Just another day at the park

Just another day at the park - well that's where I was headed anyway.  It was Tuesday of the March Break and I had just finished my chores for the day and decided to head out of the house and long board with my cousins to the park to play some ultimate frisbee.  The thing about this day though was that it was the first ride of the season so, I hadn't exactly checked my bearings, truth is I didn't even think about it. I was just happy I was wearing shorts and it was March Break.  Well I don't always make the smartest decisions, that's nothing I shy away from telling people.  And since it was the first ride of the season I decided to take a different route than we usually would have taken since YOLO right?  Well this new route was a hill.  But it was no ordinary hill, see this hill was a hill don't be mistaken but it just didn't turn into a flat grade, it gradually got flat.  So what did this mean, well if you know anything about physics or riding long boards, you get faster as you go down the hill not fast then slow like most hills, this is fast and faster.  Being the leader of the wolf pack, I also decided to go first down the hill.  Well, if you have been paying attention, or good at reading between the lines what happens next ain't so pretty.  You guessed it, I began to speed wobble, which is the closest thing to living on the edge, literally and figuratively.  And you see I'm also not the smartest man, but I sure do know what love is - yes I just quoted Forest Gump.  I decided not to wear a helmet because why not, it was a nice day, and I'm a teenager.  And like any smart person, I was very close to having a seat with the big guy upstairs if things didn't go well.  So, I decided to jump off because I knew if a car turned onto the main road, I would be toasted.  And off I went, tumbling and turning.  It was a garage sale.  I was lucky enough not to hit my head and crawl away only with a broken ankle because I know things could have turned out much worse.  Moral of the story, if you finish your chores early don't leave the house and go hunting for a death wish, take it easy it's the March Break, you're not suppose to be doing those kinds of things at least until exams are coming around.

Got any idea?

It frustrates me sometimes when I see simple ideas making millions of dollars.  I just say to myself, how did I not come up with that?  Literally you say to yourself, how could that person possibly come up with that idea and not myself.  I use the same thing everyday but I guess this person just realized that using the same everyday could be easier and that's exactly what they did.  See like a couple days ago, I saw one of my friends on Facebook post something about a new way to build roads.  Basically, it was like one of those dance games you would play and you would have to hit the square that lit up on the screen with the one on the floor.  Smart idea really because now everything on the road could be seen.  When a deer is on the road, when a person is on the street, street lines wouldn't have to be painted.  The list went on and on why this new approach to building roads would be beneficial.  And I had come up with something similar way back when.  I live near McMaster University and there is one crosswalk that students cross all the time but in the dark it can be nearly impossible to see them.  So I thought to myself wouldn't it be cool if I could come up with something that when students crossed the road a light on the street would brighten up so you could tell something was crossing the road, whether that was a student or some other foreign creature.  I thought about it and basically shut down my own idea because of all the bad things about it.  For one, it would be extremely expensive to do this.  There was no cheap way of installing this concept.  Second was due to our location.  We live in Canada where there is snow.  What would happen when 2 feet of snow would fall on this sensors.  People wouldn't be able to see them, it just didn't seem realistic.  And now I see my idea being put to action years later.  Now of course they are faced with more challenges and have come up with more concepts of how to use the technology, but the fact that I know people are thinking alike gives me a confidence booster because I know sometime down the road one of my billion dollar ideas will come true.

