An Amazing Memory

When I was eleven years old, me and my dad went hunting at Hammerhorn Mountain, California. It was a B5 Hunting zone, so we were not expecting any type of dangerous company from animals; only deer or buck. We arrived and set up camp around the edge of the forest, and had planned that next morning we would go out walking to begin the hunt. When morning arrived, my dad gave me the rifle I was assigned for the trip to put on my back. I put the strap over my back and started to follow my dad. We walked for couple hours, and there were no sign of deer. The trees were tall, the air cold, and every step we took seemed to be the only lively noise there was in the forest. Yes, we heard the birds chirping in the distance and the ordinary forest sounds, but it was weird hearing our own footsteps constantly. Eventually, there was a type of bypass that divided the road into two, one going up towards a very tall tree with bunch of bushes around it, and the other going down toward a side of a hill. Couple of minutes before we reached this point, I asked my dad to hold the rifle for me, because I was getting tired (remember I was only eleven years old, now I can walk for days). As we reached the bypass, I accidentally took the wrong path, and headed down the path toward the bottom of the hill, and I did not notice that my dad went up toward the big tree. I kept walking until I started to hear noises in the distance. In my surprise, there were three wolves about twenty feet away from me. They had noticed me, and I did not know if they wanted to harm me or not. But I got my answer soon enough. They started to get closer, and I started to get scared. I did not dare run because then my chances of survival were very minimum. In all of that suspense, I heard a rifle fire from top of me, hitting one of the wolves necks causing it to have the head dangle on the neck. The shooter of the rifle was my dad. The other two wolves ran off, and my dad rejoined me. All he told me was "Never leave your rifle with me, always have it on you". I love this event in my life because after all of this happened, my dad knew all along where I had went, and had kept track of me from the big tree. I felt protection at its finest from my dad that day, and now I always know my dad has my back in anything, as I have his back for anything. It also taught me a lesson for hunting that one should always be aware of their surroundings and must always have necessities for hunting on them at all times; one of those necessities being a rifle or firearm. After this hunting trip, I started going much more often, and started to grow into the hunter I have become today.

Is it Time to Separate From Afghanistan Now?

On November 7, 2012, David S. Cloud of the Los Angeles Times wrote the article called "As 'Insider Attacks' grow, So Does U.S-Afghanistan Divide". He discusses the attacks and the tensions between recent Afghani attacks on United States troops. The story he has written in his article sound somewhat from a movie, but unfortunately, these do not have happy endings, and they are completely true. The first attack that took place at a military base which housed Afghanistan Colonel, Rhamatullah Atrafi, was suicide bombed. Army Specialist Steve Beaty was on watch with his M4 rifle. A man approached the camp, looking very suspicious. Spec. Beaty raised his rifle, and at that moment the man blew himself up.  Over four American soldiers killed, seven injured, and dozens of Afghani soldiers injured. An attack much more severe as this one, recently given out to the public, happened on June 19 of this year. A pickup truck filled with four men and the driver drove into a camp claiming they were new recruits. The driver dropped off the four men, and quickly left the camp. These four men went off to two groups, each group containing two men, and started to attack the camp with AK-47 rifles and grenades. They started to shoot up the camp, attacking tents filled with American troops sleeping. As they progressed through the camp, Sgt. P.J. Dunleavy had woken up early and heard all the gunshots. He came face to face to one of the assailants and stood there until the man raised his rifle, and pressed the trigger. The gun was jammed, and the sergeant ran for his life. He heard rounds being fired behind him, but fortunately he did not get hit. Eventually, a shooter on top of a tower took out three of the enemies, and the last one was killed by an army cook, which had been injured by a grenade. All of this sounds like it came straight from a video game, but sadly its reality. Intense fighting and tensions have been growing in Afghanistan for the past couple of months, and we are just witnessing the actions taking place because of these tensions. We are starting to realize that we are not wanted in Afghanistan, and the withdraw of troops in 2014 might as well be an escape of insanity. In my opinion, if fighting such as this continues to a point that majority of Afghanistan is against our troops, we should stay in countries surrounding Afghanistan, such as Pakistan, to ensure that a country does not begin to work with terrorist groups to attack the common enemy, being the United States.

Moral Values

The past three days felt like a breeze. Realizing that the three moral values I have chosen were already morals in my life which I had been following. The three aspects I had chosen were industry, sincerity, and resolution. Gladly, I passed all three of these moral values, because I was constantly thinking about them, and also they were aspects in my life that I always wanted, or had to have.
The aspect of Industry was successful the past three days because I was able to get stuff done in a close timed manner, and was able to lose no time between work. Yesterday was my brother's birthday, and there was a lot of work to be done; to help my mom, clean the house, prepare the barbecue, prepare the tables, ect. I love environments like this because I can test my aspect of industry best here. We prepared everything in a matter of three hours, and had more time to celebrate with our cousins and family. I felt that the past three days, industry was successful.
The aspect of Sincerity was successful the past three days except for one event. While driving, a man driving a Toyota Camry cut me off on the freeway and I exploded with anger because we were about to crash. I started thinking of all the stuff I can do to this man because I was driving a Ford Expedition, and he was driving a small Camry. But eventually I started thinking to myself that this is wrong, and I have failed in the matter of Sincerity, so I stopped the thoughts and calmed down. Other than that event, I passed Sincerity the past three days.
 The aspect of resolution was very easy for me because I always like finishing what I started, or finishing what I want. The past three days have been a time of work, because I had a Model UN paper due on Friday, I have a Mock Trial meet on Monday, and have some homework due on Monday. I ought to finish my extra curricular work on Friday, which I did, and leave my homework to Sunday (because I had my brother's birthday on Saturday) and now I am working on my homework.