Makenzie Blog

      It is a nice, warm day. The trees were blowing in the breeze. There was a clear sky with no clouds to be seen and the sun was bright and big. I was getting ready for my annual camping trip with my two best friends Emily and Jack. I have known them now for five years and we have since been good friends.

          “Hey, are we going to leave yet?” asked Emily.

“Chill. The forest isn’t going anywhere in 5 minutes.” said Jack.

          “Hey! You two stop fighting!” I exclaimed. “Just because you are a lot bigger and stronger than us Jack, doesn’t mean you have to yell at us! Besides we should start heading out. Its getting late and we have to be settled before dark.”

          “Sorry Alicia,” Jack said.

          We are going camping in the forest like we do every other weekend. We have been doing this for almost a year now since we are such good friends. Jack carries all the heavy stuff, such as tents, while Emily is in charge of the food. I am supposed to carry clothes and extra stuff.

          “Great.” Emily frowned, “I forgot the sandwiches for tomorrow‘s lunch.”

           “Are you serious?” Jack and I exclaim at the same time.

          “That was weird but yeah I’m serious. I’ll just go back and get them and meet you guys at our usual spot ok? Don’t freak out it won’t be a big deal. Be back soon!”

          “Leave it to Emily to forget something.” Jack stated sarcastically

          “Ha-ha. Why have you been so rude lately?” I asked.

          “I don’t think I have been rude. Have I?”

          “Yes, you have and it’s getting annoying”

          “But you still love me. Don’t deny it.”

          “Ok whatever you say! Ha-ha.”

          It’s six o’clock and the sun is setting on the hill. Our camp site is by an edge of a hill that in the far distance you see an even bigger hill where the sun sets. Jack and I finish setting up camp and put three chairs by the camp fire to watch the sunset.

          “So what are you thinking about while the sun is setting?” I asked.

          “If I told you I would have to kill you!”

          “Ha-ha. No really.”

          “You wouldn’t believe me and even if you would, you would think I’m weird.”

          “Hey! I am back! You guys miss me?” exclaimed Emily.

          “Sure?” I stated

          “I’ll tell you later.” Jack whispered to my ear.

          We stayed up and roasted marsh mellows until about eleven and then started to settle down for the night. I got into my tent while Jack and Emily got into theirs and I could help but think about how Jack has been acting very weird lately. It’s almost like he is afraid of something or he thinks something bad might happen. It is very scary in a way because I have no clue what is wrong.

          “Did u guys hear that?”

          Jack and Emily were sleeping so they didn’t hear me. Two minutes went by and suddenly the thumping started again but it sounded like it was going away from the camp. I was too scared to look outside the tent afraid of what I might see. The sound stopped.

          “Wake up sleepy heads!” Jack said at 9 o’clock in the morning.

          “Ugh.” Emily replied.

          I slowly opened the tent to see what had happened outside the night before.

          “Oh my God. Look at this over here.” Emily said in shock.

          “What?” Alicia asked.

          I just stood there scared and couldn’t really process anything. I wondered was this what Jack was afraid of the night before? If it was, why didn’t he mention this might happen? It could have been prevented by us leaving or by hiding the object

          “I can’t believe it.” Emily finally said.

          “I know. What are we suppose to do?” I questioned. “Jack did you know this was going to happen, because last night you seemed afraid of something.”

          “I had a suspicion but I wasn’t sure.”

          “Then why didn’t you warn or tell anyone?”

          “I just didn’t think someone would actually steal our canoes. I mean we worked so hard on those for so long it just seemed unbelievable. Yesterday, I over heard people saying two guys were stealing stuff by the river. It didn’t really bother me at first but then I thought what if our canoes were actually stolen?”

“I can’t believe you wouldn’t warn us. After spending all summer working on our canoes so we wouldn’t have to walk up and down river every time we came up here they just get stolen.”

          “Well there is only one thing to do.” Emily said, “steal the canoes back”

          “How do you expect us to even to that?” I announced. “We don’t even know where to start.”

          “I do.” Jack said. “There is a fort down the river that has been abandoned for five years. I have heard some people are camping out in it. We’ll go down there and take them back. I don’t know how right know but I’ll think of a way.”

          Great, I thought. We’ll just head down river having no clue who would be down there waiting for us. For all we know they could be serial killers or corrupt cops.

