The Bright Side of Things

 This weekend I went to Bellville for a basketball tournament. When we were playing a basketball team from Kingston, I was running back to play defense. Suddenly, out of nowhere my teammate in front of me tripped over somebody's foot and broke his ankle. I ran over to him and some weird feeling told me it was broken. After the game he went to the hospital andit was broken so he got a temporary cast on. It reminded me of when I broke my wrist in Ellicotville.

I was snowboarding down a black diamond called "Chute". I was going too fast and I hit a little bump. I flew forward and just before I landed on my back, I put my hand backwards to break the fall. I landed on it wrong and it broke. It was painful, but since I had never broke a big bone before I assumed it was badly sprained. After about a minute, I stood up and finished the run. I went down about 7 more runs before I couldn't stand the pain anymore. I told my dad that I was going to go inside and take a break, but he told me that we were only going to do a few more runs before we left. I sat at the bottom of the hill waiting for them to finish, when I realized my wrist was so swolen that my glove was being stretched. I quickly took it off and covered my wrist in snow. When my family was done, we headed back to the hotel. That night was the most painful night of my life. The next morning we drove all the way back to Guelph. I rested the rest of the day there. That next morning I went to the doctor and he told me my wrist was broken. 

I went to the hospital on New Years day and got my cast on. The biggest problem I could think of was that it was basketball season and it was only 2 months and a few weeks in. I would have to miss around six weeks of basketball. I was so mad at myself for falling and I only looked at the bad side of things. After about a week I started to play basketball in the gym at lunch, but of coarse I would only use right hand. Another big problem was that I'm left handed and the hand I broke was my left hand. Every time I was aloud to go into the gym at lunch I would go in and work on playing with my right hand. I started to think that if I constantly worked on it, when my cast got off I would be as good with my right hand as I am with my left hand. I started to do everything with with my right hand. Brush my teeth, eat, write(sometimes), play sports and more. 

About 6 and a half weeks later I got my cast off. It took a week and a half for it not to hurt, but when it was healed I kept on using my right hand less and less until it was back to normal.  By the end of it all I was kind of glad I broke my wrist. Now when I'm playing basketball I am a better dribbler then the other kids. So, instead of looking at the bad side of things, I looked at the good side and it really payed off. Next time you injure yourself or can't do something, never look at the dark side of things and act upon the good things. Why do you think it's called the BAD side of things and the GOOD or BRIGHT side of things. If your always on the bad side then you will never take advantages of good opportunities.

Brendan

Eva Olsson, A Holocaust Survivor

As I walked out of chapel I was completely in shock. People being killed and thrown into ditches, gas chambers choking people to death, Jewish families hiding and running for their lives. This was the life Eva Olsson had to live through. 

Eva Olsson was only 19 years of age when she was forced to get on a train to go work at a brick factory. Eva and her family listened to their orders and packed up their things. When they arrived at the tracks they were shocked to see all of the people who were going. Suddenly, Eva was grabbed and thrown into a box car along with many other people. When everybody was on there was hardly enough room to breathe. People started to suffocate or pass out and die. The worst part was that as they were getting on the train, people just stood there like bystanders and watched. 

When they arrived in Auschwitz  they were ordered to stand in a line and wait until they got to the front. When they got to the front they were either ordered to the left or to the right. Young ladies who did not have any problems with them were ordered to the left to live, and everybody else was ordered to the right to be killed. Eva Olsson was lucky enough to be ordered to the left, but everybody else she knew except for her sister were ordered to the right. The people Eva knew who were ordered to the right were later going to be killed in a gas chamber. She would never see them again. Imagine losing everyone you loved in a matter of seconds. Also they would never be known or remembered for anything because their bodies would just be thrown into ditches to rot and be eaten away. If they didn't follow orders they were beaten to death. If they made one little mistake the would be shot. No second chance or forgiveness. This was terrible.

One huge reason I respect Eva Olsson is because of the amount of courage she has. Also another reason I respect her is because after all she has been through with the Nazi Germans she still doesn't label every German as a Nazi. After all Eva has been through she still goes around and speaks to groups of people about the holocaust because she thinks everyone deserves to know the truth behind it all. She must have great courage to talk about the absolute hell she lived in. All the horrific events she had lived through and all the pain she experienced must have been just impossible to imagine. After being through all of the holocaust and getting married Eva's husband died in a car accident because a drunk driver hit him. Eva has set an example for me that I will follow and never forget for the rest of my life.

Lastly, I will leave you with some wise words of Eva Olsson. It is okay to dislike something or someone, but it is not okay to hate. Hate is what started all of the tragedies in the world. So try and take the challenge and not say hate for the rest of your life and follow Eva's example.

Brendan

Norval Skill Building

On Monday October 19, Middle School attended a skill building exercise at Norval. This was a chance to improve friendships and teamwork with all of your peers. You undergo many challenges with the group you are assigned to and try to go out of your comfort zone to meet the expectations. When I woke up that morning, it was cold and rainy outside. I personally was not looking forward to going to Norval. When I got to school I don't think I was the only one who wasn't exited. We then boarded the bus and headed off on our 1 hour ride. When we got there, I got off the bus and realized that it was warm out and the rain was no longer pouring down on me. This definitely put a smile on my face. I was ready to begin the day!

The first thing we did was to split into grades and go to different parts of the campus. Grade eight did something called the Pig Blanket. One person gets in the middle of a large blanket and the rest stay on the perimeter of the blanket holding onto handles. When the person is ready, he lies down and everyone on the outside pulls as hard as they can on the handle. Then the person in the middle gets launched high into the air. It was a lot of fun and I got quite high.

