As easily as I could have recreated my American Experience senior-valedictory-esque final assignment into this actual senior valedictory, I feel that doing that is contradictory to the entire reason for an education: there would be nothing new that I would garner from copying, and I would be squandering an opportunity to create something unique. Specifically throughout this semester, there have been several opportunities where assignments have been given that could have been finished with a mere CTRL+V and a few edits; strangely, the temptation to practice such blatant slothfulness—not to mention plagiarism—has been completely dormant. As a senior in his second semester, this is puzzling. While other seniors suffer from extreme senioritis, I alone seem to have the burden of too much to say with too few outlets to say it. Of course, denying that a healthy dose of laziness has been injected into my coursework is preposterous, but once the mind focuses and the music pumps through the earbuds, work gets done. After that rant, I come to my point: knowledge has been the goal for this semester, even if it has not been my goal for the entirety of my high school career. Sitting here typing this, a patchwork of thoughts comes to mind; Madeline Snipes chiding me for “wasting my potential,” sensing the immense pride my parents cultivated through the granting of a full-ride scholarship to their only child, and a conversation with a former FHS student—Dakota Slaughter—discussing how trivial the University of Alabama seems coming from Fishers High School. I may have taken some easy classes to get my scholarship, I might have been able to improve myself more had I taken higher-level courses, and I probably could have broadened my knowledge base beyond the confines of the social studies department, but I truly feel that out of the education that I have received, I have squeezed every single ounce of usefulness out of my classes, regardless of whether they were more similar to rocks than to sponges. To put it bluntly, I believe the meaning to of life to be the sheer pursuit of knowledge. (354)

(No, I’m not Daniel Thomas Bray “Jr.” I’m Daniel Thomas Bray II) 20 May 2013

Volume of Thomas, Only Child Edition

Most Memorable School Event Top 10 Quotations!

2

Most Influential of Folks For What Do I Wish to Be Remembered?

3

Greatest Triumph Future Goals Time Capsule

4

Music Reflection Photograph Reflection Pop Culture

5

News Article Special Memory News Article

6

Pop Culture Random Thinking Art

7

Fun Stuff Credits

8

TABLE OF CONTENTS REQUIRED Inside this issue:

Special points of inter-est:

• Me

• My past

• My favorite smart people

• My achievements

• My oft hastily written 200-word senior valedictory assignments

This is me. Hi me!

The Pursuit of Knowledge

This is my excited face.

DANIELTHOMASBRAYII BY: ME. OBVIOUSLY.

Meh.

active, engaged citizen within this majestic nation of ours. Along with this increased focus on prop-er preparation for citizenship, a competitive element is introduced in order to allow these budding burghers to engage in discourse with highly educated judges in an effort to display the knowledge that these students have spent so much time and effort researching. The format followed for this aca-demic endeavor is the inclusion of two distinct variations of public

speaking: one in which a prepared, written piece answers a question presented to the students before-hand, while the latter is focused on the judges querying the stu-dents with follow-up questions of their own. The whole process exists as the most terrifyingly tense ten minutes that I have experienced in my high school career. Certainly, enrolling in this course last semester was well worth the effort I exuded in order to excel, at least in hindsight! (217)

Most Memorable School Event

7. 'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded. -Friedrich August von Hayek (Reason: Economists always tell it how it is.) 8. Nothing is so permanent as a temporary govern-ment program. -Milton Friedman (Reason: See 7.) 9. Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music. -Diogenes (Reason: Flowery similes are the best.) 10. Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain. -Niccolo Machiavelli (Reason: Cynicism is the bomb.)

Top Ten Quotations 1. A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation. -Mark Twain (Reason: I’m a word nerd.) 2. I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. -Plutarch (Reason: conformists bug me.) 3.. Who controls the past controls the future. Who con-trols the present controls the past. -George Orwell (Reason: Historically, so true.) 4. People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election. -Otto von Bismarck (Reason: Politicians are awful.) 5. Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied. -Otto von Bismarck (Reason: See 4.) 6. Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thou-sand who are silent. -Napoleon Bonaparte (Reason: Standing up for my beliefs is a hobby of mine.)

