Lori

Everyone says that everything happens for a reason. I still can't see the reason why Lori died. She was always so full of life, and was always happy. Even two and half years ago when she was told that she had cancer she was still positive. She never let that get her down. Lori fought her hardest until the very end. She never gave up. Lori was the srongest person I knew.

It is important in life to never give up in life. If you did, what would you ever get done. Your life would be a complete failure if you gave up on everything. Lori knew that in her last few months things weren't looking good for her, but she didn't just sit back and give up. She kept fighting. That is one of the things I will remember most about Lori. She never gave up, she was always positive even in the worst times, and she was always so nice. Lori is one of the best people to look up to, or to have as your role model.



Life Lesson: Lori would always sign letters to me with "stay strong", so Stay Strong



I commented on Saski's Blog

Kryptonite

Superman, the most well known super hero ever. He was extraordinarily hard to beat if you were a villain, the only thing that could help you was his weakness to kryptonite. He has a weakness, just like everyone else. He knew that he had a weakness, but I don't think he accepted it. Another example of someone well known with a weakness is Achilles. He had a weak ankle that was eventually the cause of his death. If you're thinking that only made up people have weaknesses then you are wrong because there are many real people who have problems with some things. Like Barack Obama. He has many excellent strengths as we all know, but there are some things that people see as weaknesses in him. Experience, race, and even his name are seen as some of his weaknesses. He doesn't see them as weaknesses though.



Like everyone I have weaknesses. I am a very shy person if I am around people who I don't know. Because of this I have missed out on many things. I now regret that I haven't been able to overcome my shyness, because if I had I would have been able to get better things out of events like the Youth In Action Summit. I acknowledge my weakness and I have been working on it to be a more outgoing person around strangers. If I do become more outgoing then I will get more out of life and have more friends to surround myself with. I acknowledge my weakness and am not ashamed of it and you shouldn't be ashamed of yours. Figure out what your weaknesses are and find a way to overcome them.



Life Lesson: Everybody has a weaknesses, and you shouldn't be ashamed about yours. Just find a way to overcome it.


I commented on Marcus' blog

Jamie

My parents say that something else happened, but I know what truly happened that summmer day. I was about 4 or 5 years old and had gone to my Aunt's house with my mom one day. In her backyard she has this super steep hill covered in garden thigs except for a small path that went down from the top of the hill to the bottom by the edge of the property by the fence. At the bottom of the hill there was a tree that kind of blocked the ppath way down. I had been up at the top of the hill looking at all of the pretty flowers. My cousin Jamie came up the hill too aparently to make sure I didn't hurt myself, but I think he had a different idea. Jamie was about 25 or so at the time.

I decided that I was done looking at the flowers, so I started back down the path to the backyard. I began to stumble, I felt hands on my back, then I was rolling down the hill. I finnallystopped rolling at the bottom of the hill and I went crying to my mom. Nobdy seemed to be very worried about me though. I know what Jamie did that day, and he is never going to forget what he did to me. Everyone says that I tripped, which I baleive, and that Jamie tried to stop me from falling down the hill. Some parts of this story are true, but not everything is. What happened that day, I will never forget.

Life Lesson: Watch your back when your cousins are around!

I commented on Emilie's blog

Ice Cream Flavors

When you think about it, ice cream is a lot like people. I don't mean like in a physical way but in a different way. Like there are so many different flavors of ice cream and there are kind of different flavors of people, if you understand what I'm trying to say. There are sweet and sour ice creams, and there are also some people who are sweet because they are nice or whatever. There are also sour people like the person who yells at you for walking across their lawn. People are like ice cream.



My favourite flavor of ice cream is Rainbow. It is the most fun ice cream flavor of all time. This flavor is a lot like the people I like to spend my time with. All of my friends are so much fun. They also aren't afraid to show their true colours, just like the colours in the ice cream. If I had to pick what flavors my friends are they would be the following: Hayley-Strawberry, Blayne-Cookies & Cream, Jamie-Vanilla, Emilie-Justin Bieber(if that's possible)! They are all so much fun, and aren't afraid to be them self.

If you ask a person their favourite flavor of ice cream, sometimes they seem like that flavor. Like my friend Jamie. Her favourite flavor is chocolate. She is like the chocolate because she is very simple. Every one also likes her and pretty much everyone has at one point liked chocolate ice cream. Emilie's favourite flavor is mint chocolate chip. She is like this flavor because she is full of fun little things, and she is always exciting. Many people are actually very similar to their favourite ice cream flavor. What's your favourite flavor? Are you anything like it?

Life Lesson: Don't be afraid to show your true colours!!!




I commented on Erika's blog.

