Tuesday, October 27, 2009

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

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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

Friday, October 9, 2009

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

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

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