I’ve always considered myself a normal person, but that changed.

I left for the Ontario Classics Conference (a series of competitions for students in Latin, Greek, or Classical Civilization courses) on Wednesday night, and even though I returned on Sunday, everyone on the trip agreed that they had become a lot “weirder” over the course of the four nights (three for me, since Friday was an all-nighter).

There were 45 of us from my school, and though we don’t study very hard for the competitions, we always have a blast. The school has a reputation of being loud and funny, and this was true. We stayed up until the early hours of the morning every night, listening to music all together in the dorms, and blowing vuvuzelas at every chance we got (until they were confiscated, then we got party noise-makers).

The atmosphere of our classics team can be summed up by saying that anytime you make eye contact with anyone, you make a funny face at them, and anytime you don’t know if you should sleep or not, you stay awake. It occurred to me how much the “normal” world is overrated – how we walk our halls at school all the time but never really bond with people. The conference was the opposite of that. Everyone was weird and wonderful. We were a group of people who clicked.

It was nice to be a part of that different world, even if it was just for a few days. You could really forget about people judging you and there was no shame (even after a breakdown the morning after staying up all night, involving laughing and crying at the same time). A lot of people would say we were very weird, and we would agree. In fact, I have a vague recollection of being a normal person a few months ago, before the effects of being in Classics got to me.

“Weird” is wonderful. It’s funny and fascinating and it means laughing a lot. Now that I’ve been thrown back into mainstream society, I realize how weird it feels to be in a place where it isn’t normal to be weird.

Love always,

Catherine

 I recently read an autobiography called "A Stolen Life", written by a courageous woman named Jaycee Lee Dugard. Jaycee Lee is now 31 years old, has two daughters whom she loves dearly, and is surrounded by friends and family - but her life was not always as charmed as it may seem.

When Jaycee Lee was 11 years old, she was tazered from a vehicle on the way to her bus stop, and then abducted by a man and his wife. For several years, Jaycee Lee was forced to live in a tent (and later a shed of sorts) in the man's backyard, while he repeatedly molested, abused, and raped her. While in captivity, Jaycee Lee was impregnated twice by her kidnapper (the first time at the age of 13!), and delivered her children in the backyard, without painkillers or any assistance, other than from the kidnapper himself. 

It was 18 years after her kidnapping before Jaycee Lee was discovered, and freed to go home to her family, along with her two daughters. Her kidnapper and his wife are now in prison, serving life sentences. Jaycee Lee wrote a book about her experience to show the world just how gruesome her time in captivity really was. However, Jaycee Lee makes it very clear that she is not a victim of her situation, but a survivor. She is currently back at school and working towards a career to support her and her daughters, and hopes to even find love someday. She has taken her terrible circumstances and turned her life around for the better. She is a symbol of hope, and in my opinion, an incredibly strong, brave woman who well deserves the title of a role model.

A part of Girl Guides that I love is camping. I love the effort you have to put into it, I love sleeping under the stars, and I love the people that do it with me.

Every summer I go to camp, and last summer I paddled the Missinaibi River for 22 days. You might think it’s a bit late to be reminiscing about last summer’s adventure, but stars are timeless.

On our last night of the trip, we were far, far away from any civilization. The closest town probably has a year-round population of fewer than a dozen. We had been through physically the hardest three weeks of our lives, portaging and walking our boats through rapids that were too shallow to shoot, nervously shooting huge rapids (and tipping on one) and getting far too little sleep. Some days, we would paddle until eight o’clock when camp policy determined we had to set up site – so we’d set up our tents on grassy shores and deal with sore backs in the morning, when we’d wake up in the dark and only see the sun rising after an hour or so.

After all that, we never forgot the beauty whose presence with which we were graced.  On the last night, we all lay down on the sand (it was probably close to midnight and as black as night can get) and stared up to the stars, and someone said something like, “I know it’s cold and late, but I know I’m not going to see this for a long... long, time.”

