When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Gets Going
A retrospective on perseverance, written by a 10 year old...
What does fun mean to you?
This is the guiding question for episode 2 of “Nathanael Philip Mosher Has Friends”, which will air on Friday, January 17. In it, we explore what’s in the way of fun, and at the end of the show a very special surprise happens (hint: it rhymes with “opposal” and “disposal” and is very close to the word “prom-posal”). Hmmmm, still doesn’t “ring” a bell? Maybe you need to surrender and “get on your knees” and find out.
To get a taste of what the show entails, check out episode 1 here:
Nathanael Philip Mosher Has Friends
We also released a song from the latest show called, “Back In High School”. It’s on all streaming platforms. You can listen to it on Spotify here:
It’s very clear to us that are audience is becoming those who are exceptionally gifted, yet exceptionally sensitive. Truly, I tell you, in God’s eyes, it’s true of us all, but the Enemy seeks to devalue our gifts while overvaluing our sensitivity. We shrug away from the pain while simultaneously shrugging off our giftings. And then the Enemy wins.
Patience is long suffering and it is the ability to cultivate resilience so that we can keep going despite the pain we might endure because of our exceptional sensitivity. But it hurts. That’s why we perservere.
“Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” - Various thinkers, most likely of Navy Seal origin Patience is your ability to withstand suffering and suffering can refine you. It can make you smooth. To be patient does not mean to move slow, it just ends up feeling that way. When you are patient, things slow down, your focus narrows, and the pathway in front of you becomes clearer than ever before. Then your path becomes smooth and you can go faster than ever before.
In the show, Nathanael retells his experience as a resident assistant at the “Center For Talented Youth” summer camp at Johns Hopkins University in Batlimore. His patience and resilience was tested, but most of all, he learned to truly and utterly, persevere.
His mom found an old piece of writing he wrote (with her help) back in 5th grade. It was an Exit Portfolio in three parts and he read it during the show to punctuate the act breaks of the story and show:
It flows as follows:
Exit Portfolio 1: a reflection on his elementary school experience, real
Exit Portfolio 2: a reflection on his middle school experience, imagined and projected into the future
Exit Portfolio 3: a reflection on his high school experience, imagined and projected into the future, and yet more aptly revealed as a clear indication of what was yet to come.
Here it is:
EXIT PORTFOLIO
By Nathanael P. Mosher
June 2006, Room 11, Ms. Lindsay Pomerantz
2006 Exit Portfolio #1
Nathan Mosher Room 11, Ms. L. Pomerantz
Over my past six years at El Rincon Elementary School, there are a lot of things I accomplished. Each one helped me get through school successfully. I grew and learned something new each year. The past years prepared me for Middle School in many ways. Each teacher taught something new that will prepare me for Middle School.
In kindergarten, I got in trouble for talking too much in class. I was a little bored at times and would shout out answers. My teacher, Ms. Bertie, was not pleased and I soon learned to behave better. I learned to be neater in my writing.
In first grade, I made a best friend named Justin Lee who is Korean. We had play dates and he was a good friend. Mrs. Glusac, my first grade teacher, impacted my life. She asked me to become a student teacher sometimes and I experienced a lot of critical thinking. Lots of challenges helped me bring up scholarly attributes like exercising my mind. She corrected me a lot which helped me excel in many subjects. My report card showed my accomplishments when I got an excellent report card and my parents were happy. I got mostly A's and all 4's on my report card and I was very proud of myself.
In second grade, I had Mrs. Sires as my teacher. She was an energetic teacher who was generous but strict in some ways. She gave us a reasonable amount of work along with parties for our deserving behavior. She made us take valuable notes which helped our class get good test scores. We did many projects and one of the favorite projects I was assigned was an oral report on Bravery. I did St. Francis of Assisi as my subject. I dressed up like him to portray his personality and I learned a lot about him. I was proud of my accomplishments as a second grader and I was prepared for third grade the next year.
The next year, I was assigned an intelligent and experienced teacher named Mrs. Gallegos, who had dealt with many third grade classes throughout her years of teaching. Mrs. Gallegos knew a lot about teaching and was wise with her teaching methods. She taught us moral lessons about life and made our heart grow inside. We had many projects including a diorama about a landmark in Culver City. I did a restaurant named Johnny's Pastrami and I learned much about it. We did two projects about Indians including another diorama about a tribe. We also made totem poles to represent ourselves. I liked third grade a lot and I will cherish my third grade memories.
