God Bless the Heroes.

The Essay I wish I wrote

This is an actual essay written by a college applicant. The author, Hugh Gallagher, was admitted to NYU.

Essay: In order for the admissions staff of our college to get to know you, the applicant, better, we ask that you answer the following question: Are there any significant experiences you have had, or accomplishments you have realized, that have helped to define you as a person?

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I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer, I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago, I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.

But I have not yet gone to college.

I've become more powerful than any Jedi...

...even you.

The Passion of the Christ

I just got the Passion of the Christ on DVD a couple of days ago. I have not yet had the energy to watch it. Having seen it twice in the theatre, it is definitely a masterpiece in filmmaking. It's full of heart and soul, and definitely the greatest film of The Passion of Our Lord that has ever been created. Crafted with love and care, tenderness and prayer, it takes you on a very real and very brutal journey though the last 12 hours of the life of Christ. But who doesn't know that?

What really irritates me, is those people that are afraid to watch it. It's not going to kill you to see this movie. If anything, it'll help mold you into a better Christian, and really, who doesn't need to improve in that area. We all have struggles, we all have hurts, we all have pains, this film says "I love you, and I want to help to take away your pain, or to help you to understand it better."

You guys, Jesus knows our hurts, our pains, our struggles. He knows when we are happy, when we are sad, and He weeps with us. He carried our burdens and took so much just for us. The film doesn't even do the true crucifixion justice.

Is the movie gory? Have you seen Kill Bill volume One? From what I've heard, that is much worse. For those that have seen the film, it's definitely not as gory as the media made it sound like. It cuts away from the scourging to show the audience reaction, and the reactions of Mary, the Mother of God, as she can only watch her Son as He is tortured, and that becomes too much for her to bear. However, she remains near by through it all.

This movie has gotten the same reaction that Jesus got when He walked the earth. The movie was slammed and criticised as being overzealous. It is REVOLUTIONARY, it threatened too many people's way of life. People that weren't ready to give up their sinfull ways. These people reacted in manners of self-defense. They didn't know how to take it. Perhaps they were never taught. Perhaps they glimpsed something that they never thought was possible, and still don't.

All I know, is that there is the influence of God on this film. Watching it, you really get a sense for the emotion that God must have been going through.

You Are My Son
Scarecrow and Tinmen

Verse 1:
I should not cry though I'm broken inside
Why should I mope all day long
Living above takes the sting from these wounds
And I'm living by faith and not by sight
Then I hear His voice gently calling My name
Love to hear His voice in the cool of,
The cool of the day

Pre-Chorus:
I love you My Son
I love you My Son
And I want to tell you that you're on My mind
The funny things you say and do and I love
I love that you're Mine

Chorus:
I know your name and I weep when you hurt
And I cheer when you win
Because you are my son
I will come when you call
I will hear your prayers
And I will fight for my name
Because you are my Son
You are my son

Verse 2:
Loving me when I am unlovable
You're patient when I'm far from it
Keeping no records of all of our wrongs
And His love has canceled our debts
And I stand in awe of Your infinite grace
Knowing that You took our sin with its
With its sentence of death

Pre-Chorus
Chorus twice

Ending:
My Son