          We started walking. It was mid day by now and the brush we are walking through is thick. I kept thinking of all the bad possibilities that could happen. I just wanted our canoes back that we worked on from scratch all summer last year. It would be horrible if we had to restart but is it worth it than to try to go up against people we don’t know about? I can’t help but thinking someone is going to get hurt.

          “So have you thought of an idea to get back our canoes?” Emily questioned.

          “Yeah.” answered Jack. “We’ll sneak around everyone, jump into our canoes, and head down river.”

          “I hope it will work.”

          We are about five minutes away from the abandoned fort and with every step I take I get more scared. Jack has had a no expression look on his face the whole time we have been walking and Emily looks like she has no clue what to do.

          I see the fort in the distance and we start heading right of the building. Two guards are on each side of the building and there is another guard across the river. Our canoes were in plain sight resting on the side of the river. 

          “If we sneak our way past the guards by the building and make a run for the canoes we probably have a good chance we will beat them down the river before they can even get to us.” I suggested.

          “Yeah, good thinking.” Jack said. “We will go on my orders.”

          “Yes sir.” Emily laughed softly.

          It really wasn’t a time to be laughing. We are behind a huge bolder to the right of the building. It was a easy, short sprint to the canoes and it looked fool proof. But Jack sit there scared to call out the command. I was scared to. The guards looked like they had guns at their legs. What were they guarding that was so important? Why would they need our canoes? Were they going to steal stuff along side of the river that they needed the canoes to help them? It all seemed a mystery to me but at the same time I really didn’t care. I just wanted to get our canoes and go home.

          “Ok you ready?” Jack questioned us.

          “Yeah we have been waiting for your orders for 10 minutes now.” Emily said sarcastically.

          “So we are going to inch our way to the closest bolder, run past the guards, jump into the canoes, and head downstream. Got it?”

          “Yes.” Emily and I said.

          “Go!”

          We slowly army crawl our way to the closest bolder that was 10 feet away from the guard by the building. Five seconds past by and we all three stare at each other. Then, all at once, we sprint as hard as we can towards the canoes. There was no turning back now. Behind me I could hear the guards yelling “Hey stop!” but we kept going.

          We jump into the canoes, pushed off shore, and start rowing downstream. I look back and see about five guards standing at the side of the river looking hopeless. I felt relief run threw my veins. We had done it!

          “Whoa!!” Jack screams.

          “I can’t believe we pulled it off.” Emily says. “I feel great that we actually did it.”

          We go all the way down the river where it turns into a small stream. I sit there for a moment speechless and then get out of my canoe.

          “Where are you going?” Emily questioned.

          “I’m going home.” I replied. “We have a two hour walk back so we might start now.”

          “She is right. We will probably have to stake our canoes to the ground here and come back for them later. Nobody likes to come down here and besides who is going to row upstream?” Jack says.

          We all walk together through the thorny bushes and try not to walk through poison ivy. I used to take the camping trips for granted and now I am beginning to love them all over again. The adventure someone can get out of a bad situation is great.

          “Anyone care for a sandwich?” Emily asks.

          We all laugh.

I think suffering comes in many faces. Some people think suffering is stubbing a toe and breaking a nail. Suffering though is extreme pain that can never be forgotten. Its something you will look back on the rest of your life and remember how hard it was and how much pain it caused you. I have heard once that people are only should to have one terrible thing happen to them every four years or they can become depressed. People might think that suffering is breaking a nail or breaking your phone but its something that breaks deep inside you.

In most families, suffering accurse sometimes and might even bring the family closer. Loss is a big thing families usually suffer over. My family lost three people within two years once and it was very hard for us.      Divorce I think almost every family suffers over across the world. My mom and dad got divorced and it was very hard on me and still is after four years. To me it only feels like one year has passed since they have been together. I’ve witnessed other divorces that are horrible and the husband and wife absolutely HATED each other.       Out of those two examples financial issues I think might be the worst of all of them. Some families suffer every night just for some money to eat.

There are other kinds of suffering that might happen to someone everyday. Friends can really hurt you bad especially if they turn on you or they or untrustworthy. When that happens drama starts and the person with the drama suffers tremendously and most people don’t even care. That makes it worse for them. Some people think homework is suffering because they have to waste their time on it every night. Yeah, homework is bad but I wouldn’t consider it suffering. Also pain to some people can be suffering by breaking an arm.