One of my absolute favorite grades was fourth grade. Not only did my teacher, Mrs. Ames, teach me to the fullest but she pushed me to go beyond fourth grade expectations. She told me about the Center for Talented Youth test, sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University. This is a national test for fifth and sixth graders who score over 95% on the state tests. I took it in January of 2006 while in fifth grade. I received an invitation to an award ceremony on June 3, 2006, for scoring a national percentile rank of 99% on a seventh and eighth grade math test! Mrs. Ames gave me valuable information to fuel me to rocket through fourth grade and to help me get through fifth grade.
In fifth grade, I was assigned to Ms. Pomerantz, who is on her first year teaching as a non-substitute teacher. I accomplished many things including what I consider to be my three biggest accomplishments. I became Chess Champ for using logical reasoning against many opponents in Chess Tutors. I therefore became the chess team captain leading this year's Grand Match Gala (GMG) tournament against many other schools. 1 Our school won the first place in the tournament! I also qualified to be included in our school's very.st Spelling Bee. I won 1st place at El Rincon and represented our school at 1 the first District-wide Spelling Bee, along with three other El Rincon contestants. I did my best but didn't win in our city's spelling bee. I gained valuable experience.
My biggest accomplishment in fifth grade is getting elected as President of Student Council. This helped me improve my leadership skills for future situations, including Middle School. I was elected into Student Council by my class and elected president by the Student Council. I became respected in school by my fellow peers and I made my family proud. My experience with Student Council has made my last year at El Rincon special.
Being in the Student Council has impacted my life and others very much. It has helped our Student Council manage priorities and in return, has helped the school. My family is proud of me because I gained an experience to lead the school and have fun doing it. Our Student Council has done many things that have helped our school grow. While in the Student Council, I learned to choose my priorities well and be more organized. I had to learn to work and team up with others, and cooperate with a large group of people. My experience is fun and will help me a lot in Middle School.
I've formed close friendships over my years at El Rincon. My closest friends to name a few are Shon Williams, Kyle Miller, Justin Garcia and Dawit Tefera. I will always cherish my memories with them and hope to remain friends beyond El Rincon.
El Rincon Elementary School has enhanced my learning experience and led me to fulfill my dream of becoming a great student. Elementary school has been an experience that I will never forget. At El Rincon, I have gained a very enriching education, wonderful friends, valuable life experiences, memories of caring and talented teachers, and as I leave, I feel very prepared for Middle School and beyond.
2006 Exit Portfolio # 2
Nathan Mosher
Middle school will be a new experience with many challenges. There will be new teachers, new classrooms, a bigger building, and new people. There will be more rooms and hallways to get used to, so there is a high probability of getting lost in the school campus. There will be many things to learn, lots of people to meet and choices to make. In Middle school, homework is assigned by six different teachers. All of these things make Middle school seem pretty challenging.
Setting goals can help me rise to the challenges and to meet my goals in Middle school. It is also necessary to set goals in order to achieve the expectations of my teachers, parents and community. My top three goals in Middle school are to stay organized, to get into the Scholars program, and to bring up new scholarly attributes.
To me, being organized means keeping my notes clean and easily accessible, prioritizing my time, and managing my activities and schoolwork. Sometimes I have messy notes and backpack. I need to make sure that my notes are legible, filed in an organized fashion and easy to find when I need them. Since I might be assigned large quantities of homework, I need to get into the habit of saving information for future reference. If I'm not organized, there is a high risk of losing or forgetting my homework. This can adversely result in low grades. As much as I enjoy schoolwork, I also like to be involved in sports, piano lessons, other programs outside of school, and watch my favorite TV shows. By prioritizing my schedule, I can organize my day to accommodate and manage my activities without sacrificing the quality of my grades at school. Being organized will have a very positive impact on my life in Middle school.
In Middle school, there is a Scholars Program designed to accommodate intellectually advanced students. I would very much like to get into this program. Scholars program can help me exercise my growing intellect and hopefully provide me with extra challenge to occupy my free time. Middle school is a chance to go farther on the path to becoming a scholar. The term scholar means an educated person who is a specialist in a particular branch of learning. To be a part of the Scholars program is important to me because I don't want to be sitting around at home, finished with homework, and doing nothing. I want to be continually challenging myself.
Gaining new scholarly attributes will help me not only in Middle school but in the future. Being a scholar is being a highly educated person. Being educated can help you to earn the opportunity to have a great job and also not struggle to maintain good grades throughout high school and college.
To recap, my top three goals in Middle school are to stay organized, to get into the Scholars program, and to bring up new scholarly attributes. Meeting these three goals will help me a lot in Middle school.
