Life

Do you live your life to the fullest? I live my life to the fullest everyday. I’m not addicted to my phone and when I get home from school I do not sit on my phone and accomplish absolutely nothing. Instead, I go out and live life. I go biking, I go hiking, I just simply go adventure the great outdoors. I hate it when people tell me to get a nine to five office job and sit in a little cubicle for the rest of my life. I want to be adventurous, create things, do things, be somebody. I do not want to be another person who just wastes life by sitting and doing a job that I hate. My dream job is becoming a professional mountain biker. However, I would also settle for a finishing carpenter, because I would be working with my hands and doing something different every single day. Finishing carpentry is another passion for me because not everyone can do it, it takes a very particular eye to do it.  My other driving passion is mountain biking and I started when I was just three. I have a love for mountain biking because that is what my dad and me do together, plus when you're mountain biking you are outdoors adventuring. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSv4YniNlN0

I chose the video because whenever I watch it, it makes me want to be able to go into British Columbia and shoot a video like this for my job. I just think of how cool it would be to do my favorite thing in the world as my job.

-Brady Pederson

Sad, but Rad

Some ways I feel vulnerable are when I get anxious when I talk to new people because I feel like a nuisance if I go and take time out of someone’s day just so they can take time out their day to talk to a boring old person like me. Another vulnerability I have is my mother. She passed away about a year ago and just when I wanted to bring her back into my life, she was gone. Some things that I do to try to relieve that vulnerability is to always try to care and fully pay attention to a person when I’m around them. The reason I try to do this is because one thing I realized in life is that with your own perception everything might seem easy-going, but if you widen your perception and notice that not all bad things happen to you, so you have to see, notice and realize are also in in their own big world filled with people who all have their own individual problems.

-By Lucas Schlumpf

A Gift From God

It is important to recognize the efforts of unknowledged heroes because, in that way, we show
that we appreciate them. This is my way of showing the appreciation for my hero.  A hero is someone who is always there for you, and helps you through the hard times.  A hero doesn’t have to be a famous person or a fiction character, it can be someone in your life who has never left your side and has loved you unconditionally. They can help you achieve your goals, and help you become a better person.  My hero is my mom, easily said. I have people who I look up to and people who have done something good for the world, and I am grateful for that, but none of them are like my mom, pushing me to do better and supporting me no matter what. S he is one of the few people I would do anything and everything for. She has not once let me down and she has always been there for me, and for that, I will always be grateful. 

People say heroes save the world, fight the toughest battles because they care, but my mother is my whole world and worth fighting for.  Love towards her is unexplainable because words aren’t enough to describe what she means to me. She doesn’t leave me when times get tough, but sticks by my side and fights my battles with me.  She makes sure I have everything that I need, even if she doesn’t have that much to give.  She is trustworthy and is my shoulder to cry on.  She is the person I go to when it comes to my problems because she always listens, and never judges.  Ever since I was born, she fed me, put me to sleep, or stayed up the whole night when I cried.  She went through a lot of pain just to bring me to this world.  If someone is willing to do that, they are worth everything that you stand for. A mother is for life and no one can take up her place.  She fought monsters for me when I was little, and she was there when I cried while watching movies.  She never once left my side, not even now. She is a strong woman because of everything that we went through.  From being in a bad situation back in Croatia until moving to Canada, she has always chosen my sister and me rather than herself. She has never once put herself in front of us, and that is what real love is.  All the qualities that she has a person I hope one day I can have the same and be just like her.  

My mom makes me feel like the most important person in the world, because I know she would do anything for me.  My mother means the world to me and I would do everything for her. I wish everyone had a person like my mom because your life instantly becomes better since you have a person that loves you unconditionally.  Sometimes I think about life without her and it brings tears to my eyes because what will I do when I don’t have one person that I love the most?  I respect her and love her a lot, and even when we fight I regret it because all I can think about is how much I will miss every moment with her once she’s gone.  I can’t imagine what people without moms go through

and I never want to go through that, even though I know I will have to one day.  

I've learned that everyone should have someone who makes you want to achieve more in your life, and to be a better person. I achieved my goal of acknowledging my hero and I will acknowledge all my goals , because of my mom.  She has taught me to love myself and never to be afraid of expressing myself.  My mother is my hero not because of what she offers to the world, but because of what she offers to me. 

