So...you want to know more about me?!?!

Hey everyone :)





Duane, Gail, Kelsey, Nathan, Lindsey



Let's start off with my family. My parents are Duane and Gail (Alexander) Upah of Clutier, Iowa. My Mom is originally from Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin, and my Dad has always lived in Tama County. I have a brother, Nathan, whom is working on his Masters degree at Iowa State University in Dairy Science, and a sister-in-law Lindsey (Hennings) Upah whom is currently working in Cedar Rapids doing social work. My Mom and Dad still live on our family farm in Clutier, Iowa where we raise cattle, soybeans and corn. Throughout the years my brother and I have been involved in 4-H so we raise cattle and rabbits as well. We have a female border collie named Buck. (Long story, just ask me if you want to know more details), and some farm cats. 

A little about me... Well, I graduated North Tama High School in 2010 with a class of 45 students. In high school I started on the varsity volleyball, track and softball teams all four years of high school, and was also on varsity basketball my freshman year, and started my sophomore year. Although, in softball I started softball as an eighth grader and got injured my sophomore year, and could not play. That's another thing about me! I get injured playing sports a lot of the time because I go as hard as I can and do not give up! Throughout junior high and high school I have had two injuries, a broken ankle and I actually broke myknee. (No, I did not tear my ACL or anything, I actually broke my tibia plateau!) I was also team co- captain of my basketball and track teams starting my sophomore year, and was softball co-captain my senior year.



I was also very involved in many clubs in high school. I was in the following: FCCLA, Student Council, TATU, JEL, NHS, and Spanish Club, holding various offices. I also played clarinet in marching, concert and pep band, and played baritone saxophone in jazz band. I was also involved in mixed chorus my freshman and sophomore years.

Like I mentioned before I was very involved with  4-H with in my local club and our county. For livestock projects I showed market steers and rabbits. For other projects I showed various things including: Food Preparation and Safety, Photography, Self Determined, Leadership, Health, horticulture projects, etc etc... I was also named the 2008 Tama County Fair Queen. (Grrrreeat experience!)

Costume Contest at the
2010 Tama County Fair

My favorite color is a toss up between orange, pink, and blue! Starbursts are my favorite candy. I like pretty much any kind of music! Halloween is my favorite holiday. Fall is my favorite season. I really enjoying baking/cooking, photography, athletic activities, painting/drawing, etc...I have many more likes and interests, if you want to know more we can play 20 questions sometime :)

COLLEGE! :D I am currently enrolled in Iowa State University with plans of graduating in 2014 with a Dietetics major. I am involved in the Food Science Club, Student Dietetics Association Club, and the Dairy Science Club. I also participated in intramural curling and volleyball. I am the social chair of Woodrow in Eaton Hall. I have also currently been hired by Iowa State University as a 2011 Cyclone Aide. 

If you have any other questions about me, feel free to ask. I am a very social person, so if you ever need someone to talk to about anything, I would be glad to listen. I am a pretty outgoing person. I am not afraid to try new things and I am always up for a challenge! I hope you learned a little bit more about me. (Sorry about this post being so long.)  

Tweet Tweet!

     What’s wrong with taking a risk right? Although some people might not think it’s as cool as jumping off of a bridge, it won’t kill you either. Twitter is a completely new experience for me. I believe I have learned some valuable lessons from it as well. (It also hasn’t killed me!)

      My Twitter account at http://twitter.com/#!/kmupah is a quick way of contacting people. Everything about Twitter was new to me, so I learned about everything. Twitter is a quick way to see what other people are doing, thoughts they may have on certain topics, how they are feeling, etc. Social networking is as important as ever in today’s society. People communicate with each other without even seeing each other nowadays. It is actually really crazy to think about it though! I remember just a few years ago I would talk on a phone, in my home, on one with a cord. A couple years after that I was getting my first cell phone to use to call my parents to get a ride home from sports practices. Because of all of the use of cell phones laws have been put into place so I can’t use my phone while driving. Recently phones have become even more sophisticated with internet on cell phones.

     Wow! Technology is just amazing! Internet is so fast. Twitter is just one quick way of seeing what others are doing in the world around you. Twitter is also a more effective way of communicating professionally. This article titled College Student’s Guide: Twitter 101 located at http://www.commcognition.com/blog/college-students-guide-twitter-101/ tells readers about how to effectively communicate with others now that they are college students. This article also warns people about scams, what to post on their Twitter account, how to speak with others on Twitter. It also tells readers about valuing the power of Twitter. They give advice of asking meaningful questions, adding value to things you say, and to not scam people. (Well, duh.)   

     Networking is so important with most activities, including getting jobs in today’s world. It is important to start being professional now. What I do now will affect the future. As the age old quote says, “it’s not what you know it’s who you know.” (Although, I think that saying is important however you rearrange it!)

A "Hole" in One!!!!

            I remember yelling at my Mom, very annoyed, “It just won’t work, Mom!” I was attempting one of various recipes to exhibit at the county fair. Making bagels was one of the most challenging and difficult foods I’ve ever made. After the first time I was determined to make this breakfast bread look the way I wanted it to.

            In my opinion, the only problem when making homemade bagels is that there usually is a missing signature piece to the bagel, the hole. The first time when I tried the bagel recipe I stretched and stretched the bread, trying to make sure it would stay in that shape. No matter how much I pulled, and stretched, I could never win that tug of war. I was so frustrated my bagels didn’t look like the ones people brought at Kwik Star! For this task I had to really screw on my thinking cap for a light bulb to click. After many cumbersome trials I didn’t surrender. I found out that if I stuck wooden dowels that had been soaked in water for twenty four plus hours, and individually wrapped in pieces of tin foil that were pulled out just at the right time of the boiling, baking, and broiling procedure the bagels came out with an almost perfect hole!

