Tyler Yegerlehner
English 111 .027
Final Essay
12/12/07
My First Semester
My first semester at the University of Southern Indiana has been a good one. I like all of my professors except my Public speaking teacher. I still manage to keep mainly C’s without doing homework or studying. The only thing that has been bugging me about my time here has nothing to do with the actual work. I just feel as if I’m missing out with on the real college experience.
History and English are actually really funny at times and it helps to keep me focused and interested in the class. That’s actually a really hard problem for me because I think I have ADD but I never had it looked into. All my teachers growing up thought I had it but my mom for some reason wouldn’t believe them. Also my procrastination habits have been at an all time high mainly because college just isn’t like high school. During math class, I would either sleep or read and that truly hurt my understanding of the course. I’ve been trying to play catch up ever since. My efforts on that haven’t been my highest priority though. I play a lot of video games on the computer. My favorite one is World of Warcraft though and that takes up a lot of my time.
College isn’t supposed to be about just the work you do there, but it’s supposed be your whole lifestyle. See the problem is that as soon as I’m done with my classes for the day at USI, I go home and hang out with my best friends from high school. So I’m not really spending any of my free time doing any activities at the school. I haven’t gotten involved in anything here. I haven’t really made any new friends. I know that I could easily if I tried but it’s so much easier to just go home, call Babs, and do something for the night.
Don’t get me wrong. USI is a great school if you don’t live right next to it with your dad. It has plenty of great facilities and programs but I just feel that if I was to move away for college I would get the experience I’m looking for. My mother and I have recently been talking about this move and she agrees that it’s a great idea. I suggested a move to the University of Florida because that is where I was born and it would be great to be there again. And plus it’s in Florida. All I’ve been able to think about lately is moving to Florida.
I’ve accepted getting average or even worse grades, but my parents can’t really. This move for them would be more of shaking me up and getting me away from all the distractions at home like my friends, video games, and other things of that nature. It would definitely have the desired effect. I would be able to just lounge about at home and accomplish nothing. I would eventually go crazy if I didn’t do something. So the only thing left to do would be homework and trying to make friends.
I just feel that USI is not the place for me. I like going to school here but it’s not because of the school itself. It’s close to home and I’d be really scared of a move to someplace like Florida. But I think I’m finally ready to do it. The plan is to transfer there for fall semester of 2008. I think USI has been a great introduction into some of the responsibilities I will need to be able to handle but it just isn’t everything I want in the four years of my life I’m going to college.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tyler Yegerlehner
English 101 .027
Essay #1 Revised
1,106
Major Accident
First off, this event happened in seventh grade. Throughout this entire story it must be remembered that we were idiots. Anyways, the story takes place in a small Indiana town called Mt. Vernon on a small farm just a little north of the actual town. It was around midday when I arrived at my friend’s house. His name is Seneca Weintraut. After I opened the door I noticed a familiar but somewhat unwelcome face. If Matt McDurmon had not been there that day it wouldn’t have been a special day at all. And therefore I would be writing about something completely different. I had no idea Matt would be there mainly because he wasn’t supposed to be. He rudely invited himself and he would certainly pay for it later that day.
We had nothing planned for the day ahead but we started it out with some ninja stars I had with me and a blow gun Seneca had kept in his basement. It was the weekend after Halloween so there were still some pumpkins lying about. We were throwing the stars and shooting the blow gun at the pumpkin. After ten minutes it was completely demolished and several of the stars and darts were lying in the now oozing pumpkin. Seneca piped up the idea to get out his two practice bows and several arrows and shoot them into the field and retrieve them after the stock was spent. There were two bows and six arrows, so this happened rather quickly.
At around one o’clock we were rather bored with this so we started having one person standing in the field while two people shot at him. This is where things got interesting. One time during this type of stupidity I shot the arrow and it was like slow mo. I could tell that if Squid (Seneca) didn’t move then that arrow was going to go through his neck. At just the right time Squid moved over one step and the arrow whistled past him. It was mind blowing; I should have realized he could have been killed, but I was too ecstatic to do so. So this neither hindered nor fully stopped the shenanigans. It only fueled our stupid ideas.
Next it was two people in the field and one on the hill. Each side had a bow and two arrows. It was make believe war. When Seneca was up on the hill by himself and Durmy was with me in the field I was shot right in the calf. It hurt like crazy but it wasn’t that bad. It only bled a little. So the game continued until the next incident which took place on the four-wheeler. Yes, we’re not holding anything back now.