Page 2 Dan ie l Thomas Bray I I Vo lume of Thomas, On ly Ch i ld Ed i t ion

By far the most memorable school-sponsored experience that I have had the utmost pleasure of having seared into my memory is the deceptively difficult and appropri-ately christened course “We The People.” In essence, “We The Peo-ple” combines the already hefty curriculum of an advanced place-ment government class along with a supplementary textbook that attempts to enlighten the student with the essential knowledge that is the cornerstone to becoming an

The Most Influential of Folks

My Role: This Piece Is Totally Relevant to my Theme

For What Do I Wish To Be Remembered? (But More Importantly, Do I Wish To Be Remembered?)

In an effort to create a picture far more personal and individu-alized than a typical foray into the mundane world of most influential coaches, teachers, or relatives, Sean Plott, one of the pillars of the internet, com-fortably resides as my most influential person. As a home-schooled only-child who lived solitarily with his parents in the ever-moving world that is a thirty-eight-foot-long recrea-tional vehicle, many were sur-

prised that when I entered high school, this boy seemed terri-fied. Parallel with the utter horror that existed as the first semester of my freshman year, I happened upon a YouTube channel based around my most-obsessed-over video game of that time. Cue Mr. Internet. Day[9]—Sean Plott—acts as an announcer and commentator for Starcraft I and II, similar to the more well-known Al Michaels or Chris Collinsworth.

Whilst observing these veritable chess matches, Sean interjects with personal anecdotes and “punny” jokes. Through watching his many “Day[9] Dailies” my lonely, pubescent brain realized that one can rather easily coexist as both a nerd and a rhetorician. Amusingly, this mini-paper marks the first occasion at which I have realized just how much impact this man has exerted upon my short life. Truly, this occurrence epito-mizes why even those we never meet in person--thanks to the internet--can change our lives. (215)

glistening upon the exotic and ever-sunny shores of the British Isles, their hand-forged, triple-quenched, solid-cast-iron plate armour proven useless against a conscripted peas-ant with a poorly-made poplar crossbow he received that very day. In your mind—if you care to do so—these etymological photographs create themselves; our brains scan these absolutely arbitrarily symbols

we designate as “letters” and sub-consciously paint a veritable master-piece. For what do I wish to be remembered? Simply, to—when recalled—be recognized as the attentive student Daniel Thomas Bray, often called Thomas as he is the 2nd of that specific nomenclature. And who is this stu-dent? One who, while admittedly acquiring the epithet of “The Student Teacher” due to taking far too trivial classes, is always ecstatic upon recog-

nizing the glint of understanding or the “Eureka!” moment, in a fellow peer’s eye upon mastery of a specif-ic topic. This is my legacy. (205)

Remembrance. Posterity. Legacy. These simple synonyms exist as the oft over-romanticized ideal of human existence. The ancient Greeks sought notoriety on the fields of war, by cap-taining their thousands of ships launched by a single visage, and through treachery crafted by Odys-seus, the proverbial Nathan Fillian of the Mycenaean era. Chivalrous knights, protectors of the people, stood

tainly a double-edged sword, or at least it seems that way to someone with fellow brood-mates. From a purely objective standpoint, one OC’s advantages could be observed by others as disadvantages, so deciding i f someth ing is tru ly (d is)advantageous is subject to difficul-ties. I enjoy the solitude, the inde-

I am an only child, and I’m very proud of that fact. Of course, it’s highly irrelevant that I was quite acci-dentally an only, for my parents decided at one point to adopt three children, but the adoption fell through, and they never pursued one again. Now, on to the actual prompt at hand: being an only child is cer-

pendence from as many familial obligations, and of course the special OC-parental relationship that doesn’t exist anywhere else in our culture. However, some might argue that social awkwardness or social elitism stems from this condition, which I imagine can be true in some cases. I’ll be honest: social elitism is how I’m

