1 word, 6 letters, endless meanings : FRIEND.

My imaginary friend, is not so imaginary, she really is real. Sure, she's not visible to everyone, but that's only because she moves so swiftly, and stealthy that to the naked eye she's almost impossible to see. If you haven't already uncovered, my best friend is a ninja. Shhhh.... keep it on the down low though, we wouldn't want to unveil her top-secret missions. Her life is similar to Hannah Montana, minus the wig, screaming fans, and stardom. She lives a secluded life.

Just a normal girl, who resembles myself, a bit stretched out and twisted depending on the present conditions of the weather. She declines in size as I draw nearer towards her profile, and grows taller as I step back. She is timid, and shy but can make a silence worth a thousand words. Listening to her can be the wisest decision, and she can make any given moment entertaining by making innovative puppet shapes on the wall.

No name she has, so I call her friend. A simple, kind word that describes her in six letters. I have to admit that she is a bit of a copycat; everything I do she mimics. I take it as a form of flattery and accept the fact that she mirrors my actions. I skip, she skips. I wave, she waves. I dance, she dances. I speak, she listens. Needless to say, step by step, she's beside me, for support and encouragement.

By day, she appears within the blinding beams of sunlight, always lagging on my side. I can always depend on her, regardless if she does not appear at first. She will always surface at some point, prepared to listen to my drawbacks with sympathy. She keeps herself hidden in the dark, and is only vulnerable when the sun peaks out of the grey puffs of cloud hiding it. The light casts amongst her silhouette in the spotlight.

The sky encloses, and releases a booming roar. Thunderstorms are her main weakness, and she instantly quivers in sight of the heavy, black clouds, and flees my company. Where she goes, I don’t know. Many do not perceive her as a result of her slyness. She disintegrates into the air, and is swallowed by the night. Her identity is kept unclassified to many, but to me a friend.

She is my shadow, and she is gone...

Tick. Tock.

Time. As I write seconds that are turning into minutes are passing. As you read this, the clock is slowly ticking, but passing rapidly. Everything we do consumes time. The minutes add up, and before we know it our once naïve childhoods that felt like yesterday have disappeared, while we are soon starting our journey off into intimidating high school. I look back and wonder where the years have gone.

Distinct memories flood my mind from when I was just a mere toddler. From my first day of school to my 6^th circus themed birthday party. Chaotic, yet vividly clear in my mind. I remember having contests to see who could collect the most chestnuts from the tree in the autumn, being lugged around in a wagon, and being resistant to only watch unicorn themed movies. Yes, odd recollections, however I miss those days. I miss people not judging you by what you wear or look like, but rather the toy you had. The feeling you felt when you just learned how to ride a two wheeler by yourself, and being tucked in early at night and waking up at the earliest hours of the morning as a fiery ball brimmed of energy.

School was simple and was composed of colouring rainbow-filled pictures and straightforward equations like 7+8=?. Dress up was always part of my day, needless to say also was watching Art Attack, and creating imaginative formations on Lite Brite. The littlest things made me satisfied, like swinging on the schoolyard swing, or making enchanted castles out of Popsicle sticks. Everything was easygoing and untroubled, as if I had no care in the world or what it would soon become. All these things contribute to the fact that I would absolutely desire to travel back to my childhood for a day. Sure I would doubtingly love to dismiss many of the rueful regrets I hold, but that’s life. We all experience mistakes, but we look past them and gain mental notes to keep track of for future reference.

It won’t be long until all these memories disappear, until the past fades away in my growing mind, leaving only regrets behind. The world is constantly turning and spinning, as days turn into years, and years into decades. As it’s becoming more and more complex I sit and wonder where the simpler days have gone. Time has taken them away.

classified as SUPER.

Each of us has a secret fantasy, to be anything we have ever wanted to be, a SUPERHERO. Sure we all have experienced this dream, all least once. Wished that one day we could have the power of the incredible Hulk, the feeling of swinging from city skyscrapers like Spiderman, or receiving the famous skylight to the call of our destiny.

Each superhero has something unique about them, whether it’s the ability to fly, super strength, or just their presence when they swoop in just in time to save the day. One thing in common with most of them, is that one of their most sacred things, is their identity. It’s the one thing they value most, to keep a secret.

It puzzles me as to what abnormal power I would like to inherit if I were a superhero. There are several, each with various purposes and justifications. Such things like flying, reading minds, traveling back in time, and a great deal more. As humans we have created many contraptions, hoping one day that we could eventually fly. Sure, we have airplanes, but we don’t get to actually enjoy the experience as we are sitting in uncomfortable seats, getting rather annoyed by the crying baby behind us, and glimpsing our watches every 10 minutes counting down the dreadful hours . It would be beyond extraordinary to leap up towards the cloudless sky, going places further than our imagination.