Pram

Prom, maybe the most stressful part of high school, or a close first to say the least.  It's a ripple effect is what it is.  Once that first guy asks that first girl, it seems every week someone seems to asking someone else.  So your left to wonder, what if, what if?  For many guys, it's really who just the quickest to act.  Not every guy has 10 lady friends he is close enough with that he is really able to ask, so you really do have to be quick on your feet.  But at the same time, however, you also have to focus on school and make sure that your mid-term marks are good enough that can get your into your choice of school if you haven't already been accepted like many others including myself.  Really it's just strategy or at least that's how I like to look at it.  See grade 12 is broken up into 4 different parts.  First half of semester 1 is getting back into things and realizing that hey, I'm in grade 12 now, I can now act like those grade 12's did when I was back in grade 9.  The second half of semester 1 is all about making sure you finish all those assignments you've been procrastinating to finish because of the close approaching winter break.  Semester 2, is this real life?  It feels like yesterday when I walked through the halls on my first day, and now I'm here - 5 short months away from graduating.  This is where you have to batten down the hatches and live under a rock for half of which because you have to ensure you have good enough mid-terms marks.  Let's face it, after mid-terms we have pretty much graduated.  Your marks have been sent to school and now all you have to do is wait, and make sure you maintain a certain average if you want to make sure you can stay in your program or maintain a high average so you can get that extra dough from the university when they do accept you.  And then there's the final stretch.  Now that you are finished with school you can focus on prom.  The most stressful part of high school because you want to ask that girl you have been talking to since the first day of high school in Chemistry class.  And you better move quick, because I'm sure you're not the only one thinking of the same strategy.  So what's next?  Well you have until the end of June really to ask a girl, but you have only so much time to ask the girl you want to ask.  So get off that couch and do something with your life as the guy from that Everest College commercials tells you.  In my case, I have a standard to live up to.  Last year I helped out my cousin ask his prom date in a way like no other.  My older brother and two cousins choreographed a , lip synced a song from the Jonas Brothers, and performed it in a jam packed St. Mary foyer.  It was truly one for the books.  So for me, I know none of my friends will do anything even close to that, so I'm in alone.  Only time will tell I suppose what will happen.  The only thing I can do is think and be creative how to ask that girl I first saw in Chemistry class.

Joining the Sisterhood

I am a dishwasher at a Convent.  Say what?  Yes, that's the place where Sisters live.  That's usually what I tend to tell people when they ask where I work.  It's been almost a year now since I have started and it wasn't long ago when a cook and I were talking about the Sisters.  Now you have to realize one thing, there aren't many Sisters left and one thing for sure is that women entering the work force don't have joining the Sisterhood at the top of their list.  So, the cook and I continued to talk.  Side note, she has been working as a cook for over 15 years.  The topic of the chat was how long the Convent would last for.  It's an enormous property to fill and there just aren't enough Sisters to fill it.  I said give it another 15 years or so and this place will just spot empty.  The cook said 25 years.  To amazement I wondered why.  I mean yeah sure, we maybe have 20-25 Sisters come for dinner and there are max. 50 Sisters who live there but, 25 years that had just seemed to short.  In reply she had said well yes, most of them are older (early 60's - late 70's) but they just don't want to leave this planet just yet.  A lot of the Sisters are in good shape.  They do activities by themselves, they stay active but, that alone can't add on another 10 years or so to your life.  And you'd be surprised what joining the Sisterhood can do for you.  She used an example, she pointed to one Sister and said guess how old she is.  Having a grandmother who is of similar "looks" I said mid 80's.  The cook said add 10 years, and you got yourself a deal.  Mid 90's this one was.  I was in disbelief.  The cook had explained that the dyed hair doesn't help in narrowing down the age but, had pointed out something something rather you wouldn't think of.  See when joining the Sisterhood, or at least that's what I like to call it, you have everything looked after.  There isn't much you have to look after.  And that's the main thing.  There's no stress in their lives.  Now back then while teaching or nursing, it was probably stressful, but aside from that it was pretty easy going - say your prayers morning and evening and you got yourself a spot beside the big man upstairs.  And I agree with the cook when she says that they live so long because they haven't a had a very hard life, no children to worry about, not to worry about paying bills or making sure food will be on the table.  The Church takes good care of you.  So if you're wondering about adding a couple of years to your life, it's never to late to join the Brotherhood or Sisterhood.  **This message was brought to you by the Catholic Church**.  I'm just joking around, but hey someone has got to do some advertising or else, they won't be a Convent in the future who knows!

Uber

Chicago is one of the lucky 290 cities to have adpoted Uber.  If you are unaware of Uber, it is essentially a taxi that you order and pay with your smartphone.  Only members can order an Uber that can be as small as a Prius or as big as a Denali.  All you do is order the size of car you want, within minutes your Uber will pick you up and then your credit card is billed.  My brother uses it almost all the time to get to point A to point B.  It's cheaper than owning a car and actually using a taxi.  Uber is the future or at least that's what the goal is, taking an Uber to be cheaper than owning a car.  Uber is so successful that it revenues in its 50 countries are growing exponentially every year.  The average number of weekly trips was around 150, 000 in 2014 and has a weekly user-base of 70, 000 in Chicago.  Imagine what it would be like in San Fran or NYC.  And to become an Uber driver is much easier and cheaper than a taxi driver.  For example, medallions in NYC can go for $1 MILLION each.  For an Uber driver, you just have to certify with their process which is much less strenuous.  So, if you're ever looking for a summer job or job in general consider becoming an Uber driver, since there is now talk that Hamilton might be the next to adopt Uber.  And that's a serious statement, Uber drivers make on average $80, 000 a year compared to the taxi driver who makes $30, 000.  Mind blowing really.