There are many other scholarly attributes that will help me meet the goals I set for Middle school. I need to have as many attributes as I can to become a scholar and I'll need to develop them quickly. I sometimes don't ponder enough on subjects so I don't understand them. If I want to understand something in Middle school, I'll need to think and ponder more deeply. These are only a few scholarly attributes I can develop but as I grow I will get closer and closer to becoming a scholar.
A lot of times my strengths are not enough. When I need help to accomplish something, my immediate community can help me. This includes my friends, my family, and my teachers. I can ask teachers to help me with schoolwork that I don't understand; they will surely help me because that's their job. My family is an integral and important part of the community that I can reach out to, all the time. They can give me helpful advice with school, different or difficult situations, problems that may arise, and especially challenges associated with teenage life. My friends can help me get motivated when I am acting lazily. They can cheer me on to work harder, to be proactive and not procrastinate, to support and encourage me when I need them..
Middle school is a very different experience compared to El Rincon. Thinking about goals to set and ways to improve work habits is an important way to prepare. Developing scholarly attributes is another thing to think about. Becoming a scholar means you're a good student and you think about things in different ways. I want to become and act like a scholar all the time. In Middle school, there are a lot of new things to get used to, more things to manage and prioritize. Fortunately, I can always depend on my community to help me where I need them the most.
2006 Exit Portfolio # 3
Nathan Mosher
This high school graduation, I have been chosen to receive the PERSEVERANCE award. This award was given to me for not giving up in all the challenges I have gone through over the past years. My parents are so proud of me for winning this award and I am just as happy with myself as they are. Everybody clapped for me when I went up to receive the award on stage. It was a new experience being in front of so many people. I wanted to thank my family and I wanted to share with everyone the whole story of my success. When I walked up, I had a chance to share my memories of persevering in all my years of school.
In Elementary School, I learned from my teachers how to not give up. I first learned what perseverance meant when I was in kindergarten. I read a story entitled "Perseverance" which is about a boy who never gave up. My teacher explained the story's moral lesson was to never give up and to not be a quitter. I soon learned that she was right when I joined organized sports at the age of 5. It is very possible to lose games. If I just gave up whenever I lost a game, there would not be any hope for winning.
When I first joined a basketball team, I was prepared and ready to play. I knew I would make mistakes but I would also learn from them. There were times I shot the ball in the wrong basket and worse, maybe even score for the opponent team. My team still cheered me on and it made me happy. I didn't give up even if we were losing by 50 points but I continued to try my best. Also when I started to play soccer, I tripped and fell and it hurt a lot. There were times when I couldn't get up and let my team down. However, most times I got back up and stole the ball. I experienced playing different positions in the field through rotations, and wherever I was placed, I never gave up. I have been playing baseball for the Culver City National Little League for the third year. This year, I am a pitcher for my team and it is very hard work. There is a lot of pressure for me to pitch well so I can strike out the opponent team. At one of our last 2 games, we were losing 7 to 3 but we came back and scored more. Even though we lost in the end with a score of 10 to 8, we didn't lose hope and worked hard through the entire game. We did win a couple of days after that with a very tight score of 7 to 6.
There were many goals I set to get through high school. I tried my best to persevere in every thing and every situation. I promised to never give up and it was very hard. Many people supported me but it was mainly my family and friends. My mom and dad encouraged me to do my very best at everything and they said I will do well at anything if I try. My friends also encouraged me to "Just do it!" and to keep trying. Their words of wisdom helped me in school and sports, and gave me knowledge on how to persevere.
here were three steps I took in order to get this award. First, I set goals and envisioned myself persevering. I set goals to do all my work even when I didn't understand the work expected of me. Next, I asked for help on how to persevere and learn more about anything I didn't comprehend. I read books like the one I read in kindergarten and I also asked for help from my parents. Lastly, I tried to persevere in school, in sports and in everything that I do. All these three steps helped me persevere in everything. I still practice these steps and I am happy that I learned what kind of a person "perseveres" in all that he does.
I am so happy that now I am on the stage and I have this PERSEVERANCE medal in hand. All my work throughout high school and every year of school paid off. I have truly learned what it means to persevere, how to persevere, and why it is good to persevere. Everyday in my life, I will make mistakes and sometimes fail. However, if I rebound back from those mistakes or try again, I know can do anything. Nothing will be impossible. I will live by the motto "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going!" I want to be remembered as a "tough" person, someone who won't quit but perseveres under any circumstance!
This has been a PPDK Production. We invite you to Press Play on Your Purpose.
Sincerely Yours,
The Paraprosdokianist
