Have you ever tried to find two snowflakes exactly alike? If you have, you know it’s impossible. No two snowflakes are ever identical. The reason for this is a mystery that excited Wilson Bentley enough to dedicate his life to “saving” every snowflake he could.Born on February 9, 1865 in Jericho, Vermont, Wilson Bentley loved snow. He was fascinated by the intricate designs of each snowflake. If only he could find a way to save them so that others could enjoy their beauty, too. He tried drawing snowflakes but they always melted before he finished. When he was 17, his parents took all their savings to buy him a special camera with a microscope. Now he could photograph snowflakes!Willie spent a whole winter in a shed in his backyard, catching snowflakes on a black tray. His first try at photographing snow all ended in failure. He experimented that winter and the next, before finally succeeding.Now everyone could see the beauty of each snow crystal, unique designs that would never happen again. When he was sixty-four, his book, Snow Crystals, was published. Wilson Bentley, the Snowflake Man, had given a great gift to the world.In Willie’s hometown of Jericho, Vermont, you can still read the monument dedicated to “Snowflake” Bentley, Jericho’s world-famous snowflake authority.
Did you know that some people don’t do their reading assignments? It’s shocking, but it’s true. Some students don’t even read short texts that they are assigned in class. There are many reasons for this. They may be distracted or bored. They may be unwilling to focus. They may be unconfident readers. Whatever the reason, it has to stop today. Here’s why.Reading stimulates your mind. It is like a workout for your brain. When people get old, their muscles begin to deteriorate. They get weaker and their strength leaves them. Exercise can prevent this loss. The same thing happens to people’s brains when they get older. Brain power and speed decline with age. Reading strengthens your brain and prevents these declines.You can benefit from reading because it provides knowledge, and knowledge is power. Therefore, reading can make you a more powerful person. You can learn to do new things by reading. Do you want to make video games? Do you want to design clothing? Reading can teach you all this and more. But you have to get good at reading, and the only way to get good at something is to practice.Reading is good for your state of mind. It has a calming effect. It can lower your stress levels and help you relax. You can escape from your troubles for a moment when you read, and it’s a positive escape. The benefits of reading far outweigh those of acting like a stupid person. So do yourself a favor: the next time you get a reading assignment, take as much as you can from it. Squeeze it for every drop of knowledge that it contains. Then move on to the next one.
You would like to take good photographs of real-life situations, but you have few ideas for pictures. Just look around you; the everyday world is full of scenes being played by an ever-changing group of actions. The realistic approach to photograph has been perfected in the past by such masters as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Bill Brandt. But while you can learn a great deal from looking at the work of others, any success you can hope to achieve in this field has to come from developing an individual approach.The main requirement for any photographer has little to do with technical matters. You must develop an appreciation of the world around you and the people who live in it, and you should learn to notice when a situation may develop to a point where you will be able to take a good picture. Those who have searched for this happy state will be prepared when that moment arises, and will simply raise their camera quickly and shoot. Others who are not so aware will be struggling with camera cases and lens caps.Not every shot is going to be a winner. If you look at the work of even the best photographers, you will notice dozens of pictures have had to be taken only because they lead up to the successful shot of a situation that the photographer has obviously been observing through the lens. There is seldom more than one shot which stands out, and there is just one point where it all comes together and you catch that precious moment.
Young people today are confronted by many new choices and where to live is one of the most important of them. Just a couple of generations ago, the majority of people spent their entire lives in the town in which they were born. There are indisputable advantages to that choice. Family connections tend to remain close. Friendships grow and flourish over time. One’s sense of identity is strongly rooted in familiar places, and the memories of childhood remain comfortably present as people grow to maturity. Like trees that are strongly rooted in one place, some people develop and become successful. The continuity of the sun rising over the same mountain every morning or doing one’s shopping at the same neighborhood grocery store year after year creates a sense of belonging.Nowadays, this kind of stability has not only become harder to achieve, but its worth has also been questioned. Career, education, even a strong desire for adventure all work together to motivate many people to get out and experience a larger, livelier world. Many young adults can think of no worse fate than to be permanently “stuck” in the town in which they grew up. They value the life lessons that come from change and from altogether new experience. They are curious about the next challenge. And they follow these visions of a “more exciting” life with satisfaction. As you think ahead to the life choices you will be facing in a few short years, consider which of these two lifestyles seems most appealing to you today.