Capstone Activities

     As a Capstone Scholar I am required to attend one social event, one cinema, and one conversation as well as complete a personal challenge and do community service.  I have already talked greatly in detail about my service-learning at Hand Middle School which counts for my community service points.  I will discuss now the four other requirements. 
     The first requirement is to attend a social event.  Mainly these are either Hot Cookie Fridays or Everyones Birthday Party, both of which occur on Fridays at 2 pm.  Thankfully, I was able to attend the first social event before school really got under way because I have a Biology Lab at 2 pm on Fridays that prevents me from attending these events.  I attended the Hot Cookie Friday and would say it was nice.  I tried a cookie and it was good, but you really cannot go wrong with Toll House cookies that are precut and made and all you have to do is stick in the oven.  I met a few people that lived on my floor that I still talk to now and again but would not say we are close friends.  Overall, the event was nice but not too exciting that it would be something I greatly look forward to each friday it is held.
     Moving on to the second requirement which is to attend a Captsone sponsored cinema.  I attended the cinema on "Darius Goes West".  This cinema really intrigued me because over the summer I saw the movie at the YMCA during our training sessions for our special needs program.  I really loved the movie and was excited to see Darius in real life.  I thought the cinema was great!  They showed bits and pieces of the movie that they enjoyed best and spoke on each part and how it was most memorable to them.  I really got to understand the true background to the entire movie and how connected they all were.  I felt the cinema was one of the best to choose to attend because I was able to really connect with the movie by having the director and main actor there guiding the audience through the movie bit by bit.
     The third requirement is to attend a Capstone Conversation.  My conversation had to do with the book, The Naked Roommate.  The author, Harlan Cohen, came to speak about the book and his personal experience.  He spoke about how we as freshman can succeed in college with any obstacle we may face.  We may not necessarily have a crazy roommate but we will have issues that will need to be dealt with.  We will have difficult teachers and classes that will take all our effort to succeed in but we can do it if we try hard enough and have the right mind set.  He was a very funny speaker and really engaged the audience to want to listen and hear more.  I thought the conversation was great and very enjoyable.  I learned a lot about how I should not stress over little things and understand that everyone makes mistakes in their grades but mainly these mistakes are building blocks to do better.  You have to start somewhere and if you start down the only way to go is up!
     The final requirement, besides the community service point, is to overcome a personal challenge.  I really struggled the first few weeks of trying to find a challenge a use.  I wanted to do something that would really push me for more than one time but I also wanted to make sure I did something I knew I could reasonably succeed.  I finally decided on taking the stairs every day and only using the elevator once a day to get to my room on the fifth floor of Capstone.  This challenge really pushed me to use the stairs and be forced to walk up them.  I already walk everywhere and go to the gym once a day and my challenge was just an added push to my physical well-being.  I succeeded in only taking the elevator once a day and eventually got to the point where I never took the elevator.  I found that taking the stairs was sometimes a lot quicker than waiting for an elevator to come and it was more beneficial physically and mentally.