This Weather Doe

Don't get me wrong, I love winter.  Skiing, hockey, the snow covered trees.  I don't fully understand why people don't like it.  Pretty sure it's the cold weather that leads everyone to being in a grumpy mood but, hey that's Canada for you.  But I will also admit that enough is enough.  I was in Chicago visiting my brother over the March Break and the weather couldn't have been better.  Last time I had visited him was back before the Christmas break with my siblings, this time was with my parents.  Even though I maybe didn't have as much fun, no let's get that straight, even though I didn't have as much fun with my 4 other older siblings, the weather made up for it.  One day it was a high of 25 with clear skis and nothing but the sun.  I was wearing shorts.  And to come back to this weather is just depressing.  I want to get going with my summer sports like ultimate frisbee, tennis and golf.  I can now understand how my brother can live in California.  My brother and two of my close cousins who we have grown up with closely, visited him last year after we finished exams.  We all pretty much had a full week of break until second semester classes were going to start up.  We were wearing shorts there too.  And back in grade 9.  I can still remember the feeling.  I had broken my ankle the Tuesday of the March Break and had been hospitalized for a week.  Coming out of the hospital was literally like I had been reborn.  After a week of no showering, the stench is pretty unbearable but, when I came out of that hospital and there was sun and a nice breeze, it couldn't get much better than that, excluding the fact I had a broken ankle and was high on T4's.  Just knowing what it feels like to take a break from the cold weather and wear some summer outfits is nice.  The bad part is when reality hits and you come home to still having to wear a winter coat at the end of March.  Enough is enough, bring on the sunshine and golf tanlines.

Am I Crazy?

After years as a Windows user, I purchased a Macbook Retina 15" a couple of months ago *Note it's a $3000+ laptop that I got for $2000, it was too good of a deal to turn down since I plan to have this beast until I graduate.  After using it for the first couple of weeks, I asked myself why do people buy MacBook Pro retinas, given their outrageous price.  To this day, I can say with confidence that, to me, the price is worth it.  The Retina display is SO MUCH nicer than any other screen I've used.  Looking at it hours a day makes a big difference.  When I switch back to a Windows PC I find myself messing with the brightness/contrast until I realize it's just not going to look like a Retina display.  Most aspects of use are just...better. Not night and day better, but better.  The keyboard is crisp, the multi-touch pad makes lots of little tasks much easier, the OS is, to me, more responsive and intuitive than Windows. And keep in mind I used Windows PCs for years prior to making this switch a couple of months ago.  The battery lasts a good 8-10 hours.  There's certainly more things I could mention, but my main point is that I, and I consider myself pretty frugal, think the Macbook is well worth it. For me.

Summer Living

Being this my last summer I hope to have an enjoyable one.  Since I was 10 I started caddying at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club.  I now reside during my summers working backshop at Copetown Woods Golf Club but, this will be my last summer of having time for myself - since I hope to have co-op terms while in university - so I want to be sure I spend it well.  Of course I will still have to earn some money over the summer but, I didn't want it consumed with me working out at the golf course.  Ironically, I love being out there, being outdoors and not stuck inside working at a supermarket or fast food restaurant.  Breathing the fresh air, spending it somewhere I enjoy actually being.  That's the difference between a summer job and counting down the days until school starts back up.  For this summer however, I have decided to take matters into my own hands. Me and a couple of friends from school are jobless this summer, so we needed to come up with something that would keep us all out of trouble.  And what did we come up with - an edging company.  At first we thought why not try and compete with the other guys and cut grass.  Well that idea quickly died out.  First of all, there are way too many of them out there.  We wanted to copy cat College Pro Painters but, we were in no way capable of that.  So we thought, what could we do that would allow us to be outside.  Our minds then went to joining a landscaping company but, like I said before I didn't want my days to be full of work.  We want to work on our own terms and most importantly at our own time.  Finally we came up with the idea of edging.  Just edging.  Sounds a bit stupid, I'll be honest.  Usually if you're paying someone to cut your lawn you're looking at around $30-$50.  But a lot of people aren't up to paying that much.  So, we want to provide a solution to that - subtract the lawn mowing and provide the good looks.  An edged lawn looks much better than one that is cut with sideburns.  It's much more appealing to the eyes.  The plan is to charge $5-$10 per lawn and just edge the perimeter.  If it works out, we'll be raking in some cash and will be each other's boss, if not we'll have the rest of the summer to worry about it!

