My Sister, My Hero

Christina Rasmussen Celio:
-29 years old
-physical therapist in California
-expecting her first child
-and is the hardest working person I have ever met in my life

My oldest sister is my hero because, well she is a hero. Everyday she helps people, not because it is her job, but because I believe she cares for every person she meets. I have also never seen her give up or quit anything.

A long time ago, I Wrote the sames things as I did here for a school homework assignment in grade school. To this day, she is still the person in my life who believes that I can do anything. She is the only person who is encouraging me to look at challenging colleges outside the state. Although she is one of the smallest, she is one of the strongest people I know. What I learned from my sister was the innocence of knowing failure, but never knowing surrender. I have seen her fight many obstacles in her life, but I know she has overcome them all. She is not perfect, but she is the person who taught me to always get the closest to perfection you yourself possibly can. During my college experience I hope to never let people convince me that I cannot do something like I watched her do. I'm so proud of you Chrissy and one day I hope you will be proud of me too.

Getting to Know You. Getting to Know All About You.

After the first week at the program, I knew about 8 people. After the second week, I knew around 30. What most likely worked the best, was the co op team building at the Camp Carol Joy Holling. It is not only physically challenging (the rock wall, the rope climbing) but also mentally, and socially.

Seeing my Native American Studies professor Cathi Warren hugging a pole fifty feet in the air, this was after our first test of course, was somewhat scary, and somewhat inspiring. Afterwards, I saw many other girls attempting to make it across the final challenge (blue swings, with nothing but air for fifty feet down underneath)and either fall, or scream in terror...several times. We had to work together to get them to believe they could finish this, and realize what they can accomplish. I encouraged, I talked to them, I even reminded them of the little engine that could! They would not let me forget that when I was up there.

Taking the first step is scary, not taking that step at all is terrifying. The worst way to lose is to give up, and I was not going to let that happen. Sometimes all you can do is take a deep breath, close your eyes, and jump.

it was the best of times...

FREEDOM!
What a sweet and subtle thing. Few hardly notice its even there. All of the summer programs which I have been in have been vastly different. One thing which I noticed as time went on was the amount of freedom given. As a younger kid, everything was planned to the smallest detail to the point at which you could not decide what you wanted to do with five minutes of your time. As I grew older, I realized that slowly we were given more freedom to choose what we wanted to do. Being here, at college, it is the ultimate freedom. Maybe even the ultimate curse. There are many ways which this can be a completely successful program for me, there are even more ways to mess it up completely.

I chose my class, Native American Studies, now I can choose if I want to pass or fail. The teacher, Mrs. Warren, is an extremely intelligent woman, who has mastered an art that very few can claim. She knows how to speak her mind without dismissing other people's opinions as false. Every opinion has the potential to be correct, because it is an opinion. She has been helping the class relearn history from a different perspective. It is not always written by the victors.

The most encouraging thing that I got from this program is the people. Maria, Lina, Chung, and all of the other students are so stupendous (this adjective was given to me by Alex TChamp) I really believe that a greater group of people has never come together before. They are trying to make us better people in every aspect of our lives.

Thank you.