-By Ema Aijhorn

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tLFfXTwdVbY

My Friend Ana

I'm scared of life, I've always been. I have so many monsters inside my head that it makes it really hard to choose one and just write about it. I would say insecurity has always been my biggest monster and my body my worst enemy, best combination ever to make your life a nightmare. I'm not sure when I started to feel bad about myself because I don't think I've ever felt good, but I remember I starting messing everything up when I was fourteen. I used to be very shy, terribly shy. For me it was hard to make friends. It was hard because I couldn't really talk to people, but at the same time I felt they had to instantly like me. It wasn't that bad because at least I had a couple of friends, or that's what I thought, but they criticized me behind my back. They made fun of me, made fun of how I looked. I got obssessed, and I made my body pay for all of that. I started doing things nobody shoud do, and it's funny for me to say that because nowadays I still think of doing it sometimes. I felt attacked all the time. I didn't even want to see people. People made me feel everything was wrong with me.  Every time I heard my name in sombody's conversation, or when people looked at me for no reason, or when somebody was laughing next to me and I didn't know what was going on... that was the worst. Some people are just able to ignore what others say about them, I wish I knew how to do that. Now it's been three years since that happened and those monsters are still there.

-By Ari

Confidence Is Key

Confidence is the key to life. It’s what makes you successful. When you have no confidence in yourself, you tend to overthink everything and ask yourself all these questions that nobody has the answers to. Life just doesn’t make sense when you don’t have confidence in yourself. Having no confidence is one of the worst things that could happen to you in life.  

When I don’t have confidence in myself it tends to give me anxiety, and cause me to over think everything someone says to me or about me, it also makes me feel like someone is looking or staring at me, or I feel like they may be talking about me, but in like a negative way. I seem to care way  too much about what other people have to say, and I don't know why, but I'm pretty positive that I am not the only one who thinks like that. I know everybody is going to have their own opinion and it's either going to be nice or rude, but I feel like when a person compliments me they are lying and just saying that to be nice. When a person says something rude to me or even in a jokingly way, I tend to overthink what they have said and it just gets to me.

Once in awhile I go through a little confident phase and when people compliment me or tell me how pretty I am, I think about it a lot. When I look at myself in the mirror I think to  myself,  “okay maybe I ain't that ugly and I do actually look pretty”, but then I always end up back to thinking I'm ugly and not good enough for anybody. Whenever I look at myself in the mirror I see all my flaws instantly and  think, "why do people even call me pretty?" I know every human being has flaws and only they can really point them out and see them very clearly, but that fact doesn't stop me from feeling bad about myself and I don't know why. I ask myself that all the time, and I can never seem to figure it out. Maybe it's because I am not comfortable in my own skin.

-By H

The Purpose of Life

Some people doubt or wonder what their purpose in life is. I wonder that too. Being hurt by a lot of different types of people and feeling so many emotions towards people and life has been extremely hard.  I'm so passionate and caring, that I tend to get hurt because I am not always careful with people I'm with.  I end up being hurt by them, whether I'm lied to or they hurt my heart etc..  I've told myself that the next person I date I'm not going to open myself up like I did before because I can't be hurt again, but then I remember that if I don't put myself out there and if I don't have courage then something that was maybe meant to be won''t happen because I was too scared to show who I really am or that I didn't want to be vulnerable with them because I didn't want to be hurt. Now being hurt is not a good thing, no one wants to feel hurt or depressed. You do need to protect yourself too, but you need to know when to be vulnerable and when to protect yourself. I know that no matter what there is someone out there for me and one day I'll find her and the hurt I feel will be nothing compared to the happiness I will have when I'm with her.

- By Colum Terry

Persevering in the Search

Throughout life everyone finds things that they hold dear to them, whether it’s a hobby or a sport like hockey, or the love shared between two people like your mom and dad. It could even be the love for a band or music. No matter what, we all strive to make them a part of our life and dedicate our time in perfecting and finding ways to improve our love for them. Although it can be easy to love things at first, often over time we struggle with our feelings and emotions and don`t know how to communicate them in a positive way. We want to give up on the things we love when times are hard or things don't go our way because it is easier that way. We feel as though if  we just gave in to the anger and frustration we could somehow just move on and forget about it. In actuality this is the wrong approach because when we give up on the things we love we can never truly move forward with our lives because we have nothing to truly look and work towards. We have to look within ourselves to find the courage and hope to persevere and work hard even when we're at our breaking point, and our desire to throw things across the room. We have to sit back and take a breath and realize that if we give up, we will look back and regret what we have not done. We'll wish that we could have found the strength and hope within us to continue and try harder even when we were frustrated and wanted to give up. 