Hashbrown

When I was little I went to the mall with my mom one day. We were walking around, and like always we stopped at the pet store. In the front window there were four of the most adorable puppies that you have ever seen. They were Yorkshire Terrier and Toy Poodle crosses. There were three boy puppies and one girl. I was set on getting one of these puppies. My favourite one was the darkest brown one. It ended up that the one I liked was the girl. My mom fell in love with the puppy as fast as I did, but there was only one problem. I had to get my dad to agree to buy the puppy.


It ended up not being that hard to convince him to buy the puppy, who at the time was called Shelby. I think that he fell in love with her the minute that he saw her, although he won't admit it. After filling out all the paperwork we were allowed to take Shelby home. Right when I got home I knew what Shelby's new name was going to be. She was a dirty brown colour with a darker stripe down the middle of her back and on her ears. I thought that she looked like a hash brown so that is what I called her. Hashbrown turned out to be the most adorable dog, and she is pretty well behaved too. I love Hashbrown and so does everyone who meets her.





Life Lesson: Dogs actually are a man's (and woman's) best friend!!!





I commented on Rowena's Blog.

Gooey Band-Aids

Who knew you could get something like a chemical burn from putting vinegar on the sticky stuff left behind from band-aids? Well I guess you can! Last year in the springy summery time I got a horrible horse fly bite. I could not stop scratching it! After scratching it for about 3 days, and almost having myself pick it off, I couldn't stand myself constantly scratching it. I put a band-aid on it so that I would stop scratching it but it didn't work. I kept scratching at the band-aid, and decided that I had to do something to the actual bug bite.



My mom said that if you put vinegar on bites it takes the itch away, so I thought that I might as well try it. When I took the band-aid off, gooey sticky band-aid glue was left behind. I didn't think that it would matter that it was there. Unfortunately for me, the vinegar and the band-aid glue made like a chemical reaction and it looked like it burnt my skin. After a couple days my skin began to peel of my leg, and I could barely walk it hurt so much. The one day that we were outside for gym class the back of my leg was showing and one of my friends thought that my leg had caught fire or something, and that was what was left behind. It was so terrible! My leg still has a scar on it from the band-aid gooeyness.



Life Lesson: Don't mix vinegar and band-aid gooey stuff!!!





I commented on Emilie's blog.

Friends

When you need someone to lean on who do you go to? I go to my friends. I know that I can trust them and that they won't go and tell some of their friends. If I want them to keep something a secret then I know that my friends will. My friends are always there for me if I need them. If someone is ever putting me down I know that my friends will stand up for me no matter who it is or why they're doing it.

Friends will always keep your secrets and that is one of the reasons why they are so great. Where ever you are and how ever you are feeling you know that you can trust your best buddy to keep all deepest darkest secrets. They know that if they tell any one you would never tell them anything again. It would also take a really long time for them to regain your trust.

If you ever need support or advice, your friends are one of the best people to go to. Your BFFs will always be there for you to give you support. They also give the best advice because they are probably going or have gone through the same thing recently, unlike your parents because they went through it 50 million years ago. Friends will also stand up for you because they know that that is what they would want you to do for them. No matter the situation they will support you.

Life Lesson:Friends are the marshmallows in the cocoa of life! (I heard this somewhere, but I don't know who said it)

Eggs

Their soupy, sticky, yellow yuckiness makes them what they are, and how we know them. Yes Eggs. Eggs are wonderful, but sometimes they are stupid. They are so good for making an omelet in the morning for a quick breakfast. I mean what else are you going to cook in a pan? It's not like you can cook toast in there. There are so many other great recipes you can make with eggs too. Without eggs none of those recipes would work. Eggs are one of the key ingredients in making any kind of baked goods or other things. For that reason eggs are great things.

When you think about it eggs ruin a lot of things too. I mean when you put them in cookie dough it makes it soft and stuff, but then you can't eat it with out it being cooked. When was the last time you baked something with eggs and you were aloud to eat the dough or batter. I know that it was a long time ago for me, and that was only because my dad forgot there was egg in it. Apparently eggs have a bacteria in them called salmonella which will give you bad stomach aches and sometimes make you throw up if you eat it. So have to make sure that when you are cooking with eggs that they get cooked enough so that it kills the salmonella.

Although it seems always that eggs ruin all of your baking fun, they also make all your recipes work. Eggs are a great and stupid thing at times. If cooked they taste yummy, but if you eat them raw they are the most disgusting thing htat you can eat.

Life Lesson: Eat the cookie dough before you put the eggs in.

