Before I write anything, I want it to make it clear that my opinion on this subject may be unjust and I fully admit I have abosuletly no right to critize the way society works. I know that there will be alot of disagreements with what I have to say. However, I have had personal experiences with each of these topics and feel that there needs to be change. Therefore I feel that I indeed, DO have the right to speak out to what I have to say. Agree? Agreed. There.
I'm just going to put it bluntly: Raising Awareness for something is like running on a treadmill during a marathon. You don't go any where. You can run as fast as you want, with how many people you want, spend as much money as you want but you are solving nothing unless reasonable action is being taken. There are some things I just don't exactly understand.
For instance, a few weeks ago it was "Wear purple on Thursday to speak out against bullying". What's that going to do? Stop the bully because you're wearing a purple tee? For people like me, that actually participated in this act, did it really stop people from bullying one another that day? No it did not. It did nothing. People acted how they always do. Laughed, giggled, joked about someone else. Pushed, shoved, tripped people. But it's all a game right? It was just a fun day that everyone got to wear 'all purple'. And I'm not going to pretend that I'm all innocent either.
Same idea goes for cancer awareness projects. This is the big one. You can't tell me that by year 2011, not one single person in this country (or even world!) hasn't been effected or doesn't know somebody who has been effected by cancer. Everyone is "aware" of it. Just off the top of my head, I have had six members of my family either killed or permemantly ill from cancer. I'm sure there's many more if I were to dig deeper. I've known what cancer was since I was five. Why are we just "raising awareness" of it? Why not more? We need solutions and research; not just t shirts.
We need more than "raising awareness". We need 100% of money raised going to legitimate research and not 60% of funds going to administration. No one gets paid when another is suffering.
I would also like to make it clear that there are other fantastic organizations and charities that are trying their best to find a solution to societies problems, and that I have absolutely no right to judge or have an misconception on what kind of an impact they have. Not every organization is in it for the money and I realize that. I hope I haven't offended anyone. To clear some more air, I want everyone to know that I personally still give/donate both time and money to these organizations and that I still believe that even though my $20 may only really be $2, that's still $2 closer to finding a cure. We all need to give if we want to make a difference.
Here's a list of organizations you should check out:
United Way of Canada - http://www2.unitedway.ca/uwcanada/default.aspx
Salvation Army - http://salvos.org.au/
Canadian Cancer Society - http://www.cancer.ca/Canada-wide/About%20cancer.aspx?sc_lang=en
Aid for Starving Children - http://www.aashf.org/
Make a Wish Foundation - http://www.thechildrensplace.ca/?redirect=usa
Kid's Help Phone - http://www.kidshelpphone.ca/teens/home/splash.aspx
Making a Difference Foundation - http://www.pdcrs.com/page.asp?PageID=58
Canadian Red Cross - http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=000005&tid=003
and many, many more.
What difference are you going to make today? Leave a comment.
Thursday 17 November 2011
Tuesday 15 November 2011
Silly writings
Live... Someone's Watching
No matter the size of crowd,
give your best show.
Life is an open stage,
with you - the only character.
Always Smile.
Feel the spotlight's warmth,
it's consistently reminding you.
You are apart of this earth,
create your own role - don't find one.
Laugh often.
Allow your body to talk,
it has it's own unique performance.
Be patient with your voice,
not all words can express feeling.
Speak up.
Choose your act wisely,
it will easily define personality.
Never forget to show emotion,
after all - the director chose you specially.
Love deeply.
Live on,
Someone's always watching.
Overwhelming Actions
Use gasoline, burn pictures.
Stomp your feet & throw fits
Shout hateful words, slam many doors.
Fight for decisions made & talk with bloody fists
Bash all the doubters, smash a pane of glass.
Kick in the wall & feed off anger
Scribble away the madness, rip several papers.
Run from the problems & drive from it fast
Perspirate every frustration, scream from the throat.
Break a stick & throw a few stones
Pull feathers from pillows, clench teeth hard.
Close each eye & allow every tear to fall.
Light a match,
Throw a punch,
Kick violently,
Scream. Louder.
BUT- Forgive aggressively.
let everything else be temporary.
No matter the size of crowd,
give your best show.
Life is an open stage,
with you - the only character.
Always Smile.
Feel the spotlight's warmth,
it's consistently reminding you.
You are apart of this earth,
create your own role - don't find one.
Laugh often.
Allow your body to talk,
it has it's own unique performance.
Be patient with your voice,
not all words can express feeling.
Speak up.
Choose your act wisely,
it will easily define personality.
Never forget to show emotion,
after all - the director chose you specially.
Love deeply.
Live on,
Someone's always watching.
Overwhelming Actions
Use gasoline, burn pictures.
Stomp your feet & throw fits
Shout hateful words, slam many doors.
Fight for decisions made & talk with bloody fists
Bash all the doubters, smash a pane of glass.
Kick in the wall & feed off anger
Scribble away the madness, rip several papers.
Run from the problems & drive from it fast
Perspirate every frustration, scream from the throat.
Break a stick & throw a few stones
Pull feathers from pillows, clench teeth hard.
Close each eye & allow every tear to fall.
Light a match,
Throw a punch,
Kick violently,
Scream. Louder.
BUT- Forgive aggressively.
let everything else be temporary.
