F is for FOOD!!!

I love food. I wouldn't be able to live without it. I know no one can live without food, what I mean is that I couldn't live without the taste of food. I probably eat twice as much as the normal 12\13 year old in one day. Its a good thing that I have a high metabolism. Food is like my god. I literally worship it. The only bad thing about food is that if you eat to much you'll get fat and if you don't eat enough of the right things you'll be unhealthy. As well as the fact that some foods taste really really horrible.

Squash. It tastes like the kind of hand sanitizer that they have at the school after it has been flushed down a toilet and sat in a sower for a mouth and then finally it was cooked in our, now ruined microwave. When I was younger I used to pretend to eat it but really I'd stick in these spaces that we have under our kitchen table. My mother soon figured out what I was doing because well I little and I wasn't very good at hiding things and well lets just say she watches me eat my squash now. Then there's cooked carrots. They taste almost as appalling as squash. They tasted like they've sat out side in the sun all day (ew) and then like they've been run over by a couple of trucks that have some meager exhaust. I hate them even more when they are cooked in honey. When we have cooked carrots at home I refuse to eat them and my mother can't really do anything about it so I get to eat raw carrots, which I do enjoy.

Spaghetti, seafood linguini, tortellini. Those are my favorite, non-candy, foods. I pretty much adore any kind of pasta. I devourer anything that is put in front of me that even looks like pasta. To me pasta is the food of the gods. Pasta is to me what chocolate is to most people, and if you didn't know most people absolutly worship chocolate. I think that if it didn't make you fat people would eat chocolate all the time. That's one of the good things about pasta, it's healthy and delectable. Anyways to me pasta tastes like a mixture of the juciest tomato's and the finest most nicelyest cooked meat ever. Along with freashly baked mushrooms and exquisite parmesan cheese. That's just the sauce, don't even get me started on the actual pasta. It taastes heavenly. That's the only word can think that can even come close to how my mom's home made pasta tastes to me. I especially like it when it's smothered in the richest butter you could possibly find. That is what my moms home made pasta tastes like to me.

So all in all I think food is pretty awsome, even though there are some foods that I have an aversion to, like cooked carrots, the other foods, like pasta, definitly make up for the horrid ones. Also life is short so don't worry about chocolate being a fatty food, if it's your favorite eat it, and hey maybe you'll discover that you have a high metabolism That is why I wouldn't not be able to live without food.

Life Leason: The next time that you have to eat some food that you hate dreadfully, like squash, just imagine that you are eating your favorite food in the whole entire world and I guarantee that you will get through it.

B is for BASKETBALL

When I was younger I always thought basketball was a stupid sport. To me it was just a game with a ball that you bounced around and hoped that a miracle would happen and the ball would actually go through that stupid net, which by the way, never happened to me. The thing that I hated most about basketball though was the ball. To me it was this big round thing that could potentially end up smacking me in the head and breaking my glasses. I really did hate that sport.

Now basketball is one of, if not my favorite sport ever. I started to not hate it, but not quit enjoy it in grade four. I think the only reason I didn't hate it anymore was because I finally figured out how to get the ball in the net, which I've heard, dose help you win. I really started to get into it in grade five. The reason that this strange change of events happened was because my mom coached a b-ball team, but it wasn't just any b-ball team, it was the best one in the entire universe. Its all thanks to the captain of that team, I don't know if she would want me to use her full name or not so lets just call her B. She was one of the best b-ball players I have ever and was a great leader. She taught me how to play the game and that was when I started to go to all of their games and pratices. That season was really fun and the team even ordered a team shirt for me. I think I really liked it because they all made me feel like one of them.

When I was in grade six I finally got to play on a real team which was after the summer that I went to a real b-ball camp and my dad put up a net for me in the back yard. That was the summer I had finally got to start trying out my new skills that B had taught me. I came back that fall fresh out of camp and ready to start playing. The only problem was that they didn't

have enough girls for an under 13 b-ball team so they put the five girls from grade six on the under 16 team and well lets just say we had a little height disadvantage, and even though we did have some older girls on the team as well we still only won one game that season, but that was the year that the senors, the my moms team, won everything. I had gone to every single one of their games that year and had loved to watch them play the game. I was very sad at the end of that year when they had all went off to university.

The next year, well this year, we finally had enough girls to make an under 14 b-ball team, though the only problem was that we only had grade seven and six's on the team and half of them didn't even know how to play. The good news was that I was the captain along with Hayley. We lost every game this season but that's okay because when B first started playing basketball she said that she had lost every single game too. Besides next season we're going to win every single game because we'll have five core players and it'll be their 3rd year playing plus like another ten girls who will be going into their second year of b-ball and who all will make great basketball players one day. Oh yeah, at the end of our season this year I was announced MVP. I was so happy.

Now I am looking at another great year of b-ball ahead of me and am so excited to get back out on the court. I am also going to another b-ball camp this summer with Erika and its going to be a blast.

Life Lesson: If you ever come across a sport or food that you don't like, don't give up on it because you never know, one day it might become you're new favorite thing.

