My Buried Life

     Author's Note

      Hey there! My name is Rebecca, and this is My Buried Life. I'm 17 years old, and in my senior year of high school. I don't have much that I've accomplished thus far in my life, seeing as I only just turned 17, so my bucket list is fairly ambitious, and growing rapidly. I haven't really done anything very exciting in my life so far. I don't play sports, I don't do any extracurricular activities. Before March of grade nine, I hadn't even been on an airplane, never mind anywhere farther south than Grand Forks. The only somewhat exciting things that I have done have been two vacations and a school trip to Washington. I've been on the honor roll every year since it was possible for you to be on it, so maybe you could say that counts as something exciting. Taking a look at my life as it is, I can say that I don't want to live the rest of my life this way. I'm young and have my entire life ahead of me, and I know that I can do so much with it. One thing that I want to do more than anything else is travel. I love flying, experiencing new cultures and countries, exploring the beautiful places the world has to offer. There are so many places I want to go, like Venice, Paris, Australia, Bora Bora, Ireland, Germany, London, etc. I really hope I get the opportunity to visit all these places. Right now, I have 66 items on my list, and I hope that as I get older, the list continues to grow, but I also hope that I will be able to cross most of them off. I know for sure that some will be easier than others, but with the help of my friends and family I know I can get them done. Watching The Buried Life has really inspired me to do great things with my life, and it's taught me that I should live life to the fullest because you only get one chance. Making this list has given me the opportunity to sit down and really wonder what it is that I want to do with my life. That, combined with watching episodes of The Buried Life, has given me motivation and inspiration to complete them. That being said, here's my list, and I'm hoping that 60 or so years from now, I can look back at it and be proud to say I completed most of it! This is My Buried Life!

  

     My Buried Life Project
  animoto.com/play/59KC01veWf1UsJ89S1BnwA

     My Bucket List

     1. Take a ride in a gondola

     2.  Adopt a pet in need of a good home

     3. Learn how to surf

     4.  Be in a high grossing movie/TV show

     5.  Move to Victoria, BC

     6.  Go to see the Olympics

     7.  Learn to climb a tree

     8.  Relearn how to ride on horseback

     9.  Own a cabin/cottage

    10.   Ride a train that will actually take me somewhere

    11.   Travel to Australia

    12.   Travel first class in an airplane

    13.   Take a taxi in New York

    14.   Learn how to properly walk in high heels

    15.   Master playing the piano

    16.   Learn to fluently speak in another language

    17.   Own my dream car

    18.   Be able to help my children with their homework

    19.   Learn sign language

    20.   Write a song

    21.   Grow out my hair and cut it for cancer

    22.   Learn to play guitar

    23.   Travel around Europe

    24.   Create the greatest piece of art I’ve ever created

    25.   Visit the Birmingham Castle

    26.   Perfect my signature

    27.   Graduate university 100% confident in my career choice

    28.   Visit Auschwitz

    29.   Attend a red carpet event

    30.   Have a date in an honest to goodness little café

    31.   Visit the Louvre

    32.   Meet Josh Hutcherson

    33.   Write a novel

    34.   Give blood

    35.   Go to Santorini, Greece and swim in the clear water

    36.   Help save a life

    37.   Learn to cook fancy food

    38.   Buy my parents’ plane ticket so they can travel around Europe for a year

    39.   Go skinny dipping

    40.   Go on a cruise

    41.   Travel somewhere without any plans

    42.   See Lana del Rey in concert

    43.   Watch the ball drop in New York on New Year’s Eve  

    44.   Release a floating lantern

    45.   Be part of a flash mob

    46.   Get my nose pierced

    47.   Get a toned stomach

    48.   Meet Jennifer Lawrence

    49.   Change a flat tire on my own

    50.   Visit the Amazon Rainforest

    51.   Scuba dive and see the Great Barrier Reef

    52.   See all my old friends get married

    53.   Drink fresh spring water

    54.   Sit in hot springs

    55.   Photobomb an important photo/video

    56.   Help build a school in a third world country

    57.   Go to Bora Bora

    58.   Ride in a hot air balloon

    59.   Attach a love lock to the Pont des Arts Bridge in Paris

    60.   Ride a big rollercoaster

    61.   Buy a pastry from Carlos Bakery

    62.   Go to the M&M Store in Vegas

    63.   Sleep on the beach

    64.   Get over my fear of ladybugs

    65.   See a shooting star/meteor shower

    66.   Go to Venice

      Now What?

