When the reward is not worth the risk 

I am famous among the gods for cunning

-Homer

~Parker Daniel

I was in synagogue for another day of high holidays service. As I sat in my chair I was very bored being 8 years old and not understanding much of what was going on. After patiently listening for 2 hours I told my parents I was going to the bathroom and then I left. As I made my way out into the hallway I walked as slow as possible trying to stall so I didn’t have to go back in. After minutes of wandering I went to the bathroom and left. But as I was walking back something smelled very good in the kitchen so as Homer once said “take courage” as I snuck in to see what it was.

Parker Daniel

 Fitz English

4/4/22

The Stars and The Sky

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat

~Scott Fitzgerald

It was a gray and rainy morning in July as I got out of my bunk to go to All Camp Meeting. The exact date was July 12, 2021, and the adrenaline was pumping through my blood because it was the first out of two days of our Eco-Challenge (color wars), and we were hoping to be victorious in Eco-Challenge. As we ate breakfast, we patiently waited for our new Eco T-shirts to be handed out. The Water Team's shirt had a lake on it, The Fire Team's shirt had a campfire, The Earth Team's shirt had a forest of pine, and The Air Team's shirt had wind marks. In my first year, I was assigned to be on the Water Team, and I was so excited to be on the most crowned team and was happier when I found out I stayed on that team for the rest of my life. I was excited to start my 4th Eco-Challenge, so when I got back to the cabin after breakfast, I immediately put on my new shirt and blue face paint to get hyped up for the challenges we would have to face ahead of us. 

Equity

Why college athletes should be paid

The least you can do is give athletes a share when they leave

~Sean Kilpatrick

There are 176,000 D1 college athletes with 80% on scholarship. Of the people on scholarship an average of ¼ their tuition is paid. Only 2% of these students end up going pro in a sport, so what happens to the others? The others end up relying on their academics to graduate but only 69% of D1 athletes end up graduating leaving the rest with no money, no degree, and no full-time job. This current system gives coaches and universities millions while setting up athletes up for failure. These athletes deserve pay and better treatment.

Remembering Brady

By: Parker Daniel

The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win

~Tom Brady

    Earlier this morning Tom Brady announced his retirement from the NFL in an instagram post thanking the Bucs. His 22 amazing seasons consisted of 7 Super Bowl wins, 3 MVP awards and many other amazing moments throughout his career. One of these specific moments took place on February 5 2017.

Phantom Regret

By: Jim Carrey 

Accepting the past

Sometimes I wish life was written in pencil so we could erase it and write it all over again

~Thisuri Wanniarchchi

sit back and unpack
You may be here awhile
Now that all future plans have been postponed
And it's time to look back on the things you thought you owned
Do you remember them well?
Were you crazy or just stoned?
And how many grudges did you take to your grave?
When you weren't liked or followed, how did you behave?
Was it often a dissonant chord you were strumming?
Were you ever in tune with the song life was humming?
If pain's living on when your body's long gone
And your phantom regret hasn't let it go yet
You may not have died in the way that you must
All specters are haunted by their own lack of trust
When you're all out of time, there's nothing but space
No hunting, no gathering
No nations, no race
And Heaven is closer than those tears on your face
When the purple rain falls
We're all bathed in its grace
Heaven's for those who let go of regret
And you have to wait here when you're not all there yet
And if your broken heart's heavy when you step on the scale
You'll be lighter than air when they pull back the veil
Consider the flowers, they don't try to look right
They just open their petals and turn to the light
Are you listening real close?
Heaven's not that, it's this
It's the depth of this moment
You don't reach for bliss
God knows life is chaos
But He made one thing true
You gotta unwind your mind
Train your soul to align
And dance 'til you find that divine boogaloo
In other words
You gotta be Heaven to see Heaven
May peace be with you

Poem Analysis:

Accepting Regret

Accepting your actions will allow you to move on. Letting go of regret makes your life easier. Phantom Regret by Jim Carrey has a theme of letting go of regret is talked about throughout the entire poem. This piece of literature uses questions to make you think about yourself and regret. After the first few lines the poem takes a different direction that asks the reader questions. These questions are to make you self reflect about your life. It makes connection with death and regret and talks about how there will be a pain if you don’t let go of regret before death.

If pain's living on when your body's long gone

And your phantom regret hasn't let it go yet

You may not have died in the way that you must

This quote talks about you need to let go of regret before death otherwise you will suffer pain. If you accept your actions then it will allow you to live a more peaceful life. This whole poem has a very obviously main theme of regret that makes you question all possible regrets that you may want to accept before you face your fate. Taking responsibility of regret especially during these dark times will allow more peace within.

