Assignment One – Jessica Ewing

My name is Jessica Ewing. Some people call me Jess. I don't really mind what you call me, Jess or Jessica, either one works.

I've always told myself I'd maintain a 4.0 GPA throughout all my years of high school, and so far, I'm doing pretty well. Whether or not that holds through this year...well, I'm hoping for the best. Five AP classes and several extracurriculars are making that goal increasingly difficult, but I'm trying.

Over my summer vacation, I spent a week in New Orleans, Louisiana on a mission trip. It was fascinating (and horrifying) to see all the damage that still remains from when Hurricane Katrina swept through almost 12 years ago. Helping people in the parts of the community that were most devastatingly affected helped to show me that there's a world out there. I've noticed that what tends to happen to people is that they become so concerned with themselves and their own little bubbles that they completely disregard anything that happens anywhere else in the world. That's not necessarily their fault, it's just that it's hard to imagine something as destructive as a hurricane when we aren't directly affected by it. For example, no one here really even mentioned Hurricane Harvey at school until the remnants of it came passing through Lexington, even though the Houston area is still demolished and in great need of help and will be for several years.

While we were in New Orleans, in fact, a tropical storm came through. There wasn't a ton of flooding, but the school-turned-camp where we were staying put rings of sand bags around the doorways to keep out water in case it flooded, and several of the walkways around the building were completely submerged in several inches of water. It's a different experience, being right in the middle of something like that, and it really opened my eyes to what the people who live down there have to go through all the time.

Oh, here's another "interesting" thing about myself:

I'm incredibly imaginative. I mean... I write novels in my spare time. They're usually fantasy novels, as I'm personally very drawn to that genre of literature. I'll delve into the hidden meanings of Tom Bombadil's character in Lord of the Rings and discuss the underlying sub-conflict of racism and prejudice in Harry Potter until I die. I adore fantasy.

So there's a little about me. I could go on and on, but I'd rather not bore you with antics about every little detail about my personality. I spend about 90% of my time on youtube.com (when I'm not writing), and that's where I'll most likely be headed after I complete these posts.