The "Perfect" Body

Today in the world, social media has changed the way of beauty. When all we see on T.V, magazines and movies are girls with the perfect body, we start to look at our bodies and find every little thing that is wrong, and then we are always wanting to change, so we can be "perfect" just like everyone else we see. We see so many girls showing off the bodies that we have always wished for, but we think to ourselves: Is it really natural, or from surgery?Today in society it is extremely hard to love ourselves and accept our flaws. People are so quick to judge if we are “too skinny” or “too big”.

Learning to love our bodies, and not constantly be wondering what people are thinking or saying about us, will make us so much more happy with ourselves. Having that courage to learn to love ourselves is hard at times, but it will put us in a better spot than we are in when we are wondering what others think. We should always be focusing on ourselves and making our lives the best and happiest they can be.

-Hailey Sander

A grizzly bear - who knew we would see one today? I was hiking with my family at Crypt Lake in Waterton Park and we had walked all the way to the lake. It was a challenging hike, but a really nice lake. We were near the end of the trail; we were all alone. He was 50 feet ahead of us, right on our trail, and he stood up on two legs. What do we do now? Luckily, the bear was more scared of us, and took off as soon as we started talking and yelling. Fear? A bit (we had bear spray). Courage - We found it as a group and a family. Hope - We hoped we could get to the beach soon, to where the boat was meeting us, without meeting back up with this bear. We still love to hike, but a lot more cautious than we were before.

-Brennan Penney

Life Goes On

Most of the people that I know are miserable, as if someone blew out their candles and it seems like they’re stuck in the darkness. It made me sad to see many people like that. Four years ago I asked a friend of mine, whose name is James, about why he was so miserable and unkind to himself. He then proceeded to tell me that, “there are things in life that are not meant to be.” In his case he was not able to achieve his dreams because of an accident that paralyzed his legs, and he continued to tell me that there is no hope for him and that maybe he deserves the situation that he is in. I went home and thought of the possibilities and what could have been, and I was able to realize the importance of courage and hope in our lives. Tragedies, temptations or unexpected problems might happen and it’s going to make us vulnerable at times and it may change our perspective in life negatively, but if we have that sense of courage to grow and hope to have a brighter future ahead the positiveness that life can offer us will help us withstand all of those problems.The fact is that we are still alive and breathing, and we can still do whatever we want even though we might need some assistance in achieving our goals or wants. Believing is the key to let courage and hope take over our lives.

After four years James was able to find his heart again, and he learned to love himself and to love others. He learned to accept his situation and he did his best to make the most out of it. I asked him why he changed and he said, “I fell in love with a girl and I got scared that maybe sooner or later she will wake up and not want me, but then I got tired of having these negative thoughts and I got tired of being miserable all the time. The girl continued to show her love for me and finally I build up the courage to be a better person and the hope to be able face all the challenges I am going through. I chose to be better for myself and for her because this is how I wanted my life to be. I thought I could never get through this but I did. I am blessed to have this life.” I was amazed by what he said. It really made appreciate my life more and the people that surround me. Courage and hope really do have a big effect in one's life.

-Sofia Olvis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSayMXTaQY8

The man talking in the video is Nick Vujicic. He was born with tetra-amelia syndrome, it means that he is born without legs and limbs. He is a motivational speaker. It is said that he is one of the seven known surviving individuals planet-wide who live with the syndrome. Way back before when he was a teenager he attempted suicide because he get bullied in school a lot. His mother showed him a man who was also dealing with a severe disability and after that he started to give talks at his prayer group. He was able to conquer his life and he finally accepted himself. No matter what his situation is he will always focus on the bright side.

Those men above have prosthetic legs. Their disabilities did not stop them from joining and finishing the marathon that they’re in. Even though it is hard, they still made it happen because they both have the essence of courage and hope in their lives. It also made me think that if I want to do something I should start working on it and motivate myself to achieve. The guys in the picture once thought that they could not make it, but they chose to focus on the positive side and it gave them courage and hope to achieve what they want. Both of these athletes made history and they were able to capture the hearts of a lot of people. They were able to inspire a lot of people that have disabilities. They gave them hope and courage that even though they don’t have legs they still can make the most of their lives.

