Natural Highs

1. Falling in love.

2. Laughing so hard your face hurts.

3. A hot shower.

4. No lines at the cashier.

5. Making eye contact with a cute stranger.

6. Getting mail.

7. Taking a drive on a pretty road.

8. Hearing your favorite song on the radio.

9. Lying in bed listening to the rain outside.

10. Hot towels fresh out of the dryer.

11. Chocolate milkshakes.

12. A bubble bath.

13. Giggling.

14. A good conversation.

15. Watching the expression on someone's face as they open a present from you.

16. Finding a 20 dollar bill in your coat from last winter.

17. Someone giving you their jacket when you’re cold.

18. Looking into someone’s eyes and knowing they care about you.

19. Midnight phone calls that last for hours.

20. Running through sprinklers.

21. Laughing for absolutely no reason at all.

22. Having someone tell you that you're beautiful.

23. Knowing you've done the right thing, no matter what other people think.

24. Accidentally overhearing someone say something nice about you.

25. Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep.

26. Your first kiss.

27. Knowing someone misses you.

28. Watching the sunrise.

29. Having someone play with your hair.

30. Running into an old friend and realizing that some things (good or bad) never change.

 

Cause It's The Least I Can Do

To Christine- by Susan Forde

I wish I could tell you

That you’re not too fat

That you’re fine the way you are

That you’re pretty enough

And you don’t have to wear punishing heels

I wish I could make you believe

That you don’t have to starve yourself

Or add to your chest

To fit this year’s fashions.

And I wish I could tell you,

To love yourself as much as you love him.

You don’t have to make yourself

Into his ideal

The real you is worth so much more.

But I’m only one voice,

Against so many

The magazines with diets and makeovers

That you read

The fairytale your mother read you,

Where the mermaid gave her voice

To be what the prince wanted.

Oh, I wish I could make you listen

But I’m only one voice

Drowned out by so many.

This is one of the most inspirational poems I ever read, and surprise, it was in grade ten English! But it has really stuck with me through the years. As a teenager, especially a teenage girl, we complain constantly about the drama, the peer pressure and all the other fooey that goes on in the hallowed hall we call high school. The fact is that you always want what you can't have. It's hard to grow up never being the "prettiest" girl. It feels like everyone has something that you don't. Your dreams always seem unreachable and unachievable.

But that's what everyone wants you to think. If you have your frends, and you always stay true to yourself, this world is a great place to be! Long as you yourself know the truth and know that you're doing your very best, no one else matters very much anyways. Additionally stay true to your friends because you never know what battle they may be fighting. Be sure to support and love all you can. Because:

"You do it for the joy it brings
Because you're a joyful girl
Because the world owes me nothing
And we owe each other the world
I do it cause it's the least I can do
I do it cause I learned it from you
I do it just because I want to..."

- Joyful Girl by Dave Matthews Band

Now & Since Then, You're Still My Best Friend



I finished my high school schooling this morning at ten thirty. Now four hours later, it still really hasn’t hit me. As I walked out of those high school doors for perhaps the thousandth time, it really didn’t carry any significance. I didn’t sigh in relief or jump for joy. It’s just a part in my life that’s over, a chapter that’s been read.

I’m sitting on my deck now, thinking back to the approximate 3800 days I’ve spent in Forestburg school and there’s sure a variation things to reflect on. The fourteen or fifteen teachers I’ve had through my thirteen years. All the binders, texbooks and looseleaf that were used. All the erasers, pencils and pens we lended and threw to each other. All the calculator batteries that were never juiced when you needed them.

But mainly there are the obvious fixtures, my friends.

Friend: –noun

1.  a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

2.  a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter: friends of the Boston Symphony.

3. a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile: Who goes there? Friend or foe? http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/friend

I like to think of myself as having numerous friends. But this last year has been eye opening to me. It has made me question what truly makes a friend. Perhaps the best insight I received was from my little sister, stating that “a friend is nice to you.”

That is something we seem to forget with age. It shouldn’t matter if you pick them up in the farm truck with gravel chips falling from the bumper or if you can lend them brand name clothes. Who cares if you’re the best player on the basketball team or if your family is a little more than the average crazy?

Your friends are going to change just like everything else does. But if you manage to keep even just one through your lifetime, you have accomplished a great feat. This kind of forever friendship is not perfect but it’s genuine, unlike any other. It’s the kind of fight-to-the-finish devotion, where even when they’re wrong, you want them to be right. You can’t imagine life without them and know that everything would be boring. If you have this, you might be one of the luckiest people on this Earth. I never would’ve made it this far without my best friend. Be sure to prize them, because they know you better than you know yourself much of the time, and that kind of deep rooted history can never be replaced.

