Justin's blog entry

Hey everybody, this is Justin Bush and I am a junior. I am majoring in exercise science and hope to be down main campus next year. I am from Mount Gilead, Ohio. In high school I was three sport athlete playing football, basketball, and baseball. I was also involved in the Mount Gilead show choir. In my free time I enjoy deer hunting with my bow. This year I will be adding coaching middle school baseball to one of my free time activities.

In writing my poem I had a tough decision to make in deciding which of my two grandmothers I would write about. I was close to both of them and both were very big influences on me. I chose to write about my grandma on my mother’s side, Grandma George. I then just started writing down some memories that I had with her. I took the best ones and then tried to put together something that looked like a poem. It took me about an hour to write it and I wanted to make it perfect, but i came nowhere near that. It was actually a little bit more difficult that I was first anticipating. But this is what i ended up with.............

How Have You Been Keeping Yourself Pleasantly Occupied?

As a child I loved spending time at my Grandmother’s home

I was her little shadow, I would never leave her alone.

“How have you been keeping yourself pleasantly occupied?”

Making stilts out of orange juice boxes that worked just fine

Followed by my favorite song she sang, “You Are My Sunshine”.

“How have you been keeping yourself pleasantly occupied?”

She loved to cook for the family. Not a thing she couldn’t make,

But what we all waited for was the warm apple pie she had just baked.

“How have you been keeping yourself pleasantly occupied”?

Finding her working with her flowers was never a surprise

Walking by her gardens was like being in a fairy tale to my little eyes

“How have you been keeping yourself pleasantly occupied?”

Loving and kind are words I think of when she comes to my mind.

Searching for that in myself is what I someday hope to find.

“How have you been keeping yourself pleasantly occupied?”

I remember coming home that weekend holding her hand, sitting by her bed

Opening her eyes, faintly calling my name and “I love you” were the words you said.

“How have you been keeping yourself pleasantly occupied?”

Now she is in heaven walking with Grandpa pace by pace,

And I know she was so happy when she met Jesus face to face.

That is how she is keeping herself pleasantly occupied!

I think about her often and sometimes comes a tear

Then all the wonderful memories come to mind and I smile from ear to ear.

“How have you been keeping yourself pleasantly occupied?”

The profile on Moreese Bickham, the prisoner, has been my favorite profile thus far. I really sympathized for him because even though he killed two men he was defending himself from “Klan Dragons” as he called it. Throughout all of those years he spent in prison he still kept a positive attitude and believed that someday he would be a free man again. “But I know as long as there’s life, there’s hope.”  He was definitely a dreamer, always dreaming of being free. As well as his actual dreams of his mother and grandmother.