The Purpose of Slow Songs

Hey y'all,
            It's been a while since I wrote a blog, but I've been thinking about this one for a while. Like all good stories, it starts with a car ride and songs blasting out of the radio. The wrong ones, though - or so I thought. See, while I've learned to enjoy a song with a good beat and message, slow songs have never been my thing. Not the ones at dances when everyone either dances with their partner or slowly rotates in circles with their hands in their pockets trying to avoid eye contact (totally cool with those), but the ones on car rides that talk about love and loss and all that gross stuff. Whenever they came on the radio, I had a knee-jerk reaction to flip the radio station to something with a faster beat, but my mom, she of the wise reflective sort, always told me to keep it on and I would grumble a little and try to tune it out.
           
After a while, though, I realized that maybe slow songs have a place in my world. I'm a guy who loves to go fast, at pretty much everything. My mind moves a hundred miles an hour and I have a chronic inability to sit still (just ask my dad at church). I'm NOT a guy who sits down and smells the roses, who relaxes on a hammock or who takes 30 minute bathes. I'd rather be running around, playing golf or basketball or reading a good book. But what I realized was that maybe a little reflection isn't a bad thing. If you take information and process it fast, sometimes you don't get the full meaning out of it. For instance, bad things happen in life. For me, it can be natural to try and "take these in stride", to just ignore them and go on with my life as usual. However, what I've found is that it's actually better to just sit down and reflect on these things instead of push them to the side. That way, I can come to a conclusion instead of pretending they aren't happening, and they don't build up and push me to a tipping point. I've gotten into a good routine of praying at night for 5-10 minutes, and it helps me realize that these things I worry about aren't just on my shoulders and I can get them off my chest.
         
Rounding back to my point, I think a lot of slow songs offer a perfect opportunity to just have a 3 minute period of reflection, and it can help you feel better as you attack the rest of your day. I don't mean to say that my playlists are full of slow songs now, and I'll still take Glorious by Macklemore over Stay with Me by Sam Smith, but I'm starting to realize that even the fastest cars have a lower gear, and that slowing down does help your mileage: both figuratively and literally. Anyways, that's my spiel for the new year. See you around.

Mason Bonn. 
(Insert inspirational picture of reflection here)

The Crack in The Road

You see

A crack in the road

Next to a water drain

At least that's what you think it is

It's so dirty, you can barely tell

To you, it's just a byproduct of wear

The road's been driven on a million times,

You say

It's bound to crack sometime

It's not special

It's just a crack

On Green Heron Drive

The road that only leads to itself

That's what you see

But I don't see a crack

instead, I see a three point line

Tucked on the corner

Of Madison Square Garden

Of Staples Center

Of the Rose Garden

(Don't call it the moda center)

And i'm not wearing worn out Nike’s

And pushing off black asphalt

I’m in Air Jordans

And i'm tearing up the hardwood

That i'm playing on

And when the shot hits nothing but twine

I’m not Mason Bonn, making a shot

In front of only the streetlights

I’m Ray Allen, sinking the Spurs

Or Michael Jordan playing string music

burying the Jazz

And I don't just jog

To get my own rebound

At 8:30

Because it's a school night

I'm mobbed

By delirious fans

Who won't sleep

At all tonight

But you're right

It's just a crack in the road

Right?


We just started our poetry unit in English, and I'm liking it more than I thought I would. I've been in high school for about 5 months now, and its been pretty much what I expected. Knowledge gained to be passed on to future freshman: Freshman hazing is just a myth, never buy an elevator pass from a senior, just because there is an entire room with sweets doesn't mean you should go there every day, and NEVER under any circumstances look into the dark corners of rooms if you think no PDA actually applies in high school. It's been a learning experience, but it's been good. High school is really where you can choose where you're going to go with life, so don't take it lightly. I think I've been spending too much time at school. The funniest joke I've heard recently is about TED Talks, and if you think that's funny and you're not a teacher, you're in even deeper trouble than I am.
Signing off for now,
Mason B.

(By the way, the joke goes:
Q: Why was the scarecrow invited to TED?
A: Because he was outstanding in his field.
Yeah. I know.)

Summer Fever?

Hello Again!
Happy 4th of July! As many of you will know, my mind is always running, so as we celebrated the 4th as we usually do, with fireworks, food, and fun with the neighbors, I thought about all the different ways people celebrate, and how this is related to a desire to fit in. For instance, I feel right at home at our little neighborhood party, but at the Molalla Rodeo I went to with my friends a couple days earlier, I am 99.9% sure I was the only one with a Nike shirt on. While the rodeo was a completely new experience for me (one booth advertised "Are you going to heaven? 2 question test!" and a popular food item was a fry brick)  it is a way of life for others who live in the country or small towns, where more people have cowboy hats than a lawn with green grass. Why do we have a desire to fit in to our surroundings instead of branching out? Of course, this isn't the case for everyone. One of my favorites of the cowboys was from Alaska. 

In a follow-up from my last blog, I have now been to 2 dances. I don't think experience helps, though: I'm relatively sure I am still an awful dancer. That doesn't mean it wasn't fun, though: I still had a great time. One thing I learned is that dancing may be more tiring than most of the sports I do! It is now 20 days until we leave for Pinehurst, and I have been playing a TON of golf already this summer. I may have stayed in more hotels in the first weeks of summer than ever before in my life! I have loved getting to know all of my golf friends more, and we hang out now even out of our program. On a side note, North Carolina will complete my coast cycle. I wonder if the Atlantic is really warmer than the Pacific?