Monsters of My Life

Everyone has monsters that undermine them, and can and will affect life as we know it. I'm going to be explaining what monsters I've had in my life and how I've handled them. There are certain monsters that affected my life, and what I mean by monsters are challenging circumstances. I have definitely been through hardship, sometimes more than often than not. I feel like everything I touch, or have a human connection with always ends up failing or breaking. What helped me get through some of these tough times was youtube, from a youtuber named Syndicate. This guy was my inspiration and he has kept me motivated to make life better. It was honestly like having another friend because watching him kept my mind busy and I never thought about the problems I had in my life because I always had a distraction. Sports, especially basketball, also helped provide a distraction because I had so many different people that I could choose from and that's what kept my mind busy. If i got bored I could just try and find something new to distract myself with. After that phase of my life I got bullied because i was a “nerd”, so I changed my life around and really got into music. Rap was my thing, I always listened to Eminem because the lyrics were so close to my heart and it helped me when I was down, but it and also taught me stuff along the way and it gave me courage to talk to people because I listened to rappers and none of them cared what people thought of them, they had no cares in the world. To me that's the coolest thing in the world. These little things in life gave me the hope and courage to get up out of bed.

-Reece Mason

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79_vbh-jD7Q - Seananners Stole My Style ! - The Syndicate Project Vlog #1

You Must Feel the Fear and Do It Anyways

Feeling fear and doing it anyways can get us through easy times and some of the hardest times. It can help us get through depression, stressed days, or uncertain days. If we can use that  fear to put it behind us to push us, instead of letting it sit in front of us, that's a very powerful thing and it can make us  accomplish anything humanly possible. It can make us accomplish things we would never have done before. Fear can make and break us, its all on you on how we decide to use it. When I feel fear I can use that to motivate and help push me in a good positive way from behind and that's the most powerful thing I've been taught and have learned in life, is to use fear as a advantage because it can be done and when its done it is one of the most powerful things for some people. Some people live in fear and they don't know any other way to live and that can be really bad and make them live in a bubble that they don't leave because they're scared and that becomes the norm for them. If they stay in the bubble they won't experience as much as they could if they leave fear behind and take more chances, and do it anyways. Facing fear can benefit us in a positive way and change our lives, causing us to do more things and take more risks.

-Jaden Baker

I’ve met people who have monsters in their lives - these monsters were depression. I once had a girlfriend who had depression and she would always consider this as her monster because she would see and hear the monster and it would tell her to do things like harm herself. I was always there for her to fight her problems and make her happy because I knew if I kept her happy this monster wouldn’t come back to hurt her. I would go to bed  at 3 am on school nights so she could get sleep and I made sure she didn’t get hurt (she was home schooled). When she first told me about this she was scared to tell me because she didn’t know how I was going to react; I didn’t want to believe it because I didn’t want to fight someone else’s monsters when mine were winning the fight against me. Sometimes our monsters tell us what to do and we are too scared to fight them away, so we just listen to what they have to say and what they want us to do. Some people think that people are the monsters to themselves. When I faced her monsters I knew I was about to enter a fight that I thought I was never going to win, but I showed that I was not scared and I was willing to make her happy and to save her from these monsters, but sometimes I asked myself what if I am a part of her monster?   Sometimes it would get exhausting because I cared too much about her monsters and I paid very little attention to my own.

-Michael Amaya

http://www.zestydoesthings.com/realmonsters

This link is basically a link that tell us all the monster some of us are facing in our everyday lives and what to do to keep them away from bringing us down and taking control over our bodies.

Pillow of Strength

I try hiding my emotions including this picture that I always put underneath my pillow, but I guess it is part of who I am. All of my memories when I was a kid are still stuck in my head and when the night comes the only thing that I can remember were memories of me crying each night just to fall asleep. I was so desperate to do everything just to forget all of the bad thing happened, and I just wanted to dream about my happy place for awhile. Everyday all I could hear was fighting from my parents, so I decided to keep on running from that toxic environment in our house, but why? Maybe because I was afraid and I knew I did not want to deal with it anymore.

Since that day I have encountered a lot of challenges and difficulties at a very young age; therefore, I learned to fight for myself and those challenges which caused me to be in such a very dark time in my life. It was a time that I wish never happened and I hope that it will stop messing up every second of my existence. I never had the courage to tell them how much I love them. There are a lot of difficult choices that I needed to make and one of the choices was to choose which parent I would go with. I did not want to hurt one of them, but why did they keep on hurting me this way? Since the day they decided to break their vows in front of many people, and especially in front of God, they never stopped hurting me. I was so devastated when they decided to tell me about their agreement. I was traumatized and I also lost interest in my school and my life, because they did not try to fix their problems for the sake of their only daughter and I knew that I could not do anything to stop their decision because that is what they wanted, but they did not think of the effect of their choices.

