Mr.William Gates III, the upstander.

Upon reading this update, many would not understand why I chose to write about William H. Gates III as an upstander. But this is the whole reason I’m typing this, isn’t it? The answer is actually pretty simple. He didn’t stand up for himself, his wife, nor another person. He stood up for millions of people who currently own a computer. I think I can safely say that without Bill Gates’ help, most of us would have a thingamajig on our desks weighing around 200 to 300 pounds.

He first started off at the age of 13 when the Mother’s Club of his private school fundraised enough money for a computer and use on a system. He was quickly enveloped in the world of code design and development. His first program he made was Tic-Tac-Toe in which students could play against the computer. He was fascinated at how perfectly the computer machine would execute his software code. Later, when his programming skills were known, he was quickly chosen to make a program that scheduled students’ classes at school. He used this program to put himself in classes with a larger percentage of females than usual. In 1962, when he was 17, he helped invent Traf-O-Meter which is a traffic counter, and made approximately $20,000 that year. When people found out about his age, business dwindled almost immediately.

When Bill Gates and Paul Allen developed a BASIC program that would run on an Altair 8800, MITS was highly interested, and they developed a partnership. Bill Gates and Paul Allen called it “Micro-Soft.” A year later, the hyphen was dropped and “Microsoft” was born. When MITS refused to pay Microsoft for the software they developed, they became independent and moved to Bellevue, in Washington. From there, Microsoft was now a true business, and Bill Gates personally inspected each code that was shipped.

In 1980, IBM approached Microsoft, requesting that they make a BASIC interpreter for their upcoming PC. Bill Gates told them to go talk to Digital Research, but that negotiation went to shambles, and an agreement was not reached. Bill Gates decided that they would use another operating system, the 86-DOS. The 86-DOS was not made by Microsoft, but by Seattle Computing Programs. Microsoft and SCP agreed that they would give Microsoft full licensing and use rights. After that, Microsoft adapted the program for IBM’s PC, and named it MS-DOS. This single action skyrocketed Microsoft’s lifelong dream to have "a computer on every desk and in every home.”

Without all Bill Gates’ hard driving, and dedication, I would not be able to type this essay, nor would you be able to read this clearly, because quite honestly, my writing skills are not too good, and barely legible. Because of Bill Gates, we are able to have the luxury of all the services PCs provide us with. Not to mention his Charity foundation, which helps send hundreds of students to college.

My brother, Luke Poynor

This essay will explain to you about my brother, Luke Poynor, and how he has been an upstander to me. Luke was born in California and moved to Oregon when he was around 9 years old. He is currently 22 years old, and occupies a very great job.

Luke dropped out his junior year at Sprague High, an esteemed high school in Salem, Oregon, because of his inability to focus due to his severe ADHD problems. He proceeded to receive a GED, and passed it with flying colors. His teachers and preparers for the GED felt that he should have gone through with high school, but Luke chose not to. He preferred to get the GED and a job.

Later, my mom and Luke had a huge argument, due to Luke not having a full High School education and a time-demanding job for such a young man like him. He was 18 at that time. After a volley of argument points, Luke finally shot back to my mom that he knew we were having financial problems, and that he had been sneaking money into my mom’s bank account without her knowing. Everybody was shocked, but not as much as my mom. She was completely speechless, and eventually broke into tears. My brother couldn’t handle all the emotions and left. Everyone was pretty much very shocked and speechless. Nobody could even imagine Luke, the big, and surly brother of mine who played ruthless football, bullied people in the halls at school, got suspended at least 4 times a year was doing this for us. Time passed, and before we realized it, it was night time and my brother hadn’t returned yet. Nor did he show up the next day, or the day after that. My mom was starting to worry about him, and where he was. About a week later, Luke finally showed up. I was especially happy to see my brother, because I always looked up to him, and for him to show such responsibility made me even prouder of him.

Later, Luke confided in me that the person that inspired him to do this for us and himself, was his advisor at his old school. It turns out that the advisor had done a similar thing. He went around his neighbors, asked them for odd jobs, and saved all the money and gave it to his mother, because his father was too proud to accept the money from his son.

The pillars that apply to Luke, out of the six pillars, are caring, and responsibility. He showed caring by sacrificing his time, life, and education to get a job so he could help the family out when we were in need. He was also responsible enough to realize that sacrifices had to be made for the better of us all.

Concluding this essay, all I can really say is that I’m pretty damn proud that I have him as my brother.