LatchMyLanyard

What’s the best way to advertise your product?  Well, that’s what I have been trying to figure out this past week.  I recently entered an entrepreneurial competition held by the province.  It encourages students to create a 2 minute video pitching their idea.  The 20 students who get chosen to move on to the next round are based on 40% online voting and 60% from judges.  Obviously this is a big chunk that is based on the entrepreneur’s ability to showcase his/her idea.  So, I’ve been thinking what is the best way?  There’s the classic mass email you send to your friends and family but, how do you reach pass that.  I have made a Facebook page, Twitter account, even Instagram.  It’s hard to spread the word when you’re only 1 single person.  So, what is the best way then?  As an entrepreneur you have to resourceful and the best way to be that is to use Google.  I must say Google has a lot to offer.  You have to reach out to influential people to endorse your product and you have to find committed groups on the internet who are willing to help you out.  That’s exactly what I did.  I wrote to Marnie Jadon at the board office and she has agreed to post on behalf of myself and a couple of others who have entered the contest in the board.  I suppose that’s pretty close to an endorsement.  Regarding finding a group that can vote for you, I am part of an alumni group from my national science fair days.  The group has around 800 people in the group and the truth is I was surprised at the feedback.  I had a couple of people in mind who I thought would respond but, when I had people who wore different year alumni I was greatly appreciative.  So if you’re ever wondering how to promote a product, don’t be afraid to ask.  You will be surprised and your faith in humanity will be restored. 

Take a peek 

http://www.makeyourpitch.ca/entry/21882615-Latch-My-Lanyard?offset=0&sort=upload%20DESC&q=latch%20my%20lanyard&channel=26949

Rolllll Up the Rim To Win

This week has been a good week:  I had my first ultimate clinic with a response of about 40 students which is nuts especially since it was in the morning and I won a $100 gift card from Tim Horton’s Roll Up the Rim.  It was quite an experience – wining the gift card of course.  I was on my spare at the end of the day and I had just finished my XL French Vanilla with whip cream that was free thanks to a Roll Up I had previously won.  And I’m not like the usual Roll Up the Rimmer.  I first roll up for the big prize because if I win something from that, I wouldn’t need a free donut or dark roast coffee.  So after being disappointed for the x^th time, I rolled up the small prize roll up only to find out I won a $100 gift card.  After that moment, all hell broke loose.  I stood up in the library and screamed a nice “WOOOHOOO” with a side of a fist-pump.  I went around to every single student in the library and gave them a high-five including the librarians who then pointed at exit door.  As I continued my celebration in the hallways, numerous teachers came out and asked what had just happened.  I was too hyped up and just showed the Rolled up cup.  So for now on, don’t roll up the grand prize first and get your hopes down, roll up the small one, win a prize, then get your hopes down.  The feeling is much better.  All I can say it will definitely be an experience I will never forget.

Badminton is the coolest high school sport. True or False

I’m not sure what it is but, all I seem to play are the sports that in grade 9 didn't exist and now are the ones that gets the most people coming out to tryouts.  Back in grade 9 our badminton team was a walk-on sport, whoever wanted to go and miss a day of school could.  And ever since grade 10, our badminton team now cuts more people than our boys hockey team and girls soccer team.  I have had four older siblings graduate from St. Marys and every year they've played badminton it has been a sport that most people didn't even know existed.  I suppose I have to give it to my dad who has really committed to being the team coach.  Has he ever played badminton competitively?  No, but with his engineering background, he can really teach any sport in terms of mechanics.  He has coached the badminton team ever since I was in grade 7 and has grown it into a respectable sport.  Last year, my partner and I came second in men’s double at the board championships’ behind my brother and his partner.  They went onto OFSAA but, that’s where you start playing kids who play in clubs and have been playing since they were smaller than the net.  I enjoy playing the sports that aren't as popular as the most popular ones because they are the most fun.  Not to knock hockey which I love just as much but, watching my friends who play rep hockey, volleyball or, soccer try and play badminton and watch them excel at a sport they thought they would have never even considered playing in high school is a good feeling.