Real suffering is much deeper. It’s something that when it happens you will anything for it to stop or be over. Such examples like the Holocaust. The Jewish people were sent away like cattle to be gassed and cremated. Imagine being stuck in a place knowing you were going to die horribly. Bad things that happened to the

Jewish also happened to the blacks when they first came to America. They were forced to be slaves or they would die. Some even got a foot cut off so they wouldn’t run. All foreign people have to do through discrimination and suffering by racist people in life.

People take good things for granted sometimes and it makes me a little angry because they could be going through things way more horrible. Imagine hiding for years on end like the Jewish or being discriminated by whites years ago if you were a different race. Things like that people need to look back on and realize they could always have it worse. They could suffer horribly and be changed the rest of their life.                                                                                             

Do you ever wonder what it would be like if the Patriots didn’t fight the British? I do sometimes. I would think the USA would be a mini Britain and we wouldn’t be as powerful or smart. Some people think we should have never fought the British but I believe it was the best thing to do. The British government was corrupt and the Patriots had the right to fight for their freedom.

The British government had taken away the colonists’ inalienable rights. The British took away their life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. John Locke stated this by saying “no one ought to harm another in his life, liberty, or possessions” People take advantage of the 1^st Amendment in the Bill of Rights which states that the people have the freedom of speech, assembly, press, religion, and petition. Back in the colonists’ days they couldn’t do any of these things. King George the 3^rd took all of this away from the colonists’. The colonists would probably not turn on him if those were granted to them.

The divine right of kings in corrupt. The idea of having a king I believe is not a good one because they could easily become way to powerful and power hungry. In the 1400s the kings could easily enforce laws but not follow them because the Magna Carta wasn’t around yet and the kings would gain too much power. Also the kings could easily punish people for no reason. They didn’t have the 5^th Amendment, which states that you must be charged by a jury or the 8^th Amendment, which states you can’t be punished with an unusual punishment. If they had these things when the Patriots were rebelling the war would have probably not have happened.

The British had also perpetrated countless humiliations and injustices. The British spent their time fighting the Indians for the western land but they closed off the frontier for future settlements. Why fight a war and win land if your not going to use it? Also, the colonists had to pay back the money the British spent on the war. The Indian problem still wasn’t solved after the war and it seemed as if the British were scared of the Indians. The British also disrupted our trade by closing off ports and regulated our trade. It wasn’t helping our economy if we weren’t allowed to trade with other people but the British.

It was a great thing the Patriots did to save the United States. If it didn’t turn out the way it did some of us probably wouldn’t be here today. The British was taking away the Patriots freedom and the Patriots did a good job fighting back for it. Even though some thing the Patriots did was wrong like tarring people, the USA wouldn’t be where it is without those events in history.

When is Veterans Day? I bet if you go up to random people they would have no clue. Veteran’s Day is November 11 and I believe it is a very important day for everyone to value and celebrate. I bet there are quite a few people out there that think that that day is stupid because they don’t believe in war or violence. Despite what most people think about war being bad and unnecessary, Veterans really helped our country.

Veterans have helped our country in many ways. They have achieved many goals such as gaining alliances for us and our country and making sure terrorists don’t strike us. One of the best things about them is that they guard us and our country willingly and no one forces them. They have done all of this by winning wars us. World War 1 and 2, Philippine-American War, Spanish-American War, Korean War, and the Iraq War are examples of Veterans helping our country.

The great people that go out and fight for us should have rewards when they come back, especially the sergeants and generals. There should definitely be more than just one short day to celebrate their wonderful achievements so they are remember more often. They shouldn’t have to pay any taxes since they risked saving our lives. Health care shouldn’t be an issue for them either and should be half off usual cost.

Veterans sacrifice so much for the safety of our lives and the country they love. They have risked their lives in battles and go through hard work in boot camp. They have to leave their loved ones hoping they will see them again. I think those people are really brave to go through so much pain just to help their country. They get bomb at, shot at, and have grenades thrown at them almost everyday. That must be horrible and terrifying. Veterans must have a lot of endurance to keep going when they are in pain.

The brave people such as members of the military, army, coast guard, and the marines have helped our country over the years and still help us today. Some people don’t believe in war and violence but sometimes people don’t have a choice. Those people need to realize that and acknowledged the Veterans more often. I feel they need to be supported a lot more and noticed. Their sacrifices are incredibly great.