Personal Narrative Rough Draft

This is still definitely a rough draft, but this is what i have so far.

             I remember timidly walking up the short stair case dressed in my white shirt and tie.  I stood on the front porch for a moment and gazed at the door, with my dad standing right by my side.  I slowly reached out, knocked on the door three times, and then stepped back to wait.  This was a first experience for me.  My hands were sweaty and my heart was racing.  What must have been just a few seconds seemed like an eternity as I waited for the sister to come to the door.  A short woman, probably in her mid forties, opened the door with a smile and said in a friendly voice, “Come on in guys!”  I smiled, shook her hand, and then walked in and found a place to sit   on the soft leather couch. 

            “How have you been?” asked my dad. The conversation started and I had no intention of joining in.  I sat there quietly hoping that she or my dad wouldn’t ask me any questions or direct the conversation to me in any way.  I had no intention of talking, other than sharing the short lesson that I had prepared beforehand.  Thankfully my dad did pretty much all of the talking.  He had been home teaching this sister for years, and both got along very well.  I on the other hand, barely knew this sister at all.  I may have seen her in the congregation at church a few times, but I had never talked to her before. 

            After the conversation died down, the time had finally come.  My father leaned towards me and said, “Well, Brandon has prepared a little lesson for you.”  This was the part that I was nervous about.  I had no idea how I could possibly teach something to this sister who had way more gospel knowledge and experience than I did.  After all, I was only twelve years old and she was at least thirty years older than me.  I had just barely entered young mens as a deacon.  What could I possibly teach her that she didn’t already know?  I had to read the First Presidency Message over and over before I had a good understanding of the message that was being told.  I was so nervous about this lesson that I had a hard time concentrating on the reading and actually understanding it.  I read the talk multiple times to make sure I wouldn’t forget it.

Ready or not, I began the lesson that I had prepared from the Ensign.  I told her the name of the church authority that gave the talk as well as the title of the talk.  I then quickly began to summarize the main points, or at least what I thought were the main points, of the message.  I followed my notes and underlining very closely to be sure not to mess up.  I probably didn’t look up once during the entire lesson.  Once I had covered the main parts of the speech, I closed with, “in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”  I had no desire to make the lesson any longer by adding my thoughts or by bearing my testimony so I sat back in the couch and waited for my dad to take over again.  Thankfully he did.  He asked, “Is there anything we can do for you?” and then we closed with a prayer.  We left the house and hopped in my dad’s new Toyota Camry to go to our next appointment.

Our next two appointments were to two older couples, one was active in the church and the other was not.  In fact, the husband had never been baptized into the church but the wife had.  Both of these visits went like the first.  I sat quietly in my seat as the conversations went on and only talked when spoken to.  Once again, being shy, I had no desire to talk to either of the couples unless I absolutely had to.  I would have been perfectly fine with my dad talking to them the whole time and me never even saying a word.  Unfortunately for me, that is not how it worked out.  I repeated the lesson for each family in the same manner as the first and closed

with, “in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”  I had survived my first round of home teaching.

Six years later I confidently walked up that same short stair case for the last time.  I stood on the porch, dressed in a white shirt and tie, with my dad by my side, and knocked on the door.  The door opened and I excitedly exchanged greetings with the sister I had come close to over the past six years.  I had recently graduated from high school and was soon leaving home to attend college at Brigham Young University.  We had a lengthy conversation about my plans for the future including college, a mission, and life after that.  I enjoyed my time visiting with her in her home and I actively participated in the conversation.  I didn’t feel uncomfortable in the least bit being in her home and home teaching her.