Ultimate what...

Two years ago, my school started an ultimate frisbee team.  Actually it was my brother and I after years of exposure of our older brothers playing intramural ultimate frisbee at university.  And my older brothers were actually exposed to ultimate frisbee thanks to my dad who use to teach it back at St. Mary’s – I can still remember walking the halls of St. Mary’s when I was just in JK.  Anyways, our ultimate team two years ago did exceptionally well for our first team in over a decade.  I think the big thing about ultimate frisbee is that it’s a sport that a lot of kids find fun because for one:  it’s a co-ed sport, it’s crazy competitive and, most kids who play are seniors who want to play a sport that is different from the usual sports that everyone at the school plays.  Ultimate frisbee has become unbelievable popular at my school and now have two teams playing mostly due to the fact that ultimate frisbee is now an OFSAA sport.  Yes, you can win an OFSAA championship with ultimate frisbee and with the stakes so high, I have acquired some MAC ultimate players.  Not sure what it is but, I have become so obsessed with ultimate frisbee from watching Youtube tutorials and highlights to playing it on my spare.  I think my love and passion for the game is also why so many people decide to play.  Along with my smooth talking, I have convinced people from all grades and sports to play.  Who would have thought a grade 9 track runner or grade 12 volleyball player would be such natural ultimate frisbee players?  In the meantime, all I can do is convince more people to play and practice more to snag that OFSAA title.

Where have the last 4 years gone, and where will I be in the next 4 years?

Grade 12 is definitely the most stressful of all grades.  Grade 9 was getting to know the people, grade 10 was all about having fun with friends, grade 11 was a reminder that we are still in school and need to start batting down the hatches, and grade 12…well it’s the most stressful of them all.  You have to start thinking about what you want to do with your life and with this on your mind stay focused on your classes.  With all this stress do we really make the best decision we can on choosing a post-secondary institution.  Why don’t more of us choose a school out west or down south?  The majority of us who do stray away that far from home are most likely on a scholarship anyways.  Maybe you’re not ready to venture too far away from your loving parents, or maybe the school of your dreams just happens to be right around the corner from your house.  There are lots of factors that will either attract or repel one from a school.  I can imagine a Toronto student applying would like to go to a university that is relatively large in size and a student who was on student government all throughout high school wouldn’t mind a school with lots of school spirit and a girl who liked having lots of boyfriends would like a school with lots of cute boys, who knows?  There are too many factors to count.  The reason for this is last year when I travelled to California and saw Stanford.  I have never seen a school so attractive.  I mean if you have the grades why not shoot for the moon and apply.  I think too many of us narrow our preferences to the point we just think of a school that is within 5 hours of our home.  I guess whichever one you choose, you better like it because the next four or so years this will be your home away home.  

It's much easier watching a movie than it is reading a book!

I’ll be honest I have watched a good amount of movies in my day.  And I’m not the one to stream it either.  1080p and nothing less is pretty much my moto.  So you could say that I know the difference between a good movie and a not so good movie.  There are heartwarming movies that make you feel good about yourself (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty).  There are movies that are hilarious and not one second passes where you don’t have a smile on your face (22 Jump Street).  Movies that have you on the edge of seat wondering, what the dickens just happened (Gone Girl).  The ones that take place in history with a cool plotline (The Imitation Game).  And then there are movies you have to bring up to your friends because they were just so good (Interstellar).  Every movie mentioned I enjoyed and would watch again but, would I react the same way.  With The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, I’m always going to feel good about myself and make we want to go do something.  22 Jump Street is a movie to watch with the boys and have a good time with, but if I were to watch it again, I probably wouldn’t laugh the same way I did when I first watched it.  Gone Girl was just a weird movie.  That’s really all I have to say about that one.  Its main purpose was just to make you think one thing and then by the end of the movie you’re thinking of all the other 100 things that they maybe want you to think.  Benedict Cumberbatch is at the moment, my favourite character.  I loved him in the Shylock series and he was brilliant in The Imitation Game.  And this movie made me want to become an astronaut.  I still do and it is only because of this movie I want to.  Space exploration would definitely be one of the coolest things to do.  And the fact of how small we are in comparison to everything is truly just mind-boggling.  My aspirations for when I retire to not to travel the world, but space just like Matthew McConaughey.  

