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Camp is my favorite place

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6 months. 26 weeks. 182 days. 4,368 hours. 262,080 minutes.     The time I have spent at OSRUI has been the best time of my life. OSRUI is a Jewish overnight summer camp in Oconomowoc Wisconsin, and I have been going there since I was 8 years old. I’ve been back every single year since then, and I my love for camp has only grown and gotten stronger. I truly believe that there is no other place in the world that makes me happier or makes me feel more at home. It is undoubtedly my favorite place. I remember my first day at OSRUI as if it was yesterday. My family and I drove into the entrance to 600 Lac La Belle Dr. and rolled down our windows. The air was clean and natural and the smell of wood and nature entrenched the car. In the distance, I could hear the laughter and shrieks of joy from campers reuniting with their best friends. The song leaders were all playing their guitars and they welcomed the campers to another fantastic summer. I was nervous because it would be my first tim
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The glass isn't empty. It's completely full

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How full is your glass? Positivity is the key to happiness. Everyone knows the stupid, overused question that a teacher asks after they show a picture of a glass half filled with water. They look at you with a smile and ask “Is the glass half full or half empty?”. The reason I think the question is stupid is that I don’t think that either of those answers are correct. You may ask “How in the world is that possible? It is either half full, half empty, or both answers are correct.” Personally, I believe that the glass is full. The half of the glass without water in it is not empty, it is actually full of air. Therefore the glass is completely full of water, air, or whatever else happened to fall into the glass. Seeing the glass as full and not empty is often a metaphor for being a positive or optimistic person. Although I definitely see myself as an optimistic person, I think that there is more to the story. I try to approach every aspect of my life in a positive way, but the only re
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Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure does help.

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I remember my first time skiing as if it was yesterday. It was the perfect skiing day anyone could ask for. The sun was shining, and the fresh powdery snow was just waiting for me to glide my skis across it. On my first lesson I fell in love with adrenaline rush I got while zipping down a ski hill, and the cool rush of wind against my face. Ever since my family and I have gone on a ski trip to the West at least once a year. The trips are always filled with excitement, laughter, and pure fun. Skiing is fantastic but I do not think that anything can compare to how happy a summer camp called Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute or OSRUI for short makes me year after year. Besides what can be better than a place 4 hours away from home with no parents, and no homework to worry about! I have been going to OSRUI ever since I was 8 years old and it has been a second home to me. I love swimming in the lake and playing capture the flag. I love going to the music center and learning new things on my
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The epitome of innovation

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what speaker would you bring to your school? I was walking through the streets of Bologna Italy when I saw a huge gathering at one of the city squares. It was a climate change summit and they were showing a movie on a huge screen for the entire city to watch. The movie was about people trying to make a change in the world, and one of them was Elon Musk. One of his ideas was to build 7 super battery plants around the world. These 7 plants would have the biggest carbon footprint of any other building ever built but they would be able to supply the entire world with energy.   All of his ideas seemed crazy and impossible, but that’s what intrigues me most about him. That is exactly why if I had to invite one speaker to speak at my school it would be Elon Musk.               I came home from the trip thinking about how awesome it would be to talk to him or to hear him speak. Just a couple of months later I watched Elon Musk’s company Tesla unveil their two brand new cars. One was a sem
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When Procrastination went wrong

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How does procrastination play a role in your life? It’s 6am on Wednesday morning and the timer started to run. In exactly 9 hours I would be taking a history test. Now, this was not just an ordinary history test. This was a 6 flowchart history test. I got dressed as fast as I could, ate, brushed my teeth, got all my school stuff together and headed out the door. It was 7:30. Exactly 7.5 hours until test time. Let me explain why a sophomore modern history test is so hard. Our teacher created his own curriculum where he used flowcharts to explain all the events that took place throughout history. These flowcharts are composed of many text boxes that are connected by arrows. Each flowchart is also accompanied by a reading to explain how the flowchart works. Every single class our teacher would explain the flowchart and we would take notes. Some flowcharts are big and some are smaller, but no matter the size they are a pain in the butt to memorize. Now back to the story. I walked
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GPS to tech guru - my job in my family

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Prompt: What is your role in your family? Everyone has their role in a family, and many of those roles seem very natural. Every person is good at somethings and every person is bad at other things. For example, I am a terrible cook. If I try to cook a meal, I will inevitably use the wrong amount of water, somehow break a plate, undercook the meat, and somehow by the end my mom is back in the kitchen trying to save my house from burning down. Instead, I stick with my job in the family and everyone else sticks to theirs.             I am our family’s designated GPS if go somewhere. If we are in Europe, the middle of the woods or even if we’re in IKEA (don’t ever underestimate how confusing IKEA is), I am always supposed to know where to go or know how to get back to where we started. My dad has a terrible sense of direction. His sense of direction is so bad that he somehow always wants to go the opposite way. If we have to turn left he will 100% want to turn right, which makes no se
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The last day of camp

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Prompt:  Do you wish you could return to a moment in your past? I believe that people live for emotion. If people did not experience emotion, they would not be motivated to do anything. You go on roller coasters not because you have to, but because you want to feel the rush and excitement. That is why if I had to return to any moment in the past, it would be the last day of a 7 week overnight camp I went to a couple of years ago. The last day was happy, sad, exciting, fun and bittersweet at the same time which that day extra special. The camp that I went to is called Osrui, and it is a Jewish overnight camp in the middle of Oconomowoc Wisconsin (if you pronounce that right on your first try I'll be impressed). My first year at Osrui was when I was eight years old and as soon as I stepped out of my car for the first time I fell in love. During the school year, I would be constantly counting down the days till I would be back at camp again. Since I live in Champaign Illinois, and
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