Speech
Hello my name is Nate Hashagen.
Ask about honors students
-In Air Force ROTC
-Family/Reason for joining
-Living
-State College, Mother Grandmother (1-10)
-parents never married
-dislike people feeling sorry
-Maine, Mother, Brother & 2 dogs (10-12)
-mother got a job in maine
-lived in Stockton springs ME, Mid January brother moved back to Pa
-February moved to Bucks Port ME
-moved back to PA in early Sept
-State college, now to present
-Attended DELTA Program
-Took another year & got involved
-Here I am.
Introductory essay LA101H sec: 012
Nate hashagen
January 27, 2010
996689269
My name is Nathan Hashagen, My major is DUS and I am a freshman as of this spring. I grew up here in
state college with me mother and my grandmother. Then moved to Maine where I relocated two times
before coming back down to Pennsylvania. While being enrolled at Penn State I am involved in Air Force
ROTC and the rowing team. Through all of these experiences I have learned a lot, most of all; to think
about how particular actions will roll out in the long run. What I guess I want you to get out of this is just
a background on my life. It’s not too out there, but these are the situations that have made me who I
am.
With State College being my birth place I spent the better bulk of my time growing up here. The
neighborhood I resided in consisted predominantly of elder people but as well as my best friends; Matt
and Mike (also their younger brother Nick but he was really un-favored when we were all younger.) In
my house was my at the time lived my Grandmother, Mother, Younger Brother Jacob and the numerous
amounts of dogs that we all fostered. The reason that there was just my Mother and no Father was
because they were never married (since I can remember, he has lived in California). Actually the both of
them were rather young (17 & 18). But for the situation I really dislike it when people sympathy. I mean
sure it is different and some people take it hard, but this is how I grew up, it is what’s normal to me.
Since I was born up until I was ten I had lived in Pa. In the fifth grade my mother had been working for
MBNA (now Bank of America) for the past 8 years or so and had applied for a transfer. This transfer
landed us in Maine. Moving up there was one of the most stressful things I had gone through to that
point. But these stresses were nothing that any other kid wouldn’t have experienced on their first big
move; losing friends, changing classes, making new friends ect.
In Maine the first place we were located was a small coastal town called Stockton Springs. When I said
this place was small, I meant it. There was one main road; School street. That’s where the school, church
and convenience store were all located. That’s all Stockton Springs had to offer. I was there for about
four months before we were evicted. I guess my mother was going through a lot of stress as well with
moving, raising my brother, two dogs, myself and being on her own for the first time. Due to that she
had a hard time maintaining the place so the landlord gave us our notice and we had to move. At that
point my brother wanted to move back down to Pennsylvania, which he did in February.
Our next location, Bucks Port, was a larger town with ships and semi trucks going in and out through all
hours of night and day. There we lived just a few blocks from the actual port. It was extremely pretty.
This location later on played a big role in my life, a more subconscious one but in all I feel like I look back
at this time often. I don’t have a whole lot to really say about Bucks port other then I went to school,
made friends, lived the normal fifth graders life the works and everything. The rest of the school year
went by and I went back down to State College for summer vacation. While I was there I realized I
wanted to stay there, I missed everyone and the town. When August came around we packed up all of
my stuff and I returned home.
Being back in State College I went to Mount Nittany Middle School then to the State College Area High
School. In high school I went to the main high school up until my senior year. Throughout that time I had
aspired to go to art school for photography and continue on from that point. Although in my senior year
I attended the DELTA Program, a branch high school. DELTA was a lot smaller and friendlier then the
main high school; I also had a few friends already in the program. Here I was assigned an advisor and
with her I figured out that I didn’t really want to go to an art school. And on my own time and though I
discovered I wanted to go into engineering. Before this point I really did not care about my academics,
just sawing up should’ve gotten me an A, right? After my discovery I really kicked it into gear, taking AP
classes and multiple math classes at a time, taking Penn State honors classes all before leaving high
school. Even after that I took one more year with high school to try and fully recover from my past three
years of slacking. I joined student government of both high schools, led numerous committees and took
part in the planning of many events. After that I got into Penn State and differed for a year to work and
really get everything figured out.
During this time I looked back on a lot of things that I had been through, the time when I was living up in
Maine, my freshman and junior year. I also looked at the successful people in my family and really
aspired to them. Now being in college, making the choices that are going to impact the rest of my life, I
am really looking up to those people in my family. They are the more major reason I joined Air Force
ROTC. I am really trying not to mess things up again after seeing with my mother how things can go bad
also with my beginning half of high school. Here I am today; I am having a good kick off for college. The
next part is to just continue it.