A Message to Garcia

   Today Mr. Schick gave us a talk about high school and later showed us a historic writing. He told us about how different high school is going to be compared to middle school and some of the challenges and responsiblities we will have to face. One big issue is time management. This is very important because once we get involved more at John Carroll in sports, clubs, extra-curriculars, etc., we will have to spend our time very wisely and keep school and grades as our top priority. We will become more independent, really learn who we are, and find how hard we are willing to work.
   After our talk, we read, A Message to Garcia, by Elbert Hubbard. We did not finish this text today but it took place in 1899, during the Spanish American War. The U.S. is supporting Cuba in their quest for freedom from Spain, one of the strongest empires in the world. U.S. is very close to Cuba on the map, so the U.S. thought it would be better to be friends than foes. 25th president, William McKinley,  wants to send a letter to Garcia, the leader of the Insurgents (the rebellious Cubans), and the only man who can find Garcia is Rowan. Rowan took the letter and was on his way to find Garcia. That is where we left off and class ended.
   However, I found Mr. Schick's talk to be very true and I appreciated it. Even though we didn't get far in the text, I found the story to be similar to high school, because there is always going to be challenges you face, whether it is in high school or in the Spanish American war. For me, there are many challenges still to come. As for Rowan in the story, he is going to keep searching for Garcia, and the Insurgents and going to keep searching for their freedom.