This was how this game was set up. Two people were on the ATV. The one on the back had a bow and four arrows and there was a ground trooper nicknamed, “Rambo” running around taking cover in the trenches. ‘Rambo’ occasionally had to dive out of the way so as to not be shot. When I was on the ground this game almost ended earlier than it did.
Squid was driving with Durmy on the back. Three things happened with the positions as they were. One, right when Squid took off I shot at them and the arrow hit Durmy in the foot. That incident was nothing compared to what was about to happen. They kept driving and Durmy shot a few arrows back at me out of vengeance for his foot. The third arrow I shot was dead on except for the fact that Squid gunned it and the arrow whizzed behind Durmy’s head. They pulled over to talk to me about what had just happened. We had a momentary truce. “Oh my God! I felt and heard that arrow scream behind my head”. Durmy was absolutely right. I know that if Squid hadn’t sped up when he did Durmy would be dead. But nothing had happened so I just thought it was a good shot. In a past life I could have been Robin Hood.
The next incident took place within a minute after this. It didn’t even require a bow or an arrow. I guess Squid had remembered that last time he took off in close proximity to me he almost became a shish-cabob. So instead he just gunned it heading straight for his long gravel drive way. We had stopped and had our conversation in a field to the right of it. Now the drive is about two feet higher than the surrounding fields. He jumped the driveway with some major speed. I guess he’d either never ramped it with a person on the back or Matt wasn’t very secure to begin with, because the moment after the two front wheels touched down on the other side of the road a near catastrophe happened. Matt was barely hanging on to the back of the four-wheeler with his legs because his both his hands were flying all around the place. His back was almost parallel to the ground. I don’t know how he managed to hold on long enough till Seneca realized what was happening, turned around, and grabbed his sweat shirt and hauled him back up to sit properly on the four-wheeler. It was absolutely amazing to watch.
After that we put away the four-wheeler and went back to two people shooting from the field towards the person on the hill. We were about fifteen minutes away from going to see a movie when a scream banished that thought. Matt had started to scream that we shot him in the head. Now Matt isn’t exactly the most trusting character, so we spent about a minute trying to get the truth out of him. We didn’t believe him because he wouldn’t take his hand away from his head. Turns out the arrow had sunk about two inches into his head. The arrow struck him on the right side of his head near his temple but parallel to the front to the back of his head.
There were most definitely some consequences to his major accident. None were too bad though. We destroyed the bows and arrows and an apology was in order but the same could have happened to any of us. No damage was done to him except the puncture wound. He had two stitches over the wound and he healed up just fine. He only spent a night in the hospital. But the fact remains that he was extremely lucky. We all were.
English 101 .027
Essay #1 Revised
1,106
Major Accident
First off, this event happened in seventh grade. Throughout this entire story it must be remembered that we were idiots. Anyways, the story takes place in a small Indiana town called Mt. Vernon on a small farm just a little north of the actual town. It was around midday when I arrived at my friend’s house. His name is Seneca Weintraut. After I opened the door I noticed a familiar but somewhat unwelcome face. If Matt McDurmon had not been there that day it wouldn’t have been a special day at all. And therefore I would be writing about something completely different. I had no idea Matt would be there mainly because he wasn’t supposed to be. He rudely invited himself and he would certainly pay for it later that day.
We had nothing planned for the day ahead but we started it out with some ninja stars I had with me and a blow gun Seneca had kept in his basement. It was the weekend after Halloween so there were still some pumpkins lying about. We were throwing the stars and shooting the blow gun at the pumpkin. After ten minutes it was completely demolished and several of the stars and darts were lying in the now oozing pumpkin. Seneca piped up the idea to get out his two practice bows and several arrows and shoot them into the field and retrieve them after the stock was spent. There were two bows and six arrows, so this happened rather quickly.
At around one o’clock we were rather bored with this so we started having one person standing in the field while two people shot at him. This is where things got interesting. One time during this type of stupidity I shot the arrow and it was like slow mo. I could tell that if Squid (Seneca) didn’t move then that arrow was going to go through his neck. At just the right time Squid moved over one step and the arrow whistled past him. It was mind blowing; I should have realized he could have been killed, but I was too ecstatic to do so. So this neither hindered nor fully stopped the shenanigans. It only fueled our stupid ideas.