All of my friends are always judging me for not having both of my parent in one house and I cannot think of anything to say about those question, but I now realize that I do not owe them any explanation on what is going on in my life . In the end I learned to forgive them because I have the hope that someday everything will be bright and full of happiness, just like the quote the I found on the internet: “ The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.” That idea gives me motivation to keep my life going, as well as to change my own pattern to learn from their mistakes in life that we should not give up on something that we will regret after. If you surrender on something that defines who you are, what’s left?  

-Richelle Santiago

Here’s some article that will help you to understand the pain and negative effect on a kid from a broken family:https://www.babygaga.com/15-negative-ways-kids-from-broken-homes-get-affected/

Perfection

      In the world we live in today we are expected to be “perfect” as they put it. We’re expected to have this perfect image that society glorifies or we're expected to be the same as everyone else. If we don’t meet up with society’s standards or meet up to everyone else’s standards were seen as the outcast, or the weird person nobody talks to, I know this because I've felt like this before. I've felt like I didn’t measure up to everyone else’s standards or I didn’t meet up to society’s standards and I didn’t feel accepted for who I was. Life is not about that though, it is about being perfect only for yourself because being perfect for yourself in the end will always feel better than being perfect for society or someone else. I’ve somewhat grown past where I’m worrying about others opinion on me because yea sure, they can say that stuff about me but it’s not true and they don’t know who I really am because they aren’t me. The only time we should listen when people talk about us is when what they say is true, and we may be harming ourselves or others. At this point we may finally see what we have to do to get it right. That’s when opinions from others matter because they aren’t just saying it to say it, they’re saying it because they see something in us that we don’t, or that we are too ignorant to see. Sometimes people tend to just look at the good things happening or just tend to look at the brighter things instead of the things that they don’t want to see about themselves, or others. This method of ignoring does more bad than good because yea sure they will be happy with what they have and with what they've got, but deep down they will know that they could’ve worked harder to get what they really wanted, or they could’ve made that change before things got too complicated, but that is what life is about. It’s about learning to see what is wrong with ourselves and with life because not everything is perfect, we just have to find what makes us perfect.

-Tristan Big Sorrel Horse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyDcktys9EU&app=desktop

KiD CuDi - Soundtrack to My Life

Taking Risks

Courage and hope are significant in people's lives because they are what push people to experience new things and take risks. Sometimes you gotta take big risks for big rewards.

Between my grade 10 and 11 year I was faced with the dilemma on whether or not I would stay at CCH, where I would be way better off academically, or switch to KA where I would be able to play basketball with some of my best friends. I’m not really a person who gets afraid or nervous but when making the decision I was a lot of both. Things at CCH were pretty good, I had some of the best marks in my life and I really enjoyed the quarter system so that made my decision a lot harder because my chance at succeeding was far higher at CCH. Even though it seemed like a far better decision to stay at CCH, I still decided to go to KA to pursue at least one year of high school basketball. After making my decision the nerves kind of went away and I stopped worrying about it and even though my grades did drop and I got hit with a bunch of spares that put my credits at risk. I still feel that in the end I made the right decision by going there for a year because I got to play basketball like I wanted. Now I’m glad I was able to find the courage to move to another new school because it made my high school experience even better.

-Dallan Bowden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI-XfjQCDwM

This is a video about incredible basketball motivation entitled "I Wanna Fly"

Flaws and Imperfections

We humans must accept our flaws and imperfections because no one is perfect and no matter what we do we will never be flawless. Everybody is unique in their own way. I don’t like my body and I complain about it. I get upset when I think really hard about it, but I have to realize that it doesn’t matter and that I should be happy with who I am. It shouldn’t matter what people think about me because it's not their body, it’s mine. Sometimes I might get a zit or two on my face and I worry so much about it and think that I'm ugly, but I tell myself that everyone in the world gets zits so it’s not a big deal because they go away in a few days. I need to be happier with my life because this is the life that God gave me and I have to accept that. I might not like my body some days but there are things I can do about it if it matters that much to me. Sometimes I will get a zit and I just have to get over it because there are so many other things to worry about in life than a little pimple on my face. I used to be very stressed about the way I looked when I was in middle school, so I started going to the gym and started to do MMA to get myself in shape because I didn’t want to be the kid I was before. I now accept the person I am, but the past has taught me that it's important to push myself, to try new things, and to work hard.