 Then we split into random groups and went to do some activities. My group's first activity was to climb a 12 foot wall with absolutely no assistance. This was the biggest challenge of the whole day and we only had 30 minutes to do it! We spent about 15 minutes making a plan which was to get two people to boost up one person while everyone else spotted. The person would reach up and the person at the top would pull you up. You may be wondering how a person would get to the top to begin with. Well lets just say my group is VERY lucky to have Willem on our team. He just ran up the wall using nothing but a small boost.

 After, we headed to a challenge where there was one person harnessed and floating just shy of the ground. Using four pulleys that were attached to the person, my group pulled the pulleys in certain directions to gather up four balls. I was lucky enough to go in the harness once. This exercise was a lot easier than getting over the 12 foot wall. In between these activities, we also had a snack consisting of a juice box and a granola bar. Then we formed a circle and rolled a dice that had different questions on it and answered them together. There were some pretty interesting things said about people going out of their comfort zones. We ate lunch outside after the activities were over.

 Then we went inside and made something called a drum circle. Everyone gets in a circle and has a drum and we unite as one through music. It was really cool and we learned somewhat how to play the bongo drum. The drums were all hand carved and were interesting. We did the drum circle for what seemed like a really short time but it wasn't. You know how time can fly when your having fun. After, we said good bye and thank you for everything and got onto our bus to head back to the school. It was a great but tiring day of fun.

I think Norval was a challenging, fun way to discover and improve team building skills by being active yet still educational. Personally, it was an overall great experience. I think it improved the way I look at situations, for example, on my sports teams. For others, it may have improved situations that involves their hobby or passion. I hope others enjoyed it as much as I did.

Brendan

Small Things

There are many big things in the world that make us happy. Things like vacations, Christmas, friends, family and sports. Then there are the small things that can make us even happier like, a sunny day, cotton candy, your pet, sleeping in or even when someone holds the door for you. If you just pay attention to the small things in life you could be happier then if you always want the big things.


Two days ago I wanted to go to my friends house for a sleep over, but my parents didn't want me to because I had homework and my grandma was over. I ended up going and it was pretty fun, but when I got back to my house they seemed to be having even more fun then I did. My cousins had come over and I had no clue. When I asked why they were laughing so much they said because the baby was laughing and being funny. Then I realized that I had spent a whole day at my friends house trying to have as much fun as possible when all it took was the smallest thing, such as a babies laugh to make me smile and have fun. This is just one of the many examples I have of how the small things can make you so happy. This is kind of like my blog. It's not quantity, it's quality. It's not who did the most things , it's who had the most fun.



So next time your baby cousin comes over, or you get a chocolate bar or fall asleep with you cat, remember how nice it was.



Brendan

We Day!

As you might already know, on Monday, October 5th in Toronto there was a presentation at the Air Canada Centre. This event was called We Day. Motivational speakers came in and spoke about world poverty. Also there were special presentations, such as Hedley, Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers. Over 16 000 people attended We Day in hope to help make the world a better place. 

On the way to We Day i honestly thought that I would sit there bored to tears. When I walked into the stadium at the Air Canada Centre everyone, and I mean every single person, was cheering. This got me pumped and exited for We Day. The co- hosts for the event were Ben Mulrony and Tanya Kim. Some of the speakers were Craig and Mark Kielburger, Spencer West, Pinball Clemens, Robert Kennedy Jr. and many more. Personally my favorite speaker was Jessi Cruickshank from the MTV Aftershow. She went to Kenya and stayed with a nice family who treated her amazingly and gave her everything they had. In Kenya each family slaughters one goat a year and the family Jessi was staying with slaughtered theirs for her. She was a vegetarian and felt horrible that they slaughtered a goat for her and she couldn't even eat it, so they asked her to drink the blood right out of the goats neck. She didn't want to and by then was crying. Then a man came over and wiped away her tears. Then she realized how much they cared for her and how much they had done, so she got down on her knees and drank the blood right out of the goats warm neck. 

This event really helped me open my eyes. One of the speakers was a born parapalegic who strived to make a difference even with no legs. This really stood out to me. I think We Day was very inspiring and I recomend if anyone ever gets the chance to go they definitly should. It is a life changing experiance that I will never forget.

Brendan

Poverty

Poverty is found all around the world. Over 800 million people go to bed hungry every day. Fifteen percent of children around the world live under the poverty line. Personally these numbers are way to high. I think the defenition of poverty is when you have little to no money and lack of what you need to live. Poverty is groing due to the recession and global warming. If we don't start to act now it could get a lot worse.

We go through life asking for things we don't need, wasting food and getting angry if we don't get what we want. There are many kids in the world who are lucky to get one meal a day and eat every last crumb of what they're given. They do no ask for anything more then what they absolutely need, yet they are thankful for every little thing that they have. If we just donated the smallest amount of money it could change one of there lives totally. They need help to get the basic needs of life such as food, water, shelter, warmth and more. When i went to South Africa as a kid I noticed that many families lived in tiny piles of what appeared to be garbage, but to them it was a home. This made me feel terrible. What we find to be a useless piece of junk, is an amazing home to them. It was in South Africa where I realized how lucky I am to live in such an amazing home, and go to such an outstanding school with fresh water and great food.

Lastly, next time you see poverty stop and think of what you can do to help, because a simple task from you could change somebody's life.

Brendan