Next it was two people in the field and one on the hill. Each side had a bow and two arrows. It was make believe war. When Seneca was up on the hill by himself and Durmy was with me in the field I was shot right in the calf. It hurt like crazy but it wasn’t that bad. It only bled a little. So the game continued until the next incident which took place on the four-wheeler. Yes, we’re not holding anything back now.
This was how this game was set up. Two people were on the ATV. The one on the back had a bow and four arrows and there was a ground trooper nicknamed, “Rambo” running around taking cover in the trenches. ‘Rambo’ occasionally had to dive out of the way so as to not be shot. When I was on the ground this game almost ended earlier than it did.
Squid was driving with Durmy on the back. Three things happened with the positions as they were. One, right when Squid took off I shot at them and the arrow hit Durmy in the foot. That incident was nothing compared to what was about to happen. They kept driving and Durmy shot a few arrows back at me out of vengeance for his foot. The third arrow I shot was dead on except for the fact that Squid gunned it and the arrow whizzed behind Durmy’s head. They pulled over to talk to me about what had just happened. We had a momentary truce. “Oh my God! I felt and heard that arrow scream behind my head”. Durmy was absolutely right. I know that if Squid hadn’t sped up when he did Durmy would be dead. But nothing had happened so I just thought it was a good shot. In a past life I could have been Robin Hood.
The next incident took place within a minute after this. It didn’t even require a bow or an arrow. I guess Squid had remembered that last time he took off in close proximity to me he almost became a shish-cabob. So instead he just gunned it heading straight for his long gravel drive way. We had stopped and had our conversation in a field to the right of it. Now the drive is about two feet higher than the surrounding fields. He jumped the driveway with some major speed. I guess he’d either never ramped it with a person on the back or Matt wasn’t very secure to begin with, because the moment after the two front wheels touched down on the other side of the road a near catastrophe happened. Matt was barely hanging on to the back of the four-wheeler with his legs because his both his hands were flying all around the place. His back was almost parallel to the ground. I don’t know how he managed to hold on long enough till Seneca realized what was happening, turned around, and grabbed his sweat shirt and hauled him back up to sit properly on the four-wheeler. It was absolutely amazing to watch.
After that we put away the four-wheeler and went back to two people shooting from the field towards the person on the hill. We were about fifteen minutes away from going to see a movie when a scream banished that thought. Matt had started to scream that we shot him in the head. Now Matt isn’t exactly the most trusting character, so we spent about a minute trying to get the truth out of him. We didn’t believe him because he wouldn’t take his hand away from his head. Turns out the arrow had sunk about two inches into his head. The arrow struck him on the right side of his head near his temple but parallel to the front to the back of his head.
There were most definitely some consequences to his major accident. None were too bad though. We destroyed the bows and arrows and an apology was in order but the same could have happened to any of us. No damage was done to him except the puncture wound. He had two stitches over the wound and he healed up just fine. He only spent a night in the hospital. But the fact remains that he was extremely lucky. We all were.
Tyler Yegerlehner
English 101 .027
Essay # 3 Revised
1,184
A New Love for Kayaking
I have recently discovered that I’m and outdoors junkie. My friend, Brian Babcock, and I absolutely love to go kayaking. Right about the time I came to this stunning realization I lost my job. So that made it much harder to constantly go kayaking. I have a nine foot perception kayak. It’s a pretty crappy one. Actually, out of the entire kayak selection, it’s possible that it is ‘the’ crappy kayak. It floats and carries a bit of extra weight, and surprisingly it’s quite durable so I still love it. The three main places we kayaked at were the Old Dam, Hovey Lake, and the Ohio River.
Now there is surprisingly a lot of preparation for a day of kayaking anywhere. At the Old Dam, the only place that has some whitewater locally, you might want to wear a helmet. In some part of the rapids there are some pretty tricky parts and if you don’t know your way around then you could possibly hit your head on a rock. Brian and I never wore a helmet. We are what you call idiots. Depending on how long you’re going to be there you need to stock up the four main ingredients of an exceptional cooler. One, you need bottled water, not much though. Two, you’ll need a few easily made food items and snacks. Bars of any kind are a must. Three, the main ingredient, is as much beer as you can fit. You must realize that this is an all day event and that this part is crucial to the experience. Finally, you need ice to keep it all cold. Now that you have your cooler completely stocked you need to make sure you have your life jacket, water shoes, swimming trunks, towel, kayak, and video camera.
