I began walking on a path through a garden. This was not just any typical flower garden. It is filled with meaning. On the walkway sat engraved bricks with different names. They represent the people that helped create or gave support to the Sunken Gardens. These names were filled with wonder and mystery, just like the flowers that sat in the garden.

The first name you come across on the path is “Bruce H. Fisher Papa Bear 46-04.” In front of his name stood giant elephant leaves. The leaves are big enough that I could wrap one around my head. They have a feel of a plastic, like the fake plants that you can buy from the store. They have every shade of green in them, but there was mostly a dominant light green tint. When you move in closer, the leaves have little bulging veins all over them. They look as if they are made of marble, except they are green. Each of these enormous leaves is attached to a long dark purple stem. The stems are soft and have a rubbery feel to them. When you bend them, they spring back into place. There is only one leaf to a stem. The leaves are clustered in groups of 10 to 30 leaves in a group. They have a strange and unknown smell, but it seems so familiar to me.

After taking a close look at the elephant plants, I moved further along the path and came across the name “Laura Marie Peterson.” In front of her name was a small pink flower. This flower had hot pink petals. When I touched them, they felt like they had little whiskers on them like my cat Smokey. On the inside of the flower is a dark brick red inner circle. On the innermost part of the flower is a little ball of yellow, which looked like a little fuzz ball. The flower could fit in the palm of my hand. There were only a few of these delicate flowers. These flowers shared their glory with a purple plant that sat below them. This purple plant is very small, no higher than my shin. The plant had a shade of royal purple to it. The leaves on it are folded in half and look like little birds soaring through the air. They have a feel of rubber like the gloves doctors wear before performing surgery. They have a smell of sweet plums.

As I moved along the path some more I came across the brick “In loving memory Laurie D. Fritzer.” In front of her name are morbid looking plants. There are no other ones like it in the whole garden. They look like giant weeds. In the mix of all the colors in the garden, these bland white and sickly green plants sit out of place, yet no other plant could have sat in the same location. The white on the leaves makes it look like they have been frosted over. They have the feel of a scruffy beard that needs a good shave. They have the smell old wilted leaves, like the ones you rake up in your yard in the fall. Once you get over the feel and look of these deathly weeds, they begin to grow on you. You can see their role in the garden.

As I walked farther, I came across the name “The Reed Family.” In front of their name stood a motionless pond with only the ripples of swimming fish coming to the surface. Beautiful periwinkle lilacs surround the pond. The lilacs create a fence around the pond to separate it form the garden. In the pond, there were giant stones and large Koi fish. Above the water were lily pads and a single white flower. This white flower looked lonely. It was sticking out of the pond magically. It had a long green stem and the flower had white petals. The flower swayed back and forth as the fish swam near it. This was probably the most interesting flower because it was not in an ordinary flowerbed or any other planter. The flower just sat in the middle of the pond.

As I moved on, I found the last name on the path “Carry and Mary Arth, Laura, Susie, Bill.” The first thing I noticed on this path was a bed of flowers with the colors white, purple, and gold. These flowers all felt damp, like it had just rained. The colors of the petals were at extremes of each of the colors. There was a very bright purple that looked surreal in the sun. Then there was a blinding white that made me feel ashamed when I touched it, like I was going to get it dirty. The gold looked as if it was touched by King Midas himself. This bed looked different in the garden because there were so many colors in one place. In the rest of the garden the colors were broken up, but here they were in one outstanding group. These flowers have an extreme smell just like the colors. My nose started to tingle like I was going to sneeze. I could almost taste the pollen.

As I walked on, I came across a statue that was named “Rebecca at the well.” Next to the name were baby blue flowers with yellow centers. These flowers were tiny. The petals were the size of the fingernail on my thumb. The baby blue flowers had the smell of fresh water, because they grew in the middle of a waterfall. The flowers sat on large boulders alongside the fall. They looked as if they were on a high mountain in the middle of a large open plateau. These flowers made me feel like I was in another place, like in the countryside near a river. I jumped the gate surrounding the waterfall to feel the little flowers. They had a feel of red velvet, like the red shoes my little sister use to wear.

The sunken gardens are a great asset to Lincoln. The gardens may have no practical use, but it is filled with exploration and wonder. You can see teenagers getting their senior pictures done, an old couple taking a stroll looking at the plants, and newly weds giving their vows to each other. These are just some of the few uses of the gardens.

I use the gardens to find peace for myself. The gardens are a great symbol of who we are as a state. The gardens are filled with so many different things, but they all come together to form something beautiful. The gardens show all of the people of Nebraska as individuals. The flowers are a representation of the people they sit next to on the path. Each brick signifies an individual. Each flower has its own characteristics that make it stand out from the rest. Some flowers smell sweet. Some have an old wilted smell. The flowers in the garden make me question what is real beauty. While the morbid looking plants are not my favorite, they are beautiful in their own way.

Everyone one of the persons listed on the bricks has his or her own distinct identity. Some people are short. Some people are tall. People from all races can come and live together just like the flowers in this garden no matter what they look like or how they fit in. We can all find our role in the garden of life.

