My Life

Me, Ben Reckmeyer

Sometimes, everyone can just blend in with the crowd, and finding individuality is difficult, if not impossible in some cases. Individuality should be something that each person should value beyond measure because it allows him or her to identify with himself or herself, and know their own self better. I am glad that I am different than other people, but not so much that I can’t relate to anyone. My life started out pretty normally. I was born in Bellevue Nebraska, and lived there until the end of the second grade. I attended St. Mary’s School, which is where my mom went to school when she was a kid. I had a pretty good life. When I was in Pre-K, I found out that I would be getting a sister. However, my sister wasn’t gotten in the conventional way. My mom and Dad flew over to China to adopt a baby girl. Having an adopted sibling is uncommon, but as far as sisters go, I’m glad I have her. Moving ahead to second grade, near the end of the year, I found out that my dad had gotten a new job. However, this job didn’t just come with a new office and a pay raise. My family packed up and took a nine hour plane ride to Germany. This was probably one of the best experiences of my lives, especially in culture. We traveled a lot on vacations to the majority of the European countries. We lived in a great house and I went to a great school. When we decided to move back in the middle of sixth grade, I was sad, but I was also ready to be back in the U.S. for my middle and high school years. I went back to St. Mary’s where almost all of my old friends still attended, as well as some new friends. I stayed at St. Mary’s until graduation, and still fondly remember my days there. My parents had decided on sending me to Creighton Prep, and I am really glad that they chose this school for me. Freshman year was challenging because nobody I had graduated with in 8^th grade went to Prep, but I survived, and even excelled. Sophomore year has been even better.  One of my favorite pastimes is music. It has always been a huge influence on my life since my Grandpa on my dad’s side has been conducting and playing music for over 55 years, and everyone on that side of the family plays some form of instrument. I played piano for a while, but I started playing clarinet in sixth grade in Germany, and did very well. When we moved back to Nebraska, I was involved in a few bands in my middle school years before settling on taking private lessons. When entering Prep I got into the varsity band, but I was challenged musically for the first time. Since picking up the pace in my practicing, I have managed to do well at the high school level too. I think I have had  pretty good life so far, and hopefully, it will just keep getting better.