A gift I'd like to give

The Gift of Having Fun

Caleb McCurry

Recently, there were 4 students from Lone Peak High School who were cited for disorderly conduct after rapping their order at Mcdonald’s. A couple of week before that there was another Lone Peak student who was suspended for a day after rushing the field after the Lone peak football team won against Brighton who had not been scored on until that game. These should be our heroes.

There is a strange state of mind going through Lone Peak High School and much of Northern Utah. They think than they need to live for their future, and their future needs to be what their parents and the police deem as perfect. In other words they think "We can't have anything on our criminal record or we will never get into college" and, "If I don't get into BYU with an academic scholarship I will never have a job" or in other words,"we need to be safe, overachieving nerds or we will fail at life." This is a false idea and is turning this area into a wasteland of dull zombie youth.

I would like to take one of the worst of these barely living youth and teach them how to have fun. I would teach them that until you are married, danger is not a bad thing. I would like to teach them that just passing is good enough and well worth it. I would like to teach them that if you are only having fun, the consequences for breaking the law are worth it. I would like to teach them to escape the assembly line and better their lives because of it. I would like to give them a gift.

There are four rules that must be followed as they escape the conveyor belt to avoid injury. Rule #1- Getting to Heaven is the most important thing, but being stopped by police, losing your 4.0 g.p.a, and occasionally making a fool of yourself are not against your religion. Rule#2- You need to graduate high school and get a college degree, but you can still do that if you skip class or don't turn in your homework every once in a while. D's get Diplomas. Rule #3-Don't hurt or injure others...unless it's funny. Rule #4-Be cool to everyone unless they are a douche bag to you. If that happens you can beat them up, unless they are a girl and/or they can beat you up. In that case just avoid them.

The first thing I would like to teach them is to not worry. This is the first step to change their life and all other improvements rely on completing this step. This has three segments for me to teach them. The first is to teach them not to worry about what people think. The best way is to go to the mall and have them walk into a store shirtless and ask for a job as a model or a live mannequin. I will probably have to slowly move up to this. This is by far the hardest part of the process. The next part is to teach them not to worry about injury. This is easy. If they are taken cliff diving or to the bike jump into the sliding rock pond this fear is quickly lost. To eliminate the last fear, the fear of authority, would also be fairly easy. I would have them skip class and get kicked out of Walmart at the same time. They would definitely resist to each of these lessons but if I am patient they will open up to enlightenment.

I will teach the remaining lessons to them with a simple example. Joe has $100 he is able to use to have fun so he goes to lagoon and then takes his girlfriend to Mimi's Cafe. His mom then got mad because he came home later than she wanted. He waisted his whole day in line, ate fancy food, his girlfriend was unimpressed, and he had no more money. Joe’s friend Mike also had $100 to use for fun. He told his dad he was going to go camping. He then filled his car with food storage (his mom was glad to get rid of it), drove to California, and slept under the bushes near the beach. He also met some Mexicans who taught him how to surf. Every night he called his mom with his cell phone (carefully not talking about where he was). Although Mike also didn't have any money at the end of the week, his mom was happy to have him back when he returned and his girlfriend loved the stories and the shell he brought back for her. If you live like Mike, then life will be better for you and the people around you.

When these last lessons are learned my job will be done. It may sound like an impossible task and I don't blame anyone who thinks it can't be done. I would not believe such a change could happen if I didn't change myself with the same process. I was once as boring as any other kid at Lone Peak. I only found a better way of life after talking to my cousin. He told me how to have live. In the next few months I followed the same training mentioned above. I learned how to have fun and that is why I want to give the gift of having fun.

Caleb McCurry

11114N 5730W Highland Ut. 84003

801-763-0128

Lone Peak High School