This video reminded me a lot of Nebraska. I believe college football is a big part of this state. This state in many cases is defined by its football. This video sparks visualizations about this state. It reminded me of going downtown on Saturdays and seeing almost every person wearing a red shirt. It brought back memories of taking three hours just to get through downtown Lincoln on game day. This reminded me of all the games I have watched with friends and family. I thought of all the Friday nights I went to the store to get supplies for the big game the next day. With all of the spectacular catches and excellent runs, this video has made me want to jump out of my chair and try to recreate these plays in the middle of the library. This video made me scream at my computer. Run! It reminded me of how emotional people get when they watch any kind of sport on television. It made me think of the time I went to my first football game with my dad. He explained all the rules of the game to me as we watched. After the game, he bought me my first jersey. Watching this video made me feel proud to be a Nebraskan. As good as all the memories and thoughts are of Nebraska football, football is sometimes all people can care about in this beautiful state. This video shows great accomplishments, but it also shows how obsessed some people can get. Our state is sometimes only recognized by football. In one of the interviews, someone said that the work ethic of the players was built by the work ethic of the people. I believe that this is a good quote. It made me feel like football may be over done, but it was built to be great by the great people in our state.

When I was thinking about this assignment, I was not sure what place to select as a place in the public sphere of Lincoln. I was riding home from work and I drove by it. It suddenly came to me at a stoplight. The Sunken Gardens would be a wonderful place to write about. It is a place I often walk around there to clear my head. This is a beautiful and peaceful place to visit. When you first pull up the smell of flowers hits you. It is the smell of a fresh bouquet just purchased from the local market. The smell is strong and usually makes me sneeze, but it never makes me want to leave. When I am walking around the gardens I see different tiers with many flowerbeds on them. I am not sure what kinds of flowers are in the beds, but I can remember how they look. There is one kind that is not even a flower. It is some kind of plant. The plant looks like giant elephant ears. I have to laugh every time I see them. There are also big rose bushes. These are my favorite because they smell so good. It reminds me of the warm feeling I get inside when I smell my mom’s freshly baked cookies. I like the rose bushes because they are not perfect like the ones you see in the store. They are all intertwined and rugged. There is even more then one flower on a single stem. Another feature at the Sunken Gardens are the ponds. They are in the center of the gardens and in the lowest part. When you first see them, the water looks really murky. When you look close, you can see the coy fish swimming in the water. You cannot see the whole fish, only brief glimpses of them shining in the sun. These are just a few of the great things the gardens have to offer. This is my favorite place to visit and it always cheers me up.

Freshly cut grass, newly painted lines, and a clean plate, these are just a few things Haymarket Park has to offer. It is a place filled with wonder and amazement. I called and asked if I could have a tour. They said that they would be happy to show me around. When I arrived, two grounds keepers were waiting to be my tour guides. I could tell they were excited to see me and get out of their daily routine. They first started by showing me the skybox seats and the press box. The press box was a little disappointing. There was nothing in it except little nameplates to show were certain people sit. The skyboxes were nice. They had air-conditioning for when it was too hot to sit outside. After that my tour guides showed me the looker rooms. To my surprise there were players in it. The Saltdog players came and talked with us for about a half an hour. They talked about the stadium and about the team. The lockers rooms were nice but reeked of body odor. However, it was all worth it to hear from the players. Next the guides took me around the stadium and showed me the burms. This is where you can sit and watch the game on the side of a hill for discount prices. To me these seats had some great views of the field. My guides then showed me all of the concession stands. They were filled with chips, pop, and all sorts of junk food. My trip was a lot of fun. When I was little I saw the stadium being built. I even went to the first game ever played on the field. These are memories I will always have with me. So I jumped at the chance to go tour the place I have been so often, but new little about. This was a fun and exciting experience that I will remember for years to come.

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The story I picked was from the Lincoln Journal Star. This article disturbed me. The police only know that there was a shooting. This happened on the 1200 block of North Twenty-first Street. The police said there were no witnesses. The officer on the scene said the shooting was intentional, but she had no leads. This really bothers me because I once lived in that area. It is not the greatest neighborhood, but the people in our community should be able to feel safe no matter where they live. We should not have to worry about safety in their homes. We should be able to sit in our homes and have a relaxing evening. It is sad that in our society today people have to buy expensive alarm systems because of events like this one. I wish that it were like the good old days when no one locked his or her door. This was the time when people walked into each other’s houses just to say hi. You do not see these kinds of things in our society anymore. People are too paranoid to even leave their car door unlocked when they are out driving. It is weird to see how our society has changed because of events like the one mentioned in the Journal Star article. Sometimes I wish the media would publish more articles that display our society in a good light. I believe that the media today only emphasizes on the bad things in the world. The media does report some of the better things, but those take a back seat to deaths and crime. I believe that people would be less paranoid and less stressed if the media published some of the better articles too. I think sometimes the people need to know what good things are happening in the community. Not just the bad things.