Dogs

Who has ever had a bad day at school or work, better yet, who hasn't had a bad day. When you get home who is there. Your parents, kids, or partner, but someone you don't really notice is your dog. They are one of the only things that love you so much without asking much in return. All they want from you is to be fed, and be loved a little bit everyday, they don't really need to be taken for walks but many people prefer they use the washroom outside. There is so little they get from us but they give us so much in return.





Think about how every day when you get home your dog is always there waiting for you to be there and when you walk in they are so happy to see you again, like it has been a year since they saw you last. It kind of just washes everything bad that happened that day away. When you see your dog it just makes you so happy that someone seems to love you so much. Imagine if everyone in the world had a dog. Everyone would be so much happier and in such a better mood. If everyone were in a better mood hen the world would be such a better place, just because a little animal showed you that they love you.





Life Lesson: Ask for less, give more.

Canada

Some people take for granted the fact that they have a roof over their head, clean water to drink, food to fill their stomachs, and a bed to lay down in. Not everybody has this ability to be able to have a safe place to call home. I think of myself as one of the luckier ones who knows what its like to be able to walk into a house and call it home. Canada is a rich country, but not everyone has somewhere that they call home. I don't know what I would do if the place I call home was taken away from me. I love my home for many reasons, and it would be hard for me to have to move to another house, or not have one for that matter.



I find my home in Canada, and I am very happy to live in such an awesome country. There are so many different things to see and do in Canada. There is the former tallest building in the world, beautiful mountain ranges, waterfalls, and huge forests. Although there are all these great things, I think my favourite part of all of Canada is my home. I spend a lot of my time in my home. I think it is one of the few things I love so much. When I walk into my home its like I can just let everything that's going on in the outside world go, and just have somewhere I can relax, and honestly be myself. In my home there is this feeling that floats around in the air that makes me feel as if I am surrounded by...I don't really know what you call it I just know that it makes you feel good. Homes are great things to be able to have. They let you just sit back, relax, and be able to take a step back from life for a while.

Life Lesson: There is such a thing as a home sweet home.

Books

Books are one of the most versatile things. There are just so many things that you can read about. There's Fantasy, Mystery, Adventure, Picture books, and romance. I think books are one of the greatest things ever invented. They can make you so involved that you actually feel like you are in the story with the characters. You can read abook any day, and at any time. It's not like playing Basket ball where you have to have space to play. All you need to read a book is a little bit of light(or awesome night vision). I used to hate reading books, and I thought they were the most stupid thing in the world. Now though, I only hate to write books, or stories.



I started to like reading books when my friend lent my mom her Twilight series. My mom said that I should at least read Twilight, so I did and I couldn't put it down. I ended up fishing Twilight in three days. It was during March break that I was reading Twilight so when my family and I left for Florida I brought the other three books with me. The weather wasn't that great so I stayed inside and read the books for most of the time. I ended up finishing the four books in a week. I loved that series so much that I decided to read other books too to see if I would like them too. I now love reading books, and if I'm reading a good one it's hard for me to put it down.

Life Lesson: Read! It's not as stupid as you may think.

An Apple A Day Keeps the Doctor Away

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. I used to take this well known saying seriously, if I eat well and stay active then why would i get sick? But then again I don't think most grade twos are worried about their health. I was just the average grade two student in 2004. I would play with the other kids, eat with the other kids, and everything was just great. All that was about to change though. March would be my last full month of being a kid and not having any worries. In mid-April I was going to get a disease that would change my life forever.



I remember March- break of that year clearly. It was the first time I was ever on a cruise, and it was awesome. Well, if you ignore the fact that I was constantly drinking and constantly needing to use the bathroom. No matter how much I drank I was always thirsty, and no matter what, I couldn't control when I went to the bathroom. My Mom, with her mother instincts, knew something wasn't right. When we got back from our cruise, she took me to the blood clinic to get a blood sample. The results were to come back several days later while my mom and I were at Wal-Mart buying Lizzie McGuire flip-flops. I had a feeling in my gut that the phone call wasn't going to be good. They called my mom's cell and said that I needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible because I had diabetes.



It's six years later and that one phone call has left me with diabetes and it hasn't changed. It never will change though. I thought that I would just get better or grow out of this disease, but the doctors said no. It will always be a part of me because my body thought there was something wrong with my pancreas (an organ in your body that helps with the absorption of energy from your food) so it killed it. Because of my body's stupidity, I will be constantly be stuck in the routine of testing my blood sugar levels about six times a day, and giving myself needles at least five times a day, sometimes more, or using the insulin pump 24/7. My mom always says that things happen for a reason, and you can't change them. I think this is a good thing to go by, so I try to just take things as they come, and be happy with what I have been given because it could always be a lot worse.

Life Lesson: Things always happen for a reason.