The Leafs this year are entering an early Fall

My Leafs.  My Toronto Maple Leafs.  Who really knows what’s going on in the change room and on the ice for that matter?  Year after year, Leaf fans are disappointed again coming up short in the playoffs.  I for one haven’t watched the Leafs play since early January.  Right around when Carlisle got fired, I was off the bandwagon.  You have to wonder if all Leaf fans are like this, this just give up and wait patiently until the next season when some new management, coaching staff or players join the club.  Basically you pray the new guy the team hired can get the team to playoffs.  At this point, some people just might think the team purposely losses just so they’re that one spot closes to getting the number one pick.  I said to one of my fellow Leaf fans – my teacher – “did you see the game last night…what a heartbreaking win”.  That’s how I try to look at it because I want the Leafs to come in last place and get first round pick so we can have some hope to start off the season.  It’s especially hard to cheer for the home team when the team itself has thrown in their jersey for the season.  Maybe wearing a Leafs jersey backwards at a game of refusing to purchase Maple Leaf merchandise would be a better way of showing disappointment.  Buying a $200 jersey and throwing it onto the ice simply provides someone with a free jersey.  In the meantime, at least we have our Raptors to fall back on.  

What is Facebook?

What is Facebook?  It doesn't seem like a big thing anymore but, quite recently I'm giving them a big thumbs up.  I can remember when I first got Facebook, it must have been back in grade 4 or so.  See things were different back then, you would use MSN and not Facebook Messenger.  A good majority of my friends don't even have Facebook installed on their phones anymore.  Not sure why, we all spent hours on it back in elementary school.  I guess Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram all have somewhat taken over Facebook.  See, Snapchat is like Facebook's Stickered app, you can send a "selfie" to a friend or multiple ones.  Twitter is similar to Facebook in the sense it is niche to just posting statuses, and Instagram is parallel to just posting pictures.  So I guess you could say that all of these big social networking apps saw Facebook's individual purposes and decided to focus down on just one.  What happened to Facebook Messenger?  Hangouts and iMessage were born.  Bringing this to a point I have broken my phone and at the moment using my brothers locked U.S. phone.  This means I can't just transfer my SIM card to his.  In order to communicate I must use FB Messenger.  And this is when it starts to get good.  See I suppose the board has decided to ban Facebook which I believe should be reversed.  Banning Facebook has made such an inconvenience for me.  My family and friends have Facebook Messenger so I can only communicate with them through that, but not at school.  I thank FB Messenger because it is acting as the main conduit to communicate.  Unfortunately, I am left frustrated becasue I am still unable to use it wherever with complimentary WiFi.

What's the difference?

I have recently filled out my subsequent application form for Waterloo and one of the questions was a) have you taken a course outside of regular day school and b) what was the purpose of taking it outside of day school.  In the last couple of weeks, it has become a habit of mine to read a blog written by a prof. at Waterloo who administers the subsequent application form process.  In it, he says they look down upon any student who takes a summer school course.  And I thought this would was completely unfair.  I know from my own experience, it was to lighten my load in my grade 12 year, so I could especially focus on the more math and science focused classes and to be able to take electives like the one currently in.  However, Waterloo believes that all of their applicants should be taking their classes during regular school hours because summer school is notoriously known for being easier.  This is very untrue.  My friends took summer school English in class.  Their teacher had a PhD in Literature and was an English prof. at Harvard for 10 years.  It is a very debatable topic one I find to be just as debatable as school uniforms vs. non school uniforms.  There are very good points for each side, but what I believe the university is judging unfairly is why they are down grading their applicants who take summer courses.  For students who receive a higher grade in summer school than what they would achieve from their own school offered course, should students who have tutors then not also be deducted who take school regular hours.  In both cases, the student is receiving a higher mark than they normally get in the regular school offered course.  This is what I find to be debatable so debatable I started a thread on reddit!  

D.R.E.A.M.S.

