Work hard, reap the rewards.

I have had one of the best days of my life today. Well, best afternoon to be more precise! Today I found out something so exciting that made me jump up and down and smile non-stop for hours. My friend told me he’d seen another piece of my writing published in the New Zealand Herald College Herald!!! At first I was really confused and thought he just meant the last piece I had published, but then he was like “the one about your Grandma” and instantly I knew he wasn’t joking because how would he have known? After our year 11 and 12 class plays (which were great by the way) I stopped by the supermarket with mum on the way home and bought a copy of today’s Herald and this months issue of Girlfriend magazine which I’d been told I was going to be in (exciting coz I actually got to write my own story). I told mum that if I become successful in Journalism it’ll probably become quite costly for her haha.

Sure enough, I opened the herald and found this:

 
This has been particularly exciting for me as Breast Cancer is something so close to me as I’ve lost my Grandmother and currently have a very close (and young) relative battling it. I’m trying to help raise awareness and for that to be in the New Zealand Herald just meant so much.

Secondly, I was super stoked to firstly just be in the same issues as Katy Perry! hahaha, that sounds ridiculous, but I think she’s amazing.

I opened it up and saw my piece and it looks so beautiful and so bright and colourful I couldn’t have been more pleased.

I also got some part-time work in the holidays at the local Newspaper!!!! EXCITEMENT!!

Not bad for a days work, eh?

In other news…

My mother bought the most incredible… amazing… beautiful contraption I’ve ever seen in my life.

It is funky and awesome and retro and rides like a dream! I took it for a 40 minute bike ride the day mum got it and it was amazing. It was the best exercise I’d had in ages because I was so content and happy and relaxed. I was just taking my time, enjoying the sunshine, watching people garden, walk the dogs, little kids play hide and seek as well as enjoying the beautiful smells of spring and fresh flowers blooming. Nothing could ever compare to the happiness I felt during that ride. In my previous blog I talked about ways to make exercise fun and I think this new bike may just be my spring and summertime love. I’m selling my scooter (because I never use it) and will by my own vintage bicycle for myself. If you think biking is lame, then quite frankly YOU’RE the lame one. It is a great form of exercise, fast-paced and extremely invigorating. Be thankful for helmets as well because those things could save your life. NEVER cycle without one. Just read this post on Kelly’s blog to hear exactly WHY wearing helmets is so important.

Tomorrow afternoon I’ll probably take it for a bike ride after school, a long one and I’ll just cruise along and enjoy myself

Inexperience + Pride= Shame

The Ski Trip at Mount Ruapehu was filled with funny stories of embarrassing crashes, battle scars and wet clothing. My own particular Tale Of Humiliation was quite a funny one that cracked a smile on even the most humourless of people.

Being the inexperienced skier that I am, I stupidly wound up in the “Next Step” group for my ski lesson. There were three groups: Beginners (self-explanatory), Next Step (for those who have skied before and are ready to take things further) and Explorers (experienced skiers and snowboarders). Because I’ve skied before- once before, five years ago- I was put into the Next Step group. Right away I knew I was out of my league, firstly I couldn’t remember how to even get my skis on, and then once I had that sorted I lost control of my skis (because I couldn’t remember how to stop) on flat snow and took out some poor innocent snowboarder in the line for the chair lifts. I apologised profusely, and, bless his heart, he offered me a hand up and once I was upright I quickly proceeded to slide forward and fall over again. I sat there feeling disheartened and in despair because I knew I should be back in the beginners class, but stupid me, I had too much pride to turn around and head back down to Happy Valley. After another bout of profuse apologies, the nice snowboarder offered me a hand a second time and I took it but at the same time grumbled “thanks, I’ll probably just fall over again though…”

I managed to get to the chair lifts somehow and head on up the mountain to our group lesson. The further the chair lift went, the more I regretted not heading back down to Happy Valley because I realised just how far away I was at that point. The chair lift ride took quite a while, four or five minutes probably and it began to dawn on me that I’d managed to successfully get ON the chair lift, now the next problem was getting OFF it. The fear in my chest rose and I started to formulate a game plan as the little foot-high slope that you slide off the chair lift and down came into view. I managed to get off it without hurting anyone and slid over to the rest of the group and after that I felt my confidence start to come back. It was a short lived feeling though.

