Where Have I Been?

Hey everyone, I'm finally back to blogging!

So as many of you may know, my last blog post was back in February, and honestly the first reason as to why I stopped blogging back in February is because I'm awful at keeping secrets.

I have an older cousin who lives in New York and I love her so much, she's my inspiration. In late January, her friends and family from back home in Canada decided to book flights over our March break to surprise her for her birthday. We've been discussing the possibility of going to New York and surprising her for her birthday back in June/July 2015, so there was no way I was going to ruin the surprise.

I honestly came close to letting the cat out of the bag (as did some other family members) about this whole trip while on the phone with my cousin. From February into March, my family and I had limited contact with my cousin and kept all conversations general, we were all scared of spoiling it.

I keep my blog extremely private and only a handful of people know my identity behind the screen, and my cousin is one of them, so I decided to stay clear of blogging until the trip happen.

My cousin's family and friends all arrived in New York and she was really surprised to say the least. There were a few glitches that my family still laughs about to this day, but overall it was all that we expected.

I actually filmed the majority of our trip to make a birthday video for my cousin as a present, so the weekend after we got home, I was in the middle of editing my first ever video and my laptop broke!

That's the second reason as to why I haven't been able to post until now.

Do you know how expensive it is to pay for an unexpected new laptop? It's not fun.

So since then, I've worked as many shifts as a swim instructor as I could to pay off my new beautiful MacBook Pro and I'm currently two thirds of the way to finishing my lifeguarding course!

Since the last time I posted, some pretty amazing things have happened to me, so I'll list some off:

• I turned 16 and have had my beginners for a fair amount of time now
• I will be returning to New York in 21 days (or so) with my school band
• I have been teaching mermaid classes with an actual mermaid company, they give me a tail and I help them manage the kids
• Teachers at my school have asked me to represent my school and give a speech at City Hall

Overall, I'm happier.

I've had amazing opportunities come my way since my trip to New York in March and I don't see them slowing down anytime soon.

I think I've caught you up on most things, so I will be back to posting regular from now on and I'm so happy to be back and blogging again.


One More Girl, no longer online

Don't Apologize For Who You Are

This is something a little new for me seeing as I'm writing this post from a hotel room and not at my desk in my room at home. It's something new and interesting, but I don't think it'll happen often.

Anyway, you all might be wondering as to why I'm writing my post from a hotel room, and the reason to that is because I'm currently away for my last softball tournament of the year, also known as the biggest softball tournament of the year.

From home to where I'm currently at, this has been the farthest distance we've ever gone for softball and it's quite the experience. It's not so much a culture shock, but for the traveling and the people we meet, it's all quite different.

However, there is a big culture shock to everyone else on my team.

We're currently in a city that mainly speaks French. I have no problem with this at all seeing as I'm bilingual with both French and English, but everyone is having a little bit of a difficult time at some points. 

It's not too difficult for them seeings as most people we deal with here are also bilingual, but sometimes the accent is too strong or the English of someone from here is too broken up.

I haven't had the chance to hear the experiences of the girls on my team because most of them have only arrived tonight, but I've been helping out the girl on my team that I've been traveling with.

I've been speaking French to the locals and I've been enjoying it. Their French is different from my French, so it's pretty amazing to listen to a different dialect of the same language. It doesn't make it more difficult to understand them, it's just a small but noticeable difference which is really neat.

Tonight I went out for a team supper with the majority of the girls on my team and it was alright. Service was a little slow, but that was expected with 14 people in one party.

I was the last one to order my drink and food, but when I did, I told the waitress my order in French.

She didn't mind at all and went to go bring our orders to the kitchen.

One girl on my team said "You don't have to order in French, they also speak English." I responded with "Yeah, I guess you're right," and shook it off.

She wasn't right, though. in fact, she was wrong.

Her telling me to speak English when I grew up bilingual to someone who grew up with French as their first language was wrong.

It was wrong, but I apologized for it.

I was apologizing for being myself.

