Conor O’Neill
Honors English
5/12/09
What Could Come Next?
The idea of a virtual reality world in which one can leave their physical body behind and be able to do whatever they want in another world, has long been the topic of science fiction novels. As a matter of fact, one such book, Pendragon by D.J. MacHale, directly talks about such a world. The main character of MacHale’s book, Bobby Pendragon, runs into a future race of people who live out their fantasies in a virtual world instead of living in the real world. The results of this decision are cataclysmic; instead of being around to take care of the living planet, everyone wants to be a part of this virtual reality world. Their planet slowly withers and dies as they continue to live out their fantasies and avoid actual problems. This is not something that anyone would want, but could become a reality with programs such as Second Life growing so rapidly. Today it might just be a simple computer program that someone controls an avatar in, tomorrow however, we could have technology that could mimic the real world, but will only create desirable situations. We could then be seeing a replica of what MacHale wrote about in his book.
On the other side of this argument, there are many helpful things about technology like this coming to the Arlington community. Second Life represents technological progress that Arlington has not yet made. We are a community that does not rely to heavily on technology. We could use this Second Life technology for many of the same things that the Arlington Virginia community uses it for. Instead of having to go to job fairs (1), we could set them up online and have our avatars go to it without us leaving our computer. Also, instead of having to train police officers out of a textbook, we could train them to police and deal with undesirable situations in the cyber world like they do in Arlington, VA (2). We could also connect with people all over the world in ways that were previously unprecedented. It would be like a combination of chat websites such as facebook, and video chat services such as Skype. This would be a major step up for towns such as Arlington which are not yet taking full advantage of the wide range of technology available.
The fact hat we now have technology available to us such as Second Life, speaks volumes about what we could have a couple of years from now. A new technology that could readily spawn from Second Life is even more realistic virtual reality worlds. Instead of having to sit in front of your computer and having to control a character on a screen, technology could advance to such a rate that we would only have to have a chip in our head to transport us to a world filled with all of our desires. Though this sounds completely farfetched and absolutely ridiculous, so did space travel in the 1930’s. The truth is, there is no limit to what the advancements in human technology could reach. One hundred years from now, mars could be colonized and we could be living peacefully among other alien races (admittedly Star Wars-esque). In the last fifty years, the human race has developed to a point that we can communicate with people across the globe in a matter of seconds. To say that the Second Life technology could only be used to advance in the field of virtual reality does it a disfavor; with the human race advancing at the rate it now is, there are no limits to what could be next.
Aldous Huxley would no doubt agree that the capacity for human development is endless. Though he might have been critical of technology on the whole, I know that Huxley would only have praise for this article. He would have said that the innovation that the creators of Second Life have shown with their program is revolutionary. Though Huxley did write one of the most radical books of the 50’s which shocked people of the time, I think he would say that a little conformity, in which people would participate in Second Life, is acceptable. Huxley would most defiantly agree with all of the positive things that second life has to offer. The foremost of this is teaching government officials how to do their job adequately as they have done in Arlington Virginia (3). After all, Huxley did write a book about an evil government keeping their people down and creating mass conformity; he would probably prefer if that didn’t happen in real life.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
The Road Not Taken Explication
Conor O’Neill
Honors English
5/23/09
“The Road Not Take” Explication
“The Road Not Taken” is one of Robert Frost’s most famous works of poetry. Not only is this one of Frost’s most famous works, it is also one of his most difficult to decipher. “The Road Not Taken” is all about the choices that people have to make in their lives, and then moving on and living with these choices. The reason that I say it is one of his most difficult poems to decipher is because of the fact that he portrays two roads (quite obviously representing his life choices) and then he has to pick a road. This can be and has been interpreted as many different things over the years; I stoically believe, however, that it represents Frost’s life.
This poem by Frost contains four different stanzas’, each of which shows the progression of the poet’s dilemma. In the first stanza of the poem, Robert Frost describes the position that he finds himself in; as he goes out for a walk, he finds himself stuck between the choices of taking two different paths. He would like to try and go down both of these paths, however, knowing that he cannot, he stands looking down both of the paths. In the second stanza of the poem, Frost decided that he will take the path that seems to have seen less wear. In reality, as he states later in the same stanza, both appear to been worn about the same. Frost might be saying here that people like to be “one-of-a-kind” with the lifestyles that they have, but in reality, everybody is alike in one way or another. Then, in the third stanza of the poem, Frost continues to deliberate about the differences between the two paths. He states that both of them have freshly fallen leaves that look like they have not been walked on. ““It’s leaves no step had trodden black”. In this line, Frost seems to say that people are born without corruption, but their lives will become corrupt the more people they encounter.
