Kelly Rouse

HU2110
Personal Essay
Stephanie Carpenter, PhD
April, 9, 2014
The Capital
As I walked on the sidewalk, there was a different feeling in the air than
there was at home. I dont know if anyone else felt the same way, but I
wished I had asked. There was about twenty of us that day, all high school
seniors, on our senior trip. Walking around Washington D.C. with our eyes
open wide in awe because most of us had never been out of the state of
Michigan before. Our school was so small that we were able to have a senior
trip in the first place, which not many schools do. Our week in D.C. was
definitely something to remember. Maybe it was because of my friends, the
places we visited, or the fact that it was my last year in high school. Either
way, the moments I spent there, I will never forget.
On that sidewalk we saw many things, such as; the Washington
Memorial, the World War II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, the Reflection Pool
and the Korean War Veterans and Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Each new
memorial we visited, added on to that different feeling I had. I knew those
memorials were there in memory of the lives that were sacrificed for our
country. The feeling I was having was reality and it had finally hit me. It is
hard to picture the world when you live in such a small town for most of your
childhood. I graduated with a class of thirty-four people, which is extremely

Kelly Rouse
HU2110
Personal Essay
Stephanie Carpenter, PhD
April, 9, 2014
small. Being small had its advantages because it gave us opportunities to do
things, such as go on senior trips, but in a way I also think it sheltered us
from reality.
Growing up in the small town of Frankfort, Michigan is something that I
wouldnt change. I grew, laughed, and played with the same kids since
kindergarten with a few added and subtracted to our number over the years.
As a whole, we not only knew each other by both first and last name, but we
knew the past and potential futures of one another. The side effects of living
in the close-nit community that we did included thinking that we were
invincible to the world (as most teenagers do), and having a small-world
mentality towards everything. What I mean by small-world mentality is that
we could never grasp how different it would be to live in a city, ride the
subway to school, not know everyone in our class by their first name let
alone their last, or have acres upon acres of land to hunt and do other
sometimes ridiculousactivities on.
With graduation being only four weeks away, the senioritis kicked in
and we were ready for our senior trip to start. When we were in the airport
everyone was all excited and jittery as a new adventure was about to begin.
Our whole first day consisted of traveling. We took an airplane from Grand
Rapids to Washington D.C., over half of my class had never been on a plane

Kelly Rouse
HU2110
Personal Essay
Stephanie Carpenter, PhD
April, 9, 2014
in their lives. It was fun to observe them as they experienced what it was like
to fly. On the second day we went to the White House, and we got to go
inside of it and see a majority of the rooms and be in the same spots where
many presidents had stood before. Before that moment I never thought I
would ever be able to step foot inside the White House, and I know that my
classmates felt the same as they looked around in shock that we were
actually there. To us, the President of the United States was an important
person that we only saw on T.V., and someone we voted for every four years.
It was hard to picture that he even existed and having our feet in the White
House made everything seem more real.
Nothing felt more real to me then when we left and went to go walk
downtown to see the memorials. It had sort of a personal effect on me
because my whole family has served in the military. Both of my grandfathers
served, my mom and dad were both in the Navy, and my brother at the time
was in his last year at college in ROTC, just a few days away from becoming
an officer in the Army. Just a few months before that trip I had received a
scholarship for Army ROTC, so I was on my way to following in my familys
footsteps. When I walked along the wall of the Vietnam Memorial I thought of
my grandfather, my moms dad. As I looked at the wall, I looked for my last
name and my mothers to see if there was anyone that I could have been

Kelly Rouse
HU2110
Personal Essay
Stephanie Carpenter, PhD
April, 9, 2014
related to. I didnt see any familiar names, but I began to think about
everyones name that was on there. Over 58,000 names were on that wall1.
58,000 American lives lost in a war. Every single soul on that wall was
someones grandpa, grandma, mom, dad, husband, wife, brother, sister,
cousin, or best friend. That was the fact that really got to me. I had just
recently accepted my scholarship from the Army, and the visitation to these
memorials made me see the world in a whole new way.
I had a realization about life after that visit with my senior class. The world is
much bigger than I could have possibly imagined. There were people that I
had yet to meet, places that I had yet to see, but there were also people that
I would never get a chance to meet. I knew that I had already made the
decision to join the Army, but my senior trip to the Capitol is what made me
realize that I had made the right one. Growing up in my small town is what
led me to that sidewalk that day, and what gave me that different feeling as I
walked along the wall of names.
I observed that some of my classmates were having a similar feeling to
mine as we walked around and looked at the memorials. Maybe they werent
thinking the exact same thing as me, but I could sense that they were
thinking something because they were silent as we moved along, looking up
1 National Park Service: Vietnam Veterans Memorial
<http://www.nps.gov/vive/index.htm>

Kelly Rouse
HU2110
Personal Essay
Stephanie Carpenter, PhD
April, 9, 2014
and down the wall of names looking for ones that matched theirs too. When
we made our way away from the wall and towards the Lincoln Memorial, I
stopped to look at the reflection pool, only to notice that I didnt see a
reflection. A few of my friends and I stood there looking at it and realized
that it was under construction and the water had been drained out of it. I was
disappointed that that was the way it looked when I had been watching
Forest Gump since I was a child and always imagined someone running
through it with water splashing everywhere. That was all we small town
people had to base our visuals off of, the Internet, books, and movies. It was
just the way our brains worked. We stood and looked and joked about the
lack of water for a moment and walked away. To this day I wonder what my
reflection would have looked like, especially after I had walked through the
memorials. I like to think that everything happens for a reason. There was a
reason that there was no water in the Reflection Pool, there was a reason I
read all of those names off of that wall that day, and there was most
definitely a reason why I grew up in Frankfort, Michigan and graduated with
thirty-four people in my class. My small town led me to the profession that I
wanted to go for, and also gave me the opportunity to appreciate and realize
it while being able to see the world in a new light.