      There are three items on my bucket list that I can cross off all in one go. Number ten, to take a real train to an actual destination. Number twenty three, to travel around Europe, and number twenty eight, visit Auschwitz. In March, I'm going on a trip with the school to Europe. We're going to Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. While we're in Germany, one of our destinations is Auschwitz, because it is a Holocaust trip. So there's one. Rather than fly to each country, we're going to take a train to get to a couple of the places we’re going to visit. I've always loved riding the Prairie Dog Central, but it doesn't really have the same effect, especially after you've ridden it a couple of times. I've always wanted to travel around Europe. The pictures I've seen are gorgeous, and after my aunt and uncle told their tales of their honeymoon around Europe a couple of years ago, I knew it was something I had to do. This trip gives me the perfect opportunity to do that. So there's two. As for visiting Auschwitz, I figured it would be really neat and insightful to go see where one of the largest tragedies in history took place. In grade nine, I went on the Washington trip to see the Holocaust museum there. We learned about everything that happened there and it really interested me. I wanted to learn more and visit the places where it actually happened in person. It would seem more real to me that way. So through this trip I will be able to cross three things off my bucket list at once.

Pics That Make You Go Hmm 2

I saw this on twitter and I realized how true it is, and it made me go hmm..

Social Fiction Short Story - "My Crazy Aunt Mari"

Created By: Paige Harrington & Rebecca Roger

http://25.media.tumblr.com/75ffc90508934573b8c1690594c76653/tumblr_mqq18aC9sW1qee12to5_1280.jpg

On Twitter @Katy_Durant

https://twitter.com/Katy_Durant

"My Crazy Aunt Mari"

      It was no surprise that my aunt was weird. If the way she talked and dressed didn't give it away, then her house sure did. Aunt Marianne was the talk of the town, and when you lived in a small town like I did, there wasn't much else to talk about. So, you can only imagine my excitement when my parents told me I would be staying with her while they vacationed in Jamaica. 

      "I just don't get why I have to stay with her, she's so weird," I grumbled in the car on the way to her house.

      "Katy, it's only for a week. It'll be good for you to get to know her better," my mother replied in a very exasperated tone. 

      "Hmmph, that's not fair," I complained, and continued to stare angrily out the window at the passing fields and scarce mountains.

      After about half an hour of driving and complaining, we arrived at the ten storey building in which my Aunt resides. I guess you could say she’s kind of rich. Her place looks like an apartment building, except each floor looks like it’s made of a bunch of scrap metal boxes; each one placed more and more crooked then the last, and she owns it all. I guess my brother was a little more excited than me to be here because he jumped out of the car and ran straight into my Aunt's bear hug.

      “Joshy, how’s my favourite nephew?!” Aunt Mari exclaimed.

      I followed slowly behind them, hauling my huge bag up the steps as my Aunt let go of my brother and turned her attention to me.  

      “Oh Katy, how you’ve grown! Do you need help with your bag?” Aunt Mari says, giving me a kiss on the cheek.

      “Hi Auntie Mari, I’m fine thanks.”

      Once we were finished our greetings and my parents said their goodbyes, Josh and I were told to pick our own room, because after all there were about a million of them. I picked the purple one on the sixth floor. Far enough from everything but not too far away that I would be isolated from everything. Josh picked a room just down the hall from me. It had green walls with these weird dinosaur stamps all over the ceiling. It was kind of childish but it had a huge bed and a TV in it, so I understand why he chose it.

      Once I was settled and had explored the sixth floor, I decided to see what the rest of the building was like. I walked out of my room, but before entering the elevator I called out to Josh.

      “Hey Josh, wanna go exploring?” I yelled down the hall.

      “Yeah!” he said, poking his head out the door and running to catch up with me.

      We got into the elevator and stood there for a minute, debating which of the nine other floors to check out first.

      “Up or down?” I asked Josh.