Another element of non-conformity that can be found in this poem is in the fourth stanza. The last word of the entire poem is difference; the mere fact that this is the last word of the poem suggests Frost’s support of non-conformity. One of the trickiest parts upon further inspection of the poem is whether to take the “difference” at the end of the poem as positive or not. The reason why this is made into such a difficult aspect of the poem is because of the word “sigh” that is used several lines earlier in the same stanza. We, the readers, do not know if the sigh is a peaceful and nostalgic sigh, or a sigh of discontent and regret. It is assumed, however, that these two words are positive in the poem because of the dramatic tone shift that happens in the third stanza with the exclamation point at the end of the following line: “Oh, I kept the first for another day!”. What most people do not pick up on, however, is the two lines that come after. “Yet knowing how way leads on to way/ I doubted if I should ever come back”. This is the point that makes the poems intentions at the end almost impossible to perceive. The tone of the poem shifts dramatically back and forth in a matter of three lines. This is also what makes this poem so special and enjoyable to the audience.
Like many of Robert Frost’s pieces of poetry, “The Road Not Taken” is very aesthetically pleasing. It follows a very strict rhyme scheme which enhances the sound of the poem when being read. “The Road Not Taken” also follows a strict meter. The beats per line remain fairly constant throughout the entire poem which acts to enhance the poem even more. But even more than what the poem exudes as a piece of art, “The Road Not Taken” teaches people an important lesson. Frost teaches people in this poem that it is okay to stray from the beaten path. He says that you can go and do something new and if that fails, your old life, your old path, will always be there.
Honors English
5/23/09
“The Road Not Take” Explication
“The Road Not Taken” is one of Robert Frost’s most famous works of poetry. Not only is this one of Frost’s most famous works, it is also one of his most difficult to decipher. “The Road Not Taken” is all about the choices that people have to make in their lives, and then moving on and living with these choices. The reason that I say it is one of his most difficult poems to decipher is because of the fact that he portrays two roads (quite obviously representing his life choices) and then he has to pick a road. This can be and has been interpreted as many different things over the years; I stoically believe, however, that it represents Frost’s life.
This poem by Frost contains four different stanzas’, each of which shows the progression of the poet’s dilemma. In the first stanza of the poem, Robert Frost describes the position that he finds himself in; as he goes out for a walk, he finds himself stuck between the choices of taking two different paths. He would like to try and go down both of these paths, however, knowing that he cannot, he stands looking down both of the paths. In the second stanza of the poem, Frost decided that he will take the path that seems to have seen less wear. In reality, as he states later in the same stanza, both appear to been worn about the same. Frost might be saying here that people like to be “one-of-a-kind” with the lifestyles that they have, but in reality, everybody is alike in one way or another. Then, in the third stanza of the poem, Frost continues to deliberate about the differences between the two paths. He states that both of them have freshly fallen leaves that look like they have not been walked on. ““It’s leaves no step had trodden black”. In this line, Frost seems to say that people are born without corruption, but their lives will become corrupt the more people they encounter.
Another element of non-conformity that can be found in this poem is in the fourth stanza. The last word of the entire poem is difference; the mere fact that this is the last word of the poem suggests Frost’s support of non-conformity. One of the trickiest parts upon further inspection of the poem is whether to take the “difference” at the end of the poem as positive or not. The reason why this is made into such a difficult aspect of the poem is because of the word “sigh” that is used several lines earlier in the same stanza. We, the readers, do not know if the sigh is a peaceful and nostalgic sigh, or a sigh of discontent and regret. It is assumed, however, that these two words are positive in the poem because of the dramatic tone shift that happens in the third stanza with the exclamation point at the end of the following line: “Oh, I kept the first for another day!”. What most people do not pick up on, however, is the two lines that come after. “Yet knowing how way leads on to way/ I doubted if I should ever come back”. This is the point that makes the poems intentions at the end almost impossible to perceive. The tone of the poem shifts dramatically back and forth in a matter of three lines. This is also what makes this poem so special and enjoyable to the audience.
