Hello and welcome to my little corner of the internet, I am Douglas Tinker Graham. That fact is very important, so important I put it at the top of the top of the page, where it will sit and be visible at all times. I am a Senior in High School at Lyons Township High School. I will be attending Eastern Illinois University in the fall where I have been accepted into the Honors College. My major of choice is Journalism, I plan one day to be the best Videogame Journalist in the entire industry. This website helps me to achieve that goal by:

1.Serving as an excellent public place to update the world on anything cool that happens in my writing career

2.Being a place to post any prose, poetry, or essays I am proud enough to show off to faceless judges (thats you!)

Currently the writing section of the site is filled to the brim with work I have done as a student over the years, but fear not, I will update my site regularly with new prose and poetry.

I am one of eleven teenage contributors at the Doings "Talking out of School" Blog, I update my blog there every Tuesday, you can access it by clicking the button below:

The Doings Talking Out of School Blog

Have fun and thank you for stopping by.
April 28th, 2008

Hello visitor of dougtgraham.com. I am updating the home page today not out of contractual obligation (that should be obvious) but out of reinforcement. More specifically, this post serves to reinforce your awareness of my current gig at the Doings newspaper. As mentioned in the "welcome" section above, I am a weekly contributor to the "Talking Out of School" on line blog. The blog serves a function similar to that of this website's "writing" section in many ways, the most important being that it is a place to go to get consistent, quality writing from me (doug t graham). I enjoy writing each article and am generally proud of everything my name is attached to on the site (except the picture of myself which I keep forgetting to change) and I encourage you to visit there. The link is, and always will be, available above.

This new stream of content does not spell the end of this website, not while I am tending the waters (I felt it important to continue the "stream of content" mental image). dougtgraham.com will continue to serve as the number one place for all things related to the writing of doug t graham (that's me). I promise a content update soon.

March 9th, 2008

A lot has happened since my last update the most important involving my college decision, which I am pleased to say has been determined. Yes it is true, after nearly one year of serious, strenuous searching I have chosen to go to Eastern Illinois University to be a Journalism Major in the Honors College.

I am sad to admit this to you, my loyal reader who no doubt checks this corner of the internet every hour for a content update, but I made my choice nearly a month ago on February 18th when I visited EIU on President's day. They were having an open house and I was standing next to my mom in a crowded ballroom filled with other high school seniors who were stopping at departmental booths to chat with professors. I had just got done talking with the Dean of the Honors College who had recognized my name when she saw it (through this blue website no doubt). She told me about how the Honors College was different, about how the classes were discussion based which made the maximum number of students per teacher 18 and how this eliminated any chance of lecture-style learning. This new information in addition to other benefits of Honors College life was still fresh in my mind as I poured myself a complimentary plastic cup of orange juice. It was right then that I realized that the best things about Private College (individual attention, discussion based learning, trust between faculty and students, quiet residence halls) where here in the Honors College (and at around 20,000 dollars less per year).

Ever since then I have felt lighter, no longer pressed down by the prospect of applying to five different scholarships for five different schools I recycled all of the mail I had amassed over the year. The mail from my top five schools alone filled five large paper bags. After deleting the weekly emails from my website account I went from around a single gigabyte of space free to 6.34 gigabytes of space free.

So, website over right? It has performed its function (helping me get accepted to college) and now I think it is time to let it rest among the stars.

Wrong! Website not over, website just getting started.

The only thing college acceptance changes is the message at the top of the site. I will still update all of my quality work to the WRITING section and I will keep the public posted on any cool things that happen to me.

EXAMPLE: About a month ago I submitted my name for consideration to be a student contributes for my local paper of choice: The Doings. A week ago I was informed I had been accepted as one of five bloggers on a new unnamed blog that we will take turns updating. The blog will center around life as a High Schooler. I pride myself on being a High School Student (so much so that I Capitalize it) so I feel I will be well suited for the job. I am slated to have a blog up every Tuesday starting March 18th so I am sure I will update before then will more details.

Thank you for reading this whole update and thank you for giving me the drive to go to college.

doug t graham
January 21, 2008

Welcome to the first post from my 8th and final semester at Lyons Township High School. Last week I said goodbye to two teachers and two classes, I lost 10th period Trigonometry and my teacher Mrs. Meyers. It is a bitter-sweet departure, on one hand I will miss Mrs. Meyers, who was one of only two math teachers I've ever had that explained abstract concepts such as functions, and trigonometric identities, and even basic addition; but then on the other (slightly bigger) hand, now I don't have to study high school math ever again. Even though I have P.E second semester I checked my schedule and I will not be having Miss Neidig as my teacher anymore. As rare as it is to have a fun gym teacher it is rarer still is one who balances fairness and funny like she did, I will miss that.

