The Brothers, My Brothers, are depicted in the image above.

 

Of Dreams And Aspirations

An Autobiography by Zach Fuecker

 

My name is Zachary Michael Fuecker, I am 17 years old.

Education: I started school in 2003 at Pleasantview Elementary in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. I went to school there throughout the rest of my elementary years and continued my education at Sauk Rapids-Rice Middle School, also in Sauk Rapids. I stayed in Sauk Rapids for high school as well, attending Sauk Rapids-Rice High School; currently a junior there.

Work Experience: As a little kid I wanted many things, as we all do. My parents bought what I needed and sometimes even bought me treats, which was nice but I wanted more. Knowing that my parents wouldn’t buy me everything that I wanted, one summer I decided to open up a lemonade stand with my neighbor who was about the same age as I. We didn’t make much money but it was enough to buy a few candy bars from the gas station, and that was all I wanted.

Since then I’ve moved on to better paying, real jobs. My first actual job I got when I was 16 years old in the summer of 2014 and i ended up taking the same position the next summer. The job was blue collar, a very labor intensive, hands on type of job. The job title could be called a field maintenance and repairman. What this job includes is pretty obvious; I took care of baseball fields. That meant I dragged the infield, cut the grass, weed whipped, painted foul lines, chalked baselines and batter boxes, and fixed anything that was wrong with the field. The job paid 10 dollars per hour and I worked Monday through Thursday until all 6 baseball fields were in playable conditions. The main advantages included not having to work weekends, choosing my hours, and having a flexible schedule that wouldn’t collide with my baseball schedule such as games, practices, tournaments, etc. The next job I obtained was a dishwasher at Jimmy’s Pour House in downtown Sauk Rapids. This job came in February of 2015 and unlike my last job, I hated this one. Nobody wants to wash dishes. By the end of March I was ready to quit. On March 21st I put in my 2 weeks notice that I was leaving, with the start of baseball it would be hard to keep a job anyway. My third job was a Personal Care Assistant. This was a high paying job with a low amount of hours, I got paid $18 per hour while working with a 21 year old down syndrome boy named TJ.

 

Hobbies: In my life I have essentially 3 hobbies. Baseball has been my number one hobby since I could walk. My love for the game started when I was three years old, in my small yard on the corner of the street my uncle used to toss me wiffle balls. As he tossed me the wiffle balls and I swung my plastic bat with all my effort and force I could muster, knocking the ball onto the street as my uncle announced my name and made sounds of the “cheering crowd.” My love continued to grow throughout the years as I played at each level from TeeBall, to BamBam Ball, to Pitchball, to Little League, and then to AAA travel baseball with Waite Park, JV baseball, VFW, American Legion, and Varsity. I started playing travel baseball with Waite Park when I was 11 years old, I played with that team and that same group of guys until we were 14. After my last season with those guys in 2012 I haven’t played on the same team as them. Each one of them goes to either Sartell, St. Cloud Apollo, St. Cloud Cathedral or St. Cloud Tech. Although I’ve been teammates with them, I’ll always be playing against them, that is until the end of my high school career.

Another lifelong hobby that I have is hunting. I love hunting. During the off seasons of baseball I spend most of my time preparing in some way, shape or form for a hunting season; which includes deer, turkey, coyote, wolf, and sometimes waterfowl. I mostly prepare by buying optics, rifles, permits, ammunition, knives, mineral blocks, feed, cameras and doing research on the animals that I plan to harvest. Another big component to ensuring a successful hunting season includes preparing the land that you wish to harvest the game on. Doing this includes planting food plots, cutting trails, tending to and putting up deer stands, placing trail cameras, and just getting to know the land in general as well learning the animals patterns.

The last hobby that I have and the newest is hiking. Hiking is more than just walking through the woods to me. It really brings out my inner hippie side to be completely honest. It’s spending time with nature and appreciating the world we live in in the most remote places that this country has to offer. I like to hike because it’s stress relieving and actually quite a workout when you’re carrying around your gear which could range from 10 to 40 pounds, depending on the type of hike you plan on taking. Overnight hikes in my opinion are the best, they are long enough to satisfy me and short enough to not make me feel like I’m a complete barbarian, although sometimes even that isn’t a bad feeling. On an overnight hike there is time to do everything you want to do under the sun such as swim and see all the sights while at night the opportunity to stargaze is presented. But before we stargaze, we couldn’t miss the sunset, another beautiful sight. One of the best activities that overnight hikes offer in my opinion is making s’mores over a campfire and then smelling like a campfire afterwards. Just something about being miles from civilization that is so relaxing.

Of all of these hobbies, each one teaches a life lesson and some teach many. Baseball teaches failure. As a baseball players if you fail 7 out of 10 times you’re considered to be a good player: Now, in life most times it’s not like that but it teaches to deal with failure and get over it. In life, you’re gonna get knocked down once or twice, just stand up, dust off and go back at it. Baseball and sports in general keep you in check with your emotions and controlling them under stressful situations. It has taught me self control, composure, and the ability to laugh at myself, when to and when not to take something serious, and how to respond to criticism. Sports have taught me mental strength and how to deal with tough or frustrating situations in a positive way. While baseball teaches many lessons that deal with mental strength, hunting teaches about life in a different way. The one lesson that hunting teaches dealing with self control and mental strength is controlling how you feel physically. Most times it’s cold while hunting and if you can’t withstand the frigid Minnesota temperatures then you’re more than likely an unsuccessful hunter. Hunting teaches to never give up or give in when you want to be successful. To be good at this sport it requires determination, consistency, dedication, and persistence. On the other side of things, for me hiking teaches to appreciate things the way they are. It definitely provokes thought about every aspect of life. It makes me think of college, family, friends, why we’re here, where we go, and pretty much the “why’s” to every single thing imaginable. Sometimes it’s relaxing to get lost in deep thought, and when I hike, I take advantage of that time to relax.

All of this eventually leads to my lookout on life as an 17 year old kid. The importance of dreaming and making dreams come true. That’s an entire different story of my life too big to put in text.