Like many of Robert Frost’s pieces of poetry, “The Road Not Taken” is very aesthetically pleasing. It follows a very strict rhyme scheme which enhances the sound of the poem when being read. “The Road Not Taken” also follows a strict meter. The beats per line remain fairly constant throughout the entire poem which acts to enhance the poem even more. But even more than what the poem exudes as a piece of art, “The Road Not Taken” teaches people an important lesson. Frost teaches people in this poem that it is okay to stray from the beaten path. He says that you can go and do something new and if that fails, your old life, your old path, will always be there.
Conor O’Neill
Honors English
Mr. Richardson
5/20/09
Robert Frost: The Man Behind the Words
Robert Lee Frost, the son of William Prescot Frost Jr. and Isabelle Moodie, was born in San Francisco California on March 26, 1874. Roberts’s father, William Frost, was a journalist whose family sailed to the United States from England in 1634. Roberts’s mother, Isabelle, was a woman of Scottish decent who married William Frost in the late 1800’s. William Prescot Frost was a born jack of trades who liked to try his hand at many different jobs. Working as a lumberjack in his early life, William went on to become the editor of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin. After a failed attempt to become the city tax collector of San Francisco, William Prescot Frost died on May 5, 1885. After the death of his father, Robert Frost and his mother moved across the country to Lawrence, Massachusetts where Robert’s grandfather, William Frost Senior, was an overseer at a mill. Frost had never before seen such snow as he did when he moved to New England. His poetry later in life recounts the glory of the New England winters that he was able to see when he moved to Lawrence. “There’s a patch of old snow in a corner/ That I should have guessed/ Was a blown-away paper the rain/ had brought to rest (“A Patch of Old Snow” by Robert Frost).
While living in Lawrence, Frost’s mother started to teach again in order to help William Sr. support the family. In 1892, Robert Frost graduated from Lawrence High School and went on to school at Dartmouth College. Here he stayed for about 10 months, joining one of the local fraternities, until he dropped out to get a job. Frost worked several different jobs such as paper deliveries and factory work. He enjoyed neither and was miserable for a time until he found the wonders of poetry. He would spend hours writing and reading poetry until he published his first work in 1894. His poem, My Butterfly, sold for $15 (which was a fair amount of money in those days). Flushed with his newfound success, Frost proposed to his former schoolmate, Elinor White. They where married in 1895 and Frost’s life seemed to finally be coming together. In 1897, he left to study at Harvard University where in left without a degree in 1899 so that he could support his growing family. Unfortunately, a year later, Frost’s mother Isabelle died of cancer leaving Frost stricken with grief for a time. Tragedies that struck Robert during his life made an impact on his poetry, casting a shadow on some of his pieces such as “The Fear”.
Shortly before his death, William Frost Senior had purchased a farm for Robert and Elinor in Derry, New Hampshire. It was here that Robert brought his new family and gained much of the inspiration he needed for his poetry. He would write for most of the day and spend the rest of the day farming. The problem was, Frost’s love of poetry took up so much time that his farming expenditures where anything but successful. It was because of this that Frost again returned to the world of academia by beginning to teach at Pinkerton Academy in 1906. A year after he began teaching again, Elinor Bettina, Frost’s newborn daughter, became the second of Robert’s children to die before their time (the other was his son Elliot in 1904 from cholera). Frost was again heartbroken but continued on in order to support his wife and two remaining children, Irma and Lesley.
In 1912, Robert took his family across the sea to England where they settled outside on London. It was here that Frost published his first book, “A Boy’s Will”, in 1913. It was in England that Frost met other poets such as Edward Thomas and Ezra pound. While being surrounded by other poets who shared the same passion as he did for poetry, Frost began to write some of his best work while he was living in England. At the beginning of World War One in 1915, Frost took his family back across the ocean for safety and settled in Franconia, New Hampshire. It was in Franconia that Frost again returned to teaching as well as lecturing and writing. For intervals in between 1916 and 1938, Frost taught English at Amherst College. In 1921, Frost moved to Ann Arbor to teach on a fellowship at the University of Michigan. He stayed here for six more years until he decided to move back to Amherst to resume teaching there. He taught here until 1938 and stayed in the area until 1940. In 1940, Frost purchased a farm in Miami, Florida where he would spend the winter for the rest of his life. Though he had moved away from one of his major sources of inspiration, the New England winter, he remained one of the most renowned and respect poets in the United States until his death in Boston on January 29th, 1963 due to complications from a prostate surgery at the age of 89.