This weekend I went camping with the Brownies for whom I’m a junior leader, and as we were stargazing at the somewhat pathetic amount of stars you can see 40 minutes outside the city, and as we were silent to the sound of the highway, I thought back to that night. It’s one of those moments that I’ve replayed a thousand times.

It’s hard to have intense camping experiences at the age of eight, but Brownie camp is a start. I really hope some of the girls that I lead fulfill nature-related dreams. I, for one, dream of tripping the Coppermine River, which is in Nunavut, and flows out into the ocean in the northern part of Canada. I think it would be absolutely amazing to trip one of the rivers that far north. Part of the Coppermine River that I’m really interested in is the midnight sun – in certain parts of the summer, there is 24-hour sunlight that far north, and I think that would be cool to see.

For some of them, this will be the closest to the middle of nowhere they ever get, but I’m sure that for others, they’ll find they can excel in nature.

Camping really is a gift, even if it’s just two nights in the lowlands. It’s a break from constant crowds, Internet access, and the omnipresent labelling of people and things. Some people would say I like camping because it’s a break from reality, but it’s quite the opposite: it’s a break into reality. 

Hi everyone! Recently I took a trip to Hot Topic, my favourite store of all time. For those of you that don't know, it's a store that features wacky clothing, vibrant cosmetics and out-there accessories unlike any other. When I went this time, of course, I bought so many things. Among those things I got some more lip gloss. Last time I went to Hot Topic, I purchased the same brand of lip gloss and was
very satisfied. I'm always looking for bold-coloured lip gloss/lip stick, and this brand sold cotton candy pink which looked like Nicki Minaj's in her video, "Super Base". I loved it so much that when I went back this time I bought a purple tube of it in hopes that it would turn out to be a dark, vibrant and noticeable colour. I figured that since the last type of lip gloss I got was so good that this one would be the same. Little did I know how wrong I was. The gloss had a nice tint of purple, but it was hardly a bold colour. I wanted something that would make my lips look like they were actually purple! Yes, it was a nice colour, but it wasn't what I wanted.

My point is, why can't someone make vibrant lip products that are actually affordable? I've seen lip sticks that do the thing I want them too, but their price is too high. But of course, I still recommend Hot Topic to anyone, no matter what.

Still...anyone out there agree with me?

There are many world issues today, and one that is at the forefront of many conversations is the environment. Often, it seems pretty boring to learn about how we can help the planet – turn off your lights, don’t leave the tap running while you brush your teeth, recycle plastic bottles, on and on the list goes. However, it’s important to find dynamic ways to help the planet because those are the things that people will want to do. Who wants to sit through another lecture about “you should walk instead of taking the car”? Usually, the way people learn about the environment is boring, however one woman decided to live in the environment in order to help it.

Jane Goodall is a woman who inspired many people to love the environment before it was a trend. Goodall is best known for her study of chimpanzees, and this she did remarkably. An avid environmentalist, she would immerse herself into the chimps’ environment and become one of their society.  After observing for weeks and weeks, and letting the chimps see her and get used to her, she would gradually move closer to the group that she was studying, and eventually they would accept her.

The way that she became one with these animals was amazing – they treated her as if she was a chimp, caring for her and interacting with her. Goodall opened our eyes to how similar we are to chimps and primates in general. She showed us that they care for each other just like we do.

In doing her work, Goodall inspired thousands of people to open their eyes to the animal kingdom, and, therefore, the environment. Her attachment to the chimps made people realize that we’re not so different, and that it’s our duty to care for animals just like we care for each other. In showing us that chimps are like us, we could relate to them, and people could be more sensitive to the needs of the natural environment.

Jane Goodall is a remarkable woman because of her exceptional work in nature. She did many great things, and she made everyone realize what a beautiful earth this is, and that we should take care of it. For her, environmental activism was more than giving speeches at elementary schools – it was about living your beliefs and being proactive, which are things from which every single one of us can take something.