I live in Mt. Vernon so there is not much whitewater action around, but at the OldDam in New Harmony there are rapids that Brian and I practically lived at over the summer. There are three main degrees of whitewater at the Old Dam. There are a few weak drop offs that when we first started going there were hard core. Next there are a few rapids that you kayak up to in calm parts then turn into. They much stronger and could flip you over if you’re not careful. If you do get flipped over then your buddy has to help you and your kayak to the other side of the Wabash River to get all the water out of your kayak. This is quite difficult considering that the bank is about a foot of mud that you sink all the way into. Now the third type of rapid for us there is when you actually carry the kayak to the furthest point you can reach and paddle hard upstream so you’re not taken into the rapids backwards. When you get far enough upstream you turn the kayak around and position yourself where you need to be and then paddle as fast as you can downstream towards the rapid of your choice. Main thing to remember during this step is to avoid all rocks. The Old Dam is our number one choice for when we go kayaking, but near the end, before we put up our kayaks for the winter, we were going to the Ohio River.
Recently, we’ve been going out on the Ohio River just for conditioning, but also because of the convenience of it only being a minutes’ drive from our houses. On our second trip we noticed a clearing in a spot near the port. So we paddled over to the clearing and saw a small creek further back. So we went there, but there hadn’t been enough rain to go too far back. So we planned to go again as soon as it rained. After it rained, we had gotten past the fallen tree in our way and explored the creek as far as a mile or a mile and a half back before we noticed that we barely had enough light to make it back to the ramp before it got dark. So we grudgingly turned around, but vowed to come back in the spring when there would be enough rain to get as far back as we could go. I’m truly counting the days until we can return to the small creek and explore the place that I believe not many in Mt. Vernon know about. I was surprised at how many places near my home I could kayak at. There was also Hovey Lake near to us.
Now Hovey out of our three main destinations to choose from is usually our last choice. But sometimes when you’re looking for just a quiet, peaceful day that’s where you go. When you first drive by the dilapidated shack that is the main office for the lake, you may be a little disappointed at first. That evaporates as soon as you surpass the crest of the hill blocking your view of the lake. When the day is bright and you listen to all the birds that live in trees in the middle of the lake, and you see the wind ripple the water’s surface you’re truly glad you made the trip there. At Hovey there’s no reason for any hard strokes because it is supposed to be a quiet, long, easygoing trip, unless you’re racing your friend back to the dock at the end of the day. Now as you can imagine it takes awhile to get anywhere on kayaks so there are still many unexplored places that one day I hope to find at Hovey. Some of the places we have found though are quite creepy. It always reminds me of Lake Placid the movie in this one spot. And on one of our ventures to this spot I was completely freaked out. The thought was just beginning to sink in again that I was going to be eaten by a giant crocodile when a small fish jumped right over the tip of my kayak spraying me with water, but that not how I got really wet. I freaked out so much that I rolled my kayak and it filled up with water. I almost lost my shirt and I had to swim it to the bank the whole time thinking that that was exactly what the crocodile wanted. I made it back crocodile free that day though. I never told Brian why I was so scared by a little fish; I just kept telling him I was really startled is all. So I’ve already made a lot of great memories from my one summer kayaking.
I love every aspect of kayaking. The solitude, the endurance, and the joy of exploring on our own are the great things I get from it. And I love all the bodies of water I get to experience those aspects in. I’ve made great memories so far, but I can’t wait till next spring to make some more at the Old Dam, Ohio River, and Hovey Lake.
English 101 .027
Essay # 3 Revised
1,184
A New Love for Kayaking
I have recently discovered that I’m and outdoors junkie. My friend, Brian Babcock, and I absolutely love to go kayaking. Right about the time I came to this stunning realization I lost my job. So that made it much harder to constantly go kayaking. I have a nine foot perception kayak. It’s a pretty crappy one. Actually, out of the entire kayak selection, it’s possible that it is ‘the’ crappy kayak. It floats and carries a bit of extra weight, and surprisingly it’s quite durable so I still love it. The three main places we kayaked at were the Old Dam, Hovey Lake, and the Ohio River.
