Senior Year Mission Statement
Random picture from Dad and I’s trip to Arkansas.
My name is Ben Allen Honeycutt,
When I reminisce about my childhood, two passions still flourish in my memory, these are my dreams to become a writer, and my dreams to become a volcanologist.
I often find myself thinking back to my childhood when I examine who I am as I enter my senior year, and the person I want to be as I move forward. I had a lush imagination as a child, and I often spent my recesses creating wild adventures within another world. I was blessed to have parents who never attempted to tame my wild imagination, instead, encouraging me to pursue those passions and cultivate them into writing and film.
It has long been a dream of mine to become a writer, however, it was not until high school that I finally began to pursue this passion. I have completed one novel, and attempt to write as often as I possibly can. I intend to take courses in college which could further enrich my writing abilities. I love the freedom of writing because the work is something that is truly connected to who I am, rather than something I was forced to do to earn a letter on a slip of paper. I have also been enlightened by how much I enjoy from the act of writing itself, rather than the end result. Even if I never live to see a day where I become a published author, I firmly believe that I will find satisfaction by the stories I have created.
I was never really afraid of anything (except wasps. Their only purpose is to bring pain and misery and nothing will convince me otherwise) until I watched a movie known as “Volcano.” I was too young when I watched it, and images from the movie still stands vivid within my memory. In one scene a man fell and quickly melted within spewing lava. Being six years old at the time, I blindly accepted the movies’ poor special effects and became terrified that lava would spew from the furious volcanoes found within the mountain rich region of Kansas.
The fear that I would be engulfed in a stream of lava had such an effect on me that I began to vigorously read everything I could find about Volcanoes. After quickly disposing of the books within the Inman elementary library, I began to locate books in the town’s public library. In the span of a few months, my initial fear of volcanoes flourished into an ambition to become a volcanologist. While I no longer possess this aspiration within me, I feel that this experience was immeasurably valuable to the person I am becoming. I believe this to be true because of my current beliefs that it is unwise to fear something which is unexplained, and that a person possesses the ability champion any kind of fear. As a child, I realized that my former fear of Volcanoes was foolish after I became knowledgeable on the risks that they presented, and the distance my home town was from the nearest active volcano.
My childhood passion for both writing and volcanoes provided much of the foundation for who I truly am today. My aspirations to become a volcanologist helped me find my process for overcoming fear, while my passion to become an author made me realize the true happiness that can be found in just the act of chasing a dream. Together, these passions helped me realize that in my time upon this planet, I never want to waste a moment stuck in fear, and that I want to put each day towards making a difference upon this earth.
My name is Ben Allen Honeycutt, and I hope to one day change the world.