Journal Three by Garrett Coppler

     When this book was first introduced into this class I didn't really think I would like it. After reading even the first couple of profiles, I knew I was wrong about that. The profiles vary from length, but they are always short enough to read and digest it without forgetting about the first part, unlike my history textbook. Not all of the profiles are specifically interesting, but most of them pull me in and I enjoy reading about their experiences. Some profiles I want to read a little more on, like Miles Mahan, and I am disappointed when they only have a small section dedicated to them. When i read through the profiles I try to read it once to enjoy it. Not specifically taking any notes. Then I go back to parts I found interesting and make note of them, either mentally or on paper.

     One theme that has been in the reading so far is that travel and wandering are a form of freedom. While I don't have a great story about this, I can easily connect this to my life. To help put the story into context, I live about 15 minutes outside of Marion and in a very rural area by the Pleasant School district. My mom had only heard about the bad part of Marion and forbid me from ever wandering around Marion, especially at night. I had a friend who lived right in the middle of Marion, and as you can probably guess, I broke that rule from time to time. This wasn't when we were really young, but not too far before high school.
     My friend and his mom both had a different view of Marion, they knew where and where not to go. When we went out in Marion, we didn't just do it to break the rules that I thought were unnecessary, I did it for the freedom I felt while wandering. That could be attributed to either the breaking of the rules, or because we could pretty much go wherever we wanted. We would walk around the town, stopping in convenience stores to grab snacks or a drink. Stopping by the parks around my friends house was always a must. We always used those as a place to sit down and talk, where we would be all alone to joke and be kids. Sometimes we would go to the Harding memorial to check it out because we thought it looked cool, and even cooler at night. There was a wooded area by my friend house we would also hang around. Fallen trees were common there, so we would run and jump over the big trees that littered the area. While this might sound like just playing and being a kid to some people, it was a little bit of freedom. I was able to get away from adults and do what I wanted. While this could have ended bad, we only escaped to explore what was around us and to mess around like we couldn't while being cooped up in a house.