“This is my legacy. “

Page 3 Dan ie l Thomas Bray I I Vo lume of Thomas, On ly Ch i ld Ed i t ion

Sean Plott—founder of day9.tv.

able to be an effective public speaker, because I subconsciously see my peers as below me whilst I’m in the limelight. Anyways, such social differ-ences can affect relationships quite easily; peer relationships are often more difficult, but it’s much easier to befriend teachers. It’s a trade-off that’s out of my control. (209)

On a fairly regular basis, I am criti-cized by my peers as being a heart-less robot, an unemotional smartass, and—my personal favorite—a socio-path. At times, these allegations are completely legitimate; I purposefully attempt to emotionally distance my-self from others simply because it’s easier that way. Unfortunately, fate has a tendency of clotheslining me and then sprinting away, giggling mania-cally. Now, I know you don’t know her, so you won’t be able to tell her, but hear me—figuratively—say this: this girl is the best thing to come into my

life since I learned to read. Since the beginning of the school year, I’ve spent countless hours with her, and neither of us are tired of the other, which is strange, because we both generally hate people and get bored of them easily. Humorously enough, when we first started “talking” she was convinced that she didn’t want to deal with a long-term, committed relationship during her senior year, which I understand completely. As two only children, we get a little snappy at times, but to be honest, biting remarks

are what our friendship is built upon. For a similar literary example, see Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shake-speare. And even though we’re dating, we both consider the other our best friend first, as opposed to 99% of teenage couples. I know this seems a little out of place and completely cliché compared to the rest of this project, but learning how to conduct a mature, inter-gender relationship has been my greatest triumph in high school; this knowledge can surely only help me in the future. (265!)

with people throughout high school. It enables me to be completely alone in a crowd, which is an incredibly useful tool for an intro-vert.

3. My glasses: Glasses are a multi-purpose tool. They allow me to see, are the perfect accesso-ry—for those gentle-men metrosexual enough to embrace it), and are a won-

1. A bag of David’s sun-flower seeds: As my favori te snack—and possibly my greatest addiction—they hold a special place in my heart. Oh, I forgot to mention, I eat both the seed and the shell. Yeah, I’m weird, I know; I get that look a lot.

2. My iPod: Without this handy piece of my generation’s technology, I cannot guarantee I would have survived dealing

derful ice breaker. You have no idea how many friends I’ve made with the whole, “Hey, try these one but don’t hurt yourself; I don’t have my waivers with me.” stich!

4. A mechanical pencil: For some reason, I abhor regular, number two pencils, so I require a substitute for the standard. The conven-ience of not having to sharpen my pencil is helpful, as well as the wildly different

My Greatest Triumph: Not My 4.0GPA, Not My Full-Ride...

Thomas’s Chrono-Canister

this leads to a less-than-stellar sense of accomplishment, but I find that I prefer apathy to disappointment. Unfortunately, my subconscious pre-fers to not follow this advice. To put it simply, my goals for the future are the following: graduate from college (preferably with honors), find my passion—or at least refine my passion for history and find a way to build a career around it, move to Seattle,

Washington and enjoy the beautiful climate for the rest of my days. How-ever, as a result of my more-so-than-average sense of self-awareness (aka: cynicism) I’ve realized that this plan is so incredibly loose and certainly ahs the potential to change, and that’s quite alright with me; I’m not the al-ways-planner that people believe that I am: Spontaneity is a hobby of mine. (202)

The Goals of Thomas: The Future Goals are a difficult concept for my state of mind. As a child, I often held goals that were not only improbable, but downright impossible. When I hit my overly-introspective phase—around 8th grade—I became aware of the silliness of these goals that I had set myself up to be unable to achieve, and since then, have not really set goals that would be particularly fan-tastical or overly difficult. Of course,

“[I want to] move to Seattle, Washington

and enjoy the beautiful climate for the rest of

my days.”

