Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Gotta Brag A Little

I am going to do something that I rarely ever do... BRAG. I am lucky to have been blessed with two of the nicest children ever (I know...) and my now 11 year old son has done something wonderful, again. Last year, as a 4th grader, he wrote an essay as part of the local V.F.W. Ladies Auxiliary writing contest. The kids were given a theme to consider, and then had to write an essay without any help from their teacher. The following is my son's entry from last year, which won at the county and district levels, and was placed second in the state. I have copied it as he published it, with his grammar, spelling, and structure:

What The Flag Means To Me
The flag means honor, dignity, and pride that's what the flag means to me. Thoughs three things. Honor is knowing that we are free, united, and can't be broken but bent.
Dignity is knowing that we can help other countries and not just our own.
Pride is the most important. It is knowing that the flag stands for our proud country and the men and women in Iraq. And all the good decisions that are made for the country and our rights.
God bless America the country of the free!
Pretty cool considering that it came from the heart of a ten year old! He was asked to read it at the monthly meeting at the post and brought tears to the eyes of grown men! This year he entered again, and won again:) He is so modest about it too. He encouraged six other classmates to enter too. As the awards for third and second were given out, and Marshall was still not named, he shook the hands of the other kids and told them he hoped one of them was the winner. Then they called his name and he flipped out! I must have given him the old "flip the switch" gene. Here is his entry from this year's contest:
What Loyalty Means To Me
Loyalty goes like this to me: It's just plain old loyalty. Like going to school and putting that hand on your heart and thinking...standing there and thinking of all the things America has done for us, and sticking to it, watching the news and seeing Iraq harming people and killing America's troops, but not giving up on America knowing that we are strong and can overcome the obstacles we face.
Loyalty is the key to victory!
Pretty cool I think. A bit of a run-on sentence, and a little Republican slant to both, but damn impressive. I think it was a T-shirt slogan that said it best, "It ain't bragging if you can back it up!" Later! Travel Gravel!

9 comments:

bluecolnago said...

awesome, for sure. a chip off the old block, perhaps? :)

Mike Johnson said...

Hell of a job! Tell that writer his anunt & uncle are very proud.

Travel Gravel said...

Blessed to have them both. Doubly blessed that we don't even have to work too hard with them to get the results we have so far. Well, maybe it's a little bit of our work...;)Later!

Paul said...

Awesome! It sure is rewarding being a parent that is for sure!

Kfunck. said...

Way to go Marshall!! This is too funny...Matt was looking at google analytics and was like,"this cool guy has me linked on his blog." I saw Marshall and said thats my cousin! Anyway, glad you found Matt's blog! Tell everyone I say hi! You guys should come out here for my graduation...it's about 74 degrees here now!

Travel Gravel said...

I knew you guys would figure it out somehow! Check back often, as the weather gets nicer HERE I will post more stuff. It's about 20 degrees right now, fresh snow, and a bad wind, so I have been finishing my home-made roller set. Keep up your good work! Later!

Unknown said...

Greg shoot me an email....brian.pottorff@rhi.com

Peace

Anonymous said...

Hey its Adam Weedman. I Googled myself and saw your message but I am sorry that I cann. It took me awhile to figure out who you were and it just hit me. I did a circle block by block and got to you and I remembered seeing you cranking it out on your bike.
My email is adam@affiniscape.com, keep in touch

Travel Gravel said...

Weeds! What's up! I'm nipping hard just knowing that someone from my biking past has found my blog! Cool. Go back and read the post about Evel Knievel, you'll remember a ton of other stories. Remember that Green Machine you had, or Brian's orange mono-shock, or the Moxie one of you guys had, or the BMX book that we all passed around like it was a Playboy? Check back once in awhile as I tend to go way back for some stories;) Later!