Dance Competition Season is Finally Here

All the costumes are bought or made. Most are rhynestoned and sequined. My makeup kit is packed. My "To Bring" list is printed, and my costumes hang neatly in a bag on the back of my door. I am ready... and yet, *breaths*  I'm not.

9 days until I am on stage for the first time this season. 9 days until complete chaos insues. 9 days until I am running around franticly making sure everyone is wearing what they should be and is where they need to be. 9 days. *breaths* 9 days to get it right, to make it perfect, and to get mentally and physically prepared.

This is my nineth year going to dance competitions. But this time it's different. I am putting pressure on my self this year. I want to do well. This has always been sometjing that i have done for fun, simply because I love it. This year I want to do well. This is my second last year competing, because in two years I will be going to university, and won't be able to compete anymore. That is why I want to do well.

I always tell people that I dance. This year I want to be able to tell them how good I am. I want to be able to tell them we won an overall, or a special award. I want a trophy. I want something that I can look back on and be so incredibly proud of.

These are my goals for this year:
 Not freeze on stage during my solo.
Not forget my dances.
Not fall out of my turns.
Not get comments from the judges to point my toes.
Show good emotions and facial expressions.
Win something for any of my dances.
Keep all the younger kids organized, so my dance teacher doesn't have to.
Smile. Be happy. Have fun. Make memories.


Days til first competition: 9

Colour of nail polish. Green (for st patty's day) with one silver on each hand.

My Summer School Experience

This is my first time taking summer school, so I didn't knowwhat to expect walking in on the first day. Our teacher told us to sit with someone new, which was fine for me because I didn't know anyone. Then, just as I started to feel comfortable with the 3 other people I was sitting with, he told us that everyday we would have to sit with new people. I was not happy with this because I am not good at meeting new people. But the next day I sat with new people and the day after that and the day after that and I began to like sitting with new people. It kept the days from blurring together in my mind and made the whole experience feel shorter and more interesting. I think that it has made everyone more comfortable with eachother and it makes doing presentations easier and less scary. Everyone in the class seemed really nice, and I was surprised that there wasn't atleast one person I couldn't stand.

At first the teacher seemed kinda weird, he had a teaching method that I wasn't used to and at first I didn't like it. Or him for that matter. But after a few days I started to understand why he did the things he did, and now he has one of my favourite teaching styles.

Overall I think this was a really good experience, I a lot of new people and I actually learned quite a bit. I would definatly do this again if I knew I would have this good of a class.

Five Things To Live By

1. Live passionatly

Basically if you don't love what you are doing, you shouldn't be doing it. You never know when your life is going to change durastically or even end and if you don't do what you love when you have the chance you will end up regreting it.

2. Put others before yourself

I know this one is hard to do, but it is a great way to live. When you put others first you learn to respect them, and in return they will respect you.

3. Make the smallest negative impact possible

Environmentally it is important to try to make as small of an impact as possible. In grade nine, we were watching this movie about the earth and I forget who said it but they said "we don't inherit the earth form our parents, we borrow it from our grandchildren" this quote kind of changed my outlook on things, especially on what kind of impact I have. But its not just about environment, its about people too. If you are going to impact someone, impact them possitively. You don't want to be the reason someone hurts themselves or someone else.

4. Be happy

I understand that sometimes you just don't feel like being in a good mood. But being happy, makes everything easier, especially if you would rather be doing something else. Not to mention if you give off vibes of happiness people are more likely to respond nicely to you and good things are more likely to happen.

5. Love

I left this on to last because I believe it is the most important and it ties into all the others. Allow yourself to love others and be loved by others. If you don't open yourself up and risk getting hurt you will never know true love or happiness. Sure, you will protect yourself from feeling pain or crying, but is it worth it in the end to know that you don't know true love? Believe me it's not.

Lit. Circle

Today we had our first Lit. circle meeting for the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. We were discussing the first five chapters and it went surprisingly well. The reason I use the word "suprisingly" is because every other time I have been in a Lit. circle it have been either horribly awkward because nobody wants to give there opinion, or no one has read the book, or two people talk while the rest listen. This group is not like that at all. Everyone gave opinions and input, and we asked and discussed some really good questions. We made predictions on what we thought would happen in situations like with Tom and Daisy, and Gatsby and Daisy, and we discussed the importance of Jordans character, and of the billboard and the green light and why people are the way they are and why they do the things they do. Over all it was productive.

Universal Perfection

What does it mean to be perfect?

"Make (something) completely free from faults or defects." This is the definition I got when I looked up this question. To be completely free from faults or defects? This is clearly impossible as everyone sees everything differently. However, in the eyes of one person, something or someone can, in fact, be considered perfect.

Most people can agree on a majority of the factors that go into being perfect. But, there are certain things that are very individual. For example some people feel that being tall is a factor in being perfect, I however do not agree with this. I much prefer someone who is close to my own height, someone who I dont have to tilt my neck to look at. I mean sure I like tall people because they make me feel small and delicate, but they also can sometimes make me uncomfortable as I am not used to being shorter that people. I grew up being one of the tallest in my class, and so I am more used to people who are shorter than me.

There are so many different shapes and sizes and colours that people come in. There are different ethnicities, hair colours, heights, weights, builds, and personalities that make up people. So since every person is so different, how can you expect that everyone will be attracted to the same thing? Perfection does exist, it's just not something that is universal.

Who's fault is suicide?

"Who's fault is suicide?" is not an easy question. It's not the kind of question that can be wrapped up in a nice little neat package with a bow on top. I mean, you could argue that it is the fault of the parents because if the way they raised the victim, but parents, no matter how hard the try cant control everything there child comes into contact with. So you could say its the schools fault, but how can you expect a group of a hundred staff members to keep track if a thousand students. But you could blame the childs classmates and peers, but they are children, how are they supposed to understand what kind of affect they have on people. How about the media? That's right, blame the media! But wait, shouldn't the parents be aware of what there child is watching? And shouldnt the school be monitoring the computers?

See the question of who to blame is too complicated to be answered in most cases.

Critically Thinking About Critical Thinking

In my life, I don't think I use critical thinking enough. I have a tendency to just say the first thing that comes to mind. The problem with this is that I often end up offending people or making them uncomfortable. I think more people would get along with me if I thought through what I was going to say before I said it but I don't think I would have the same group of friends. See, my friends like me because if the fact that I am brutally honest. And for that reason, I would not change the way that I am.