I can speak French, I started to learn it at a young age and I'm proud of it. 

On my team, my dad helps out with the coaching at times and I will speak to him in French. On a few different occasions, I've heard some of the girls mumbling to each other that we should speak English.

I understand that it can be uncomfortable for people to be around other people speaking a language that they don't understand, but it's what the world is.

The world is made up of so many different traditions, cultures, languages, and so much more, but people are on most occasions too afraid to learn about them.

Yes, I'll speak French in an English environment and I'm proud of it. Just because you don't understand the deeper meaning it has to me and why I hold my French so close to me doesn't matter to me, but you should never put me down for it.

No one should ever put you down for what you hold close to you, whether its a passion, a language, a tradition, a culture and so on.

All of those little things make up who you are and apologizing for a single one of them is like apologizing for who you are.

No one should ever put you down for being who you are. If they don't understand something, you can always try to explain it, but if they don't want to bother with that, then that's there problem.

They can live the rest of their life not understand something that's part of who you are and that's their problem.

Be proud of every single little part of you because it's the only person you know you'll be with for the rest of your life. 

Stand tall, be proud and be you.


One More Girl, no longer online

I'm Back!

Hey everyone! I got back from my vacation in Jamaica Monday evening, and it really was great.

I got to do a lot which I'm extremely grateful for. I went to a crocodile farm (I'm not joking, the tour guide kissed one), went to YS Falls (a beautiful swimming area where theres about three or four different places to swim in and there's one main waterfall and then a few small ones which trickle into the different swimming areas), the Appleton Rum factory and horseback riding.

I got loads of pictures and I'm still debating if I want to post them on here or not. I'll probably end up deciding by the end of the week, so keep a look out for a new "Pictures" page that I might create, no promises though.

The resort I stayed at was really nice and all of the staff was so kind, food was great, beach and sunsets were beautiful. There really wasn't anything more that I'd expect from the trip.

I got more than I expected.

The next little bit will be slightly embarrassing for me, you might roll your eyes and think "Typical," but there is a reason as to why I'm writing this. Right, are you ready to be annoyed with me? Here it goes:

I met a guy when I was there.

He's my just about my age (slightly older by not even by a year), kind, funny, same state of mind and he was overall easy to talk to. He was the type of person that as soon as you start talking to them, you're dreading the thought of it ending because a conversation could flow so easily between you guys. We only really started talking the last few days of both of our trips, but even then it was fine.

This is the part of the story that get's embarrassing for me and entertaining for you guys.

Where he lives, he's a competitive sailor and our resort had a boat (I sat here pondering the type longer than I should have, so I have finally decided that I have, infact, forgotten what type it was) and he offered to take my sister and I out. By the time we got out, the wind was dead, there was absolutely none, so we decided to go back in.

My sister decided to go swim with our parents, so this guy and I took out two paddleboards and decided to go to this raft not that far out from our resort. It was probably a 500m-800m distance. The raft was the perfect place to go snorkeling and jumping off it, so we had fun jumping a few times.

At one point, he was in the water already and then encouraging me to jump in. (I just want to say that I didn't have a fear of this or anything, I already did it, I was honestly just hesitant to jump because I saw a few fishes.)

I jumped in and when I came back up, he took notice to an extra bracelet I had and he asked me what it was. Treading water, I pulled my wrist up out of the water and looked at him and started to say what it was, but he didn't want to hear it. He grabbed my wrist and my waist and pulled me in for a kiss.

That was my first kiss.

Why was it so bad? Because the second he pulled away, I apologized.

This wasn't a "sorry, this is my first kiss I'm not all that sure what to do," this was a basic response that I didn't even think twice about. Who's mental reaction is it to apologize to the person that just kissed you for the first time?! Obviously, it's mine.

I was there, mortified, but he just kindly laughed and said it was fine and I didn't have anything to be sorry about.

Let's just say that the second one was much better.

Moral of the story?

