Growing Up In a Week

by Clayton Matheson

     The vacation started at my grandparents house in Bemidji, MN for a family reunion. Me and my cousins, Zach and Andrew, helped to set everything up for all the relatives that were coming. During this time we caught up and talked about how we were all doing and what we had been up to. After we were done we drove around town trying to find something to do. We couldn't find anything that looked fun so we went over to the beach and hung out there. The rest of the time we were in Bemidji we did mostly the same things, hanging out with family, driving around, swimming or going fishing. It was all pretty fun and we had a good time but it got boring after a couple days. About 3 days before I had to leave we decided to go back to my cousin's house in Sartell, MN so we would have more to do. 

     In Sartell we did do some cool things. One thing that I had never done before was shooting Sporting Clays which was a lot of fun. Zach has practice every weekend and I got to go with and participate in the practice too. We also just hung out at home and talked too. This made me remember when i use to spend almost my entire summers at my cousins' house and how much fun that had been. Also, through the way they acted and talked I noticed how my cousins, who are 16 and 19 years old, seem to have gotten so much older and acted differently. They had more responsibility and worked hard. I’ve always looked up to them and I think that seeing this made me want to do the same. I thought back to when I was younger and even then I looked up to them and they have always been role models for me. One other thing that they talked about was their future plans and that made me think about my own some more too.

     The next thing we did was go to a friend's cabin. His name was Rory and he is also Zach’s boss which is cool because they are best friends as well. When we were there we went out night fishing with Rory and his older brother. His older brother had already been in college and talked about it as well as giving us advice to help us for high school and college. I really liked hanging out with them because they all treated me like I was just as old as them and like we were all old friends. The next day we went out in the lake and went swimming and hung out on a sand bar in the middle of it which was  cool. We also played some games like frisbee when we were on the sandbar making me remember to when me and my cousins were much younger and played games all the time during the summer. In a way I missed those times when I didn’t have to worry about anything and didn’t have much responsibility but I also am glad that I am older now because while I have more responsibilities I also have more privileges.

     One other thing that contributed to my gain in maturity since that vacation is plans for my future. I had been thinking about them a little before that week but since my cousins were at the age were they had to decide were they were heading in their life, they talked about it a lot. That made me think about my own plans. I had decided on a few career choices before but none of them stayed for very long. Now I know that I want to be an officer in the Marines. I know that this is what I really want to do and I also  think that just that choice has raised my maturity a lot. I want to get into the Naval Academy and I know it will take a lot of discipline and responsibility to become a Marine officer and even more to do it through the Naval Academy.