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My mom walked 60 miles in 3 days to raise money and awareness for breast cancer. She has done it multiple times, but this is one my brother and I got to go and support her at.
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During this year, North Carolina placed a ban on smoking in public restaurants. No one was allowed to do that anymore past this year. This was a sensitive topic due to the fact that North Carolina is a leading producer of tobacco.
http://dig.abclocal.go.com/wtvd/docs/smokingstudy.pdf -
This was honestly a really big moment for US history. Simon pretty much made the show worth watching. The show would not be the same without his harsh comments and critiques. He left because he wanted to work with "The X Factor", which is a show he owns.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/arts/television/12idol.html -
During the summer before my freshman year of high school, I had the opportunity to go to Australia for two weeks. I made friends that I will have forever, and I absolutely fell in love with the country/continent.
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During this year, Hurricane Irene hit the coast of North Carolina (Outer Banks). The storm knocked out power for thousands of people, including residents in Virginia. It was a category 1 storm.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irene-makes-landfall-in-nc-4-deaths-reported/ -
In 2011, the co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, passed away. He was an inspiration to many and many people paid tribute to him after his death, telling stories about how Jobs impacted their lives.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/oct/06/steve-jobs-the-best-tributes -
The Warrior Dash is a 5 mile run/walk that has obstacles along the way, such as crawling through mud and jumping over fire. We did it with my mom's side of the family, and it was so fun.
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During the 2012 election, North Carolina was thought to swing towards Obama in the polls. Turns out the state was won by republicans voting for Mitt Romney. We know Romney did not win the election, but it is interesting how close North Carolina's votes were, making it a swing state.http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/results/state/NC/president/
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A young girl scout made a youtube video to get people to stop buying girl scout cookies all because a Colorado troop admitted a transgender girl. This backfired on the girl because people bought more cookies in protest of the boycott.
https://mashable.com/2012/01/12/girl-scout-calls-for-transgender-boycott-video/#7.djvj175qqN -
During high school, I participated in 4H and the last three years I decided to take livestock. It was a new and fun experience for me. This is a picture of me and my first cow I ever showed. His name was Oscar, and he was calm every day until he stepped foot in the show arena. I guess the fame got to him.
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During the year of 2013, teachers were not getting paid nearly the same in North Carolina as everywhere else. In fact they were getting way underpaid. Teachers were getting paid nearly $12,000 below the average national salary.
http://www.wral.com/nc-still-lags-in-teacher-pay-student-spending/14522762/ -
It was shut down for 16 days, resulting in slow economic growth and a loss of $24 billion. It happened because the republicans wanted to pass a bill to gut the Affordable Care Act.
http://nation.time.com/2013/12/04/top-10-best-u-s-news-stories/ -
The summer before my senior year I participated in a beauty pageant put on my school. I am not the kind of girl that would ever do a beauty pageant, so this was a huge step for me outside of my comfort zone. Truthfully, I only did it because one of my friends said I would never be able to do. Proved them wrong. My whole family came to see the spectacular though. I was quite the comedic relief for the judges.
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A pipe from an old power plant burst and spilled coal ash into the Dan river causing the water to turn into muck. Duke Energy was the company responsible for this spill into a river that boarders North Carolina and Virginia.
https://www.cnn.com/2014/02/09/us/north-carolina-coal-ash-spill/index.html -
In 2014, the price of sending a letter through the US postal service increased by 3 cents (originally $0.46). The postal service enacted this increase because they lost a lot of money the year before. They also wanted Congress to let them stop Saturday delivery.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/26/postage-stamp-price-increase/4914773/