The City that Never Sleeps

             Recently I was given the opportunity to go to New York City with my grade twelve class. It was quite the experience! I found New York City to be exactly the same as it is portrayed in the movies…BUSY! There are a ton of people in New York and when you’re a tourist taking your time walking down the sidewalks in awe of the huge buildings that surround you the people of New York can get quite pushy.

The first thing I learned while visiting “the big apple” was not to dawdle. People will push you and get quite upset if you are in their way when they have to be somewhere. There was this one incident when it was raining and we were standing under this little shelter on the sidewalk, a New Yorker was having troubling getting through and when he made his way to us he deliberately shook his very wet umbrella on top of us. I guess you could say we learned our lesson.

Another thing about New York is that it is loud! I could never drive in that city, people never hesitate to honk or yell.

 An interesting thing that caught my attention about an hour of being in the city was that there are police everywhere. Our tour guide told us that there are about 30 000 cops in New York City, that amazes me but I can believe. They are at basically every intersection directing traffic, and just walking along the street, I felt pretty safe in NYC knowing there were so many of New York’s “finest” around.

One of my favourite things was experiencing China town. People all along the street try to talk to you and in a very shady way try to sell “Tiffany’s”, “Chanel”, or “Gucci” to you. Of course all the things they are selling are fake but since it is illegal to do what they are doing the whole process is very secretive and once they see a cop they are out of there very fast.

While in the big city I really began to appreciate where I live. It’s not crowded, it’s quiet and there aren’t lights everywhere! All though NYC was a very interesting place to go and visit I could never see myself living anywhere like that. It was cool to see everything that you see in the movies and hear about but NYC just wasn’t for me. I love the small country town I live in and wouldn’t change it!

Eighteen Years

                     The first year couple years of your life are critical. You start learning so many things: smiling, crawling, walking, talking and you even learn how to learn. When you hit about five years old then your really on your way, off to kindergarten and meeting new friends. Without the eye of your watchful parents you really start seeing the world in a whole new way. 9 years later and high school is my way of living. It hit me like a train, all of a sudden I have all this freedom. Being able to leave school property without a note, that was something unheard of in elementary school.
                     Now I'm moving on, in 2 short months (hopefully) I will be getting out of here and I cant wait. It's not that I don't like high school it is just that I am so fed up with it. I'm ready to 'grow up' and take the next step to post-secondary. This is something that I am completely ecstatic on, I seriously cannot wait! It's a little scary when I think about it, all the responsibility I will have to take on. What stresses me out the most is money! Really not looking forward to that what so ever but it comes what the package, right?
                    Anyways, what all this comes down to is today is my birthday and so much is changing! On my 5th birthday all I wanted was that new toy, on my 10th it was a scooter and last year it was my license. This year all I can think about is how all my birthday money is going towards next year. Each time I put more in my savings account I get more excited, the sad thing though is in one push of a button it will all get emptied and go towards my schooling. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining but in all honesty, I  have never been this stressed out about something ever!
                 I have to remember that although I am stressed out at this point in my life, I also have a lot to be thankful for today. I have an amazing boyfriend who treats me so good, friends who make me laugh and a family that is always there for me. I also have the classic things to be thankful for, a roof over my head, food to eat everyday, and my own car which most kids my age don't even have.
                It blows my mind that I have already gone through 18 years of my life, 18 more years and I'll be 36, that is so crazy! Cause it feels like these years have gone through fast, I remember being younger and waiting for this age to come, waiting to get older, waiting to get taken seriously and here I am still wanting more.

Expectations

                 Who decides what is expected of others, parents, teachers, friends, ourselves? Who really gets to choose what we should do, how we should do it, and why we should do it? I’m sure many people in their childhood have heard their parents utter the four most painful words ever… “I’m disappointed in you”. In all honesty, I think many children would rather have their parents yell at them and be mad then hearing those words. For some reason those four words have a power like no other, they sure can make a person feel really bad about what they’ve done. I remember having them spoken to me when I was younger, I can’t remember the exact circumstance but I remember the feeling after I heard it. It’s like all of a sudden being attacked with guilt, when you hear them say that sentence to you; you know you really hurt them.
                
