I walk on the sidewalks through the streets of Montreal. I hear the cars going by, the birds in the sky, and the conversations of strangers. I look at each building, from a cute apartment to a yummy smelling bakery. I appreciate the scenery and continue walking, feeling excited for the restaurant we were heading to.

I look up. I see my family is quite a bit ahead of me and realize that I has started to walk slower as I was glancing at the buildings. When we all arrive, we head inside. The waiter greets us and brings us to a table near the window. I can smell the sugar from the crepes. My mouth starts watering and I think about the warmness of the dough, the sweetness of the chocolate, and the freshness of the berries. I order a chocolate and strawberry crepe, my all time favourite, along with a strawberry banana smoothie.  As we wait, my dad tells a funny story about his childhood. Soon all of our crepes arrive. We appreciate the delicacy and maybe take a few pictures before eating them as fast as we can. It tastes like heaven on a plate. I savour every last bite and finish it off with the last few sips of the smoothie I’d ordered, which tastes very fruity, which is just the way I like it. I finish the last bite and pat my stomach satisfyingly.  

“That was incredible,” I say. “Hit the spot”. I can’t wait for tomorrow so we can do it all again.

Word count: 259

Free health care? That’s a terrible idea. Wasting taxpayer’s precious money. Instead of slightly increasing taxes, everyone else should just pay for their own medical bills! That way, you know you can always get care right away instead of waiting for days in the waiting room! Sign up with an insurance company, pay them plenty of money every month, and you’ll have all your medical bills paid off without a doubt! Unless your company finds the slightest reason to refuse to pay, of course. Wouldn’t you rather be guaranteed to not be paying for an old fat man’s diabetes treatment than help a kid dying with cancer?

Break your arm? Only thousands of dollars to fix! Snake bite? Better have 35 grand saved up! A 40 minute stitching procedure? Hand over tens of thousands of dollars! Diabetes? Though it was sold for a dollar at first, it’s only a couple hundred now because the company significantly raised the price for no reason other than making even more money. They know Americans will be forced to buy it even if the price is completely unreasonable! Too bad Americans die every day from not being able to afford insulin or any other prescribed medication; maybe they should’ve saved their money! Kids who can’t afford it but are too young for a job should have been born rich! Find out you have cancer? Well you better have hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank or else you’re going bankrupt and won’t receive treatment! Don’t worry, all you have to do is sell your house and all your belongings just so you can stay alive! And that’s not even guaranteed!

It’s okay though, because this system isn’t meant to benefit patients. That’s not the point of healthcare. It’s meant for the companies to make money!

Wc: 282

Blog post #3

The four friends settled down inside after a long day of skiing, sledding, and fort building. They had very much enjoyed themselves but they were now settling down for a nice, relaxing break.

As they headed towards the kitchen, they felt instantly warmer as the smell of hot chocolate that Timmy’s mom had made surrounded them. They excitedly grabbed their hot chocolates from the counter and sat in front of the TV. While their favourite TV show, The Office, was playing, they tasted the warm, frothy, thick, rich hot chocolate against their tongues and sighed with satisfaction. After a few sips, they heard a call from Timmy’s mom.

“Kids, do you want some whip cream and marshmallows with your hot chocolate?” she asked.

The kids looked eagerly at each other.

“Yes!” Timmy replied, “We’d love that!” They rushed to the kitchen to add the extra toppings to their hot chocolate, making it much more enjoyable. After pouring immense amounts of whip cream and marshmallows onto their hot chocolate, they ran back to the living room where the TV was playing. They found some blankets to wrap themselves in while enjoying their drink and show. They were watching their favourite episode, “Stress Relief”, which always made them laugh, no matter how many times they’d watched it. The rest of the evening was filled with laughter, relaxation, warming up, and delicious taste. These type of moments were their favourite kind and they knew that in the future they could look back on them and smile.

Gabby saw Tori sitting on a bench, whom she recognized from her English class because of her long, black hair, some of which was even covering her face. Gabby excitedly waved her hand to Tori and ran up to her.

“Are you waiting for a bus!?” Gabby asked Tori enthusiastically as she flipped her short blond hair with her hand. Tori was startled by Gabby’s loud voice.

“I’m waiting for the 16!” Gabby continued while smiling, before Tori had a chance to answer. “I always take this bus to get home because it gets me there the fastest! I’m so excited to get home. Today felt like a really long day at school! Especially that English test we had to take! That was hard! How are you finding English? What do you think of our teacher?

Tori felt overwhelmed by all the questions and didn’t even know which one to answer first. She tried to think of which question was asked first, but couldn’t remember.

After waving to someone else she knew, Gabby turned back to Tori and realized the problem.

“Sorry,” she said, a little more calmly this time, “I realize I’ve asked way too many questions for you to answer at once! I just get very excited often and my mind jumps from subject to subject! I also like talking a lot! Let’s start with the first question. Are you waiting for a bus?”

“The 12,” Tori answered quietly.

“Oh, I see! I always take the bus; I love talking to the people on there! Anywhere where there are a lot of people is a good place for me! What about you? Do you like talking to people a lot or do you like spending time by yourself more?”

“The latter. I’m definitely more of an introvert,” Tori replied. Just then, the 16 came around the corner to the bus stop.

“Bye! It was nice talking to you!”, Gabby said as she was walking towards the bus. Tori smiled and waved just as Gabby took her last steps onto the bus.