• If you have yet to have your first kiss, don't expect for it to be a movie magic moment, it probably won't be. You have every right to picture how you want it to be like, but don't set yourself up for disappointment because made up scenarios and the real thing can be quite different.
• Although you might not be looking forward for a trip of some sort, you really never know what will happen or who you'll meet, so keep your thoughts open. They don't have to be wide open, maybe just a little crack in the door, but don't shut off the possibilities completely.
• Don't kiss in deep water where you can't touch. It makes things impossible. It's just not easy.

Would you say that it was a short lived paradise love? Yeah, probably. We are still talking though and I don't know what will come out of it. He lives on literally the other side of the country from me, I probably won't see him for a very long time, maybe not ever again for that matter, but I feel as though that's okay. 

Being in the same state of mind, that gives you someone to talk to when you need it and both of us felt as if we didn't have someone like that to talk to before we started to talk. I might not see him for awhile or ever again, but he's someone to talk to when things get difficult and he knows that I'm there for him if he needs it, and to me, that's pretty special already.

That trip turned out pretty alright for me.


One More Girl, no longer online

Vacation

Friday was the official start of March break for me, and I couldn't be anymore relieved.

I have found that recently I have these piles of stress on my shoulders, so it will be great to be able to take a week for myself and not have to worry about school, courses, work, and day to day life.

I have been starting to dread the thought of school more and more recently, but that's probably because it's all I've known. It's the same exact thing, five days a week, six hours a day, it does start to get dull.

I'm lucky enough to be traveling this March break, and I get to travel to Jamaica tomorrow morning. I'm so excited to go, I'm really excited for the change in scenery for a little bit and it will be a good little change for me. 

I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about the plane ride. I have been on one before, but I still always get nervous about 24 hours before I go.

Something that I have been super stressed over at school is that we were assigned the biggest history project of the year, only had one class to work on it in school, and were assigned to do it over March break so we can hand it in the day we get back (The 23rd).

If you ask me, that is unfair. Many people are going away for the break and many have been away before the teachers even gave us the project. I say teachers as in plural because we currently have a trainee teacher in charge of this project while our regular teacher is in the back of the class doing some other work.

I have been working on this project at home, but with all the outcomes I have to meet, it feels as if it's going to be impossible to finish before I leave.

My parents agree with me and do see my point of view on this matter and have emailed my regular teacher, informing her that I probably won't have it in on time, but that's not necessarily my fault. I know for a fact that it hasn't only been my parents to do so.

I guess that's another reason as to why I'm nervous for this vacation; I won't be able to get any work done and that will only be a bigger burden on my shoulders when I get home.

My parents have told me not to worry over it, and I think that's exactly what I'm going to do.

It's not everyday that I can escape the freezing Canadian weather and that I have the chance to go to Jamaica for the week. 

My teachers are informed that I won;t have it in on time, so that should be enough.

Everyone deserves a break that they're going to enjoy, so that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Among the fact that I'm traveling to Jamaica, my family and I are staying at this really small resort (about 60 rooms I believe), so to have wifi, we would have to pay a fee. I'm not sure what this fee is, whether it's 40$ a day or 60$ a week, but what I do know is that my parents have decided to not pay for this fee and to have this vacation be a disconnected one.

Honestly? I'm excited for that. I know that I spend a lot of time online, so it will be amazing to get away from all temptation of that and to see a part of the world that I've never seen before. Sadly, though, it means that I won't be able to post on my blog like regularly. So there's not going to be a post Wednesday or Sunday, but my next actual post will be on Wednesday March 25th.

I have to admit though, I'm not 100% sure about the whole wifi situation, but I will try and stay off it as much as I can. If there is a chance to use wifi, I might use it to upload some pictures that I took onto my blog so that I won't use up all my storage space on my camera memory card, but that will be it. 

What are you guys doing? Any plans for March break? I think that the break in March is for Canadians and a few others around the world, I'm pretty sure that Americans had their break in February, but even so, what did you do then? Feel free to let me know!

I'll see you all again when I get back. 

One More Girl, no longer online