It’s my second week back from the Dominican Republic.  Me and group from school went down to the Mountains of the DR…well I guess up, depends on how you want to look at it to help build homes.  The program, D.R.E.A.M.S., (Dominican Republic Education and Medical Supplies) is in its 16^th year and has built close to 50 homes.  Having four older siblings who have recently gone on the trip, I had a good idea of what to expect:  poverty just about everywhere, no electricity, no running water, etc…just about everything you would expect from a developing country.  And the school presentations, every year the students from the trip go around to feeder schools and tell about their experience.  I knew the program so well that I was even asked to go and present to one school, but tell the experience from a point of view of someone who is looking forward to going on DREAMS.  Now that I have gone on it for myself, I understand how eye-opening the trip truly is…sounds cliché, I know.  I mean everyone has that moment when you say “wow, this is really life changing for me”.  I was waiting for that moment all week, but it didn’t occur to me until I left the village I was in.  Usually when the group leaves, the girls are crying and the kids are chasing after the truck waving goodbye.  However, when I left something caught my eye.  There were three young boys, all around the age of 10.  They were your typical 10 year old boy.  They were 100% all boy.  They had been with us every day at the work site and so after the week, me and a couple of the guys gave our work glasses away to them.  These were tented glasses, so they looked like sunglasses more than anything and when we were leaving I saw one of the boys wiping away tears from his eyes, trying to hide the fact that he was crying.  That was my life changing moment.  After I had thought about it, it came to me, what these kids will do after we leave.  They would continue their regular schedule, which didn’t include too much since they didn’t have much to do.  And that’s when it hit me, that these kids will miss us more than we will miss them.  We offer so little of our little time and everyone there is so appreciative.  It will definitely be an experience to remember.

Hockey: A Game You Will Never Perfect

I have played hockey ever since I can remember.  I enjoy playing hockey.  What some may find questionable is that I find it to be a stress-reliever, most of the time.  My team has always done well, one year we even won provincials.  But I’m not sure what happened this year.  So far our record is as bad as the Leafs.  We have about 4 wins under our belt with the rest with losses hanging on.  Individually we have an alright team, nothing that will win the cup, but good enough for us to have more than 4 wins.  I bet my boot straps that it’s our team chemistry.  In past year, my uncles were the coaches and knew who to pick a team that could perform together as a team.  I think my coach this year, tried to pull a “Money Ball”.  No matter what kind of drill we do at practice or game plan we have, we just can’t execute.  In my mind that this would be my last year of hockey, I decided to step up to the plate and take on a leadership role.  Although knowing only 1 person on the team, I knew that it was necessary to do this for the team.  I have taken on the leadership role at my school so I have some level of knowledge on how to do this sort of thing.  It was really difficult for me to do, especially since some of my team mates I have never seen in the league before.  It was the first time I have ever had to do this, since when growing up I grew up with the knowing majority in the league, and in the past years switching leagues and having my uncles as coaches.  Am I happy and proud of myself doing this?  Absolutely, because now I know what I am capable of, how to tackle difficult situations, and we are now undefeated in the playoffs!

Who's Your Competition?

Computer Science is taking over society.  Literally.  If you can code, you can get a job.  And there are thousands of those jobs being filled every day.  But like most people, including myself, they ponder over how to get there – that is – how to snag a spot in Silicon Valley.  When my brother was applying for co-op positions a couple years back, he decided to shoot for the moon and apply for an internship down in Palo Alto, California, home of Facebook.  He was a mediocre student, nothing really to his name.  Surprisingly, he snagged that one spot from over 130 applicants that was narrowed from over 1000.  Did they make a mistake? Is this really happening?  Why would he get that position?  I blame it on Waterloo.  What is unique about Waterloo is that it is maybe the most unattractive university, yet it attracts thousands from around the globe.  Yes, they are known for their engineering, but what they now are being known for is there well-respected co-op program.  Truly, Waterloo blows other schools out of the water in terms of co-op.  UofT, a brother to Waterloo, has just as good as a program for engineering and better grad program, but can’t even kneel down to Waterloo in terms of co-op.  What tech companies want nowadays are people who can learn on the spot and be able to produce.  They don’t care if you studied at Harvard or Caltech, they care if you have had experience in the field and know that you can handle the pressure.  And that is exactly what Waterloo offers, opportunities in the field, so that when their students graduate they already have an advantage.  So this is where I am left sitting…typing… knowing what I have to do in order to reach Silicon Valley, but stuck in traffic waiting for that exit so I can reach my destination.