The departure that hurt the hardest was Philosophy of Knowledge, a discussion-based class that encouraged discussion and debate over the things you can't talk about at parties: religion, politics, love, and death. Luckily I will have the same teacher (Mr. Brown) in the same period (3rd) next semester only the class changes from Philosophy to Creative Writing, which is good news for frequenters of this site because it means that there will be a sharp rise in content per month from here on out (that starts today but you'll hear about that later).

The impact that Philosophy has had on my everyday outlook on life (and more helpfully, death) is impossible for me to translate in any way intellectual or even comprehensible. As stated above, the class is discussion-based which implies two things; One: the direction of conversation can be altered by whoever has the most passion on the subject and not by who has the most money (that's a rich teacher joke). Two: it implies the dreaded taking of notes, a ritual that I usually avoid like MRSA. The big difference in taking notes in Philosophy as opposed to taking notes in any other “normal” class is that my Philosophy notes are typed up and turned in at the end of each quarter for a large chunk of our grade. Also Philosophy notes end up being fun and enlightening, a result of the peers that you share the experience with.

So now, as a service to all of you who have the misfortune of not being intimately involved in 3rd Period Philosophy with Mr. Brown, I present a semesters worth of notes that I got full points on. It is up in the Writing section now, and trust me, it is very in-depth and very entertaining (if you just want entertaining I recommend skipping the book notes in each section and going right for discussion)

That is all I have this time, be sure to stick around, I plan to be updating with some more good news in the coming weeks.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Doug T Graham
January 2, 2008

Welcome and Happy New Year, thanks to everyone who sent nice emails regarding the Graham Christmas letter, which I posted on Christmas day (check it out in the Writing Section).

It turns out that my daily stakeout of the front door mailbox was a waste of time I could have been refreshing my virtual mailbox, because in the last week I've been contacted by the final three colleges that I've been waiting on. Here are their decisions on my application

Augustana College: Deferred decision
Knox College: Deferred decision
Indiana University Bloomington: Accepted

I am pleased to be deemed worthy to enter the well respected journalism program at Indiana University Bloomington, it feels good to have such a strong pool of public schools competing for my education. It will truly be a difficult decision.

The private colleges both deferred for the same reason: They want to see my first semester grades before they decide whether or not to accept me. This is good news for me, I've had a great semester up to this point, my weighted GPA is higher than its every been and I am confident even a teenage boy like me cannot screw that up in the final week of the semester.

But alas, my work is not done. On the fourteenth my parents and I meet our financial advisor to go over FAFSA and other important college payment nightmare acronyms. Wish me luck!

dougtgraham
December 25, 2007

Welcome and Merry Christmas, Doug here to bring you tidings of comfort and joy (and a content update). I am updating on this Christmas day because I couldn't keep the secret in any longer; I GOT ACCEPTED TO EASTERN!

(hold for applause)

I am very excited and relieved and can't wait to hear from even more colleges, though getting accepted at EIU is extra-important to me because speaking in terms of money (terms that when this site was created I hoped never to rationalize in) it is the best school for my benefactors and I (hi parents!).

As a Christmas gift to the faceless internet (that's you!) I am sharing my family's Christmas letter in the Writing section. Normally that would be a foolish document to upload but this year it was I (not my overworked mother) who slaved for hours trying to condense the happenings of 365 days into one side of a page. I am proud of my creation, I hope you will read it and join in my pride.

Merry Christmas,
dougtgraham
December 9, 2007

Hello Internet, its hard to believe it has been a month since I got accepted to University of Iowa, but I guess reality makes fools of us all. Since that happy day there has been a sudden increase in “college mail”. This new genre of letter has dominated our mail box so much so that for the last four weeks whenever anything with the words 'University of such and such' or '---- College' is discovered among the advertisements it gets put on my seat in the dining room, where it would remain unopened until dinner at which point I'd excitedly tear the outer shell to get at the information inside, and for four weeks the whole family has been let down by a lack of acceptance.

I remain semi-comforted by the fact that I chose five great educational institutions to apply to and that they have excellent reasons for keeping me on the edge of my mail-burdened seat.