Sunday 6 November 2011
Winter: Love vs. Hate
I guess I have to face the fact that I live in Canada, where 11 months out of the year the weather concludes blowing snow and sheets of ice galore. Gotta love it, right? The multiple layers of clothing, toques and mitts. The chapped lips and dry skin. All the outcomes of winter that make people cringe when the first flake of iced rain drop onto the leftover summer pavement. It's almost depressing. What can we make of this awful long season? I think we should start thinking more on the lines of positivity!
I know of a lot of people who snowboard or ski during the winter breaks. However, I had a nightmare experience the first time I learned how to ski and I'm not about to talk about what had happened. Let's just say I didn't know the symbols applied to anything at all when I first got my green circle stamped on my ski tag. I quickly learned there was a significance to these symbols as I endured my adventure down the black diamond adventure of death. It was awful.
Since screaming bloody murder and slidding on my a** isn't my forte, I prefer to stick with much more classier winter activities. Skating in my small town is an escape away from home where you can slap a few pucks around in anger and frustration without anyone looking at you strangely. Half the time I'm the only one there so it's a nice feeling. I can't wait until they put the ice in. Although, I'm certain there's a monster living in the furnace room when I go to turn off the ice lights late at night...
Covering up in warm, fuzzy blankets watching Christmas movies in the basement with my sister is also an exceptional good time. There's also air hockey tournaments, tobogganing in the river valley or even at Becca's house with the finishing touch of warm hot chocolate with a french vanilla touch in our bellys. Perfect!
What's Christmas without winter?! I have a huge family so you can imagine when all of us gather for such occasions, it's always mandatory we have a spectacular time. Board games like monopoly, scribblish, or cranium is always a must tradition. After all, we cannot let cousin Tara down :) The bursts of crying laughter and hoots and howling, you can't just cannot love it. Just being with such a fantastic family to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, I know that I am blessed. And oh, how very grateful I am.
New Years Eve is also a blessing and a half. Our little village has it's annual dance, you never know what's going to be the turnout. Anyhow, it's still a pretty good night with friends and such. I can't believe it's going to 2012 soon. Seems like things went into fast forward ever since my 6th birthday. Crazy! I thought I was still debating between blue crayons and red crayons. Now I'm thinking about what I'm going to do after I graduate... woah, what!?
You can say I'm a true fan of February break. While almost everyone goes away on their ski/Mexico trips, I stay at home and celebrate my birthday :) What joy! Get the rink to myself, spending time with Harm and the "away" friends who come home from university or whatever it may be, there always seems to be a new memory made by the end of the week. I quite enjoy the times to be had with the people I love. No one else could ask for a better birthday gift. :)
So I guess inbetween the scraping of windshields and slippery roads, I will be busy with all other anti - stressful activities that will fill my life with wonders and joy that I will forget about this long season of Canada's and I WILL keep my head held high. It's my guarantee.
What's your favorite winter activity or holiday? Leave a comment below ! Doooo itttt. I demand.
I know of a lot of people who snowboard or ski during the winter breaks. However, I had a nightmare experience the first time I learned how to ski and I'm not about to talk about what had happened. Let's just say I didn't know the symbols applied to anything at all when I first got my green circle stamped on my ski tag. I quickly learned there was a significance to these symbols as I endured my adventure down the black diamond adventure of death. It was awful.
Since screaming bloody murder and slidding on my a** isn't my forte, I prefer to stick with much more classier winter activities. Skating in my small town is an escape away from home where you can slap a few pucks around in anger and frustration without anyone looking at you strangely. Half the time I'm the only one there so it's a nice feeling. I can't wait until they put the ice in. Although, I'm certain there's a monster living in the furnace room when I go to turn off the ice lights late at night...
Covering up in warm, fuzzy blankets watching Christmas movies in the basement with my sister is also an exceptional good time. There's also air hockey tournaments, tobogganing in the river valley or even at Becca's house with the finishing touch of warm hot chocolate with a french vanilla touch in our bellys. Perfect!
What's Christmas without winter?! I have a huge family so you can imagine when all of us gather for such occasions, it's always mandatory we have a spectacular time. Board games like monopoly, scribblish, or cranium is always a must tradition. After all, we cannot let cousin Tara down :) The bursts of crying laughter and hoots and howling, you can't just cannot love it. Just being with such a fantastic family to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, I know that I am blessed. And oh, how very grateful I am.
New Years Eve is also a blessing and a half. Our little village has it's annual dance, you never know what's going to be the turnout. Anyhow, it's still a pretty good night with friends and such. I can't believe it's going to 2012 soon. Seems like things went into fast forward ever since my 6th birthday. Crazy! I thought I was still debating between blue crayons and red crayons. Now I'm thinking about what I'm going to do after I graduate... woah, what!?
You can say I'm a true fan of February break. While almost everyone goes away on their ski/Mexico trips, I stay at home and celebrate my birthday :) What joy! Get the rink to myself, spending time with Harm and the "away" friends who come home from university or whatever it may be, there always seems to be a new memory made by the end of the week. I quite enjoy the times to be had with the people I love. No one else could ask for a better birthday gift. :)
So I guess inbetween the scraping of windshields and slippery roads, I will be busy with all other anti - stressful activities that will fill my life with wonders and joy that I will forget about this long season of Canada's and I WILL keep my head held high. It's my guarantee.
What's your favorite winter activity or holiday? Leave a comment below ! Doooo itttt. I demand.
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