▵ KEEP THE FLAME ALIVE

Hai! Hope everyone's weekend was good, I had a fairly busy weekend myself, what with homework and all. But on Sunday, I participated in something pretty special.

I'm not sure if you would know this by now but dance is pretty much my whole life. I've danced since I was 2 and I love it so much. Today, I got to dance and support kids with cancer at the same time, and it was amazing!

I woke up in the morning, chucked on the Keep the Flame Alive T-shirt and hopped on the train with my fellow dancers and travelled into the city. Once we arrived, we walked to our location (there were three areas all around the city in which groups of people were performing the same dance) and we got there and were interviewed!


Whilst waiting to dance me and one of my good dancing friends decided to go around and take photos everywhere, I think we took about 250 in total :p There was a lot of goofing around but we actually got some pretty good photos. After a couple of technical issues, it was time to dance!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?  <-- If you follow this link you can watch how the whole thing went down. The whole thing was filmed and we were on channel 9 that night! Afterwards I have Ben and Jerry's ice cream for the first time and it was heaven! Then went and got some lunch and took the train home. Throughout the whole morning though the city was surrounded with people in bright yellow shirts and it was great to see just how many people gave up their Sunday's to come and support such an amazing cause. There were little tiny tots and even a few people from the older generation came to dance! It felt great afterwards knowing I was able to support children with cancer and help the leukaemia foundation, so please, consider doing the same :)



Until next post, bye!

✦ OUTWARD BOUND: DAY BY DAY

Hallo everyone! Today I greet you in Norwegian. Now I have a massive apology (this is the massive apology I was talking about, in case you didn't already know :p) to make to you guys. I am so extremely sorry I haven't posted in so long, there's been a lot of drama at home the past couple of weeks and I've only just caught up on sleep from outward bound :p This leads me to the topic for today post, I'm going to give you a bit of an insight to what outward bound was like, day by day. But before I do I just want to say that outward bound has been one of the best and worst times of my life and I am so proud and happy that I have done and completed it, but I wouldn't have been able to do it without my bilu girls beside me the whole time. So here goes:

Day 1: Arrival!
- Once the 5-6 hour bus drive to our location was over we were driven to our first campsite. This is where we go the rundown of everything that was to happen in the following 9 days. We set up bivvys (what we would be sleeping in, but in other words a thin piece of material over our head) made spag bowl for dinner, washed up and went to sleep... on trees, literally.

Day 2: Hiking -.-
- We had to wake up at about 5:30, pack up bivvys, sleeping bags, backpacks and then make breakfast (muesli, milk powder, sugar and yoghurt! Yum! I'm not even being sarcastic!) Once that was down we had to ration out our food for the best two days evenly into our 10 backpacks, this was called supermarket. Once that was done and we had each collected four water bottles (equivalent 4L) the hike began. We walked approx 8km that day but had to stop 2km shorter than we'd liked because our water for the next day hadn't arrived, so that was to be our campsite for the night, and let me tell you, it was not pretty. It came to setting up out bivvys and once again, we were sleeping on trees, I'm not even exaggerating. There was kangaroo poo everywhere and to top it off, there were big orange stripy spiders everywhere you turned... I don't do spiders. That night was one of the hardest for me, I had a little bit of a breakdown because I am a complete scaredy cat and hate the bush and the dark, the spiders were just the icing on the cake. That night we had some sort of chicken bacon pasta with veggies and that night marks the first appearance of bush nurse! Otherwise know as the angel :p Bush nurse is basically a time when everyone can get their blistered painful feet out for Nuala (pronounced Noo-la) our instructor to bandaid and fix :p it was great I felt sorry for Nuala. That night I still didn't sleep and on top of the spiders, kangaroo poo, trees and rain, one of the girls in my bivvy vomited... so you could say the night went spewingly :p

Day 3: More hiking! :0

- Same old routine once again, wake up, pack up sleeping bag then pack backpacks, pack up bivvys and ration out food, eat muesli then start walking! Today was the day that we walked approx 17km so this was a pretty tough day. There were a lot of tears, and I have to admit some were shed by me, but it's not as easy as you think! You have a 20kg+ bag on your back, walking on rough, uneven ground in the heat non stop (only a couple of breaks for recess and lunch) for about 10 hours... yea it was pretty hard. But I think this was one of the things that brought our group that much closer and I am thankful to outward bound for this. Reaching the campsite was honestly the most amazing feeling! Everyone's feet were aching and pounding, blisters were popping and bags were dropping (that sounds pretty cool :p) The campsite was really pretty and the ground was flat! That night I think we had a freeze dried roast lamb with freeze dried mashed potato, and surprisingly this was my favourite meal of the trip! That night it was forecast to storm, but lucky for us it didn't!

Day 4: Once again, more hiking!
- Wake up at 5, pack sleeping bags, backpacks, bladibladiblah... Though today wasn't just a normal breakfast, we had piles upon piles of oranges that had been stored in our bags, and we had to cut them all up, and eat them all... We had so many oranges because they were so hard to eat while you were walking! So everyone ended up eating all the apples really quickly and being left with millions of oranges. It was annoying because I ended up having a piece of orange stuck in between my two front teeth for almost 3 days! When breakfast was finished, we started hiking again, about 15km today, and that dragged on for so long, if we put all our sweat from the whole day into a massive container it would probably end up filling one of those big water tanks :p Once again, getting to the campsite was a massive re-leaf... (get it? leaf hahahah :D) This campsite was really similar to the one the night before but they kept getting prettier and prettier! Our campsite this night was called Little Long Point and I think we all went a little crazy and hyperactive when we arrived, because there was a beach! Literally just down the hill from our site was the most beautiful beach, and we were allowed to take our shoes off... that's a big deal. Anyways that night was a really nice night spending it on the beach with the most amazing people :) That night we have bacon vege pasta again, and we were allowed to sleep in until 6:30 the next morning! :O

Day 5: You guessed it, more hiking!
- Yay! Sleep in until 6:30 that morning! More oranges, more packing, more muesli and on the road again, but first, an emu bob. This was something Nuala taught us. It was basically to make sure we didn't leave any rubbish behind but we all had to stand in a line, and slowly walk across the campsite whilst bobbing to look closer at the ground like an emu :p She even had a song for it:
"Eyes on the ground, looking all around if it ain't mother nature, pick up what you found!"I also forgot to tell you about Doug and Gene! The shovel and hand wash for the bombie (a bucket disguised as a toilet) Doug was a shovel (hahah) that whenever you went to the bombie, you would take the shovel with you. If the shovel wasn't there, you wouldn't dare walk any further because it meant someone was mid-number 2 :p Gene, was introduced to us and we had to say hi to her, "Hi Gene!" Say it out loud, and claps for those who got the joke :D Today was hiking but taken to a new level.. on a beach, through sand and over the top of sand dunes. It was hell. The only good part was whilst we were walking through a sand track a car drove past us and got bogged, so we did the nice thing and unbogged them, and they had a dog! He was so cute! It was great to socialise and actually see other people after 5 days. After we had to decline their offer of soft drink, money, fruit cake, or a bar of soap, we said goodbye and kept on trecking.

Once we arrived at our campsite, we started cutting up lunch and then out of nowhere the couple who's car got bogged came and found us! They apparently followed our footprints for half an hour to find us just to say thankyou and give us all a hug because he "wouldn't have been able to sleep at night if he didn't say thankyou" it was a little creepy at first but actually really sweet. They gave us licorice as well which Nuala wouldn't let us eat until the last day :( That afternoon we had to participate in solo time. Solo time is where we all get separated in the bush and spend 8 hours alone to reflect. I was scared at first but surprisingly it went really fast! That nights campsite wasn't too good but definitely better than the first two nights!

So that's half of my crazy adventure called outward bound, stay tuned for the last 4 days and talk to you guys soon!

▵ HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Konnichiwa! Hi guys I'm so sorry I haven't posted, I have a massive apology in an upcoming post so you can look forward to that! Ok this will be a short post to pretty much thank everyone for making me feel special today.

Now for most people today is just April Fool's Day, but for some fool it's her birthday too. (see what I did there? :D) That fool just happens to be me, I'm 15 today woo! Yes my birthday is April 1st but I just wanted to say thankyou to everyone for the birthday wishes, and all my friends at school who made me feel so special. A little secret I'm gonna let you all in on, 15 feels no different than 14 :p

I promise I have another post coming soon about my experiences on outward bound which I told you about in a previous post. So thankyou everyone and I'll see you soon!

✦ OUTWARD BOUND

Bonjour! So I've decided I'm going to try and start every blog with hello in a different language, becase there is only so many times you can 'hello everyone!' in english until it get annoying :p

Today I'm going to talk about something called outward bound. Some of you may have heard of it but it's basically a 10 day program in which you spend 9 of those days camping in the bush without a shower, a toilet, electronics, and you get to sleep on a mat with a piece of material over your head. Most of these days are spent hiking, though I believe we do participate in different activities like climbing rope ladders (ahhh! :s) and things like that. Oh and we have only two changes of clothes and have to carry everything we bring, and there's yucky food... :( 

At my school Outward Bound is a compulsory camp for the year 10's. The only way you can get out of it is with a doctors note/medical slip. We are split up into house groups and then further separated into boys and girls. We leave on March 10th (two days away!) for a 5-6 hour drive to our destination, stopping only for lunch and toilet breaks. To say I'm nervous would be an understatement. You hear many stories of this particular camp going around the senior school. The main being the fact that you will hate it while you are on it but love it once it's done. Often when a group of year 12's leaves the school, most will talk about how great outward bound was and the memories they created will never leave them so I am excited in that aspect. I've got a great group which will definitely help but I have no idea who the teacher is that's taking us, I hope she's not grumpy :p

So we leave Monday the 10th, and come back Wednesday the 19th. We get to stay home from school the next day (thank god) but then have to come to school on Friday. That day we pretty much have no classes, it's all reflection about what's happened the past 2 weeks and what we've achieved. If we don't complete this then the rest of it was pretty much worthless, so you could say it's kind of important :p

Anyways I'll write a long post about everything that happened when I get back. We're allowed to take a notebook and pen so I won't forget anything I promise. Until then, goodbye and wish me luck!

▵ HELP!

Hi guys I'm in a bit of a predicament... We have an assessment in English where we have to write a short story with a captivating title. The short story part is done, the title is the problem, I can't think of one!
Here's a little snippet of what I've written. If you guys have any ideas for a title please let me know! Or even if you want the whole thing published, I don't know but I'm not very good at writing so please, you are entitled to your own opinion but keep negative ones to yourself unless its constructive :)

The sound of a gunshot pierced the air around me. It was as if, for a split second, time had stopped. His body froze, struck mid-stride, his hands, limp as he began to fall. I’ll never forget the sound of his head hitting the ground. The crack of his skull as it collided with the concrete. From my position in the bushes, I was unable to move, almost like, I was the one who was shot. I didn’t feel imminent danger, not as I should have, but instead I felt a loss, confusion, at what had happened. The man I had watched, day after day, now gone, without a name, a word or a past in sight. I promised myself something that day, a promise to explore this mans life, what his childhood was like, whether he had a family, loving or un. I would find out why this man would walk everyday, in his soiled grey suit, with hair knotted and shaggy. The man who was always wearing remarkably clean shoes. I would find out, as soon as I could, the man that walked would no longer be left a mystery.

To say he was active was an understatement. Everyday at 6 in the morning, this old man would stumble ‘round the corner wearing a sort of melancholy expression on his face. He was always alone, accompanied only by his sorrow, and all he would do was pace. Back and forth back and forth, up and down the strip of crumbling road which was just visible from beyond my house. Everyone seemed to ignore him now, it was like a routine, a song on repeat, no notice was ever taken of him, and I think he liked it that way. Granted I had no idea where to start with this man, I knew nothing about him, nobody ever had. Maybe this was why I was so intrigued by him, his aura of mystery, his lack of need for anything, to me it didn't seem humanly possible. I felt drawn to him, and I wasn’t sure whether I liked that yet. It soon became obvious I needed to find something he cherished, a clue to his personality, the key to his heart, so what did I do? I started looking.

Many thanks!

✦ PROCRASTINATION

Hey guys, today I'm just going to write a short post about one of the single most annoying things ever... procrastination. Right now is a great example of procrastination. It is 10:34pm and I am supposed to be finishing my short story (of which I have only completed half of) and it's due Friday, study for the science test we found out about today, (the test is tomorrow), study for a SOSE essay on Friday before recess, then study for an english essay to be completed on Friday after recess. All I've managed to tick off my imaginary checklist is the school dance homework that I forgot about until about an hour ago. So yeah, great example right there.

I would bet money that everyone has experienced procrastination at least once in their life. It's hard to avoid, ironically I often procrastinate procrastinating, (that made sense in my head). Now you don't have to just procrastinate studying, there are many ways to procrastinate, it's like an art. "The art of procrastinating". Sounds pretty cool hey? In my procrastination I found a website about the 7 stages of procrastination. They used a little abbreviation; NETS. Proper procrastination begins with Napping, Eating, To-do listing, and Showering. (http://punintended.com/the-7-stages-of-procrastination/ check out the website if you want) Pretty acurrate? I'm afraid I have to finish my procrastinating here, feel free to let me know your ways of procrastinating, or to count the amount of times I have used the word procrastinate in this post. (:p) I give my good luck to all you procrastinators out there, just remember we all feel your pain.

Happy procrastinating!

✦ MALIBU SCHOOL

Hi all! Today's post is going to be about those less fortunate than us.

Luckily, most of us were born with two legs, two arms, two eyes, 46 chromosomes, a straight spinal cord and all that jazz, though there are some of us who were not so lucky in this aspect. This does not mean they are any less than us, nor should they be treated this way, things just don't come as easily for them.

Last year our year group had the opportunity to complete a term of service at Malibu School. Malibu School is an amazing specialist school for students in early childhood through to year 12 which caters to students with intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, sensory impairments, (vision and hearing), challenging behaviours and/or autistic spectrum disorders. Having never been to a school or place with that many people with disabilities before was really eye-opening for me. I had never realised just how privileged I am, all of us are really to be able to do what we take for granted everyday. Things like walking will be a major step out of the comfort zone for some,  (I couldn't resist, pun definitely intended!)

After the 10 weeks we were back to school permanently and I did miss the weekly visits, though this year we were given another opportunity to go back to Malibu and continue service for a term. I was pretty excited to go back as I had the most amazing experience with all the students in the previous year! I'd met all these gorgeous kids from ages 4 and up and it was great to see how much they'd grown through the year. We are in our 4th week of service and today I saw one of the most beautiful little girls that I'd met last year. She is one of the most gorgeous kids I have ever met, and she is extremely cheeky! She is now 6 years old and we were playing with her on a trampoline today, she was throwing a ball around and jumping up and down along with us and singing 'ring around a rosy' non-stop with the biggest smile on her face. I'm not going to say she suffers from a disease, because although she is only six, she is clearly happy. She is living with down-syndrome (also known as trisomy 21). Down-syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome. It is typically associated with physical growth delays, characteristic facial features and mild to moderate intellectual disability. The average IQ of a young adult with down syndrome is 50, similar to the mental age of an 8 or 9 year old. Unfortunately, she will likely be infertile when she is older, because having the extra chromosome (we have 46, she and others will have 47) makes it extremely difficult to halve, which is what is needed to happen to create a new and unique lifeform.

I am aware that there is not only this little girl, but many others with disabilities, and I have had some great times dancing, playing, jumping, exercising and just hanging out with some of the most beautiful people that make the most of what they're given. So please, for their sake, make the most of what your given. I'm not saying you should feel bad for being healthy, but just remind yourself that you are considered lucky, extremely lucky, don't take anything for granted and live every second at it's fullest. Take opportunities and help out others, you will feel a great sense of achievement in doing so!

My last note for today was something I saw at Malibu. The campus is amazing and there is not one plain wall in sight. They had decorated rooms and painted the windows rainbow, but the thing that stood out to me was a wall, filled with photos of students smiling and happy, and the same thing was written on every picture; "Don't dis my ability!" Greatest thing I've ever heard.

Make the most of your life because, "For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness." - Ralph Waldo Emerson :)

▵ NEW TO BLOGGING

So right now its 9:08pm on Wednesday the 26th of February, and I've decided to start this blog. I'm not going to start with your usual "Hi everyone!" because I highly doubt there are many, (if not any) people reading this at the moment.

My reasoning for starting this blog is mainly because some of my friends recently have. I've never really thought of blogging before but the idea of it seemed really cool, so here I am! So lets start with the basics:

My name is Deanna Wilson. I am a 14 year old girl from good ole' Australia living her life as a middle child with your usual teenage insecurities, (we'll get to that later). A major part of my life is spent inside a dance studio or performing on a stage. It sounds cliché but I honestly could not imagine my life without dance. (pathetic right?) But yeah, carrying on, I've been dancing since I was two so as you can imagine my social life is pretty non-existent. I am currently a year 10 attending Tranby College and I'm proud to say that school is pretty decent so far, (touch wood). My birthday is on the 1st of April (yes April Fool's day I'm such a fool hahahaha) and I actually like having birthdays at school, makes you feel kinda special, if people remember of course. I love music and finding odd songs that most people wouldn't like, and I often get told that I'm obsessed with my phone. I have great difficulty focusing on study or work without a pair of headphones in my ears and my current playlist on as high a volume that other people won't hear my music. Lastly, I am a fully confessed Hunger Games addict and obsesser (don't even know if that's a word but hey, what the hell!)

That's pretty much all the important stuff out of the way. You can get to know me better through future posts. That is if I manage to continue this for more than a day :D. It's now 9:27pm on Wednesday the 26th of February, and this post has consisted of 19 minutes of typing, deleting, typing, deleting, typing and now I'm rambling. So yeah, thanks for struggling through my awkwardness and I hope to write to you all soon!