On that note, I find myself thinking about global warming a lot. Does anyone else worry about this? It seems like every time I turn on the Weather Channel, it's either the hottest summer ever or the least rainfall ever. This is not good, people! Find out how you can help save the planet! (This PSA comes to you from Mason Bonn). What has you guys worried? Comment!

Anyway, I leave you with my 5-item Summer To-Do list. Feel free to do any of these things

1. Go to the library and enjoy being in the presence of other voracious readers. Read as many books as possible, as well as finishing the Harry Potter series.

2. Stay in a beach house. Feel the wind in my hair and the sand in my toes. Swim in the Pacific.

3. Watch golf in the Olympics for the first time in a century, then go play golf of my own and imagine being on the world's biggest stage.

4. Make the people around me happier by keeping a positive attitude and smiling or cracking jokes.

5. Hang out with my friends. Make sure no one has their phones, because it is better to tell stories in person and enjoy each others company.

Signing off for now,
Mason B

Happy Mothers Day to the Best Mom Ever!

"Motherhood: All love begins and ends there."- Robert Browning

Today is Mother's Day. A holiday where moms around the world are celebrated for who they really are: loving, caring, patient, awesome people. I know this for sure: I have first-hand experience. My moms name is Debra Bonn. You might know her as the Wordy Nurse, and I'm lucky to be her son.

It's been almost 14 years since I made my mom a mom for the first time, and during that time she has been nothing but supportive, encouraging, loving, patient, hard-working, and everything in between while juggling having a job and having to be a mom of two children, as well as a husband. And she pulled it off, amazingly. She fed me, cared for me, rocked me to sleep, kissed me goodnight even back when I was less than 3 years old, and from what I heard of me during this time, I'm pretty sure I would have slammed the door and turned up the T.V super loud so I wouldn't have to hear me crying, screaming or otherwise causing the neighbors to call the city and complain. She has been to every golf tournament, soccer tournament, T-ball game, track meet and flag football game and nothing but encouraging even in my hardest days. She has taught me so many valuable life lessons, such as patience and enjoying the little things in life, that I don't know what I would do if I didn't have her by my side. She's bailed me out in countless situations I've brought upon myself, and she stood by my decisions, even if she didn't support them. And what did I do? Screamed, cried, begged for more, more, more, argued, disobeyed and brought my dear mother to tears numerous times, when she did nothing to deserve it. I've had days where I come out of school just wanting to argue for no reason, and she still doesn't get mad at me when I know I deserve it. And that's just her home life.

I don't think people realize how hard it is to be a nurse. Every day, you see people, learn their stories, grow an attachment to them, and know that you will probably never see them again. Well, sometimes you see them again, but its not usually a good thing when the nurses are on a first-name basis with you... But I can't imagine going to work, growing a personal connection to someone, building a friendship to them, then going home and coming to work the next day and learning their life has ended. I'm certain I couldn't stay professional and do my job after that. And can you imagine seeing someone die feet away from you? The medical profession is not only hard physically, it might be the hardest mentally as well. You know with every medication, every IV, every move you make, your patients life is literally In your hands. I would break from the pressure. I couldn't be a nurse or doctor for a day, much less years. And she handles this AND the drama-filled middle school years? That takes an insane level of talent only few have the skill to pull off.
 So Happy Mothers Day to a mom beyond comparison, one who when I really think about what she has done for me, leaves me speechless.

Do You Remember The Time...?

WORD OF THE MONTH: Philophobia  (Fear of falling in love)

Life through the mind of a teenager

Hello. My name is Mason Bonn. I am 13 years old and live in Oregon. Now, you might be wondering, How can a teenager have space in his deeply complex brain to write a blog? And what could it possibly be about that appeals to all ages? I certainly don't want to read a blog about middle school girls! Well don't worry. I actually do think about other things than food and girls. Even if it is mostly golf, which, by the way, is a high-contact sport! Your club contacts the ball, your foot contacts the ground, over and over again!  So anyway, while this blog may not be your typical blog, It will (hopefully) answer the decade-old question; What in the world was he thinking?! That’s right, this blog is solely dedicated to explaining what goes on in the mind of a teenager while he sits on the couch with a blank look on his face, staring at the TV. Truth is, it's probably more important than you think.

So, why do I want to write a blog? Well, I had two main motives. The first was my mom's blog, which I've always thought was awesome. I’m constantly pestering her to write a book. (http://wordynurse.blogspot.com/)  The second? It comes from a book my sister lent me. (give me a break here, guys. I get bored on 5 hour car rides.)  In it,  a girl pours out her emotions online and receives nothing but positive affirmations. If only the real world was like that. In the real world, everyone's too busy trying to be perfect to care about other people's feelings. I blame social media. Which basically makes me a hypocrite, considering I currently own 2 Instagram accounts. Anyway, back to the point. So I decided to write a blog. Great. Awesome. So what's it about? Oh, right. I can't just have an empty blog. So I dug deep and thought, What do I have to tell that people would care about? I’m guessing there aren't enough people out there in the cyberworld that would care about youth golf, and I’m guessing there’s already one devoted to the utter greatness of pizza, so what's left? Oh wait, I know! What if I wrote about Us? Of course by us, I mean the most mysterious, lazy, and least talkative age group of all time. Drumroll please.... Teenagers! This was perfect because every parent who had ever had a child between the ages of 13-19 at some point looked at them and thought, What in the world are they thinking about? And of course it hadn't been done before because, as I already mentioned, teenagers are too busy trying to be perfect, acting mad at their parents or wondering when their next meal is. They don’t have the time to write a blog, and don't want to anyway. Except me. Truth is, I really do love to write, and I think it would be great to share my writing. Anyway, hang with me. I’m new at this. But I know I'll have fun. I just hope you'll get as much pleasure reading my words as I get writing them.