Page 4 Dan ie l Thomas Bray I I Vo lume of Thomas, On ly Ch i ld Ed i t ion

level of comfort between a classic pencil and a (nice) mechanical pencil.

5. A novel: Alt-hough a relic of my past (too much work to recreationally read anymore), a good book is the best cure for bore-dom in class.

My girlfriend, Mackenzie Baker-Robinson, who willingly puts up with me and frequently joins me on my misanthropic rants.

Music Reflection: “What I See Now” by Josh Wilson

Pop Culture: Nerdy Is the New Cool

Books: A Wellspring of Knowledge

“Ooh... you're gonna make it through I promise that you'll do... somehow. I wish you could see what I see now. I see a perfect plan, I see God's guid-ing hand. I see a better man, you'll be a better man. Sometimes it takes a while, sometimes it takes the trials To open up your eyes.”

I feel that this song by one of my favorite singer-songwriters is very much relevant to this pursuit of knowledge. Usually, advice passes

from mentors to mentees; it’s a fun-damental process ingrained in the human psyche. The song itself is very letter-to-me-esque, which aligns extremely well with the entire purpose of this entire project. Without giving a rambling synopsis of this song, over-all, it highlights the worst aspects of his life and offers encouragement to his younger, more emotionally vulner-able self. Even though I can’t really relate to some of the aspects of the rough times, and thus it loses some relevance with me, I still quite enjoy it;

I might even use it for my video! Usually, when I listen to music, I try to find songs with deeper meanings or lyrics, so the completely blunt nature of this song is a refreshing change of pace. Unfortunately, because of this, it’s difficult to find anything to really analyze within this song; it’s all very straightforward. As a result, it’s one of those songs that you can easily understand and relate with the first time that you listen to it, which is good for a song that is meant to be played on the radio as this song is. (209)

tion. Anyways, in my book (ha), bound reams of paper have always been a passion of mine, especially the weath-ered, ratty kind. Once upon a time, my parents and I were cleaning out a dusty bookshelf in my grandparent’s house—much like the one to the right—and I happened upon a whole stack of 1980s-era textbooks that appeared to have gone through a period of nuclear winter. Of course, being me, I pounced and started de-

vouring them, one incredibly outdated page at a time. My favorite part was the pictures—not the included dia-grams, mind you—these masterpieces ranged from crudely-drawn aspects of anatomy to incredibly feminine, cute doodles of rainbows, unicorns, and the odd love note with the i’s dotted with little hearts. Obviously, this piece isn’t tangential at all, and I certainly didn’t write this in an entire-ly stream-of-consciousness form. 216

Art is not necessarily my wheelhouse. I enjoy looking at art throughout histo-ry and learning how to identify the period, place, and reason it was paint-ed by simply looking at it. However, when I’m tasked with constructing a thorough, analytical 200-word piece explaining *insert “art” here*, I get rather anxious. Seeking deeper mean-ing in art isn’t my thing. Books, though, I can dig some meaning out of. And yes, that was a dangling preposi-

narcotics officers infiltrate the high school that is their assignment, they quickly realize that the jocks are no longer the kings of the popular crowd. The nerds themselves might not be the leaders of the social order, but I’d say that they are the penultimate group and are integral to the resolution of the plot—the arrest of the drug deal-

The fact that websites like the one I ob ta in e d th is a r ti c le f rom (howtodresslikeanerd.org) exist is a fairly strong indicator about the over-all evolution of the term “nerdy.” Even contemporary movies poke fun at this archetypal changing of the guard. In the comedy remake of the TV show 21 Jump Street, when the undercover

ers that informally control the school. In a more real-world example, the proliferation of thick-framed glasses (as liberally recommended by this website) shows that aspects of a formally downtrodden social clique are now being adopted as a trendy, fashionable accessory. It’s hard to say that a pursuit of knowledge is the

Page 5 Dan ie l Thomas Bray I I Vo lume of Thomas, On ly Ch i ld Ed i t ion

Album from which this song originates.