-Nicolas Bruntjen

Doubt Your Doubts and Believe Your Beliefs

I feel as though the future is now. What am I supposed to prepare for if I have no idea what is coming? Voices in my head are telling me now that the pressure is on, to start figuring out my life and basically what I want to do for the rest of it. Doubts are impossible to ignore, but they help me realize that I cannot control everything. I have been through too much in my short 17 years to start doubting myself anytime soon. I know whatever comes my way I will be able to overcome.

Even though I don’t know where I’m headed in the future I keep my mind and heart open to every new opportunity and every new struggle. If we live out our lives in the constant fear of “what if” it creates a void in our minds that allows these negative "what ifs" to actually happen. By doing this we are only shutting down ourselves to the life we want and deserve. Don’t confuse having a career with having a life, although our teachers and parents might try to convince us otherwise because there is so much more to life than work.

As these last few months of high school approach I know this is only the beginning. Yes, of course the stress is here now, but we have to just keep reminding ourselves that it’s not always going to be like this. My education is important, but it does not define me, my marks will only take me so far. Show me the real life experiences, throw me to the wolves; I’m ready for this new chapter to begin. I have hope for the future because I will be who I am and I will not compromise on what I feel is right for me in my life.

I would encourage you to doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs, because doubt is not always a sign that you are wrong- it may be just a sign that you are thinking. And believe your beliefs because at the end of the day there are always going to be people who hold different beliefs and values aside from yours, but as long as you stay true to yourself, I’ve learned, that’s the only thing that matters.

-Amanda Fox

2Pac – Keep Ya Head Up Lyrics | Genius Lyrics --- (I chose this song mainly because of the hook,the rest of the song is still great though.)

[hook]   

Keep ya head up, ooh, child

Things are gonna get easier

Keep ya head up, ooh, child

Things’ll get brighter

Keep ya head up, ooh, child

Things are gonna get easier

Keep ya head up, ooh, child

Things will get brighter

Anxiety

The monsters in my life are the thoughts in my head that at times discourage me. My own worst enemy is myself. It is a monster to me because it can tear me down so effortlessly. The thoughts can creep up without warning and almost every time I get convinced to believe them. I struggle with anxiety and some days are harder than others. I have had anxiety pretty much my whole life, or for as long as I can remember. I used to think that I was the only one going through the things I do. I didn’t know what anxiety was or how it worked. I have been through quite the rocky journey and struggled quite a lot. I still struggle sometimes, but I have my good days as well. I have learned many ways to help with the debilitating symptoms that come with anxiety, but the one thing I still have a hard time with is the thoughts that anxiety brings. It’s a constant battle between the thoughts.

The things I have learned the most when it comes to dealing with the thoughts is telling myself that they are just thoughts and I don’t have to believe every one. An example of a thought that I’m sure everyone has is when you’re alone and you pass a group of people who laugh, and you start to worry that they are laughing at you. Anxiety gives me irrational thoughts like that all the time. “What if something happened to them because they aren’t answering”, or “what if I die tomorrow”. I’m sure everyone has those thoughts from time to time, but I have to deal with those thoughts for so many things everyday. It has gotten better and distracting myself helps too. Having anxiety actually encourages me to be the best I can be and finding ways to better myself everyday. I challenge myself everyday to come out of my comfort zone which helps me to challenge the anxiety as well.

-Cierra French
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vx8iUvfyCY This link shows a guided meditation that helps with over thinking. Meditation is a great way to calm anxiety and the mind and is one thing I use that has helped many times.

You're Beautiful

I was always afraid that I wasn't not good enough, I wasn’t cool enough to fit in with others. I always think  about things like: why am I in this generation where popularity is everything in everyone's lives? Popularity is something that can make you have friends in school. Schools are something that I was always afraid of since I would ask myself: what if I just can’t make friends, because I am not cool enough or people won’t like me because of the way I dress or my race? But everyone isn't born the same and everyone has their own imperfections. One day that those imperfections will make you a much better person, because those are the things that made you, you. I overcame that fear and accepted who I was, and now no one can tell me who I have to be. If you don’t like me because I’m different from you then that’s your problem not mine. I accept who I am because I am the only one of me, and no one else can be like me. I keep in mind every flaw I have and every imperfection can be turned into beauty. I remember that not everything in this world can be destructive, and sometimes those things can be turned into something more beautiful. This idea is just like a larva transforming into a beautiful butterfly; we can’t hide the butterfly in all its beauty and there will always be something imperfect that makes a butterfly more beautiful than anything else. Now, I will never be ashamed for who I am. I am proud of who I have become and who I am now. I hope that no one should ever be ashamed about their flaws because that’s what makes them a person beautiful.