            Once again, the time had come.  My dad leaned in my direction and said, “Well, Brandon has prepared a lesson for you.”  I had prayerfully read and pondered the message and I was well prepared to give it.  I began by introducing the title of the talk that my lesson was based off of and the church authority that delivered it.  I then began to discuss some points in the talk that I felt were important and that I felt she needed to hear.  I added my thoughts and feelings into the lesson and then asked her for her thoughts and feelings.  I gave her a challenge which she accepted and then I concluded the lesson by bearing my testimony.  Following the lesson, the sister said, “Brandon, some day you will be a great missionary.”  That really meant a lot to me.  I thanked her for the compliment, and we said a prayer and were on our way.  I left grateful for the opportunity that I had for the past six years to serve as her home teacher.  I developed social skills and people skills that will be beneficial to me later in life.  I became comfortable talking to others about gospel topics and I learned how to effectively prepare and teach a lesson.  These skills will prove to be very valuable down the road as I serve as a missionary and try to bring others unto Christ.

Research Paper on Professional Athlete Salaries

Initially I was going to write this paper arguing that professional athletes are overpaid .  I wasn't sure that I would be able to write 8-10 pages on that topic though so I decided to write my paper on why athletes make as much as they do.

Thesis: Contrary to popular opinion, professional athletes deserve their salaries due to their rareness and talent, the huge revenue they draw, the demands of their job, and society’s emphasis on sports and entertainment.

Talented, Rare, and Hard to Replace

One reason that professional athletes make so much money is because they are extremely talented at what they do.  In order to be a professional athlete you have to be the best of the best.  To become “the best of the best” requires hours and hours of practice.  These athletes are born with amazing athletic abilities and then must develop and fine tune those abilities to become professional.  Those that make it into a professional sport have been playing since they were little kids.  Their childhood lives were dominated by the sport that they play.  These athletes have devoted hours and hours of practice and training to become the best.  Very few people possess the talent that it takes to become a professional athlete.  Looney stated, “These athletes have skills, amazing skills, that are incredibly rare.  They do things routinely that we can’t do in our dreams.”  

These statistics will give you an idea of the chances of making it into the National Basketball Association (NBA).  According to the National Federation of High Schools, there are 18,150 high schools in the country with a basketball program.  That adds up to 545,844 high school basketball players who could potentially make it to the NBA.  Only the best high school players will have the opportunity to play on one of the 345 division one college basketball teams.  Each college team has a roster of 12 players which means there are 4,140 division one basketball players in the nation.  This being the case, there are only 4,140 spots for these 545,844 high school players to fill.  This means there is a 0.0076 percent chance that a particular high school athlete will go on to play on a division one college team.  The top players at the collegiate level may go on to play in the NBA.  There are 60 draft selections in the NBA and only 34 of them make the team.  Once you take into consideration overseas players and those that go to the NBA right out of high school, the odds are 10 out of 545,855 that a high school player in this nation will eventually make it to the NBA.  This being the case, there is only a 0.000018 percent chance for high school athletes to become a professional basketball player.  Clearly, only the most talented athletes in the nation are good enough to play a sport professionally.

Professional athletes are very rare and the demand for them is high, therefore their salaries reflect that.  It takes a certain body to play a professional sport.  For example, the average NBA player is six foot seven and weighs two hundred and twenty pounds.  It is very uncommon to find someone with a large enough body to be a professional athlete.  On top of that, those who have the right body build then have to have extreme athletic talent.  The mix of these two qualities is very rare and hard to come by, thus the high salary.  Part of the reason that professional athletes are paid so much is because they are extremely rare.  Not many people have the body build or athletic ability to compete as a professional athlete, let alone both!

Since professional athletes are so rare, they cannot be easily replaced.  Typical jobs like teacher, fireman, or secretary are fairly easy to replace in the sense that there are many people who are qualified and meet the requirements needed to complete the job.  How do you replace a Kobe Bryant who is six foot six, averages 29 points per game, and has led his team to win five
NBA championships?  It’s simple, you can’t.  He is a one of a kind player which is why he earns $24,806,250 annually.  No one else can do what he does.  Top professional athletes earn millions of dollars a year because they are extremely rare and are very difficult to replace.