Oedipus

Oedipus is a heroic character in my life. Oedipus is a character blind by his own prophecy, his own mistakes. Oedipus was destroyed by the Gods. Oedipus was forced into a terrible fate for him and the rest of his family. Oedipus was to kill his father and bear children with his mother. Oedipus would never willingly do any of these disgusting things. Oedipus left home to avoid his fate and on his way to the city of Thebes, he kills his father. He does not realize that he killed his father or that he was the king of Thebes. He reaches Thebes, solves a riddle and becomes king. In this honor he marries Jocasta, the queen. He does not realize she is his mother. Over the years they have many kids. A plague hits the city with death. Oedipus goes to the blind prophet for help. The only way to cure the city is to find the killer of the former king Laius. Oedipus is eager to find the killer as if Laius was his own father. Through the blind prophet Oedipus gets the prophet to say that Oedipus killed the king. Oedipus believes he is telling lies, but as more and more truth is revealed, Oedipus grows mad. Jocasta commits suicide and Oedipus cannot bear to see his fate come alive so he gouges out his eyes, now blind to everything three dimensional. Oedipus leaves Thebes in exile, forced to live a life of pain.

My inspiration comes from Greek mythology, Oedipus. I chose Oedipus because just like him, I have had some unfortunate encounters with fate, only mine are not as bad. I admire Oedipus because he did whatever he could to help the city of Thebes even though he destroyed his own life in the process.

Dan Ryan

Dan Ryan's life is similar to my life in many ways. He grew up in Pickerington, Ohio, alongside his twin brother, Tom Ryan. Dan started playing video games as a hobby and eventually mastered the video game, Halo Combat Evolved. Dan and his brother began competing at local tournaments and soon made their way to some of the top video game competitions in the country. The Ryan brothers founded the team 3D and began to dominate every competitive event they entered. In 2004, 2005, and 2007, Dan and Tom Ryan, along with two other team mates, won the Major League Gaming National Championship highlighting his career. In 2009, Dan decided to retire from being a professional video gamer and to move on with his life by attending college.

Over the past couple years, my twin brother and I have been playing video games competitively against amateur teams on the console Xbox 360. I have learned that in order to be successful at gaming it takes a lot of dedication but mostly time. The problem is video games rarely provide a well-paying career and use up too much time away from doing activities that actually help you achieve a good career. Even though Dan Ryan was considered one of the best Halo players ever; he made the decision to drop the controller and pursue a career he knows will make him more successful. I realize my time is better spent working hard on homework assignments rather than spending hours upon hours playing a mildly rewarding video game.

Lord Robert Baden-Powell

One of the people that has influenced me the most is Lord Robert Baden-Powell. Most people don’t know who Lord Baden-Powell is, but almost everyone has heard of the organization he started: The Boy Scouts. Lord Baden-Powell first got the idea for Boy Scouts while he was in the British Army in the late 1800’s. Powell was charged with defending Mafeking during the Boer Wars in South Africa. Mafeking was eventually besieged by a Boer army. Powell had all the young boys in Mafeking help with garrison duty, running errands, and relaying messages in order to free up the men for military service. Powell even had the older boys dress as men so it appeared that there were many more fighting men than were actually there. The boys did such a fantastic job, Powell used many of the things he taught them to write a book called Aids to Scouting. When Powell returned to England, he found that Aids to Scouting had become a best seller, and numerous groups based around his book had been formed. Powell created a camp on Brownsea Island to teach different boy’s groups more “aids to scouting.” Powell formed the Boy Scouts in 1907. Boy Scouting quickly spread out of England, forming in America in 1910. Boy Scouting is now a worldwide movement.

I have been involved in Boy Scouts ever since I joined Cub Scouts at age 6. I became a Boy Scout at age 11, and I received my Eagle Scout award earlier this year. Boy Scouting has made a huge difference in my life. Through Scouting, I learned responsibility, self-confidence, leadership, and valuable life skills. I can honestly say that my life would be completely different without my experience in Boy Scouting.

Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac is the person I chose as a inspiration. He wrote one of my all time favorite books On the Road. The story is about how he hitch hiked around America in the late 40's and early 50's. The thing I find Inspirational isn’t so much the author himself but more the fact that he was able to just get up and go across the country, you can’t do that anymore. Mostly because the amount of money someone would need to have would be insane and there is the possibility that you would be walking the whole way there because no one would pick you up, or if someone did they might just murder you with an axe.
I also like this because I have an uncle who really kind of reminds me of this story. He once told me that he hitch hiked from Georgia to Washington D.C in a watermelon truck, I don’t know if he was just feeding me a line or not, but I remember thinking I hope it’s true, because that is the coolest thing ever.
It’s a story from a time period that isn’t around anymore and the people who remember it won’t be around forever either.

Pocahontas

We've all grown up off of Disney films, with Disney princesses being our idols or the knight in shining armor being our dream-man. Pocahontas was like my bread and butter as a child. wore Pocahontas outfits, had Pocahontas pajamas and bed sheets. I even carried around a Meeko (Pocahontas's pet raccoon) back pack throughout kindergarten. While it was possibly a disturbed childhood obsession, I still have a love for the story of Pocahontas. She didn't fit the typical Disney-princess-profile of blond hair and huge ball gowns. She wasn't some bashful damsel in distress who needed a man to come rescue her. She was a strong woman, and she protected her people, and her culture. When someone asks, "Carolyn, who's your idol," I don't answer Brittany Spears or Michelle Obama. I proudly answer, "Pocahontas, because her courage and strength helped me become the stubborn , loud-mouthed woman I am today." Perhaps the coolest part of Pocahontas is that she was a real woman, who had indeed fought to keep peace when English colonists settled in her father, Powhatan's, land. They say that the picture shown below is a portrait made of her while she was in England. Whether or not it's the real Pocahontas or not, I like to imagine her as Disney portrayed her in her native garb.