I've Got Dreams to Remember

The Beginning of my Bucket list

1) See the ball drop on New Year's Eve in New York.
2) Go on a road trip
3) Find myself.
4) Graduate from the University of Guelph.
5) Do karaoke in a bar.
6) Go to every concert I can - Eminem, Lady Antebellum, and Adele are at the top of that list.
7) Learn how to cook.
8) Be a bartender.
9) Have a best friend that I can tell anything to.
10) Save someone.
11) Dance in the rain.
12) Go to Europe.
13) Volunteer Abroad.
14) Teach English in a foreign country.
15) Gamble in Las Vegas.
16) Ride the 10 largest roller coasters in the world.
17) See the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
18) Keep a diary.
19) Let people in.
20) Fall in love and believe in forever.

here's to everything, coming down to nothing

We wanted freedom, rights, and we wanted to be able to do whatever we want, when we want to. As teenagers, were constantly trying to get respect. We're trying to get respect because we look up to the adults in our lives. Unfortunately, we've spent years of rebellion trying to get freedom. However, since these adults are also our mentors, having freedom is ineffective in our lives. What we need is a firm hand, not adults who have given up caring because that's what we've said we wanted. We push adults away, but when we do that, that's when we need guidance and a mentor most. We need to realize having fun and doing whatever we want isn't going to get us anywhere in life.
At school, and in areas around our small city, there is a new program called UP. It is a program that focuses on knowledge about substance abuse, and what we can do to give teens other options. It does not, however, directly deal with attempting to stop drug use.
1) I understand that stopping drug use is an unreasonable goal, but it scares me that they've stopped trying completely, and that trying to deter drug use is no longer a main goal in society.
2) This program is likely to flop in our city because no one cares enough about it.

What happened to hope? What happened to perseverance? What happened to believing that we can make a difference?
We're the future, we need to step up.

What's wrong is how pointless all of this is.

      At our school, finding a teacher who is passionate and interested in what they are teaching is so rare. Going to a  class and learning something new is honestly shocking, since it happens so infrequently. I think it's ridiculous that I can miss more than half of my classes and still get good marks. I can miss entire weeks, and when I get back, I haven't missed anything.

      Then, teachers expect my respect. Are you kidding me? I'll respect you when you have earned in, and in my mind, the fact that at least two of my teachers this semester have no idea what the course they are teaching is even about does not give me any reason to respect them.

      I do not mind doing the work, normally I enjoy it. What drives me crazy is that in my grade 12 university classes I feel like I am missing out on learning. We're all going to be in shock next year when we reach university and college considering as of right now, few of us have the work ethic that it takes to make it in post-secondary.

      If you want my respect - give me homework, test my intelligence, give me that thirst for knowledge that you're supposed to - teach me something.

I don't wanna be anything other than what i've been trying to be lately.

As we grow up, we make stupid decisions that impact the way that people view us for the rest of our lives. I believe that this is because it is easier for people to judge us before truly getting to know us and it’s hard for people to give others a chance.

Throughout high school, everyone changes dramatically. You start out in grade nine expecting your life to turn out a certain way, and you always expect to have the friends you went to public school be your “best friends forever”. But forever is not a constant, it is always changing, and so are you and the people around you. You can’t expect to stay the same, and you can’t expect your friends to either. It is incredible when you find someone that grows with you, instead of apart from you, and sometimes friendships do last forever.

But the way you look at life, the way that you act, and the decisions you make change through the years. You grow, and at least for me, I’ve learned from my mistakes. I’m not the same person I was a year ago, and I’m slowly beginning to find out who I am and who I want to be.

If you think you know me, don’t. You don’t know who I am, or what I am capable of. I’ve been hurt and I’ve hurt others, and the past four years of my life were some of the most challenging of my life, I hope. I’ve learned so much about life and love, and I’ve made countless mistakes that have hurt me and the people that I care about most.

But I’m thankful for my mistakes, because they make me who I am. The mistakes I have made brought me to where I am now. They say “things go wrong so you appreciate them when they’re right” , and I’m so thankful for my friends that have stood by me through my ups and downs, and I wouldn’t change anything about what I have now. 

A Part of Your World

One of the scariest, most challenging things in the entire world is losing someone you’re close to - having someone you never thought would leave - turn right around and walk away from you.

So many people I know have closed themselves off to their friends the second they begin a new relationship. Yes, I agree that there is absolutely nothing better than finding that person that makes everything else disappear. But just because you have them, doesn’t mean that you cut everyone else out of your life. The relationships that work out are the ones where people aren’t dependant on each other every second of every day.

When you find someone, you should share your world with them, not make them your world. I don’t understand how people can drop their friends the second that they start dating someone else. Your friends and family are the ones who have always been there for you, and they’re the ones who have had your back. Why would you ever give that up?

There are so many different things that make me happy, music, running, writing, and family, to give a few examples. What about you? How many things have you sacrificed for someone else? Having a well rounded life makes everything so much better. You need friends who you can laugh with, family that will never let you go, and you shouldn’t ever alter your life to fit into someone else’s life. You should take the best from every situation you’re in, and make it your life.