Mind Reading. Not only would this be a huge advantage against your opponent, but it would go far in life as well. You would be able to know so much, from grasping what move your opponent will strike next, answers, or thoughts that just happen to be running through individual’s minds. If a citizen is in need of aid, you can hear their thoughts for help. The only downside of this, is the many chaotic noises you would pick up from peoples’ judgements, that once all combined, would get utterly annoying. A system would be needed to figure out how to block the unnecessary and unwanted views.

Then there’s time travel. How many times have you wished you could simply redo something at your best effort, or take back many of the guilty regrets you retain? With time travel you can re encounter the past, making the foreseeable future brighter. You would be capable to journey to a great extent back in history as well as the distant future. You could save many citizens warning them about near disasters and defeat villains by traveling back in time, in case you mess up.

We all want to be super. The dictionary defines a superhero as a benevolent fictional character, with superhuman powers, such as superman. In my opinion all superheros’ are not fictional. They can be people as simple as you and me. Whether it’s someone working at a homeless shelter, going to build wells in Africa, or helping those in need. So, maybe we all can’t fly, or lift the weight of a car on our shoulders, we don’t need powers to be super, we need self-power that will drive us to do wonders that benefit others positively.

SHOES? let's get some shoes.

There is a green monster that exists in all of us. It can make us feel envious and resentful. Jealousy can basically destroy our self-esteem, and confidence. I myself am a victim.

There are so many people I would love to be for a day, that its hard to choose just one. I know most people for this post would choose someone like a famous athlete, or a rich celebrity. Well, I choose Harry Potter. There are so many reasons as to why I would incredibly enjoy being Harry Potter for a day. Firstly, Harry is a wizard, and therefore has magical powers. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if I were able to say wingardium leviosa with a flick of the wand, to see something hover in mid air before my eyes? I would get to talk in a truly amazing British accent, as well as have a giant for a friend (Hagrid). My owl would send me secret packages containing things like an invisible cloak, which I would use to sneak around the corridors of Hogwarts after curfew.

The day would be jammed packed with adventure. First, I would probably start to feel pain within my scar, giving me warning that he who shall not be named was nearby. I would proceed to head off to the quidditch game, and of course beat Slitherin by catching the briskly moving golden snitch. A victory party would follow this in the Gryffindor lounge; with assorted magic sweets and chocolate frogs to snack on. I would discover that the new dark arts professor was acting unknowingly suspicious, followed by a visit to Hagrid; only to find out he had some sort of new mythical creature as a pet. On my way back to Hogwarts we would get stopped by a pack of dementors, but Ron, Hermione and I would successfully scare them away by a series of advanced dark magic spells. The sky would turn a murky grey colour that would make me revaluate my whereabouts. We would hear faint noises coming from the forbidden forest. Curious, we saunter towards the entrance ignoring the rules. We encounter a unicorn, as well as other various abnormal creatures. We see a hippogriff, and decide to fly it. After an uplifting experience of flying, we decide to head back to campus. Slightly eavesdropping, we overhear a group of professors mumbling about a secret pathway. Together we uncover a great mystery that proves that dark arts professor guilty.

Finally, we make it back early morning in time for breakfast. As I am in midst of chewing my delectable muffin, Dumbledore announces our heroic actions and rewards us each with 50 points for Gryffindor. Everyone bursts into a roaring applause, however I get many disgusted snake-eyed looks from the slitherin table, which makes me even more self-confident. The green monster now exists in them.

hmmmm.... so what does it all mean?!

There’s one question that our world has gotten to. If you look back on our world history, we have come a long way; we have found out ways to create light, electricity, and technology. All of these things have given us human beings more power and knowledge to rise above the rest of the world. We consider ourselves superior to the environment, only thinking about when we will cut down rainforests to turn into shopping malls. We’ve come out of control using so many of the earth’s resources, terrorizing trees for paper, and filling once lovely fields into disgusting landfills. What do we do about it? Nothing. We just ignore it and glue our eyes back to our computer screen, and socializing over websites. Well nothing won’t cut it anymore; nothing won’t cut what we’ve created.

Our world as I speak is becoming more and more complex. If you look back at our parents time, a lot has changed compared to the lives we live now. In today’s generation, we are comfortable with more technology, texting, and many more things that weren’t available back in my parents’ childhood. It seems that every second apple is releasing new software or the ‘latest’ version of the ipod. Computers are becoming more and more powerful; they estimate that we will build a computer with more capacity than the human brain by 2013! However, what happens once the technology becomes further ahead than the human race?