The ski instructor came over to us and introduced himself, he asked us to all introduce ourselves as well and then said we were going to ski to the top of quite a small slope that was just behind us so he could get us to show him how good we were. That’s when the next problem presented itself- I couldn’t move. It was quite funny going from being unable to stop on a flat slope to being unable to get moving. The rest of the group trudged onwards whilst I was left there flailing around unsuccessfully until the instructor grabbed my arm and dragged me over to the rope tow. I was pulled up to the top of the slope along with the rest of the group and the instructor followed. He said he wanted us to zig-zag down the slope, and he went first to demonstrate. The familiar feeling of horror returned because I had no idea how to do that and it only got worse as I watched my group do it with ease, one by one. I waited until the end because I wanted to put off my turn for as long as possible, but then my turn came and I knew I was going to embarrass myself.

I set off, obviously with the best of intentions, and wound up HOONING down the mountain at high speed in a straight line and was horrified when I skied straight past the rest of the group and remembered I didn’t know how to stop. In an effort to “zig-zag” I fell over on my side and did a somersault for a few metres before coming to a grinding halt. I felt my face go red with embarrassment and I looked up back at the group to see them all staring at me, “not exactly the most graceful landing!” I said whole-heartedly in an effort to regain some of my dignity. No such luck. I can’t remember how but I ended up back with the group (they may have skied over to me), and then the ski instructor introduced me to another ski instructor whose name I couldn’t pronounce or remember, and insisted on how great she was and said he thought I’d be better off with her. I gratefully accepted a position in her ski class as I couldn’t bear anymore shame in front of my current group.

I went off with the new instructor and watched my old group ski off to the distance to take on Rocky Garden and I was instantly grateful that I didn’t continue on with them.
It was then that I realised that I was now in a beginner’s class with seven and eight year olds… Great. I felt even MORE embarrassed at the drills we were made to do, but it did feel good being the best in the group and I managed to pick everything up quite quickly. Through the embarrassment of being in a group with such a young general age, I actually learnt a lot and when it came time to catch up with my initial group, I was able to do most of what they could! So thank you, ski-instructor whose name I can’t remember or pronounce, despite the humiliation it was very worthwhile.

Needless to say, I still wiped out at every corner of Rocky Garden on the way down to Happy Valley, but I’m sure my wipe-outs would’ve been far worse without the lesson I participated in, no matter how shameful it was

Just Write Recap Part 2

Sunday morning was harrrrd to rise from… The combination of two very very late night for me followed by an action packed day was getting to me. Nevertheless we needed to check out at 8.45am so I got up and moving. Showered, had breakfast and packed my bags. Leaving my favourite face-wash in the bathroom accidently on the way
We headed to Global Focus Aotearoa after checking out to do some further research for our podcasts and to finish writing them.

The view from Capital House when we were leaving was pretty cool.

Upon leaving we stopped to have a group photo.

Once we’d written our podcasts some more we went into a conference room to have a workshop on “Eating The Media Lunch” which was all about what to expect when you flick on the news or open a newspaper. After that we went to Access Radio to record our podcasts!

 
We got a tour of the radio station and taught about what everything is and how it works.

My group were really really nervous but it went surprisingly well. After that we headed to civic centre for lunch!

We had a feast and then decided to take one final group photo before heading back to Global Focus.

Back at Global Focus we had a journalist come and speak to us about their journey to success and things to consider when going into the industry. It was really really thought provoking and enjoyable. At that point it was just about time for two of the group to head to the airport to catch their flights back home. We went through some goodbyes and then they were on their way and we got to talking about potential topics to write about and publishing opportunities. Before long it was time to head to the airport.

I was really nervous about flying home and my flights were both delayed for quite a long time that lead to some stress, but in the end I got home safely

It was an awesome weekend and an amazing opportunity that I was STOKED to get. I’m off on my P.E Ski Trip now so another 3 days without blogging. Enjoy the rest of the week!

xoxo