Happy Holidays!
Doug
November 11, 2007

Well my applications have been out for about two weeks now and I've got my first reply back, an acceptance letter from the University of Iowa! I am very happy to have such a decidedly positive start to the college replies, but I must admit it makes getting the mail when I come home from school a let-down (no acceptance letter, again?) Maybe I will mail myself fake acceptance letters as a means to recapture the feeling of that afternoon, but I doubt my parents will take me out to dinner for getting fake accepted.

The next day I was faced with a dilemma; how do I let my friends know without sounding like I'm bragging (which I am). I decided to go the subtle route and wear a bright yellow Iowa T-shirt. Unfortunately it was a bit too subtle for some so the next day I painted I-O-W-A on my forehead.

People say subtlety is my middle name, so I made it my first and last just in case they don't get it.

Thanks for your time (and letters),

dougtgraham
(AKA subtlety subtlety subtlety)
October 29, 2007

Hello internet! A lot has happened since I last updated the site.

1. My Cubbies had a September Surge (tm) and made it into the playoffs
2. My Cubbies experienced an October Outage (tm) and didn't show up to the playoffs

I've learned a lot so far in school. I learned about the different regions of the brain in Psych AP. I learned about ancient Greek Philosophers in Philosophy, both of those make sense, but in English we've learned about the Quantum Theory and we are now discussing if you can be a Christian and still be an existentialist. Pretty awesome stuff.

On a more college-ie subject, in the past month I visited and applied to Eastern Illinois in Charleston. I liked it a lot, it was a very compact campus with a Journalism major offered. The size is great, not too big and the price is finally right (less than $20,000). That doesn't mean I am ruling out my other four schools I have sent applications to (University of Iowa, Indiana University-Bloomington, Knox College, and Augustana College) it just means that I have a new factor to think about; the reality factor.

It has been interesting to think about my college search up to this point. Since the time I've launched this site in late April I have:

1. visited eight colleges,
2. applied to five of them,
3. coaxed letters of recommendation from my choral director, my old English teacher, and the English 4. teacher I have had for eight weeks,
5. paid about one hundred and eighty dollars ($180) in application fees,
6. and went through five drafts of my writing sample.

It has been a crazy period in my life, and it is still not done and I promise to keep updating this page throughout (no more bullet points I promise, it is amateurish and I apologize).

Wish me luck!
Doug

September 3, 2007

Summer was a success. I was able to take time to sharpen my saw (metaphoric) and get ready to tackle senior year (literal). I have got a feeling that this year will not only be the most fun year of my life, but the most important of my education. Do I follow the majority of my class and breath deep the wafting scent of laziness, catch senioritis and coast through the rest of the year? Gotta admit had I not the classes I have this year I would be a little more likely to slack off.
My schedule is great this year, see for yourself.

1. Psychology AP- An advanced Placement course that if I pass with net me some free college credit. So far it has been a challenging to the point of difficult way to start the day, with an essay quiz on the fourth day of class, but I enjoy the challenge.
2. English IV- This years English has the potential to be better than last years, primarily because of the teacher. Mr. Alletto should get a medal, he has mixed education with (for lack of a better word) fun in a way I've never experienced. He went from doing magic tricks to pleading with us to take reading serious because it is the only thing that is truly interactive with the reader bringing more to the book than the author does.
3. Philosophy- I am a spoiled child, not only do I have great teachers for each class in Philosophy I get the man who created the class. Mr. Brown is a deep thinking man who is not afraid to have his ideas challenged in front of everyone. With lively class discussions every day the class is a good intellectual jolt to ride the rest of the day.
4/5. Madrigals- This year madrigals is a class so instead of three bleary eyed early morning rehearsals that go for a good thirty minutes, we get daily full periods to hammer out our ever more challenging music.
6. Lunch
7/8. Varsity Choir- Mixed choir for seniors only, sometimes it can be grating to have to warm-up twice in less than two hours, but thats the only complaint I have with my two music classes.
9. Gym- On fridays we play Frisbee, so they are preparing us for college.
10. Trigonometry Prep- I got a 20 out of 20 on my first quiz. That's right, I can do basic addition.
July 30, 2007

Hello again, I have returned from my two week family vacation rested and ready to take on the college application stage of my life, a stage of my life that began yesterday when while sorting through fourteen days worth of mail I discovered a full application packet from Kenyon College. The application will continue in its current state: questions unanswered, essays unopened, and its questionnaire for a reference uncircled, I say this not to express a grudge towards the College of Kenyon, Ohio but to express a revelation I had trying to keep my eyes open on the eight hour drive up to our resort in Wisconsin: I don't want to be hours away from home.