Word count: 343

It was the coldest of Summers, it was the windiest of Summers.

The cottage waters were calm as could be after a day of long, rough rain. It had rained on the trees, it had rained on the flowers, it had rained on the frogs. After being deprived from rain for a while, the trees had finally received the water they needed and would soon be thriving. All the plants on the land were also going to be growing thanks to the rain . The frogs jumped from tree to tree, from lily pad to lily pad in celebration for the rain they had been long awaiting.

The sunset was settling down after it had taken over the sky just minutes before. Beautiful shades of red, purple, orange, and yellow were fading away as the sun was going down. The canoes were carefully set and attached on the dock as to not float away. After years of use, the canoes were getting scraped, their colour was fading, and they were losing their original shape.  However, they were still in good condition as they were very durable and resilient.

The wind lightly breezed through the trees and slightly moved the water. While the water looked calm, black and empty, it was actually filled with life. Different types of fish, crab, lily pads, and water snakes – these were just a few of the creatures that inhabited the water. Though they were all different species, they lived in peace together.. The day was ending, and the air got colder and colder as the sun set down to reveal darkness.

Underlined 1: parallelism

Underlined 2: imagery

Word count: 264

My worst habit to this day is procrastination. Even though I know I should get it done early and I’ll just regret it if I don’t, I can’t seem to complete a task without putting it off.

The hardest part of getting anything done is starting it. Sometimes the thought of starting something is so stressful and overwhelming that it’s just easier to keep doing something else and leave the task as a problem for our future selves. But the truth is that most of the time, we make it up to be worse in our heads than it actually is and once we finish it, we realize that it wasn’t even that bad in the first place.

Even once you’ve started something, I don’t know why it can be so hard to sit down and finish it all the way through. I think it comes down to how interested you are in what you’re doing. I could sit down and play piano for 6 hours straight feel relaxed the whole time while not even realizing how much time has passed. But as soon as I try to write an essay or study for a science test, I find it difficult to get one sentence down.

Another theory I have is that it’s hard to focus on something when you know that you don’t have to get it done at that exact moment. Sure, it would be ideal and convenient, and if you don’t you will undoubtedly regret it later, but it’s so much easier to just not worry about it for the time being and leave it for later.

Sometimes I think that I’ll never be able to overcome this habit. How will I be able to obtain a job or complete necessary adult tasks or accomplish anything in life if I can’t even answer 6 simple french questions? But I have to think on the positive side. Just because my habits are bad now doesn’t mean they can’t change. I believe that one day, with the right mindset and determination, I’ll be able to get things done early.

word count: 350

wo

A huge problem that will slowly destroy the world if not tackled soon  is climate change. Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have dramatically shrunken, plant and animal ranges have shifted habitats, species are going extinct, trees are flowering sooner, sea level rise is accelerating and there are longer, more intense heat waves.

Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities.  Today’s warming is primarily caused by humans putting too much carbon in the atmosphere, like when we choose to extract and burn coal, oil, and gas, or cut down and burn forests. Human-emitted greenhouse gases are responsible for more than half of Earth’s temperature increase since 1951.

While this is a very talked about and well known issue, there are still politicians who refuse to acknowledge the evidence and deny that climate change exists. This is a major setback in fixing the problem. Denying that it exists won’t make it go away, it’ll just make it harder to overcome.

If we don’t take action soon, there will be enormous negative results. It is estimated that by 2030, crop yields will drop in many places, including North America. By 2040, more species will face extinction, and both flooding and drought will increase. Most coral reefs will disappear. By 2060, more New Yorkers will be dying in extreme coastal storms. Invasive species will spread in Europe, while lack of snow starts to affect the Alps. Coastal communities in New Zealand and Australia will begin to flood from rising seas by the 2080s. By 2090, average temperatures in Africa could be as much as six degrees hotter. And 2100 will be when we’ll face mass extinctions, a dramatic increase in wildfires, dead fish, and limited fresh water to drink.

I could list ways to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle to help reduce climate change but the sad truth is that it won’t do much because so much of it is caused by mass companies. There are just 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions, so unless we take a stand against the companies, we are looking at a catastrophic next few decades.

words count: 349

The books that have impacted me most are the Harry Potter series. They were the first actual novels I read as a kid, and I’ve since read them at least three times through. The Harry Potter series was probably the most exciting, captivating, and enticing series I’ve ever read. They were the first books that made me realize just how enticing a book can actually be and how hard it can be to put books down. I remember picking up the first book and being so intrigued by the story that I must’ve read it in about three days. Even now I could open to any section of any Harry Potter book, read a few lines, and want to keep reading from there even if I’ve skipped the whole rest of the story up until that point. To this day I am in awe of how well written the books are and how well thought out and creative the whole plot is.

After I finished the series, I also learned some interesting facts about the author. JK Rowling was at a rough point in her life before getting published. She lived for years with government assistance as a single mother, was battling depression, and was rejected a dozen times by publishers. To go from that to one of the most successful and widely read authors in the history of the world shows me that no matter how difficult your life seems at the time, it is never too late and you always have the power to change it and start fresh.

The Harry Potter books really demonstrated how powerful books can be and showed me some life lessons as well, such as the value of friendship and bravery, asking for help, and overcoming our pasts.

word count: 295

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton