Performing

Over the weekend, I was in a dance show that The Carousel Dance Center put on, and it reminded me of my love of performing! 

Now as a dancer, I find that I often forget the end result of the performance, and get too caught up in other things. Things like perfecting technique or remembering the steps. But performing is the reason i have stuck with dance for so long. So this weekend was a good reminder! 

BUT this performance was also a bit bittersweet because for the graduates it is our last Christmas performance EVER!We had a bit of a tearful moment after the bows, I gotta admit. 

ANYWAYS...

The BEST part of the entire night, was the super insane fake eyelashes I wore for my part...

They were PURPLE and SPARKLY!

Good Times are Flying By

As the year 2010 comes to a close, it makes me realize how fast my time at W-O is going by! It is kind of depressing.

I have been having an amazing time at high school, just in the year 2010 I have been a part of music productions like Rendezvous, Fanfare and Festival of Holiday Music. I have been to Boston on a school trip. I have made friends at W-O that I hope to NEVER lose contact with.

I wish I could pause time.

But as I can't, I want to make the most of my last remaining months, (unless I decide to take a 5th year). The new year is going to bring so many exciting aspects to my life, and I CANNOT wait for the fun times to start!

Christmas Time Is Here!

I love Christmas! It is most definitely my favourite holiday. And there are so many reasons.

Number 1:

Christmas Carols! I love listening to them, singing along to them, or playing them on the piano.

Number 2:

Christmas Dinner! Turkey and gravy, with mashed potatoes, stuffing, yummy veggies and CHRISTMAS COOKIES! So good. Also the Festive Special from Swiss Chalet is THE BEST!

Number 3:

Spending time with my family! I love when we get together with my extended family and spend time together. It makes my day!

Number 4:

GIFTS! I love recieving gifts (obviously, who doesn't) but I LOVE finding the perfect gift for someone.

Number 5:

Our annual Christmas dance show! We usually do something Christmas related like the Nutcracker, or the Polar Express. Performing is so much fun!

Number 6:

Festival of Holiday Music! W-O music puts on a christmas concert every year, and it so amazingly ridiculous as to how exciting it is to finally perform songs we have been working on for so long. Especially in Jazz Choir, since we wear fun outfits and we sometimes even add choreographed dancing!

Number 7:
Christmas Eve candlelight service at church! This is one of the only times I actually get excited for Church. That might be part of the fact that I don't have to get up early though.

Number 8:

Snow related activities! tobogganing, snowball fights, making snow angels and snowmen. I love it all! Especially with hot chocolate afterwards.

Number 9:
Sitting by the fire when it is snowing outside! It is the best feeling in the world!

Number 10:

Going to see the National Ballet perform the Nutcracker! I love seeing professional dance companies perform. And the Nutcracker is a christmas classic! Also, in my household, Barbie Nutcracker is a must watch holiday movie...just saying!

My Crush...

So BREAKING NEWS!

Are you ready?

My Crush is not a specific person...

BUT AUSTRALIAN ACCENTS.

Seriously though, I would love to marry a guy with an Australian accent. I don't know what it is, but it is like a British accent but rougher and I LOVE IT! Luckily I have a friend who is taking a trip to Australia in about 6 weeks, and she has very specific instructions to find an Australian for me and bring him back. You can all come to our wedding. Its going to be great.

Websites!

Check out http://www.lettersofnote.com/ it is pretty cool!

Basically, from what I can tell, it is posting of interesting letters to or from people of influence in the world. There are letters from Lincoln, famous rappers, a whole variety of people. There is pictures of the original letters, coffee stains and all, and a typed out version so you can actually read the letters.

However I think the layout could be a bit more interesting. It is bland, just black and white with everything centered down the middle. No pictures, no differences in font. It makes it way less eye catching for a person who is just browsing.

So ... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Maybe this is just the uneducated and uncultured teenager in me, but this site was not even eye catching enough to make me want to read on. I saw Obama making some weird face with another dude who I assumed was also in politics and I was done.

Let's be real here ; I care enough about politics to know the outcomes of major elections, but thats about it.

If I could go anywhere in the world...

Well I have tons of places I would want to go! But as I am limited to just a weekend, I think I would do a whirlwind tour of Italy!

During the summer I read a fantastic book called Eat, Pray, Love. To summarize, it is a true story narrated by Elizabeth Gilbert and she travels to three places in order to heal herself after a rough divorce. The first is Italy, to find pleasure in life again, the second is India to find peace, and the third is Bali to combine the two. I also saw the movie based on the same book. And during the whole first part, all I wanted to do was eat some PASTA and PIZZA because that is all she does for a third of the story. And it makes you hungry! The movie was even worse for that! Afterwards I took an emergency trip to East Side Marios and ate like nobodies business.

While in Italy, I would see Rome, learn some Italian, see the Colosseum. And I would try to just wing the entire trip. Not too much planning, just wandering around, eating when I'm hungry, sleeping when I'm tired.

I would want, of course, a travel partner! So if anyone is interested let me know. We'll be leaving immedediately.

Tomorrow is going to be a quiet day...

You know what is just awesome?

VOW OF SILENCE!

Just a bit of background...

Vow of Silence is a program put on by Free the Children. Basically people all over the world will stay completely silent, (this means no talking, cell phones, facebook etc.) all for the purpose of raising awareness of kids around the globe who can't speak up against the cruelties they are put through. This year the vow is taking place on November 19, which is 21st anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. You can get some more information here.

Unfortunatly due to some prior commitments I can't participate this year. However I really admire all of the students taking the vow, I did it last year and I know how hard it is!

If you aren't taking the vow, but would like to support the cause, then DONATE!

You Best SHUT UP!

This pet peeve is not often around to bother me.

But when it occurs, it makes me want to SCREAM!

It is when pay a large sum of money to see a professonal musical, ballet or a freaking high school musical...

AND PEOPLE TALK.

Not just whisper once in a while, but talk through out the entire show.

Last Wednesday I took the day off school to go and see the hit musical Wicked with the music department. This is probably one of my FAVOURITE musicals if not number one in my books. So when a group of irritating teenage girls decided to talk throughout the second half, well it was just too much.

And the things these girls said! They sounded so stupid. I am relieved to say that they were not from our own W-O. Chubby Crusader would be proud.

So the lesson learned? If you ever go to a show with me and decide to talk, you better be prepared to deal with the consequences.

Procrastination

This blog is my excuse for procrastinating on a certain english essay I am struggling to write. My english teacher has assigned the class (DUH DUH DUH)

A PROSE ESSAY

On what, you might ask?

a very broad topic: high school.

She wants creative, funny, heartwrenching or SOMETHING that is not completely BSed. Hence my issue.

Don't get me wrong, I love high school. In fact at the moment, I don't want to leave. But to have to write something completely original and entertaining is proving to be far to much of a challenge for me. I think its because my high school career has been fairly normal. Nothing too crazy. No tough times. Just me having fun while trying to maintain an honour role average.

So to conclude this procrastination blog, if anybody has any ideas for a genius prose essay, its due Tuesday!

THANKS.

Post Secret

I don't think I could EVER force myself out of bed early enough to even have time for, let alone do physical activity. I can barely drag myself out of bed to get to school on time.

Halloween for Hunger!

"TRICK OR TREAT!" is a phrase that is always rewarding. You ask and you will recieve. Say those three magic words and candy is literally tossed into your open arms! Unfortunately as you grow older less and less candy is recieved. I guess because people don't want to give candy to irresponsible teenagers. I had stopped going out at all.

So for the first time in a few years, I actually went trick or treating! But not for candy. Last night a group of friends and I went "Halloweening for Hunger". We went door to door and asked people to donate their canned food items for the food drive.

Halloween for Hunger is an iniative ran by Free the Children. A group thats basis is Kids Helping Kids. Halloween for Hunger is one out of two programs Free the Children runs that helps people in our own communities. In March 2009, nearly 800,000 Canadians needed to go to their local food bank for a meal.

While we were out asking for donations, I encountered 3 types of people.
Type 1:
Irritated that they had to go find food from their pantries. Although there were posters up about this campaign, obviously some people didn't get the memo.

Type 2:
Passive about this whole campaign. Fine with giving away food, but didn't seem to appreciate the good they were doing.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!

Type 3:
Overjoyed that teenagers were participating in this campaign. There was one lady who asked us if she could bring in more food to our school!

Clearly type 3 was my favourite. Some people insisted on giving us candy as well because we were doing a good deed. BONUS! :)

The best part? I had so much fun, even though I carried cans around all night!

End of the Night = One Trunk Full of Food!

Kira McDermid, Age 8.

17...16...15...14...13...12...11...10...9...8!!!

If only I could go back in time to when I was just eight years old! No worries, lots of time for play, the benifits go on and on.
And if I could go back, even for a day, I would in a heartbeat. But let's imagine it.

It is late June. School is winding down and the weather is perfect; warm enough for shorts! Its a Saturday, which means a whole day just to play outside. I wake up at 7:30 am. To an eight year old, this is not even early. If I'm lucky, dad is already making pancakes for me! I load them up with maple syrup, and eat at least seven. When I'm done, mom lets me pick out my own clothes. I choose my green shorts and a green tank top, my favourite summer outfit! Its still too early to go outside, so my sister Ali and I play inside and make a fort out of couch cushions. Then we play spies, or mermaids, or maybe explorers. Finally the dew has disappeared from the grass and we can go outside! Ali and I run over to my neighbors house and see if our friends want to come outside and play! First we play Natives, then hide and seek. Our parents let us eat outside at the picnic table for lunch! After lunch we start a new game with chalk. We draw a house complete with bedrooms, televisions and a Nintendo 64. Its late afternoon and we decide to return to our own houses. I pull out a book and read until dinner. After dinner mom and dad rent a movie and we watch it all together. Mom even lets us stay up late; which means 9:00! After we are tucked into bed and dad has brought us each a glass of water, mom and dad turn out the lights and shut the door. Luckily, I have a book and a flashlight hidden under my pillow! I read until mom comes in and takes away my flashlight. The end of a perfect day! 