      “Let’s go….down,” he said and hit the button to the second floor.

      I don’t think either of us expected what we saw; the entire floor was designed like a green house. The walls were all made of glass and the room was lit entirely by sunlight. There were plants and trees everywhere, flowers of all colours. I couldn’t identify any of them, but they all looked tropical. It was gorgeous! Right in the center of the room there was a table. It was white but the paint was chipping to reveal the wood underneath it. It had four matching chairs around it, all with the same white paint. If it wasn’t in a house it might have been a normal sight. We looked around for a bit before proceeding to the next floor, three.

We stepped onto the floor and were faced with a hallway. It was long and narrow, with doors on both sides and a huge set of double doors at the end. I started opening a few but the rooms looked pretty average, some designed like bedrooms and some like bathrooms. I hadn’t noticed that Josh had skipped all the side doors and went straight to the end door. He swung open the huge doors and you could see what looked like a zoo. There were wild animals everywhere; it was equally thrilling and terrifying. They weren’t normal house pets either, from where I stood I could see a lion, tiger and zebra and by the noise level I could tell there were more we couldn’t see. It smelled absolutely horrible, you could definitely tell there was more than one type of exotic animal living here. Josh got a little ahead of me and turned a corner out of sight while I walked slowly up to the lion’s cage. He was huge, but he seemed tame behind the vintage, gold bars of the cage. Just as I turned around to look at the tiger behind me, I heard Josh yell.

      “Oh my god, what the heck is this?!” he let out. He didn’t sound scared, just shocked.

      I jogged around the corner and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw what he was talking about. It was in a glass cage and wasn’t much bigger than a dog, but it definitely wasn’t a dog.

      “Is that a dragon?” Josh asked stepping towards the cage.

      “It can’t be a dragon,” I replied, following him. Although I was doubting myself, it did sort of look like a dragon. It had green and blue scales that covered his entire body, and sharp yellow horns coming out of its head.

      “It doesn’t have wings,” I said to Josh. “It can’t be a dragon. Dragons have wings.”

      “Yeah, but look at his claw feet, and weird horns,” he answered, pointing his finger at them.

      “It must be some weird lizard,” I concluded, starting to back away.

      “Not like any lizard I’ve ever seen,” Josh replied as he turned and walked to the door.  

      I was still looking at the animal when Josh asked if I was ready to move on. I ran down the hall to the elevator and pressed the button to the fourth floor. When we got to the floor, we were welcomed with the warm smell of freshly cooked food. I recognized the smell of fresh baked bread, and followed it into a dining room. To my surprise it looked very normal. A large table took up almost the entire room and my aunt sat at the head of it.

      “Oh kids! It’s like you read my mind, I was just about to call you down for dinner,” Aunt Mari said, spreading her hands to the empty seats around her. Both Josh and I took a seat on either side of her.

      “What were you guys doing?” she asked.

      “Just…exploring,” Josh answered, looking at her and then smiling at me.

      “Yeah, but we only got to see two floors,” I chimed in.

      “You have much more to go then. But that’s okay, you have all week!” she replied, smiling at both of us.

'Hmm,' I thought to myself. 'Maybe this week won’t be as bad as I thought.'

A Bit of Humor to Start Your Day

I hope you all are enjoying your day! :)

Roar of the Rings Champs!

After a long, hard week of amazing curling, a big congratulations goes out to Team Jacobs and Team Jones for winning the draw and representing Canada at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games! I know they'll do quite well. Go Team Canada!!

In the Spirit of Christmas...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/zIEIvi2MuEk

In art class today Ms Fernie showed us this video of a Christmas Miracle from WestJet this year. It made me cry, and I thought it was worth passing on. It must have felt so amazing to make these travelers Christmas wishes come true!

Pics That Make You Go Hmm...

In Creative Writing we've been focusing on a little segment called "Vids That Make You Go Hmm...", where we watch videos that get you thinking a little bit. Whether they're funny or inspirational or courageous or whatever. I came across this photo a little while ago and it kind of made me go "hmm...", and it gave me the idea of doing the same kind of little segment but on my own, and with photos instead of videos. Here's this first one I've found so far.