July 16, 2009
RACHEL BOURNE: THE LIFE AND TIMES
Rachel Bourne, known as “The Fiery Redhead” by her peers and admirers, was conceived in a small town in Wisconsin and born in Sandusky, Ohio. Even as a small child, Rachel was obsessed with seeking out new information. You could often find her sprawled out on the floor of her family room with stacks of books surrounding her like the walls of a fortress. Her insatiable hunger for reading and learning new things led her to discover her true passion. It was in seventh grade when Rachel realized that her creepy fascination with grammar, thesauruses, vocabulary, the English language, narrating her life out loud in third person, fiction, and storytelling could all be combined into a single thing that was even greater than the sum of its parts, and that was writing.
During Rachel’s seventh grade year at Sandusky St. Mary Central Catholic, she tried out for her school’s Power of the Pen team ( Power of the Pen is an interscholastic writing league created for students in grades seven and eight living in the state of Ohio). At her first Power of the Pen meet, there were over a dozen schools participating, but Rachel’s confidence was not shaken. She knew she had the ability to write great things with her mighty pen. Each student participating in the writing challenge was given a topic, and then he or she had to write a story about that topic in the span of thirty-five minutes. Rachel excelled at every one of her Power of the Pen meets, and made it to the state level her eighth grade year. Out of all the eighth graders in the state, Rachel placed twenty-seventh. When asked about her experience, Rachel resolutely proclaimed that “It was one of the best days of my entire life. I shall never forget the events of that weekend for as long as I shall endure. At the time, my self-esteem level was at a record low, and after I accomplished my goal of placing in the top fifty at the Power of the Pen state meet, my self-esteem was repaired. Without the unceasing love, encouragement, and instruction I received from my family as well as my English teacher, Mrs. Chambers, I would have had that life-altering experience.” The link below shows her standing at the state meet, which took place at the College of Wooster in Ohio.
http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:LIQ2gFCrlgIJ:www.powerofthepen.org/State06.pdf+rachel+bourne+power+of+the+pen+state+wooster+27&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
Much to Rachel’s chagrin, Power of the Pen was not a high school organization, so her state meet was her last competition. However, Rachel further developed her talent for writing throughout high school. During her sophomore year at Sandusky St. Mary Central Catholic, she participated in a college-level United Stated History class, which literally kicked her butt. The teacher, Mr. Kohler, assigned several difficult and thought-provoking books to read throughout the course of the year, and every two weeks, she had to write an eight to ten page paper summarizing the chapters she read and her opinions on the material. Rachel toiled over her papers, perfecting them down to the last period at the end of her sentences. Those papers were horribly time-consuming, and although they caused some tears and even a few brain hemorrhages, it was worth it in the long run. The experience Rachel gained from the class was well worth its weight in gold, for she had further developed her writing skills, and also improved her IQ.
During Rachel’s junior year at Sandusky St. Mary Central Catholic, she was finally permitted to take Yearbook, a course that was reserved for upperclassmen only. She was surprised at how much she enjoyed fiddling around with the yearbook’s layout, pictures, captions, and informative paragraphs. She spent hours arranging the perfect color scheme, font, and photo positioning, and when she was finished, her yearbook page was a regular work of art, a Mona Lisa, if you will. She was the editor of the yearbook as well, and she loved nothing more than editing pages. Finding a misspelled word was like hitting the jackpot for Rachel.
As Rachel grew older, her interest in the political realm deepened, along with her love of writing. She became active in her political beliefs, attending political rallies, giving speeches at organizations about her opinions on current issues, and participating in United States Outlook, a current events class at her school. Her newfound fervor for politics led her to a special mock-government camp, called Buckeye Girls State. The camp lasted from June fourteenth to June twentieth 2009, and it was unlike anything Rachel had ever experienced. During Buckeye Girls State, delegates are expected to simulate a state government and elect officials to help the government function. The highest position at Buckeye Girls State is Governor. Every girl has a job, whether it be city fire chief, county commissioner, city mayor, or municipal judge. Rachel campaigned and ran for the position of the Federalist Party State Chairman, and won. She was also appointed as the Director of the Department of Youth Services in the Governor’s official Cabinet. If you would like to further learn about what Buckeye Girls State is and what the delegates do there, you can visit the following website.
http://www.buckeyegirlsstate.com/2009/
Along with politics, writing, journalism, traveling, sarcasm, and philosophizing, Rachel enjoys long walks on the beach, getting foot massages, and listening to classical music. She currently lives with her Mother Amelia, her Father Robert, her sister Audrey, and her brother Michael, all of whom she loves to pieces.
Filed by rbourne at July 16th, 2009 under Uncategorized
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