A Regular Updater

Ok Jeff, and everyone else, I am updating and will try to continue to do so frequently. Tonight was my first night leading Upwards practice for a 1st and 2nd grade girl’s team. I was very nervous and at one point it seemed as though I was losing control (I don’t like losing control of a situation but I kept it together, didn’t yell and it worked out just fine). I did make one of the little girls kind of feel bad and cry though. I did apologize to her!!!

As you know I am in an English class and from the start I thought it was a waste of my time since it is a basic Composition class. We have to write 5 essays in the 8 weeks of class and there is this online plagiarism site that you must copy your paper to so it can evaluate your sources and see if you have cheated. It scans all types of works written from magazines to books to other papers submitted by students and it scans all of them.

I submitted my paper that I wrote (7 years ago), yes, I used an essay I submitted for a previous English class with some modifications (I updated the sources and the information) to fit the requirements. Not because I am lazy but because there is no sense in re-inventing the wheel if you know what I mean. After I uploaded it, I was reading some informational things on the site and I came across their definitions of plagiarism which include: Not giving credit for sources you have used, taking information from another work and re-wording it and calling it yours and they even consider it plagiarism if your paper consists of more sited works than original information. I could live with these since I didn’t do any of that, until I came across the most absurd thing I have ever heard of in my life! Yes, you guessed it; you can even plagiarize yourself if you use your own work for more than one class.

That didn’t make any sense to me; I wrote the original for crying out loud. Watch out, they may try to sue you if you say the same thing to multiple people and they find out. Anyway, I prayed about it and had Amy pray too. I was sick to my stomach all day, I could not concentrate at work, and I was so worried about the consequences. (Failing the essay, failing the class, and even expulsion from the school)

Odds are quite possible my last English teacher didn’t even submit the paper to this site since this is the first time I have ever heard about it. Anyway, I prayed that if it was to just blow over that I would never do that again. I still felt sick about it, so when I got to class I pulled my teacher to the side and explained everything to her and gave her a copy of the original essay I wrote so she could compare the two. At that point all I cared about was doing the right thing in GODs eyes and not the consequences. She told me that it was impossible to plagiarize myself and she didn’t care what the site said about it, and that I had nothing to worry about.

I got in my car and thanked GOD!! I didn’t feel like throwing up after that either, which was nice.

I did pass my Math class with an A, so I still have a 4.0 GPA (and 3 more Math classes to go)!! I have to take 5 classes a quarter (3 nights a week) for the next year in order to graduate in June. I should have done this 15 years ago but then I don’t know if I would have had the drive to complete it like I do now.

I have requested and been approved for vacation in August for the next Kenya mission trip. I have been praying about being called to go and not to go just because I really want to. I have been saving up for the trip and if time draws near and I don’t feel genuinely led to go then I will sponsor someone who is with the money. Either way, I want it to be for GOD and not for Sam.

I know this is a book. I will try and update more regularly so they won’t be this long. See you in church if Christ doesn’t come again prior to.