-Griffin Rivera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehToBz7zhqE This is the song that inspired me to write this whole blog about flaws and imperfection, because everyone is perfect in their own way.

Understanding Pain

It is important to feel pain because it makes us stronger and better. We will be able to face a lot of problems in the future with ease because we know how to handle them. The pain that we are feeling today doesn’t last forever because pain helps us grow to be more successful in life. We shouldn’t be ashamed of the pain that we are feeling right now, because we may all feel this pain in situations in life. There are situations that we sometimes feel we cannot handle, but in time it gives us the hope that we need to face the countless challenges that we are afraid to face. It also takes courage to admit that we feel pain. Even I am scared of admitting the feeling of pain, such as facing the reality of my life right now, and having to accept the fact that people who before were close to me are now far away. Also, I have to deal with difficult circumstances such as when people in my life need something from me I have no choice, but to give it to them because I know how they feel. I too have experienced how it feels to have a hard time finding a job. I don't like the idea of people looking down on me and maybe they would  think I’m weak, but the thing is I just have to brush away all the negative thoughts that I have in my mind. Now that I’m a young adult I am able to realize that having to feel pain is essential for us to mature and move forward in life. If we have the courage and hope to continue then life will come along its way.

-Norman Badong

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-25650/4-secrets-of-releasing-deep-emotional-pain.html

Above is a link on techniques to heal emotional pain and possibly overcome it.

Expectations

  I’m pretty sure I have made up my mind about going to college for Criminal Justice, and maybe end up working in Corrections after, but I am scared that I will not do well due to how physical it is. I am really doubting myself even though I know that I CAN do it.

  I'm scared that if after college if I get hired at the jail, that I will somehow mess up and disappoint my dad, who I will probably be working with. I’m scared that I will not live up the expectations people will have for me just due to who my dad is. I will have huge expectations to meet because my dad is one of the senior officers, and has been working at the jail for just over 30 years, and having the same last name, everybody will know who I am.

  I want to be able to live up to the expectations, but I really don't know if I can.

-Brooklyn Kandel

The Dream Physique

I am not very passionate about anything in life because I feel as though I have not fully lived my life to the fullest yet. I’m only 17 years old and I have so much to experience, but the only thing that I am very passionate about as of right now is fitness. To me fitness is what motivates me to get out of bed in the morning; it completes my day even though my day hasn't started yet. Even just the thought of going to the gym completes my day. I am very passionate about fitness because I love the feeling of walking into the gym every morning, seeing all the weights and the equipment, the smell of the entire gym. I love the burning and tearing of my muscles so that they can grow, drinking my pre-workout shake so that I can have a perfect workout, taking my supplements such as vitamins so that It can help me get bigger, and after every workout I get to go home eat all of my essential foods such as proteins, carbs, and fats. I strive to gain the perfect physique because it has been one of my goals since I was a child and to be able to actually put in the work to go and pursue my goals makes me feel ecstatic and euphoric. There are many difficulties that goes into fitness because sometimes people can lose motivation to do it, or they might have a lazy work ethic. Also, a lot of research must be done so that people will have the IQ to be more efficient at getting fit and also have more skills in the gym. It takes a lot of hard work to push myself every day at the gym, as I have to be mentally and physically tough to motivate myself. I remind myself that it is my body and not anyone else’s so to be able to push myself is the main challenge that I have to overcome. I always have to constantly think about not giving up to always keep pushing forward.

-Viustin Badilla

Here's a motivational video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NBdvGl71-Y

The significance of courage and hope is that they set out a good image for us and not only us, but for the people close to us. It takes courage and hope to grow up and become who you really are. Life is filled with the choices that we make. Opportunities are abundant, and this is the reason why life is so rich. In my experience, fear is the thing that keeps me stuck worrying about outcomes. Action takes courage because there are risks and the outcome is less than certain.

   I am choosing to write about my open door. I know that the poor choices I make in my present life will affect my future. To see that I've made it this far could mean a successful future, but not everyone is successful and that's because of the poor choices and mistakes they've made in the past. People only get scared of the future because they don't know what's to come, anything can happen. If I could go ahead in time, I would learn from my future and I would prevent those poor choices from messing with my future. Courage is word that moves us towards an outcome, but can’t guarantee the result. My advice for you all is to lead your own life because nobody will know you better than you know yourself. Make good choices and let go of the things that will make you successful.