Throughout his long life, Robert Lee Frost acquired many awards and honors from many of the various places that he had been. Frost received an honorary degree from Harvard University where he attended for two years earlier in his life. He also received an honorary degree from Bates College where he had never attended but made some lectures. On top of this, he also received honorary degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge colleges in England. Aside from all of the honorary awards that he received from various Universities in the United States and England, the main Library at Amherst College was named after Robert Frost. Though much of Frost’s life was filled with the grief and sadness of losing a loved one, Frost was never bitter with the world with whom he had a poetic relationship with. As a matter of fact, the epitaph on Frost’s tombstone reads “I had a lovers quarrel with the world”.
Honors English
Mr. Richardson
5/20/09
Robert Frost: The Man Behind the Words
Robert Lee Frost, the son of William Prescot Frost Jr. and Isabelle Moodie, was born in San Francisco California on March 26, 1874. Roberts’s father, William Frost, was a journalist whose family sailed to the United States from England in 1634. Roberts’s mother, Isabelle, was a woman of Scottish decent who married William Frost in the late 1800’s. William Prescot Frost was a born jack of trades who liked to try his hand at many different jobs. Working as a lumberjack in his early life, William went on to become the editor of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin. After a failed attempt to become the city tax collector of San Francisco, William Prescot Frost died on May 5, 1885. After the death of his father, Robert Frost and his mother moved across the country to Lawrence, Massachusetts where Robert’s grandfather, William Frost Senior, was an overseer at a mill. Frost had never before seen such snow as he did when he moved to New England. His poetry later in life recounts the glory of the New England winters that he was able to see when he moved to Lawrence. “There’s a patch of old snow in a corner/ That I should have guessed/ Was a blown-away paper the rain/ had brought to rest (“A Patch of Old Snow” by Robert Frost).
While living in Lawrence, Frost’s mother started to teach again in order to help William Sr. support the family. In 1892, Robert Frost graduated from Lawrence High School and went on to school at Dartmouth College. Here he stayed for about 10 months, joining one of the local fraternities, until he dropped out to get a job. Frost worked several different jobs such as paper deliveries and factory work. He enjoyed neither and was miserable for a time until he found the wonders of poetry. He would spend hours writing and reading poetry until he published his first work in 1894. His poem, My Butterfly, sold for $15 (which was a fair amount of money in those days). Flushed with his newfound success, Frost proposed to his former schoolmate, Elinor White. They where married in 1895 and Frost’s life seemed to finally be coming together. In 1897, he left to study at Harvard University where in left without a degree in 1899 so that he could support his growing family. Unfortunately, a year later, Frost’s mother Isabelle died of cancer leaving Frost stricken with grief for a time. Tragedies that struck Robert during his life made an impact on his poetry, casting a shadow on some of his pieces such as “The Fear”.
Shortly before his death, William Frost Senior had purchased a farm for Robert and Elinor in Derry, New Hampshire. It was here that Robert brought his new family and gained much of the inspiration he needed for his poetry. He would write for most of the day and spend the rest of the day farming. The problem was, Frost’s love of poetry took up so much time that his farming expenditures where anything but successful. It was because of this that Frost again returned to the world of academia by beginning to teach at Pinkerton Academy in 1906. A year after he began teaching again, Elinor Bettina, Frost’s newborn daughter, became the second of Robert’s children to die before their time (the other was his son Elliot in 1904 from cholera). Frost was again heartbroken but continued on in order to support his wife and two remaining children, Irma and Lesley.
In 1912, Robert took his family across the sea to England where they settled outside on London. It was here that Frost published his first book, “A Boy’s Will”, in 1913. It was in England that Frost met other poets such as Edward Thomas and Ezra pound. While being surrounded by other poets who shared the same passion as he did for poetry, Frost began to write some of his best work while he was living in England. At the beginning of World War One in 1915, Frost took his family back across the ocean for safety and settled in Franconia, New Hampshire. It was in Franconia that Frost again returned to teaching as well as lecturing and writing. For intervals in between 1916 and 1938, Frost taught English at Amherst College. In 1921, Frost moved to Ann Arbor to teach on a fellowship at the University of Michigan. He stayed here for six more years until he decided to move back to Amherst to resume teaching there. He taught here until 1938 and stayed in the area until 1940. In 1940, Frost purchased a farm in Miami, Florida where he would spend the winter for the rest of his life. Though he had moved away from one of his major sources of inspiration, the New England winter, he remained one of the most renowned and respect poets in the United States until his death in Boston on January 29th, 1963 due to complications from a prostate surgery at the age of 89.