Not only is having a well rounded life healthy, you also need to do it to protect yourself. When you make someone else your everything, you are giving them the power to take everything you have away from you if they decide to leave. There are so many things in life that you should take advantage of, living your life to the fullest shouldn’t stop just because you found someone, and you should instead live life to the fullest with them.

Also, you’re going to get sick of that person. You’re going to fight with them if you’re with them all the time, and you won’t enjoy the time you share with them as much. Make the time you have special, and it isn’t special if all you do is spend time with them. You start to take it for granted, which is the last thing you want to happen.

So next time you think about missing a girl’s night or a guy’s night, realize that those friends are the ones who you’ve had all your life. The person you’re with likes you for you – and part of who you are is all of those things you love to do that don’t involve them. So don’t lose yourself for someone else.

“You can't make any one person your world. The trick is to take what each can give you and build your world from it”

                 -       Sarah Dessen.

Here Comes The Sun

      There is so much pain in this world. There is so much hurt, despair, broken hearts, hopelessness, and people who are suffering a kind of pain that is unimaginable.  There are people with terminal illnesses; people who have went through experiences that will affect them for the rest of their lives.

      So who are we to complain about a bad day? You may be in pain now, but I promise you someone else has it worse, and I bet the person who has it worse isn’t sitting there complaining about it. The people who know they may die this year, or the one after it, they’re the people who are smiling and they’re out there living because they’re happy to have another day spent in this incredible world.

      There will be a day when you will wake up and you won’t be in that pain anymore – whether it is a broken heart, depression, or illness – having a positive outlook on it will change everything. Stress is linked to 99 % of all illnesses, and if you can find a way to cope with whatever you are facing, it will help in ways you don’t realize until you try. Everything is beautiful if you really look, so take the time out of your day to think about every way that you’re lucky with what you have.

      Next time you’re having a bad day, listen to an amazing song, lean on a strong friend, or take a drive or walk through this beautiful world that we live in. You may be going through something that no one else can understand, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. There is pain everywhere, but you can choose to focus on that, or you can choose to focus on how lucky you are. You can wake up every morning hating the fact that you have to face another day with pain that you’re in, or you can realize you’re lucky enough to have another day to face at all, because some people don’t have that. You’re lucky because no matter what you’re going through, it will get better.

      You can look at things however you want to. If it storms you can choose think about all the ways that this will change your plans for the day. Or you can realize that you get to watch the sky light up, you get to hear the sound of the rain, and you get to spend the day inside with the people you love. Take a look around, there is so much beauty if you open your eyes.

"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy."

- Anne Frank

Mistakes

    Remember being little, and someone hands you a hot plate in
a restaurant saying "don't touch it, its hot". You smile and nod, and
the second they walk away you touch it and yelp from the searing pain.

We hear warnings of danger and we see other people get hurt, but you never
truly learn until you're in the positions yourself how it would hurt you.
People are always telling you what will happen, and what could go wrong in any
given situation, but we all need to make our own mistakes in order to find out what is right.






 




  

 





  
  
                                                                                                Everyone makes mistakes - big ones. The thing about mistakes is you can't take
them back, once you've made one, its there. There's no "take two" in
life, there's just new opportunities every day to make new and different
mistakes. Sometimes the people you care about hurt you, and sometimes you hurt
the people you care about. None of us are perfect, and we all fall down
sometimes. Some people let their past mistakes define them, but I say learn from it.
If you're too busy regretting the past you cannot fully live in the present or
look forward to the future. Everyone makes mistakes; some of us make the same
mistake over and over again and some of us find new ways to mess everything up.
You have to take the mistakes you've made and grow from it, learn to never make
that same mistake again. 



You cannot live in the fear of making mistakes, sometimes you have to go down a
few wrong paths until you find the one that you need to take. 





  








 




     
                                                                            
                   
    


    So what if
you mess up? We all do. Its how you take that and make it change
you for the better, and make it mold you into a better person who would never
do that again. Everyone messes up; some choose to dwell on
their inevitable mistakes. Those people let
one slip-up completely change who they are. They let it change their life, and
they can never shake it. Those are the people who are constantly looking back
and saying “what if?” But why bother? No matter how many times you
look back and analyze how you could have done something differently, and how it
would’ve changed your life… You can’t fix it. We can’t go back in time; we don’t have time
machines or super powers



Life is a rollercoaster - sometimes you're up, sometimes your down - but without
the downs you wouldn't have the thrill of the rising to the top. So mess up, go
crazy, and do what feels right in the moment. Do whatever you think is right,
and if you make mistakes, 
don't let them define you.




   













                                                                People make mistakes; no one’s perfect. But what’s wrong with that? So
many people spend all of their lives striving for perfection, but sometimes
it’s the flaws that make you who you are. There
is nothing wrong with having flaws, there is nothing wrong with making
mistakes, it’s only human. So stop looking back, and start
enjoying life. Use your mistakes so that you don’t repeat them; learn from
them.   




     








   


  
        


      
                                                                  
Realize without those mistakes, without messing up and
going down the wrong paths, you might have never found the right path. Without
your bad decisions and bright ideas gone wrong, you wouldn't be where you are
today. So learn to appreciate your mistakes, and appreciate that those mistakes
lead you to the right decisions in the end.