            I felt like this was a time when I did my best because I never gave up. I always tried my hardest while making 4-H projects because it was so important to me to do well. When I finally figured out how to make a hole in my bagels I felt a sense of accomplishment and relief. I tried that recipe so many times, (not to mention, took hours!) and wanted a great end product that looked good. I felt a sense of relief because I finally had a project completed that I could use for the county fair.

            This experience was just a step in my life. I can say that it was not a that important of a time where it made a huge impact, but it did make an impact on my life. Now that I have experienced a time in my life when I have accomplished a somewhat challenging task I know now that I can be persistent with challenging classes, projects, etc… and still be successful. This is especially common with the fact that I am now in college. 4-H was something that was very important to me from elementary school all the way through high school. I have now replaced   4-H with college. I see college as a very important time in my life, and I want to be successful.

            From making a bagels from a recipe I learned to never give up. When running into problems in this recipe persistence and patience was key. This concept not only applies to baking, but in everyday life as well. As Winston Churchill once said, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” I believe this quote is very similar to my life in college, and the problems I have encountered and might encounter in college.

Teenager at Alcatraz

            “Try not to judge people, but by the goodness in their heart.” This was something Cecil Berry said of his friend Clarence. By listening to the Teenager at Alcatraz story I learned a lot about how important communication is. Clarence was the main character in the story telling of the speech done on September 16^th, 2010 titled, Teenager at Alcatraz. Clarence dealt with a tough life. He was constantly told to “get out of here” wherever he went. One day Tony, Clarence, and Cecil went to rob the Green Frog, a bar. As they were gone from Jones Academy their nice shirts that they borrowed were covered in water and bleach. This ruined their clothes. In return they got into serious trouble because of it.

After Clarence and his friends tried to rob the Green Frog they decided to try to rob a grocery store with paper bags over their heads. As the cashier was being held up at the grocery store he told Clarence and his friends to “get out of here.” That was when Clarence snapped. He pulled out a gun and killed the cashier. The boys and he hopped on a train, but while on the run the police located them and pulled over the train. In 1946 Clarence was the youngest person to go to Alcatraz at 19 years old.

            Clarence and his friends decided to try to kill all of guards so they could escape. When Clarence went to kill his designated guard his guard told him to not hurt him by trying to persuade his decisions. He said, “I’m talking to the goodness in your heart.” The guard lived and Clarence escaped for many years, but eventually decides he wants to “go home.” He returned to Alcatraz where he died three days later. Communication was enough to get the cashier at the grocery store killed, but enough to save another man’s life.

Freshman Say What?!

            Being stereotyped is not the best feeling in the world. Although, some people might get great insight to how they are acting, their personal views, and perhaps some of the things they may not know about.

            A detailed, descriptive list, by Beloit College, has stereotyped the class of 2014. Some aspects are very true such as the many examples they gave about the way the class of ’14 acts. A lot of the descriptions gave insight about how technology influences the every-day life of those who are now college freshman. They also told how the class is accustomed to the lingo of “carmel macchiato” and “half caf vanilla latte.” Perhaps this shows how this class rarely has to work for the things they get. On the flip side though it may show how much time is spent working, and the need for a caffeine pick-up is a necessity. The class of 2014 was stereotyped by the list saying the class of 2014 thinks the digital world and technology is too slow. A lot of people in the class of 2014 would more than likely prefer for the world to take a breath and slow down.

            It might be correct to say the class of 2014 is growing up quickly. With technology advancing as quickly as it is it is hard not to. A good example on the list put out by Beloit College was how people in the class of 2014 first met Michelangelo when he was a computer virus. However, many children in this era probably watched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at some point in their life, and knew that Michelangelo was a character in the show. An earlier generation probably knew Michelangelo as the famous Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architecht, poet, and engineer. Also with five hundred plus cable channels in their everyday life who knows how many other characters the class of 2014 met and remembers from television! One example is that “Beethoven has always been a good name for a dog” as the list from Beloit College stated.

            The class of 2014 may not know as much about history as the previous generations. However, there is plenty of access to knowledge on the World Wide Web. Because the technological influences on this class more people probably know how to type and use a computer efficiently than write in cursive. With iPhones, BlackBerries, and cell phones in general there is not much use for a wrist watch any more. One thing the Beloit College list did not come out directly to say was how the class of 2014 might be missing out on the face-to-face conversations. With all of the technology in the world there is not much need for that type of communication. Much of the news and mail is directly put on to the internet, and “snail mail” is now replaced by E-mail put directly onto their phones. Cell phones have made it virtually impossible to be on the phone with a cord attached from the earpiece to the receiver. However, as a child, there probably were a lot of the people from the class of 2014 who still experienced this. The class of 2014 has rarely had to deal with physical harm and attack. They have never had to be worried about Russian missle strike on the U.S. China has always been an economic threat. Korean made cars are a norm in the society for the class of 2014.   

            Being stereotyped by Beloit College really was not all that fictional. Most of the instances are very true. Coming from a student in the class of 2014 I feel like most of us are so dependent on technology that we miss out on history. We have seen a lot of changes throughout the years. However, some of the most basic principles of human to human communication are lost through this new web of information. We are learning about new and current issues most of the time and find ancient history, or history in general boring because everything in today’s world seems to be moving as such a fast pace. Most of the things on the list from the Beloit College were correct to say about how the class of 2014 acts, what their personal views are, and some of the things they may not know so much about.