It may seem a little late in the summer to be declaring such an exclusive ultimatum, but I feel it necessary to express desire to leave home for school, but not leave time zones (notice I didn't say states).

Seeing as it is dangerously close to the time of summer I like to call “The End of Summer” I am striving to update the W r i t i n g Section of the site at least twice a week. This means that I will be finally back to the pace of writing I was during first semester of Junior Year.

Bye (dougtgraham@gmail.com)
July 9, 2007

Hello again I am back from another college visit, this time it was University of Wisconsin in Stevens Point. It was a very nice school that like many had completely shut down for the summer. Like Grand Valley there was a lot of construction, but unlike anywhere there were so few students that our tour guide was a staff admissions counsellor. It was nice and relatively affordable and has a beautiful campus with a great study abroad program. I hope I can remember all its strengths by the time I have to choose colleges. One detractor: The school's nickname is the pointers. Seriously.

As I've mentioned before the local paper the Doings is hosting youth columns and I have submitted one of my own. I will add it to the W R I T I N G section, making it the first of many original works to grace this increasingly expensive website.

Keep in touch (dougtgraham@gmail.com)

Doug

June 25, 2007

I just got back from a road trip where my mom and I (i use good grammour not speeling) visited Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan and Indiana University in Bloomington. I feel lucky that not only can make time for these trips, but that the schools I go to are different and unique. Grand Valley had a very new feel to it, our tour group had to stop and admire the construction numerous times during our campus tour so a backhoe could cross in front of us. Even through the dust I could tell it would be exciting to be a part of the rapid growth of that area.

And to act as a foil for that newness of Grand Valley was Indiana U which was steeped not only in beauty but in legacy. There were many occasions on the tour where our guide would tell us of some thing on campus with historical significance, be it the art museum designed by (louvre pyramid creator) I. M. Pei or the largest student union building in America, there is legacy at every turn. Another plus for Indiana is it has an entire school only dedicated to journalism.

I plan to update the site with some reviews in the next week or so, the reviews help me justify the acquisition of some of the video games I buy.

June 8, 2007

Hello again, it is Doug stopping in to report lots of good news. First of all it is my 17th birthday today which means now not only am I one year closer to be able to use the only democratic tool I as a citizen posses, I can see all the foreign films I want!

School's out for summer! I feel like junior year was good for me. I learned a lot about what I am good at, like singing and remembering who was responsible for the bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. I also learned a lot about what I'm bad at, excelling in lecture-style courses and remembering numerous similar algebra formulas that will be of little to no use to me the second I leave school and go mop floors at work. I got my first ACT results back and I did way better than I thought I would. I got a 28 overall, which is the second best among my immediate friends (the webmaster of this site got a 31, I continue to blame society for his ability to excel).

As previously stated, School is over (capitalized for effect) and summer is in full swing, now I can finally hunker down and get to writing. There is a local paper that occasionally hosts high scholars editorials, so I am going to try to get into that. Also expect weekly updates from here until my college find is over.

May 22, 2007

Bad news space cadets! Today I was called down to the counsellor's office. While getting out of Consumer Ed is usually a reason to celebrate (and I did, silently) the message was a grave one. Apparently due to the immense size of my school, coupled with the dwindling emphasis on flexible scheduling, I had one too many period conflicts with my senior schedule so I am not able to take a class I was looking forward to take, Creative Writing. Creative Writing would have been perfect for me, I would have been assigned projects that I could not only score well on, but use as content for my expanding portfolio.

The class is a terrible loss, but it has taught me a lesson about my high school, there are still too many outside factors that impede my ability to learn and grow to my maximum potential. Luckily my high school has a wide variety of other options for me to explore, and explore I will. But fear not my future faculty, I will press on. I will some how muddle through without Creative Writing, and after all that muddling I will graduate and be well on my way to a fine college/university, where I will learn, perhaps, to use less commas, maybe.
Happy C-Day!
UPDATE I talked to my counsellor again a day before the end of school and he got me into creative writing! The one big difference is that instead of doing it over the whole year it will be only one semester. I still look forward to the brief time that I will have it though.
Thank you for your time,
Doug