Throughout his long life, Robert Lee Frost acquired many awards and honors from many of the various places that he had been. Frost received an honorary degree from Harvard University where he attended for two years earlier in his life. He also received an honorary degree from Bates College where he had never attended but made some lectures. On top of this, he also received honorary degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge colleges in England. Aside from all of the honorary awards that he received from various Universities in the United States and England, the main Library at Amherst College was named after Robert Frost. Though much of Frost’s life was filled with the grief and sadness of losing a loved one, Frost was never bitter with the world with whom he had a poetic relationship with. As a matter of fact, the epitaph on Frost’s tombstone reads “I had a lovers quarrel with the world”.
Robert Frost Style Poem
Conor O’Neill
Honors English
5/17/09
All Things Must End
The leaves in the shaded wood turned brown,
As I looked to the dreary sky with a frown.
The winter came in a gust of hail and snow
As I looked to the trees the branches seemed to flow.
As the cold seemed to slowly creep,
I could not help but to simply weep.
Like the heat from my breath the question of mortality rose,
And like everything around me my heart stood still and froze.
I let the feeling pass as I did before,
For I had so much in my life I couldn’t want more.
My wife and child awaited my return at home;
Plus, I knew everything would come to an end, just like this poem.
Honors English
5/17/09
All Things Must End
The leaves in the shaded wood turned brown,
As I looked to the dreary sky with a frown.
The winter came in a gust of hail and snow
As I looked to the trees the branches seemed to flow.
As the cold seemed to slowly creep,
I could not help but to simply weep.
Like the heat from my breath the question of mortality rose,
And like everything around me my heart stood still and froze.
I let the feeling pass as I did before,
For I had so much in my life I couldn’t want more.
My wife and child awaited my return at home;
Plus, I knew everything would come to an end, just like this poem.
Letter To My Dad
Conor O’Neill
Honors English
5/15/09
Dear Dad,
I am currently writing this letter to you in order to thank you for participating in my interview of you the other day. You really helped me a lot because I was in a slight crunch for time and I know you had other things that you had to do. But even more than thanking you for the interview, I wanted to thank you for all of the things that you have helped me with throughout my life. Ever since I was a little kind, you have always been by my side to push me in the right direction. God only knows that I would have rather been doing anything else than schoolwork. You never gave up on me though, you might have gotten frustrated and yelled at me a few times, but you never gave up on me. I still remember that time that you threatened to not pay for my college tuition last year if I didn’t get good grades this year. We sat down and had a big talk and in the end, you basically ended up deciding that I would have to go into the marines to pay for school. WELL IN YOUR FACE!!! I got the good grades, didn’t I? Now you’re stuck paying for my tuition whether you like it or not because I kept my end of the deal and you have to keep yours. I can just think back to all of the times that you helped to shape me into the person that I have become today. Hopefully I have turned out to be the honest, kind, and god-fearing person that you brought me up to be. I still remember that time when I was eight years old that you pretty much forced me into being an altar server at church. I had never wanted to be one because I didn’t want my friends to come to church and see me in that goofy white robe that I had to wear. After many hours of you yelling and explaining why it was important for me to be an altar server, I finally caved in and went to server school. It was there that I learned that my religion should be taking a much larger role in my life than it had previously been. From then on, whenever I went to church, I actually paid attention to what was going on. In all fairness, however, I obviously did not live my life by the strict decree that the Catholic Church demanded of die-hard worshippers. I was only 8 years old then, I'm 18 now and I’m still not living that lifestyle, it just isn’t for me. I will say, however, that my religion has seriously affected the way that I live my life and make certain decisions. I also realize that religion isn’t even that big of a deal to you; well I know that now I guess. I had always tried to figure out why you where so adamant about going to church every Sunday, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. When you told me the story of how my grandfather fought for Irish independence in the IRA, everything started to come together. You told me that our religion was not just our religion, it was our family legacy. When the British controlled Northern Ireland and treated the Irish like dogs, the only people that came to our rescue was the Catholic Church. I have come to respect that fact greatly and live my life in a way that respects what the Catholic Church has done for us. Then you sent me to Ireland last year and I really got to see what it was like there after all of the terrible things that have happened. I have the pictures in my room of the cranes dotting the skyline of Belfast where they are rebuilding houses and other buildings. I don't want to drag this letter on too long or your probably wont even end up reading it so I will just tend it here. Thank you again for everything that you have done for me, you have done a great job raising me (or so people have been telling me), and no matter how hard you try to dismiss the fact, you’ll miss me next year.