My 2022 WWFenn Experience

I knew I wanted to do this poem when I heard it for the first time two weeks ago. Jim Carrey is a comedian so I expected it to be funny however it is a very Serious poem that talks about a lot. I chose to do this poem because I though it was a very interesting poem and it made me think differently in a way I don’t normally think about. This poem is about your phantom regret. The poem is supposed to be a self reflection that looks back at the experiences one has had in their body. The soul is you and the body is the thing you control and this poem wants you to remember all the things you did and remember that one thing you regretted doing. The poem wants you to think about the regret and take responsibility for it in order to move on. It talks about realizing the truth and moving on instead of  punishing for the past. At the end it talks a little bit more about heavens and moving on to get there but the main focus of the poem is to tell the listener/reader that they need not move on and let go of regret before they die on their deathbed. After Performance: I performed first overall and was very nervous. I was very nervous because I had way less time to prepare compared to last year which took 5 times the effort to memorize and perform the poem. Last year I had a poem that I did not connect with that well, so when I heard we were doing WWFenn I found the perfect poem that connected with me. This poem is like a half slam poem because it has a big impact right away; however, this poem has a long term affect on the reader that makes them think about the deeper meaning of the poem. I don't think this piece is even close to as good as some other pieces and I think there are other people that deserve going to the next round more if they can become a little louder with their pieces.

The Power of Preparation 

Studying, “Ed Hiting”, and Commas Rules

“There is no substitute for hard work”

~Thomas Edison

    My English exam experience was interesting compared to my other subjects. The exam preparation started two weeks ago when Fitz assigned a literary reflection for the book Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway. One of my habits is getting my work done early so I have more time after to make sure the work is good, so because of this habit I got right to work. I randomly had three study halls on the same day so I finished writing my literary analysis on that day. The next day I found out Fitz was making it part of the exam which meant it wasn’t due for another week. Because I had the literary reflection down I started working on my comma rules and literary analysis. I finished the comma rule packet pretty quickly because I could do it by myself; however, it did take a while to write all the example sentences because there were so many of them. All week long Amir and I were hard at work writing our literary analysis and inserting quotes into our writing. We finished the writing process on Tuesday, so we used the rest of class time to edit our analysis and make the formatting as clean as possible. Most of the work was done for our exam and now all we had to do was study. The studying process was very interesting because it was the one class where I didn’t know exactly what to study. I spent most of my time practicing my comma rules by going over Fitz’s book and writing down example sentences with different combinations of the comma rules to improve my writing and so I’d understand using two rules at once even better. The exam itself was pretty easy as more than half of it was just copying and pasting my already revised sentences and essays that I completed during the week; however, even though most of the work was done before the exam, the microworx and “poopweed” exercise were very annoying but straightforward. I think this was one of the hardest exams to prepare for, but one of the easier ones to take.

Simple, but meaningful

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn”

~Dr. Seuss 

    Reading a book is easy, comprehending it is hard. The Old Man and the Sea was a short and easy book to read; however, I had to dig deep to find themes and comprehend the true meaning of the story. This book challenged me to be more engaged and made me think deeper about the book and it’s themes.

~Amir, Parker

Old Man and The Sea

Connection

“The most important things in life are the connections you make with others.”
~Tom Ford

    In the book, The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway, the main character Santiago goes fishing on a long journey on the water and uses the power of connection to keep him going throughout his adventure. Santiago makes many connections throughout his life and especially while searching for his first big catch in 84 days. He connects not only with his friend Manolin but also with the creatures of the sea. 

Exploring Empathy, Hard Work, and Passion

Dear Admissions Committee,

In my short 14 years of life I’ve experienced very little compared to most of the people on earth, but through my experiences I’ve noticed that the combination of qualities that each individual person contains is what makes them unique. We each have certain characteristics that make us unique but some qualities all people should have. In my experience the qualities that every one should possess are being hard-working, Empathetic, and Passionate.

If you work hard you get results. This isn’t just a saying but a lifestyle that I live by.  I try to live by this lifestyle and apply it to everything I do. When I work hard and do things the right way I get good results because I did not cut corners. Cutting corners might be the faster and easier way to get things done but this can lead to many problems. If you do work the right way you feel more successful and you don’t have to worry about running into problems for short-cutting things. When I get my homework I sit down with my phone nowhere near me so I’m not distracted. I don’t take any breaks when doing an assignment so I can stay focused on my work. I take my time doing the work the right way. This strategy sets up for a good future and is a crucial quality for being successful.

Having empathy shows you are a caring person. Empathy is understanding how someone else might be feeling and I try to have empathy on a daily basis. Hard Work sets me up for personal success but being empathetic benefits both me and other people. Being empathetic helps me be more aware of the people around me and it allows me to make tighter connections and bonds. Having empathy allows me to read the room so when I can tell that someone is having a bad day I can be kind and help them out. Empathy is a great characteristic to have in a social environment.

Being passionate is a great characteristic to stay engaged in your work. My passion for science has allowed me to stay interested and curious during science classes and work. Having passion allows you to stay interested and stay curious even if you're not assigned to researching it for work. When we researched color rays in science I was able to watch more videos after I finished the work because I was passionate about learning it. Being able to be passionate about something allows me to be a more engaged person and an overall better learner.

With these qualities you can become a better learner, more caring person, and a more efficient human being. That is why being hard-working, empathetic, and passionate are so important to improving yourself for the better.

Sincerely,

Parker Daniel

11/29/21