These are books. Old books.

cause of this sudden shift in the winds of fashion, but the much more elevated social status of nerds (shown by the popularity of TV shows like the Big Bang Theory) is an interesting about-face of our culture, nonetheless. (210)

Article Link: http://www.howtodresslikeanerd.org/its-now-cool-to-dress-like-a-nerd/

The excellence of Fishers’ public education system is a huge pull factor for our community and is the sole reason that we located where we did after upon finishing our year—my 8th grade--of traveling. Even though the out-datedness of this article is apparent (it’s from before the referendum passed) I feel that the topic is still exceedingly relevant. Hamilton South-Eastern’s focus on maintaining and strength-ening our high schools is a hearten-ing sign of awareness that education

should perpetually exist as the cor-nerstone of our unrelentingly pro-gressing world. Personally, my educational success at Fishers High School has granted me both 18 colle-giate credit hours and a full-ride scholarship to the University of Alabama, which will allow me to graduate without any student debt whatsoever. Also, according to our yearbook, approximately $5,757,283 in scholarship money was received by FHS seniors last year alone. Coupling this with the continual push

for students to take advanced place-ment (AP) and advanced college project (ACP) classes, the potential for avoiding paying outrageous college tuition costs is astronomical. With this pursuit of knowledge—even if it’s simply for financial reasons—comes a more highly educated popu-lace, which—directly or indirectly--benefits everyone in the country, and by extension, the world. (205)

Article link: http://currentinfishers.com/maintaining-excellence-pac-starts-campaign-for-senior-academies

nally announced, the buzz around our school was ridiculous; people were slamming our President for “wasting our money on such a dumb thing.” I, however, believe that this sort of action should be praised; science, after all, is the ultimate catalyst for the growth and development of our country--and more broadly--the world. Such a program as this would give us an avenue for a potential

Firstly, I would like to com-m e n d Pres ident Obama for k i c k -

starting this initiative. Honestly, I’d prefer this one-hundred million taxpayer dollars to go to a project like this instead of some inconsequential earmark lobbied for by a corrupt Congressman. When this was origi-

cure for age-related dementia, condi-tions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or even brain-related can-cers. Even though I do not agree with our President on many aspects of public policy, such as a focus on green energy which is crippled by inefficien-cy and diminishing returns on invest-ment, this focus on federal research on an aspect of our anatomy that we still know so little about is heartening.

A Focus on Education: Senior Academies

Governmental Inventive for Research: GObama™!

malleabl--er…I mean, incredibly awesome, we drove down to an ani-mal shelter and started the adoption process. Originally, my parents looked into the various dogs at the shelter and more or less had one pre-picked out; on his—the dog’s—documentation, it stated that he was a dachshund-basset hound mix. However, once at the shelter, they realized quite quickly that said paper work seemed to be rather untruthful.

Upon seeing Sir Redford, I squealed with boyish delight, not understand-ing that the pit bull-basset hound mix standing before me was supposed to be much more…dachshund-y. Still, we loved him all the same—even if our entire neighborhood was freaked out about it--even when he couldn’t do a one-point turnaround in the hallway without bonking his head against the wall or even when he’d eat copious amounts of woodchips.

A Very Special Memory: The Story of a Dopey Dog Once upon a time, in a place quite close to where I was coexisting in a mere two weekends ago, there lived a boy named Thomas, and he thor-oughly enjoyed being a loving dog owner. However, this boy decided that—as an only child—a single dog simply wasn’t enough; he decided to persuade his parents (potentially using the rhetorical triangle?) to sway them into obtaining another canine. Because my parents are

“Upon seeing Sir Redford, I squealed with boyish delight, not

understanding that the pit bull-basset hound mix standing before

me was supposed to be much more…dachshund-y.”

