I have enjoyed my high school years helping others through mentoring age 3 to 12 year olds in dance classes, tutoring, PALS (peer assisted leadership where I ate lunch and attended classes with elementary students) and Best Buddies International. My fondest memories have been from this activities. I plan to continue my volunteering with Best Buddies, Special Olympics and tutoring children at college. I love working with children and plan to be a pediatric nurse, nurse practitioner or doctor. I love being busy and helping others. I have been a part of the National Award winning 97 member drill team, Emerald Belles. It has been fun performing but most importantly I love mentoring children in the summer drill team camps.

If the internet did not exist, my life would be very different. First of all, my academic life would involve more time trying to find information. My room would have several bookshelves of encyclopedias that I would have to cumbersomely get down and sort through to find the population of Africa, to find the amendments to the constitution or the steps for CPR for health class. When a major English or government paper was coming up, I would have to spend many hours at the library to gather all my sources. As well, there would not be any online vocabulary reviews or YouTube videos to help explain Algebra, when I was doing my homework late at night. Additionally, I would be carrying many heavy textbooks around since there would not be any digital textbooks. . I would not be able to order all my English novels and free reading books to be delivered to my home. Therefore, I would be driving around trying to find all the books I needed.

Secondly, the convenience of my life would be changed due to not being able to look up directions or the weather. I would have to watch the daily news to get a weather report, to catch the scores of all the latest baseball games, to know the latest predictions for the election or to hear the latest crime report in my area. When going out, there would not be the convenience of comparing movie times and restaurant prices. When traveling, there would not be a way to find out the best highways, traffic paths, the closest mall, steakhouse, movie theater or yogurt shop.

            Finally, the way my age group communicates would be so different if there were no internet. Teens would actually have to talk to each other in person or on the phone or in a note or letter. There would not be a place to post every photo, location, thought, like, dislike and angry thought. There would be less typing and more talking. Many people would even go out and talk at a coffee shop instead of staying home on the internet. This would be a positive thing as my mother says her students do not know how to have conversations with common courtesies. Another benefit would that it would end cyber bullying. People could avoid being bullying inside their own home 24 hours a day.

            Definitely, having the internet helps me complete many academic, personal and social tasks in a quick and efficient way. If the internet was not existent, many hours would be added to my homework hours due to the academic demands of AP classes.