In my own life when I attempt to do the things that I am passionate about and love I give it my best, but there are always times when I’d feel like I wanna rip my hair out and run away.  For example, when I practice on the piano and I just can’t seem to get the notes right I tend to lash out. I have to stop for a minute, breath, and get it together. I always hope for the best and find the courage to continue playing even when every part of me wants to quit. I know if I don’t practice I’ll regret it in the future and feel bad about it. This is one of the many reasons we need to stop for a minute and take our time with what we love in life. Another example would be the relationships that I have built. I am amorous towards my girlfriend, but our relationship was not grown perfectly there were times when I was frustrated and didn’t know how to act and often felt compunction afterwards. There were circumstances that forced me to have to stop and  think how she felt which made me realize how I needed to deal with a certain situation. It took hope and courage that I had to search hard for within myself to break free of my own selfish ways and to evolve into almost a different person so that I could show my love and appreciation. When times were not going so well I had to find hope in the situation and hold onto the feelings that liberated me from the struggles that I faced. I had to pursue the courage inside myself to step up and change the way I looked and thought about the situation so that I could find happiness for us even when there wasn’t much. With all the hard work I put into the things that I love great things are always a result. The same goes with my friends. We all have our opinions and disagreements, but we always find the courage to accommodate and deal with each other in a mature way. 

In conclusion courage and hope are necessities when it comes to working hard for the things that you love. Without it we can’t fully indulge and realize what we have to do to love. The image shows that love, courage and hope all come hand in hand with each other. They work best when you use them together. 

I also chose the song "Till I collapse" by Eminem because he is saying that no matter what he is not going to give up because of what anybody says. He's going to do what he loves and that is busting rhymes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9PonIkfquE

-By Nicholas. B

Loneliness

There are things in my life that I am terrified of. Things that take over my body, and my mind; I can’t control them. Things like darkness, and monsters. Darkness that I can't get rid of. Monsters that tease you with weakness. The darkness that taunts me the most, is being alone. It is undoubtedly my worst fear, yet I face it everyday. I never grew up with many close friends, or even people who liked me very much. I started to become someone that I knew I wasn't because I wanted to be noticed. During that process, a lot of myself came out and I lost a lot of people in my life. Most of the people who have been in my life are not there anymore.

Whenever I find myself alone in a hallway at school, or even in my room where no one can see me, I start to panick on the inside. I don't have many people close to me right now, and I'm terrible at making friends, or even just talking to anyone. Everything about me seems to get around to everybody. I hope I can think of a way to thank the people in my life that I love, and that love me, the best I can; I will try my hardest. This fear of loneliness, has brought me all the struggles I have ever had, but it has also brought me the strength to deal with those struggles. The fact that I am used to being alone doesn't scare me all the time anymore. I hope that it will eventually help me to gain the courage that has been hiding within me.

There is a song that I came across a long time ago. Writing this blog has reminded me of it. I would say it describes me, or at least this situation. It’s called “Throne” and is by Bring Me The Horizon. There are a few verses in the song that really stuck out to me. “So you can throw me to the wolves. Tomorrow I will come back; leader of the whole pack. Beat me, black and blue; every wound will shape me; every scar will build my throne.” When I get thrown into a tough situation, I know it will shape me into a stronger person after I get out of it.

- By Renee C

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow_qI_F2ZJI

Killing It

Do you doubt  yourself? Or do you know anyone that is always doubting themselves? I’m one of them. I want to do a lot of things, and have new, good experiences. Sometimes I wonder why didn’t I do this, or why didn't I do that? Why didn’t I get out there, and show them what I’ve got? Maybe I could actually be proud of myself for doing what I did, but no, I doubted myself all the time like there was no tomorrow.  I told myself “I can’t do it!” I told myself “I will fail!” I told myself that someone else is better than me, or they will all just judge me, since I won't be able to do any of it. But courage, and hope changed all of it, it changed the way my thinking went, and filled my heads full of positive thoughts.

Courage helped me to push myself to be out there, and try new things even though there is a chance of failure because who cares if I fail? Who cares if someone is better than me? Why does it matter? At least I tried, and went for it! I showed what I can do, and I can be proud of myself for trying. It also gives me the courage to get through the fears I may have, and make me tougher to face all the obstacles I have in life and make me have a lot of confidence that everyone needs. Hope is necessary to be positive about everything I do, it gives me the positivity I need to fight the vulnerabilities I might have, and the monsters in my life. I hope for the best, and if it doesn’t go very well, I just give it a try again. Hope gives me motivations in life, and what makes me keep going, and without it I wouldn’t be where I am now. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLtP4qPMuDw 

( I chose this song, because I really do think that everyone should listen to it, and learn from it. It made me re-think about doubting myself, and always being hard on myself.)

-By Jennifer Petalio