discovered the airlines had lost my luggage. Usually my luggage not coming off the carousal doesn’t faze me, worse things have happened, but this time I would have preferred walking into a full auditorium naked, to thinking about going a week in the wilderness with out some of my most essential gear. I had a scheduled departure via floatplane to the middle of nowhere in eight hours. So I couldn’t wait for the bag to come on the morning flight. I would have to risk it. Luckily my carry-on backpack contained my sleeping bag and one set of clothes. My scouting brothers helped me out with some of the gear I lacked when I couldn’t live up to the scout motto, "Be Prepared". My feet ached knowing my boots didn’t make the flight. By stroke of luck a friend discovered a pair of size twelve jungle boots from a previous trek in the base-camp trashcan. When the sun rose above the tree line our crew, which I led as senior patrol leader, set off farther into the woods. A floatplane deposited us at a small island deep in the backcountry and we set off for adventures unknown equipped with paddles and canoes.

At the first meal when our crew gathered, the guide explained how the meal would work. "Line up, put out your bowls and I’ll give you one scoop of the meal," she said. We lined up and when I arrived at the front the guide, sensing hunger, gave me an extra scoop of the meal. "Feed the Big Boy" I said jocularly. Where deep inside me this came from remains unknown. One of the adult leaders got a kick out of this and soon our laughter warmed the cool night air. By just commenting on a little extra food I birthed a rally call. "Feed the Big Boy!"

All week long Mother Nature kept on feeding the big boy. The first test arose in portages, which required carrying the canoe and gear over a trail, ranging from a hundred meters to a half a mile, to continue from lake to lake. With three scouts to canoe, two people took the packs of food and gear, and one person took the canoe.

Fishing poles broke, blisters popped up and sunburns formed. We probably climbed over five to ten beaver dams a day, but never saw any beavers. At first I thought, "neat a little cuddly animal worked long and hard to make himself a nice environment." After struggling over seven dams in one three hour period, I wish I could’ve strangled one of the little varmints. We had leeches to pluck off our legs during the day, baseball sized mosquitoes to fend off at night.

After canoeing forty-nine miles the final test lay down before us, a portage the guide called, Heartbreak. Imagine the fire swamp from "The Princess Bride" and you have a slight picture of what we faced heading into the last mile. I had topped high mountains and gone long distances before. Now I faced the peak of all peaks. I couldn’t pick the canoe up and carry it overhead due to the mud ranging from ankle deep to neck deep. My strategy consisted of picking up the canoe and trudging as fast as I could, as far as possible until my arm almost came off. Go hard, stop, rest, and repeat. "Feed the Big Boy!"

My body ached all over as I took off my dilapidated boots, sat down, and enjoyed some peanut butter. The whole crew finished our journey without any deaths or serious injuries. I loved every bit of the struggle because of the adventure. I lead a group of ten guys through unknown lands, ands trials we never knew we would face. At the end I came out stronger physically and emotionally. Pride in our accomplishments filled my body. On the last day the crew gathered on a rock looking back on the end of the trail we conquered. Together we howled, "Feed the Big Boy!"

The best times of my life have come when I arrived at a cliff, ran and jumped off, instead of turning to walk away. I had chances to turn and walk away from this trip. I did this trek for the experience I knew I would obtain with the other scouts. In the adventure known as college I will face many new challenges and many new "Heartbreaks." With my strong will and leadership ability I don’t see why I can’t over come them. I know college will feed the Big Boy too.