Month: July 2025

 

 

Teens lives filled with adventures.

Teen Talk with Braiden Eilers

 

Parlez -vous francais?  Well, Inglemoor senior Josh Taylor certainly does.  He spent a year in an exchange program in Meise, Belgium, north of Brussels.

“Taking chances and seeing new things, “is why Josh wanted to do the exchange program.

Also, it was a different opportunity where he got to experience a new culture and speak a new language.

Josh had three years of French before going on his adventure.  He said the language was very, very hard to understand, and that made his classes very difficult as well.

He stayed in Belgium from August to July.  It wasn’t until Christmas that he became good at the French language.

What was his best memory from Belgium?  “The first night I dreamt in French, that was really cool, he said.

He just woke up one day and everything clicked.  And that day he went to school and could actually communicate and understand everything.

He didn’t get very homesick because he prepared himself for what he was going into—11 – 12 months without seeing family or friends.

He did miss his family, especially on holidays and on his birthday, but he kept a great attitude and wasn’t negative about it.

“The people there were very willing to talk to someone else,” Josh said.

‘You say hello and good-bye to everyone with a kiss on the cheek.   So, it gave you personal contact with them. It made it easier to be open with them after getting to know them.”

I think Josh puts his whole trip into perspective for us when he says “I wouldn’t trade anything in the world for this experience.”

If you want to learn more about doing an exchange program, you can contact AFS, American Field Service, the organization that Josh went through, or just talk to your language teacher.  I’m sure they have all the information that you need!

Note: Teen Talk was my daughter Braiden.

 

She was in High School, and I had a column, Overdone and Undercooked.

 

Today Braiden is an Emergency Doctor.

Teens Lives Filled with Adventures

Teen Talk with Braiden Eilers

 

Alison Edwards seems to be a pretty normal senior at Inglemoor High School.

But how many seniors can say they have been to boot camp.

This 17 -year-old went to Army Reserve Basic Training in South Carolina for nine weeks this last summer. I talked to her to see what her experience was really like.

‘It was something that other people haven’t done, it was an adventure,” Edwards said.  “And …you get something to fall back on when you enter the adult world.  It also doesn’t hurt that you get paid to do it!”

Her typical day was getting up at about 4:45 a.m. sometimes 4:30 to do drill, followed by an hour of running, sit-ups, and pushups.  Next was breakfast, and then an all-day trip, which was basically marching with weapons and ruck-sacks.

You have lunch outside, standing up, and it was not very appetizing.

It could be hot dogs, or chicken soup, and it would all taste the same,” she said.”  After going home, you shower then do more exercises/training review the day, and the go to bed at about 9:30 to 1O:30pm.

Her best memory of boot camp was coming home.  She grew up during this experience, and she earned respect and how to give it.  One the downside, Alison’s worst experience was having to go through the gas chamber.

In the gas chamber you learn what it is like to be the enemy. “All your pores just open up, your skin burns, it’s hard to breathe, and your nose runs, “she explained with a shudder.

When asked if she would go through it again, se said she would, but if it was a choice, definitely not.

Basic training made a big impact on her life as you can see.  It also gave her stability for civilian jobs, and she got to earn all about computers while she was there.

She still trains once a month – on the first weekend of each month at Fort Lewis.  Also, twice a year she and the other reserves are tested on how fast they can run two miles, and how many sit-ups and push ups-they can do.

Are you someone who is interested in the adventure Alison took?

If you are 18 and up , go and sign up! If you are 17, you have to get a guardian’s consent.  Then in the summer, between your junior and senior years, you go train like Alison did.  Then next summer you go to advanced individual training for 12 weeks in the south.

Are you up to it!

 

Note: Teen Talk was my daughter Braiden.  She was in High School, and I had a column, Overdone and Undercooked.

 

Today Braiden is an Emergency Doctor.