Now there is surprisingly a lot of preparation for a day of kayaking anywhere. At the Old Dam, the only place that has some whitewater locally, you might want to wear a helmet. In some part of the rapids there are some pretty tricky parts and if you don’t know your way around then you could possibly hit your head on a rock. Brian and I never wore a helmet. We are what you call idiots. Depending on how long you’re going to be there you need to stock up the four main ingredients of an exceptional cooler. One, you need bottled water, not much though. Two, you’ll need a few easily made food items and snacks. Bars of any kind are a must. Three, the main ingredient, is as much beer as you can fit. You must realize that this is an all day event and that this part is crucial to the experience. Finally, you need ice to keep it all cold. Now that you have your cooler completely stocked you need to make sure you have your life jacket, water shoes, swimming trunks, towel, kayak, and video camera.
I live in Mt. Vernon so there is not much whitewater action around, but at the OldDam in New Harmony there are rapids that Brian and I practically lived at over the summer. There are three main degrees of whitewater at the Old Dam. There are a few weak drop offs that when we first started going there were hard core. Next there are a few rapids that you kayak up to in calm parts then turn into. They much stronger and could flip you over if you’re not careful. If you do get flipped over then your buddy has to help you and your kayak to the other side of the Wabash River to get all the water out of your kayak. This is quite difficult considering that the bank is about a foot of mud that you sink all the way into. Now the third type of rapid for us there is when you actually carry the kayak to the furthest point you can reach and paddle hard upstream so you’re not taken into the rapids backwards. When you get far enough upstream you turn the kayak around and position yourself where you need to be and then paddle as fast as you can downstream towards the rapid of your choice. Main thing to remember during this step is to avoid all rocks. The Old Dam is our number one choice for when we go kayaking, but near the end, before we put up our kayaks for the winter, we were going to the Ohio River.
Recently, we’ve been going out on the Ohio River just for conditioning, but also because of the convenience of it only being a minutes’ drive from our houses. On our second trip we noticed a clearing in a spot near the port. So we paddled over to the clearing and saw a small creek further back. So we went there, but there hadn’t been enough rain to go too far back. So we planned to go again as soon as it rained. After it rained, we had gotten past the fallen tree in our way and explored the creek as far as a mile or a mile and a half back before we noticed that we barely had enough light to make it back to the ramp before it got dark. So we grudgingly turned around, but vowed to come back in the spring when there would be enough rain to get as far back as we could go. I’m truly counting the days until we can return to the small creek and explore the place that I believe not many in Mt. Vernon know about. I was surprised at how many places near my home I could kayak at. There was also Hovey Lake near to us.
Now Hovey out of our three main destinations to choose from is usually our last choice. But sometimes when you’re looking for just a quiet, peaceful day that’s where you go. When you first drive by the dilapidated shack that is the main office for the lake, you may be a little disappointed at first. That evaporates as soon as you surpass the crest of the hill blocking your view of the lake. When the day is bright and you listen to all the birds that live in trees in the middle of the lake, and you see the wind ripple the water’s surface you’re truly glad you made the trip there. At Hovey there’s no reason for any hard strokes because it is supposed to be a quiet, long, easygoing trip, unless you’re racing your friend back to the dock at the end of the day. Now as you can imagine it takes awhile to get anywhere on kayaks so there are still many unexplored places that one day I hope to find at Hovey. Some of the places we have found though are quite creepy. It always reminds me of Lake Placid the movie in this one spot. And on one of our ventures to this spot I was completely freaked out. The thought was just beginning to sink in again that I was going to be eaten by a giant crocodile when a small fish jumped right over the tip of my kayak spraying me with water, but that not how I got really wet. I freaked out so much that I rolled my kayak and it filled up with water. I almost lost my shirt and I had to swim it to the bank the whole time thinking that that was exactly what the crocodile wanted. I made it back crocodile free that day though. I never told Brian why I was so scared by a little fish; I just kept telling him I was really startled is all. So I’ve already made a lot of great memories from my one summer kayaking.
I love every aspect of kayaking. The solitude, the endurance, and the joy of exploring on our own are the great things I get from it. And I love all the bodies of water I get to experience those aspects in. I’ve made great memories so far, but I can’t wait till next spring to make some more at the Old Dam, Ohio River, and Hovey Lake.
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