nick's 3rd b'day...
i was in the hospital in orlando, fl snuggling with my first new baby boy. wow, i can hardly believe it has been that long since i became a mommy! what's even harder to imagine is all of the things that life has brought in those 14 years. a lot of changes and a lot of tough times, but a lot of great times too. one of these days i'll get my scanner going and upload some great pics of when he was little and we'll take a little "walk down memory lane" (much to his chagrin, i'm sure!)...
my favorite picture of him as a little boy is when we were on a pastor's retreat at snowshoe, wv in august. the retreat was over and we were heading home and decided to take a detour to summit lake and look around a bit. there was an old hand pump water well right in the middle of the area between the lake and parking lot and we decided to show nick how it works. you pump the handle, wait, then the water comes out. he saw this happen a couple of times and would try to get a drink of the water but it would stop before he could get any. he decided to put his head up there to get a drink as jerry was pumping it, and he ended up soaked. i got a picture of it just as the water was coming down on his head! (i just remembered...this is the summer the "macarena" came out and we were watching something about it on the tv in the room at snowshoe...that's where we learned the dance. haha)
some of my favorite memories of when he was little is how much he loved super heroes. he could climb like spiderman through the hallway at his grandma's house. he would climb up the wall at the living room end of the hall until he was at least 4-5 feet up the wall, then he would climb the length of the hall at that height! one time he thought he was superman and wanted to try to fly off the 4th level of a parking garage...luckily i figured out why he wanted to look over the edge! another time he insisted he needed his superman pajamas to be in his diaper bag at church (because i wouldn't let him wear it to church)...when i went to pick him up the lady in the nursery had let him put the shirt on, cape and all, and he took off running around the church grounds with his arms out the sides, cape blowing in the wind and yelling "i'm superman, i'm superman!" as he was weaving in and out between the church members...good times!
now he's 14, he still makes me laugh on a daily basis, and he gives me at least three hugs every night before he finally makes it into his room to go to bed. he is turning into such a great guy, not that i ever doubted he would, but it makes me so satisfied to see how he is turning out. through all of the changes, tough times and all, he is amazing!
i'll close this post with an essay he wrote for school this week:
Changing Diversity
by Nick Bolt
“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”
– C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis’ outlook is that of which we should all strive to emulate. We better our selves, change ourselves, or else we will become gangrenous. However, we must take small steps, because you cannot aim above your resources and ability. Things must be immediately attainable with ability to serve in the future. For me, it is getting a college education so I can better serve my community. I then can go into the work field and support my views with tangible monetary backing. I can encourage better recycling programs and suggest new ways to make cleaner power. My voice could back lessons that are more diverse in the classroom, so that students can learn about different social groups for more than just a month at a time.
Indeed a college degree helps one’s chances of positively impacting their community, but there are different levels. Monetarily contributing to certain causes with income gained through your college education. A degree isn’t always necessary, many people create new charities and projects that unfortunately rely on donations. Though seldom successfully combined, a person who manages to back their own cause can succeed more than the latter examples. Personally, I hope to enter the field of Biomedical Engineering, a lucrative career path where I could sustain my own projects and help to better the state of Florida.
For instance, I would like to see more eco-friendly energy sources of power. A great addition to a “green” source of power would be a way to recycle simultaneously. With processes that can turn landfills into methane energy, it is definitely possible.
Eventually I would also like to see more, maybe organize, assorted themes in subjects like American and World History. Instead of focusing on African American views during certain events in history for a single month, show them more often through the whole of a curriculum. These short periods seem overly pandering and sometimes malodorous. By incorporating these concepts into everyday lessons, students can have an open view of events in the world and our country. While parents may continually instill their passively biased views, eventually broad-minded outlooks of future generations will abolish these dauntingly narrow-minded ideals.
In brief, my plans to better our state and my community are rooted in various areas, though all stem from one main obstacle, higher education. My hopes of alternative recycling-based electricity and diverse historical views in textbooks could be fulfilled by anyone with the determination to do so. To like-minded people who wish for such high goals, I would urge them to heed the words of Mother Teresa, a forerunner in diversity around the world, “Do not wait for leaders: do it alone, person to person.”
elisabeth age 2!