Growing Up

Grade twelve year is unlike any other. Here are a few things you should know. It won't hit you when you wake up for your last first day of school. It won't hit you as you walk into the grade twelve locker hallway for the first time as an official grade twelve. It won't hit you when you cheer at your last volleyball game and attend your last basketball game. It won't hit you as you fill out the countless college applications. It won't hit you as you write that generic essay letter that you try to use for all your applications. It won't hit you as your college friends return for Christmas break and give you all their advice. It won't hit you as you celebrate New Year's with the friends you have known since childhood. You won't feel it when you are having the time of your life at your last spring break. When May finally comes around and you realize that it is your last Grad, but you don't really feel it when you are there having the time of your life. You begin to realize it at Graduation when you look around and realize that you will never see half of these people again. You will begin to see it more over the summer when everyone is getting their roommates, class schedules, and going to orientation. It still hasn't fully hit you when you are sitting in your room packing up the past 18 years of your life, laughing with your best friend about all the stupid stuff you've done. You might feel it the morning you leave for college as that it is the last time you will see your room, your parents, and your best friend for like 3 months. It will finally hit you when you are sitting in your dorm room with a perfect stranger, that you have to live with for the next year. Please, Please, PLEASE make every moment of your grade twelve year count, you only get to do it once. College will be a lot of fun, but in the meantime, jump at every opportunity you get to do anything that you have ever wanted to do. Spend as much time with friends as possible, for it will not be long until you meet new people and inevitably grow apart.

Hanging Up The Halter (So To Speak)

On Monday I took my last lap around the arena in Killam, Alberta. Achievement Day this year for me was more about witnessing all the levels of my 4-H career I had been at.

I helped the over active junior with his baby. I tried to remember what it was like to be worried I'd forget what to do once I got in the ring. I answered all his questions with a smile on my face, because he reminded me how we all begin, eager and unsure. When he asked me if I cried after selling my steer, I told him I would this year.

I watched the intermediates. The lot of them, trying to impress each other, throwing things, just happy to be missing a day of school. I noticed how far they had came in the one short year, one step closer to being a senior and the big dog so to speak.

I saw all the parents, sponsers, steer buyers, grand parents, all the people. The die hards who have been there through all my years as a member, who were always there for a pat on the back or a hug when things didn't go just right.

I witnessed all of this with my fellow seniors. For three of us, that was the end of our nine years in 4-H. nine heifers, nine steers, and half a dozen cow calves. Nine public speakings, nine pancake breakfasts, nine multi species judgings.

Nine achievement days....

That's a lot of days dedicated to 4-H. Throw in the camps I attended and all the days I've spent halterbreaking, it's almost like my whole life has been 4-H.

That is why when a kid I had counselled last summer told me, "You have to be here next year, we need you here."

I answered without skipping a beat, "I wouldn't miss it." 

Are You Tough Enough?

The constant buzz of 4-H members at a meeting is always overwhelming and as president it’s a never ending job to bring them back in to have a discussion. The juniors are throwing eraser chunks, the intermediates are coloring on each other with pens, and we seniors are of course perfectly behaved.

 Choosing a theme for our achievement stall display is always a chore. Most  of the best themes have been taken, under the sea, back in the day, Battle River always has barnwood and Iron Creek uses a little red barn.

So every March meeting, Hastings Coulee is left pondering…

“We need a theme people!”

            This year we chose a serious theme, which actually means something to us, breast cancer awareness. There have been mothers in our club who have battled and are currently battling this horrendous disease, as well as cancer in general so it strikes extremely close to home.

On average, 487 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer every day.

On average, 205 Canadians will die of cancer every day.

READ MORE AT: http://www.cancer.ca/Canada-wide/About%20cancer/Cancer%20statistics/Stats%20at%20a%20glance/General%20cancer%20stats.aspx?sc_lang=en

On average, 64 Canadian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer every day.

On average, 14 Canadian women will die of breast cancer every day.

READ MORE AT: http://www.cancer.ca/canada-wide/about%20cancer/cancer%20statistics/stats%20at%20a%20glance/breast%20cancer.aspx#ixzz1O8ZOTB00

Last night we dyed our twenty pink shirts, which we will be rocking on Sunday and Monday. You may say it’s been done before, but it’s never been done like this. This theme for us isn’t just going to last those two days, we are going to make a difference and it will be remembered. We are armed with our pink ribbons and we will strive to raise awareness.

As a Canadian citizen or for that much the world, cancer is an increasing problem. With your support doctors are getting closer to a cure. It is so easy to make a difference. I'm not asking you to do it for me, but for your neighbours, family members and friends. To donate please visit, http://www.cancer.ca/ontario/how%20you%20can%20help/od-make%20a%20donation.aspx?sc_lang=en or http://www.cbcf.org/en-US/How%20you%20can%20help/donate.aspx.

The question remains, “Are You Tough Enough to Wear Pink?”