Love,
Conor O’Neill
Honors English
5/15/09
Dear Dad,
I am currently writing this letter to you in order to thank you for participating in my interview of you the other day. You really helped me a lot because I was in a slight crunch for time and I know you had other things that you had to do. But even more than thanking you for the interview, I wanted to thank you for all of the things that you have helped me with throughout my life. Ever since I was a little kind, you have always been by my side to push me in the right direction. God only knows that I would have rather been doing anything else than schoolwork. You never gave up on me though, you might have gotten frustrated and yelled at me a few times, but you never gave up on me. I still remember that time that you threatened to not pay for my college tuition last year if I didn’t get good grades this year. We sat down and had a big talk and in the end, you basically ended up deciding that I would have to go into the marines to pay for school. WELL IN YOUR FACE!!! I got the good grades, didn’t I? Now you’re stuck paying for my tuition whether you like it or not because I kept my end of the deal and you have to keep yours. I can just think back to all of the times that you helped to shape me into the person that I have become today. Hopefully I have turned out to be the honest, kind, and god-fearing person that you brought me up to be. I still remember that time when I was eight years old that you pretty much forced me into being an altar server at church. I had never wanted to be one because I didn’t want my friends to come to church and see me in that goofy white robe that I had to wear. After many hours of you yelling and explaining why it was important for me to be an altar server, I finally caved in and went to server school. It was there that I learned that my religion should be taking a much larger role in my life than it had previously been. From then on, whenever I went to church, I actually paid attention to what was going on. In all fairness, however, I obviously did not live my life by the strict decree that the Catholic Church demanded of die-hard worshippers. I was only 8 years old then, I'm 18 now and I’m still not living that lifestyle, it just isn’t for me. I will say, however, that my religion has seriously affected the way that I live my life and make certain decisions. I also realize that religion isn’t even that big of a deal to you; well I know that now I guess. I had always tried to figure out why you where so adamant about going to church every Sunday, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. When you told me the story of how my grandfather fought for Irish independence in the IRA, everything started to come together. You told me that our religion was not just our religion, it was our family legacy. When the British controlled Northern Ireland and treated the Irish like dogs, the only people that came to our rescue was the Catholic Church. I have come to respect that fact greatly and live my life in a way that respects what the Catholic Church has done for us. Then you sent me to Ireland last year and I really got to see what it was like there after all of the terrible things that have happened. I have the pictures in my room of the cranes dotting the skyline of Belfast where they are rebuilding houses and other buildings. I don't want to drag this letter on too long or your probably wont even end up reading it so I will just tend it here. Thank you again for everything that you have done for me, you have done a great job raising me (or so people have been telling me), and no matter how hard you try to dismiss the fact, you’ll miss me next year.
Love,
Conor O’Neill
My interview with my father
Conor O’Neill
For thousands of years, man has gone around the world searching for the answers to the problems that has plagued him. From generation to generation, the human race has passed down the answers to these problems to their offspring so that they could learn the same important and timeless truths. That’s why, when thinking about who was the most influential person in my life, I chose my father. My father has always been there to guide me along my life’s path, and I have a strange feeling that I will miss that guidance when I leave for college. To pay homage to this, I asked my father if I could interview him.
1) What do you do for a living?
PO: I am the Northern Controller and manager of State Streets Global advising sector. This means that I handle large sums of money from corporations all over the world.
2) Why did you choose this profession?
PO: To be honest I really didn’t want to go into any type of accounting field when I went into college. My football coach suggested that I look into accounting, when I did I liked it so I just fell into it.
3) How did your education help you become better prepared for employment?
PO: When I was in high school I got absolutely terrible grades. I never worked hard and thought that any passing grade was a good grade to get. When I got into college I had to keep my grades up in order to play football. I learned that when I applied myself, things can easily. I ended up graduating with a 3.8 GPA and getting a great job. My education taught me that if I worked hard, good things would happen.
4) How did you feel about high school as a child?
PO: I hated it. I treated it like a joke and I hardly ever tried to do anything productive.
5) What was your most memorable event in high school?
PO: My most memorable high school experience was winning the GBL championship in football my senior year. The team had worked so hard and it meant a lot for us to win it.
6) What is your biggest regret about high school?
PO: My biggest regret is not trying as hard as I could. If I had tried harder then I might have gotten into a better college and who knows where my life would have gone from there.