Not only that but getting into university’s isn’t defined the same as it was 20 years ago. It is not just about knowing or memorizing things anymore, since we can find the answer in a split second using search engines like Google or yahoo. Our information we retain will be outdated by the time we are in 3^rd year.

We are learning more and more each day, and discovering solutions to diseases we could never dream of overcoming. If anyone heard the word cancer a while back you would automatically believe it was a death sentence. Scientists have figured out so many of the world’s unsolved mysteries. They have inquired things like simply the solar system, computers, and how to prevent certain sicknesses.

So what does it all mean? It means a lot of things, the meaning probably different to each and every person. To me, it means that us in terms of humans have come a long way. Our world seems as if it’s rushing past us, and that it’s a life we often spend chasing to catch up to. We have evolved and are constantly learning more and more each second, when in reality our information turns outdated by the time we understand.

The sky is blue and cloudless. My eyes are squinted from the sun shining directly at me as a soft breeze blows in my hair. With my left arm I grab the board and stride further towards where the tide comes in. My feet leave faint footprints in the sand until I reach the shoreline. I enclose the two ends of Velcro around my ankle and scout the scene.

I fully emerge my body into the salty water. The wetsuit keeps me unaware of how much colder the water really is. Hand and hand, arm and arm, I slowly begin paddling into the stretch of blue. It’s like continuously digging a hole that disappears. I make it over the waves, pushing through them as they pass. A giant one nearly crashes on me, however I dive under it. I resurface and hop back onto the board and regain control. The only thing that can be frustrating is that you are not always in control, the ocean is. Out of the blue, unexpected waves can appear, and currents can simply drift you away.

My arms are tired of fighting the current so I let it carry me. Far away I drift from where I started. I spot an array of dolphins leaping out of the waters close to me and catch glimpses of the odd schools of fish. I can see the waves rolling closer towards me, and see new ones form across the horizon. Calmly and slowly they approach as soft white peaks form and they finally crash. It’s only a matter of time until the perfect one comes. It soon draws closer to me and I begin to paddle, thrusting myself forward. At the right time, I push myself up and plant my feet on the board. The board tips and sways as speed builds up. I quickly regain my balance by readjusting my feet. I spread my arms wide out and feel the ocean’s spray burst into tiny water droplets among my face. It feels refreshing and relaxing. At the height of the moment I suddenly plunge downwards with the wave. I descend into the shallow waters, and my board tugs on my ankle. I get up and even so more determined to catch another one, more determined to improve. I think that if you have the chance, try surfing, it is a really unique experience. The adrenalin rushes to my brain and even after, the excitement never fades.

The Influence of Hate

Hate. This is a forceful, powerful word that to many, is used within their everyday conversations daily. Most people don’t think before they say it, hate just diffuses right out of their mouth when they get frustrated, angry or just plain confused. It has become a normal word of our language as you can often hear children saying it. Within the word hate, there are many emotions tied along with it, the same emotions that started the horrifying and tragic Holocaust.

The holocaust was a dreadful and dark period of time and is unimaginable to envision and relate to. Only those with the gruesome memories and experiences can. Eva Olsson shared these thoughts as her voice beamed from the podium at which she was standing. It wasn’t just the compelling stories she was telling, but the way she told them, with a dignified passion.

She was an incredible speaker, and she touched my heart as she shared her voice with us. The crowd was silent as she recounted back to the distressing memories of her life experiences. I found it absolutely awful when she described how her mother was taken away for her to never see again. Eva never got the chance to say goodbye to her mother, and tell her how much she loved her. I found it amazing at the amount of courage she had, and how she had enough hope to survive the Holocaust.

I was upset and shocked that something so revolting was caused by hate. It was horrible that so many were killed or suffocated because they were simply different. We all vary from our peers in one way or another, so why should someone be killed because of their religion, race, or skin colour?

Eva not only retold the historic disaster of the holocaust, but also related it to now. Bullying is a reoccurring issue that we often hear about in school as well as see it. Eva specifically said that being a by-stander is as bad as being the bully. If the by-standers had done something, then the Holocaust would have not happened. She also said to never say hate, the root of the holocaust, but instead ‘I do not like’.

After hearing Eva Olsson speak, it changed a part of me. She was an incredible speaker with important and meaningful lessons taught within her speech. She taught us not use the word hate, not to drink and drive, and to stand up instead of being a by-stander. I was appalled at what she among many had to endure, and how she had the strength to survive. I felt honored to have introduced her, she was such an inspiration. Her voice is one I won’t forget, as the world cannot forget the upsetting times of the Holocaust.