C is For Cancer! :( :(

Cancer. The word scares most people. It scares me as well. Being diagnosed with cancer is not a very uncommon thing. 1 in every 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, but that is not the only kind of cancer that is out there, though it only takes one type to change someones or many peoples life.

When I was 5 years old my father was diagnosed with cancer. Still today they don't no what kind of cancer he had, but they do know that he had a deadly tumor in his neck that was spreading, quickly. My dad is...well lets just say he's old. I remember the day that he told us he had cancer. He called us into his office, he works at home. He had had this band aid on his neck for a couple weeks and I since I was five I really didn't care why. So we're in the office and he takes of his band aid and revealed this big ugly bump. He said that he was sick and that he would have to go away for awhile. One of us asked him why and he said because these people were going to make him better. Then all I really remember is going up to him and saying well it's good their going to make you feel better dady. I don't remember much after that.

There was a one in ten chance that my dad was going to survive and we didn't want to take our chances so he moved into this hospital in London. When my father had cancer I remember mostly the fact that my mom was very very worried and that we kept getting these flowers and fruit baskets. I didn't really understand that my father was really sick and may die any day and I don't think my mother had the heart to tell me because well I was five, so I never really understood it until a couple years latter. I remember one day going to the hospital to visit him. Everything was going fine, we were having a nice little chat and he got a stuffed animal that Carolyn and I were fighting over. Then BOOM, he started to bleed. I was really scared then and asked my mom why he was bleeding though I don't think she answered. We left after that and I didn't go and see him again for awhile, though my mom did.

My dad was very lucky to survive his cancer though his life has been very different ever since. He got a chunk of his neck taken out because that is where the tumor had been located. He lost all taste of food in his mouth for a long time. He did get some of it back but mostly all food is bland. His mouth is also dry all the time. He drinks soda water like it's his life line because it's the only thing that helps. Also everyday for a year he had to drive to London Ontario and back to go for a check up and his medication. I think that that was the worst part for my mom and us. Anyway, now his is almost back to normal and most of the time I never even think about the fact that he had cancer.

My dad is now a seven year survivor of cancer and is very healthily. He even goes running every day with our dog that we got right after he was cured.

Thank you to whoever cured him. Our family would have never been the same without him!!! :D

T is for Tim

Many people have brothers. 12 out of the 21 kids in my class have brothers. That's 57.142885714% of us, which is well over half. Most people have brothers a couple years older then them or a couple years younger, give or take a few. My brother is 20 years older then me. His name is Timothy. We call him Tim, well I usually call him Timmy but that's beside the point. He is 32, I think. He may be 31 or 33. Though when your that old, it really doesn't matter, right?

I also have two sisters. Out of all my siblings he is my favorite. That's kind of mean to my sisters, but you haven't meet them before. If you had, you would agree with me. I am the youngest in my family and if you are also the youngest would concur with me that the younger you are then them the meaner the older siblings are to you . My sisters are very mean to me, but Tim isn't. He even beats Carolyn up when shes mean to me, but not actually. I also like Tim more then my sisters because he'll do things with me that Carolyn and Heather won't. For example, there's this video game that we got for Christmas last year called Indiana Jones Lego, and I thought it looked like fun. Carolyn and Heather didn't and I didn't want to play it alone, so when Tim came over I asked him if he would play it with me and he did. We played for an hour and a half. It was lots of fun. That is just some of the reasons that I like Tim better then my sisters.

Okay so you'd think that when you have a brother that is that much older then you they wouldn't really make an effort to be part of the family because well they have their own life, but Tim isn't like that. He makes a huge effort to come and hang out with us. He even attends most of the family gatherings.He try's to come and see me in the winter every weekend because his house is 10 minutes away from my chalet which is awesome! In the summer I don't see him as much though because he lives 2 hours away from us which is a drag, but I guess I see him enough in the winter to make up for it.

My finial reason why I like better then the rest of my siblings is because I don't have to live with him. I'm actually kind of glad for that because for one he is in his thirties and that would just be weired if he was living at home and two I don't want to dislike him like I do my sisters. We would probably get sick of each other too, just like I'm sick of my sisters. That is why I like my brother Tim better then my other siblings!

Oh and Tim, thanks for being a great brother!!! :)

Life Lesson: You can't choose your family so when you get lucky, don't take advantage of it, because it doesn't happen very often.

E is for Emelie

"OUCH! That HURT,"

Those were Emelie's first words to me on October first in grade six.

"Sorry, Tommy told me it didn't hurt you if I were to punch you." (Tommy was someone Emelie was siting next to at the time). But I didn't punch her that hard.

"Well that one hurt."

"Sorry," I said. I really didn't like her then, but I new I would have to be nice because I would be siting beside her for a while.