7) If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?
PO: This is a tough one. I think if I could change one thing in my life, it would be the way I handle difficult situations. Sometimes I get a little over-heated when things don’t work out perfectly and that only exacerbates the problem.
8) How important do you think education is to a person’s success?
PO: I think it’s very important. It’s absolutely vital to educate a person’s body and mind in order for them to grow.
9) Who where your heroes as a child? Why?
PO: MY one hero growing up was defiantly my dad. He was a good role model, for the most part, and was always someone that I could bring my problems to when things got tough.
10) If you could give me one piece of advice, what would it be?
PO: I’ve given you a lot of advice over the years, but if there was one thing I would want you to always remember, it would be this. Always try your hardest. It’s that simple, when you try your hardest, things simply fall into place like a puzzle.
This interview brought a ton of new information about my father into light. I had always though that his nagging me to do work had juts been to torture me. In reality, however, he just wanted me to do my best so that I would not have the regret that he now carries from not doing his best in high school. This has changed my vision of my father top change drastically from a satanic creature, to a more caring and pleasant person. The answers that my father, Paul, provided for this interview where not only wise, but also very inspiring. As a matter of fact, they inspired me so much that I decided to actually finish and try my hardest on this project.
For thousands of years, man has gone around the world searching for the answers to the problems that has plagued him. From generation to generation, the human race has passed down the answers to these problems to their offspring so that they could learn the same important and timeless truths. That’s why, when thinking about who was the most influential person in my life, I chose my father. My father has always been there to guide me along my life’s path, and I have a strange feeling that I will miss that guidance when I leave for college. To pay homage to this, I asked my father if I could interview him.
1) What do you do for a living?
PO: I am the Northern Controller and manager of State Streets Global advising sector. This means that I handle large sums of money from corporations all over the world.
2) Why did you choose this profession?
PO: To be honest I really didn’t want to go into any type of accounting field when I went into college. My football coach suggested that I look into accounting, when I did I liked it so I just fell into it.
3) How did your education help you become better prepared for employment?
PO: When I was in high school I got absolutely terrible grades. I never worked hard and thought that any passing grade was a good grade to get. When I got into college I had to keep my grades up in order to play football. I learned that when I applied myself, things can easily. I ended up graduating with a 3.8 GPA and getting a great job. My education taught me that if I worked hard, good things would happen.
4) How did you feel about high school as a child?
PO: I hated it. I treated it like a joke and I hardly ever tried to do anything productive.
5) What was your most memorable event in high school?
PO: My most memorable high school experience was winning the GBL championship in football my senior year. The team had worked so hard and it meant a lot for us to win it.
6) What is your biggest regret about high school?
PO: My biggest regret is not trying as hard as I could. If I had tried harder then I might have gotten into a better college and who knows where my life would have gone from there.
7) If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?
PO: This is a tough one. I think if I could change one thing in my life, it would be the way I handle difficult situations. Sometimes I get a little over-heated when things don’t work out perfectly and that only exacerbates the problem.
8) How important do you think education is to a person’s success?
PO: I think it’s very important. It’s absolutely vital to educate a person’s body and mind in order for them to grow.
9) Who where your heroes as a child? Why?
PO: MY one hero growing up was defiantly my dad. He was a good role model, for the most part, and was always someone that I could bring my problems to when things got tough.
10) If you could give me one piece of advice, what would it be?
PO: I’ve given you a lot of advice over the years, but if there was one thing I would want you to always remember, it would be this. Always try your hardest. It’s that simple, when you try your hardest, things simply fall into place like a puzzle.
This interview brought a ton of new information about my father into light. I had always though that his nagging me to do work had juts been to torture me. In reality, however, he just wanted me to do my best so that I would not have the regret that he now carries from not doing his best in high school. This has changed my vision of my father top change drastically from a satanic creature, to a more caring and pleasant person. The answers that my father, Paul, provided for this interview where not only wise, but also very inspiring. As a matter of fact, they inspired me so much that I decided to actually finish and try my hardest on this project.
Conor O’Neill
Honors English
5/5/09
Dear Freshman:
I have had a lot of good times here at the high school. You will too if you know what to do and how to handle yourself. First things is first, join the football and lacrosse team. I probably had some of the best times of my life at team dinners and other team functions with the guys who I got to know through sports. I met some of my best friends through these teams; I still hang out with those guys on Saturday nights and do…high school things. You might not know what I mean by high school things, and I wont tell you, because you have to make up your own mind about what those things are going to be. If you want to go out drinking on a Friday with your friends, that is completely your choice, however, people here at AHS respect your decisions and will never directly try and pressure you into things.