-Jangkou Machonyjok

https://youtu.be/Urf0GFYdYTo

Key To Success Video

Superhero Inside All of Us

“There is a superhero inside all of us we just need the courage to put on the cape.” This quote reminds me of my brother, because he told me that if I ever get Alzheimer's disease, that he would put a wonder woman costume in my closet. He said that a long time ago, but it feels like decades ago because of how much has happened and the changes we've been through. Sometimes he can be a pain (what brother isn't?), but this quote also reminds me of when I was getting bullied. One day after school my brother found me crying on the playground and I remember he was really concerned and actually hugged me. He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a tight squeeze then asked who upset me. I could tell he was frustrated, so I told him that it was not a big deal because I didn't want him to get in trouble. I was reluctant to tell him, but he was persistent, so I just told him that this guy by my locker dropped a textbook on my head and laughed about it. The boy didn't even care about the pain he inflicted, but I wasn’t surprised because he had picked on me many times before. My brother knew who he was, and as we were starting to walk home my brother saw him and then ran over to him and punched the bully in the face. I will remember this moment for the rest of my life, and how the kid fell on the ground holding his nose. I will remember how he looked at me still holding his nose with blood flowing through his hands, apologizing to me for picking on me then got up and ran away leaving a trail of blood behind him. In this situation my brother is my superhero -without a cape.    

-Linda Mannix-Elliott

Struggles of Life

I am not perfect, no one is, but there are some people who are pretty darn close. Doing some/most drugs makes you skinny, and being too skinny makes you scared of your own body. Doing drugs puts your mind in another place, making you think you're always sad and you don't know how to get rid of it. Your mind doesn't know how to get rid itself of anger, so you take the anger out on yourself. You cut yourself... and not just little scratches you cut yourself so deep that you won't stop bleeding for hours. Now that you are done, you are left with a very scarred up body, and you're so uncomfortable. You don't want to sit in the hot tub with your family or go to the beach with your boyfriend. You look in the mirror and cry. There are scars everywhere: arms, legs and your stomach and you always wear long sleeves because you don't want people to judge.

Now I've learnt from my past, I'm still learning to live with my scars and I'm getting less and less insecure of my body. My boyfriend helped me out a lot. One night he wanted to go sit in the hot tub and I didn't want to because I didn't want him to see my tummy and arms, so I just told him about it. I pulled up my sleeves and rolled up my shirt, so he could see my arms and tummy. He touched my scars and said, “I love your scars, they make you you! They make you a warrior, they tell a story”. Then he kissed my scars. Now everyday I look in the mirror and tell myself I'm beautiful, and that I'm a warrior.

-T

Lupe Fiasco and Guy Sebastian - Battle Scars. I chose this song because it explains my whole story in one song.

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

Significance in My Life

For my blog post, I wanted to talk about the significance of courage and hope in my life in my day to day activities. I've talked about being on the football team and how that takes courage in my journal, but it’s not just because I go to practice everyday and I play the games the best I can. It’s also taking the time to even do any of that. It’s hard to be a student athlete, not just in football but when you have to give up your time for sports, it's very hard and I would say it actually takes a lot of courage to give up your free time. Once you join a team, you go to practices and you no longer have as much free time because instead, that time becomes time for the sport you are involved in. A lot of people give up time with their families, or they have to wait to get a job or maybe even have difficulty keeping a job. It might not make the most sense that I'm linking this to courage, but it's just what I think and it's actually the situation that I'm in. When I get home, I have about 2 hours until I have to get myself ready for bed in order to get a good enough sleep and charge myself for the next day. Sometimes it’s difficult, but it is all worth it when I look at the good I'm doing for myself.

When I think of hope in my life, nothing really comes to me off the top of my head, but it doesn't mean I don’t have any hope. I have hope for my to do good in school and activities I'm involved in after school and I like to think that my future will be good. I have hope in myself to succeed in life and that pretty much wraps everything up. If I don't succeed today, then I pull myself together and I go on to succeed the next day because what's in the past is past, and I just need to focus on what's going to happen next and the things I need to do to succeed. The thing that drives me is hope and I don't know if it's just me, but I think that courage along with hope are very significant  to have in life.

-Kaymen Piper