Emelie and I are best friends now. She is 12, almost 13. She has one sister and one brother. Her sister, alex, is my sisters age, 15, and her brother, jason, is 7. He is her half brother. Her parents were divorced when she was young and her mother is remarried to her brothers father. I have double what Emelie has. I have two brothers and two sisters. They are all older than me. My brothers are both my half brothers in same as hers. My father was married before he had me and my sisters. After he got a divorce he remarried to my mother. Our families are somewhat similar in that way. Emelie and her sister get along most of the time. My family doean't get along as well. It is really quite appawlling. We fight all the time were as Emelie and her sister are friends. Weird, I know. It is rather odd how comparable our families are and how much they differ from each other at the same time.

Emelie and I know each other very well. Her favorite sport is tennis. She plays volleyball in the winter and did track last year in the spring. My favorite sports are basketball and cross country. I do those in the fall, skiing and volleyball in the winter and track and field in the spring. Emelies favorite colour is pink and mine is yellow. She is really into music and I'm not as much. Take the fact that she has about 400 songs on her iPod and I have about 117. She is quite smart though and so am I, so I guess that we are similar in some ways but most of the time we have a very different opinion about things that we enjoy and don't enjoy.

Emelie and I always have a great time with each other and a good laugh. Emelie is a funny, and crazy person. She can sometimes be mean, but only to me and no one else see's it, but that's okay because its I am just fun and games, not actually seriously mean. Emelie is also smart. I am funny and crazy as well and can be a little bit mean to her sometimes, but like I said its just for laughs. I am pretty smart too. I think we are very similar in the way of personalities.

In the end I think that Emelie and I are very different in very many ways; like our families and things we enjoy, but at the same time I feel as though we are very similar in the way of our personalities. I think that it is okay for people who spend a lot of time with each other, whether its a best friend or husband, to be different because other wise you would agree on everything and that would just be boring. I guess its true what the say "opposites attract."

Life Lesson: Stay away from the people that have a lot a lot of things in common with you.

H is for Home

One morning last year I was finishing something off for school on my mom’s computer. I went to take it down the stairs and guess what, I fell. I didn’t only drop the computer but I hurt my arm and back. The computer was okay and I guess I was too, though it was really painful at the time. That is just one of the many times that I have fallen down the stairs at my own house. There are a lot of stairs at my house and that is third on my list of the top three things I don’t like about my house. The good thing about having lots stairs in your house is that it means your house is pretty big. That’s third on the top three things I like about my house.

My room. That is second on the top three things I don’t like about my house. It isn’t that my room isn’t big, or nice or anything. It’s the fact that I share it with the devil. It wasn’t so bad when we were younger because we didn’t fight as much but now we both loathe it to the extreme. We fight constantly. The only thing good about that is that she isn’t home as often as me so I usually get the room all to myself. Though her stuff is still there. The second thing on my list of things that I like about my house is the fact that it’s so homey. It isn’t always the neatest (My mother doesn’t like that. You should see her when she gets mad at us for the messy house! Its actually kind of menacing.) But it’s home and unquestionably without a doubt one of the best.

Picture nowhere. Then picture the middle and that is where you’ll find me. I live in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, I am not joking. That is where I live. The population is about 33 and that’s counting the place that is technically outside the boundaries of my neighborhood, so really only 28. I live 45 minutes away from the school, Waterloo, and Kitchener. My house is closer to an hour away from Cambridge and Guelph. 1 hour and a half away from Toronto, and that’s if the traffic and weather is good. That is most definitely the #1 thing on the list of the top three things that I dislike the most about my house. The thing that I do like about where my house is located the fact that it is always peaceful, calm, and stunning, especially in the summer. Well it’s always stunning in the summer. You see we live on a lake and people like to go boating there and it can sometimes get pretty crazy, but I don’t mind because those people on the boats remind me that I’m not the only one the planet. That is certainly first on my list of the top three favorite things about my house.

So even though my house had its up and downs I still can't wait to go home some nights because its just so great.

Life Lesson: Avoid sharing a room with sister at all coast!!!

Empathy Writing

“Dead. The word echoed through my ears, like someone’s yell echoed across a lake. They were gone and were never coming back I told myself. I would never see them, or hear their voice again. I wouldn’t be able to cope with this. It felt like that at any moment I might shatter into a million pieces and I new that when I did, nothing would be able to put me back together again.”

That is what I think a good example of empathy writing is. It is way better than just saying, “I am sad that they died.” The other one is powerful and most people can relate to this kind of agony. If they can’t the writing makes you feel like you can. I think one good way writers make their readers feel empathy is by making a character that everyone can relate to. So you want to create a realistic person. Someone who makes mistakes, and someone the reader can identify with is ideal. That is one way a writer can make their readers feel empathy.

Another way is to make your writing descriptive and powerful and captivating. It can’t be dull and boring. You have to really make the reader understand what your character is going through. Whether they are happy, sorrowful, disappointed, or infuriated. You have to make the reader understand the different levels of emotions your character has. That is an additional way you can make the reader feel empathy.

So again two different ways writers make readers feel empathy is to make a character that everyone can relate to and to have descriptive writing. I hope that one day I will be able to follow these to very important rules of making readers feel empathy and create a story that has some great empathy writing in it.