Seriously though, football and lacrosse are the way to go. My life did not revolve around those activities; I was never really all that good though I made the varsity teams for both. I’ll give you a kind of field guide to make it through these things. First thing is first, football; your biggest enemy and your biggest ally will be Coach Hirsh. He is a good guy at heart but he is an intense hard-ass and wont take crap from anyone. All you have to do is show up everyday (because he will make you run if you don’t, even if your sick), and work hard. If he notices you working hard, it will at least keep him off your back, even if you don’t play. If you’re a lineman, your all set because Coach Wesolowski (Weso) is the nicest guy ever, he just expects your best effort. Lacrosse is an entirely different matter, however. Coach roach held almost no authority over the team because of how little we all respected him and how hard we tried to undermine his authority. This was a terrible idea because we toppled the chain of command and our team is horrible as a result. If he is still there when you make it up to varsity, don’t make the mistake we did, respect the guy because he is your coach and deserves it. The Assn. Coaches White and Cronin are really cool. They will defiantly try to play you because Coach Roach doesn’t, and will be your friends. But when it comes game time, you’re the player and they are the coaches, listen to and respect them.
Now I don’t want to leave this letter with useless things about my sports life at the high school, or lack thereof. Although sports where a big part of my identity and helped me to find myself, there was a lot more to High School. The reason why the concept of a place before college was invented is because it offers a chance to find out who you are. That is the most important thing you will ever do at AHS, and don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. You might fail a test or two along the way, but it is all for a higher purpose. Just remember to do your best ad live life to the fullest everyday. Sometimes you will encounter things that will test you to the very core of your being, but in the immortal words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt-“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on”.
Sincerely,
Conor O’Neill
P.S. Be careful when you’re thinking about being friends with those cross-country kids. They seem nice but when you really get to know them, you might be slightly frightened by what you find.
Honors English
5/5/09
Dear Freshman:
I have had a lot of good times here at the high school. You will too if you know what to do and how to handle yourself. First things is first, join the football and lacrosse team. I probably had some of the best times of my life at team dinners and other team functions with the guys who I got to know through sports. I met some of my best friends through these teams; I still hang out with those guys on Saturday nights and do…high school things. You might not know what I mean by high school things, and I wont tell you, because you have to make up your own mind about what those things are going to be. If you want to go out drinking on a Friday with your friends, that is completely your choice, however, people here at AHS respect your decisions and will never directly try and pressure you into things.
Seriously though, football and lacrosse are the way to go. My life did not revolve around those activities; I was never really all that good though I made the varsity teams for both. I’ll give you a kind of field guide to make it through these things. First thing is first, football; your biggest enemy and your biggest ally will be Coach Hirsh. He is a good guy at heart but he is an intense hard-ass and wont take crap from anyone. All you have to do is show up everyday (because he will make you run if you don’t, even if your sick), and work hard. If he notices you working hard, it will at least keep him off your back, even if you don’t play. If you’re a lineman, your all set because Coach Wesolowski (Weso) is the nicest guy ever, he just expects your best effort. Lacrosse is an entirely different matter, however. Coach roach held almost no authority over the team because of how little we all respected him and how hard we tried to undermine his authority. This was a terrible idea because we toppled the chain of command and our team is horrible as a result. If he is still there when you make it up to varsity, don’t make the mistake we did, respect the guy because he is your coach and deserves it. The Assn. Coaches White and Cronin are really cool. They will defiantly try to play you because Coach Roach doesn’t, and will be your friends. But when it comes game time, you’re the player and they are the coaches, listen to and respect them.
Now I don’t want to leave this letter with useless things about my sports life at the high school, or lack thereof. Although sports where a big part of my identity and helped me to find myself, there was a lot more to High School. The reason why the concept of a place before college was invented is because it offers a chance to find out who you are. That is the most important thing you will ever do at AHS, and don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. You might fail a test or two along the way, but it is all for a higher purpose. Just remember to do your best ad live life to the fullest everyday. Sometimes you will encounter things that will test you to the very core of your being, but in the immortal words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt-“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on”.
Sincerely,
Conor O’Neill
P.S. Be careful when you’re thinking about being friends with those cross-country kids. They seem nice but when you really get to know them, you might be slightly frightened by what you find.
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