                 The expectations our parents put on us have a lasting effect.  As well as parents, the expectations that teachers put on you can also have a positive and lasting effect. If these expectations are so important, then why is it when we are in grades nine through twelve the only expectations that we truly care about are the ones given to us by our friends. We have to dress the right way, eat the right food, watch the right TV shows, this list of useless expectations is endless. Lately I’ve been thinking about all of these things that are expected of us, whether they are important or not, whether we meet them or not do they truly matter? When it comes down to it, does it truly matter? Finally I figured it out, I had been ignoring it all along, I was too busy paying attention to all these other things that I didn’t see what really mattered- God’s expectations. 
               
                When this suddenly occurred to me, I started googling it (becoming more interested in the matter). Finally, I stumbled on this African-American Proverb, “God makes three requests of his children: Do the best you can where you are, with what you have, now”. This says it all. These are God’s expectations summed up in 80 letters, 20 words and 1 sentence.  This is what really matters…God is what really matters. Sometimes you may just have to look a little farther to realize it.

Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.

-CS Lewis

Flying By

Wake up at 7:00a.m , go to school for 9:00a.m, leave at 3:00p.m , go to work for 4:00p.m, leave at 9:00p.m get home for 10:00pm , do home work, go to bed at 11:30p.m, repeat. Life is busy, and with only 24 hours in a day, I find myself with a lot of things to do and such little time to do it. We are now in our grade twelve year, the year that counts. This is the year that can affect the rest of our lives. Why is it that we are to work to get amazing grades in order to go to university, and have almost no time in the day to do that because of things like a job? But then if we were not to have a job, we couldn’t even afford going to university. Grade twelve, the year that counts, the year of confusion, the year of stress.

            This is the year that we decide university or college? Entrepreneurship or Education? Success or Unsuccessful? The decision that we make now will affect us our whole lives. I find that the majority of us seem to be so busy with stressing ourselves out about these things that we are not even taking a moment to stop and take it all in. Next year we are officially not kids. Although we’ve been over the days of puddle jumping and cooties for awhile now, next year we actually have to grow-up and become responsible. Responsibility-another scary thing that goes with the age we’re at.

            Our whole lives we have had to be responsible for things, even as little as our lunch money, we are now moving onto bigger things. Bills, studying, getting to work on-time, things that now matter immensely are slowly creeping its way into the lives of grade 12 students all around.

            I find that not enough people realize how fast life is moving by. Before we know it we’ll have full- time jobs and be wondering what happened to just having to do 15 algebra equations on a Sunday night. We’re too busy complaining about how our lives are so utterly terrible because of homework when it’s ironic how we’ll be wishing we had it back. In a blink high school is over, just as you are getting used to things, you have to move on and become the bottom of the food chain again.

            Grade twelve, the year that is gone in a blink of a second. If we take a minute to look around, then we would see a lot of familiar faces. Some may have had an impact on us in the passed 4 years, some may have not. Either way once we step off that stage at graduation, some of them will be gone forever. Our comfort bubble will officially be popped. Everyone will have to meet new people, and make different decisions that will affect their lives for the better. Grade 12, the year of decisions.

            Don’t get me wrong, we have plenty of decisions to make now, like what to wear to a party, or deciding to watch the favourite TV show or study. But now, decisions are becoming real. If we call in ‘sick’ for work without having a legitimate excuse you could lose your job. If you miss a car payment, no car. So many decisions that will cause quite an affect on the lives of those of us in grade.12 if we don’t take time to consider our options.

            Next year we are gone, we are adults, we are in the real world. Some of us will move on to do great things. But in the mean time we have act in the present life. This is the year of not having regrets. What we do this year could potentially make our futures dreams come true or have them shatter. This is not something that we can take lightly, after all how do we want others to remember us?

            Who wants to be remembered as the partier, the druggy, the quiet one? Shouldn’t we want to have an impact on our fellow classmates? We have the power to change the lives of those around us. One small decision of ours can take our life, or someone else’s in a whole different direction. Wayne Elsey states “Each person has the ability to make an impact on someone’s life. There’s nothing too small to make a difference”. This quotes stands true for each and every person in our grade. It’s just something most of us choose to ignore.

            Grade twelve, a busy life, a life full of decision, a great life. We’re in our last year, we need to treasure it and realize that were not going to be kids anymore. But in the meantime don’t take the next months for granted, have fun, make your grade twelve year have a meaning. Don’t let life or the people in your life pass you by.

            Wake up at 7:00a.m , go to school for 9:00a.m, leave at 3:00p.m , go to work for 4:00p.m, leave at 9:00p.m get home for 10:00pm , do home work, go to bed at 11:30p.m, STOP, take it all in, repeat.