Page 6 Dan ie l Thomas Bray I I Vo lume of Thomas, On ly Ch i ld Ed i t ion

Expanding our knowledge of this subject by issuing research grants to our exceedingly competent research scientists is truly a pure pursuit of knowledge and has the potential for massive returns on this measly $100 million. (210)

Article Link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2013/04/02/obama-brain-initiative/2046935/

A visual example of a room included in the approved senior academy.

Pop Culture: The Hunger for Food Knowledge

Now That the Rubric is Satisfied...

This is allegedly a piece of food and is thus relevant.

As this article posits, when the term foodie was first coined, it was con-sidered to be more of an exclusive—or even an elitist—term. Nowadays, however, everybody and her mother can obtain a television slot on the ever-popular Food Network! Even I’ve been swept up in this new diffu-sion of cooking knowledge: I might not be able to tell you how to make scrambled eggs, but from watching the various programming on that channel, I can inform you how diffi-cult it is to successfully create a

flavorful and correctly-textured risotto in only 30 minutes, and how you shouldn’t ever touch the truffle oil, because it more often than not will ruin your dish. Of course, these little tidbits of knowledge will proba-bly never benefit me in any way, but because I sat down in front of the television from 8th grade onwards, I will not deny that Chopped is one of my favorite TV shows. On a more analytical note, this explosion of how-to programs shows that the com-mon man—or more likely, woman—

is interested in simply learning, regard-less of the relevance of the topic to their daily life. Not only does the idea of start-ing your own TV show capture the Ameri-can spirit of a common man becoming successful doing what he or she loves, but it also highlights the thirsty-for-knowledge aspect of our culture that has allowed this country to be the superpower it is to this day. (242)

Article link here: http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/tv-and-culture/cooking-shows-create-foodies.htm#mkcpgn=kaw1

Page 7 Dan ie l Thomas Bray I I Vo lume of Thomas, On ly Ch i ld Ed i t ion

“One’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimen-sions” -Oliver Wendell Holmes

I *had* to put some amount of clipart in this project, Cornell!

computer, which allows me to not do any work in our class and instead do it at home. Also, thank you to caffeine, which is likely the only reason I have stayed awake enough to actually finish this project.

Finally, in a category separate from people and objects be-cause with some teachers, the line is blurred (do they plug them in at night?) I’d like to thank my most influential teachers: Firstly, my mother (in teacher form) because she is the biggest reason that I can write how I do. Also, kudos are issued to Mrs. Paternoster for further fostering my critical

As I seem to have run out of required documents to be in-cluded in this senior portfolio, I’d like to include a section acknowledging those who—and what—have helped me create this project: My parents, for being wonderful consult-ants about my childhood that I so pathetically forget. Thanks also to Mackenzie Baker-Robinson for her continual encouragement that has al-lowed me to keep my motiva-tion high enough to even finish this written portion of our senior valedictory. As for my thanks to the inanimate things in my life, thank you to my

thinking skills, to Ms. Spencer for influencing me to pursue history as my passion, to Mrs. Graybeal for inspiring me to want to teach, and finally, to you, for being my favorite English teacher—over Mr. Goodwin—that I’ve had at Fishers High School. In hind-sight, I wish I’d taken ACP Literature, because I would have loved to have you as a teacher in a real class. Still, I appreciate the conversations we’ve had together throughout the semester, and I shall look back upon this course fondly, when, in college, I have a real Composition class.

Cheers,

Thomas

I’d Like to Thank the Academy...

Andy Grammer

Ben Rector

The City Harmonic

Colbie Caillat

Gungor

Ingrid Michaelson

Jack Johnson

John Mark Mcmillan

Mat Kearney

Mumford & Sons

Reliant K

Sara Bareilles

Shawn Mcdonald

Train

Bucket List: Artists I’d Like to See in Concert Wordle created from my favorite song lyrics of

each of these artists!

My wonderful parental units

I’m not sure how I did it, but I convinced her to date me!