Thanks :)

Thanksgiving! I have so many things to be thankful for.
Like:
Family
             - including my parents, cousins, sister, aunts, uncles...I could go on
Fall leaves
hiking
getting along with my sister
having amazing friends
coffee in the morning
books to read
dance
music
choirs at school
my job
memories

AAAAH! University!

Grade 12 is really great for making you think about "your future". In fact, if I am told that I have to think about "my future" one more time, I might scream.

But let's back up. Ever since Grade 9 I have known that I want to go to university for dance. I've researched schools and learned about the application process. Before grade 12 I was excited about university. But now I am hearing about it WAY TOO MUCH.

1. All my mother talks about is saving my money for school.
2. My teachers stress about the importance of good grades for applying for schools.
3. When I jokingly told my Grandma that "I'm not going to university! I'm going to live at home for the rest of my life." She looked shocked and said "Kira, you mayen't (is that even a word, grandma?) do that. You'll never get a good job! And you know how much it costs to retire these days."

EXCUSE ME?! Now I'm worrying about my retirement? I haven't even graduated high school!

And although my mom insists that I will love university blah blah blah, and I know she's right, at the moment all I want to do is enjoy my last year of cost free education.

So could all of the adults in my life leave me alone for a bit? I'll think about university when I have to apply
That would be great. Kay thanks.

Nothing's Sweeter Than Summertime...

Aaaaah summer. The sun, the water, late nights and for me, the laughter of children! This past summer I ran a dance camp in Wellesley, Ontario called Barefoot Dance Camp. Each week of camp had a different themes, like Princess Week, Cowgirl Week, and Fun in the Sun (can you tell this was an all girls camp?). The girls were ages 5-10. They came to camp for a half day, and during this time they had a dance class, did a craft, and played outside. At the end of every week, the girls put on a dance show for their parents. It was such a rewarding experiance! I had so much fun every day coming up with new games, teaching the kids new dance steps and playing with the girls. I loved it so much and I learned a lot about running a business and teaching dance.

I decided to run a camp duing the summer mainly because I had no other job opportunities, but also because opening a dance studio is one of my goals. I wanted to see if I could run a dance camp when I didn't have the pressures of paying rent, buying food and supporting myself. In order to start the business, I applied for a government grant through a program called Summer Company. How it works is you have to create a business plan, go through an interview process and then, if you are accepted, you are required to complete a certain amount of business training and mentoring sessions. Student entrepreneurs are given $1500 at the beginning of the summer as a start up grant. If you are sucessful (they define successful as making atleast one sale, doing atleast 35 hours of work a week and completing all of the training) the government gives you another $1500 at the end of the summer as reward for all of your hard work.

After finishing the summer, I have decided to let my business grow! I plan to do day long programs over Christmas Break, and I am defintely going to offer more summer camp programs next summer!

Off and Away!

This is probably the most debated subject at high school! I hear the term "Off and Away" more than any other phrase. Although I can't say I am against having cell phones allowed in class, I think that Dalton McGuinty is being naive. On my cell phone, there is no possible way for me to research information! My cell phone is definitely a social tool, not an educational one.

I admit, I do text in class. However I don't think at all that it hinders my learning. Sending the occasional text does not add or take away from the lesson at hand. When I text I do it at an appropriate time like when a teacher is handing out sheets, or we have time to work. It is not being disrespectful to text when the teacher isn't even talking!

As for using cell phones in class, I think it could be used as a way to enhance learning...in some cases. But what about the kids who don't have cell phones? It puts more pressure on those people who don't have cell phones to conform. I doubt those parents would be very pleased.

So: to allow cell phones? Or to ban them?

Here's what I think. Cell phones should not be banned. If students are using them at appropriate breaks in the lesson, its not causing anyone harm. It is only a problem when students over use them and never put them away.



About Me!

Whoa blogging.
So I'm Kira McDermid. I am in Grade 12. I took writer's craft because I needed another course, and I thought it looked the most interesting! I am enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I basically just want to improve my writing overall. I don't have any aspirations to be a writer at this point, but who knows?
I love reading so there are of course tons of writers I admire. First, I hugely admire J.K. Rowling, who wrote Harry Potter. She knows every detail about the world she created and I think that makes the books so much better. She also wrote a series that kids and adults love which I think is difficult to do, and yet she accomplished that! Another author that I think is amazing is Jodi Picoult. I actually did my ISU essay on her book My Sister's Keeper in Grade 11, and even after analyzing her book a million times, I still loved and and found new emotion in the story line. Over the summer I read many great books. Although I can't remember the authors' names, its nice to know that there are so many amazing writers out there!
After high school I really want to pursue a career in dance. Preferably teaching. One day, I want to open a dance studio! For university I want to attend either York or Ryerson and get my Bachelor of Arts in dance. Hopefully if this plan works out I will love my life every day!
I love my life so it is not hard at all to get out of bed every morning. What helps with that is choir almost every morning in the W-O Music Department. It is so much fun and I love singing so that is a great way to start off my morning. After school I have dance class or rehearsal. I love the social aspect of dance as well as the exercise that dance gives me. I feel so lucky to have all of these oppertunities!
Beautiful Life - Doc Walker represents how I feel about my life so far.