Finally Settling In

This picture does not do the view justice, but I still cannot believe that this was the view I got to wake up to every morning. After almost 3 days of travelling I finally arrived to the amazing community of Pimbiniet where I would be living for the next 2 weeks. After almost 4 years of being involved with Free the Children and dreaming about a trip like this it was incredible to be finally stepping foot into one of the communities Free the Children works so closely with. Seeing the school where I would be working for the next two weeks helping build a school was another amazing opportunity.  Finally being able to see one of the pillars Free the Children has been working so hard to install was unreal and something I had only imagined. As we were at the school we met a couple of children from the community. It was incredible to finally be interacting with the children as working with the children was one of the things I was looking forward to the most. Seeing the school was the first part of realizing not only how important education is, but also how grateful us as Canadians should be for the opportunity we are given in regards to education. I know many times I have complained about school, the work, how much it costs, etc. but I began to realize that I am lucky to be able to complain about things like that because it means that I have the opportunity to attend school without barriers.

The Journey Begins

After months of planning, fundraising and preparing and after years of dreaming about it I finally was able to embark on the trip of a lifetime and travel with Free the Children and Me to We to Kenya.

Prior to leaving many people were asking me why I was going on this trip. Was it because I wanted to say I’ve gone to Kenya? To fulfill my travel bug? To experience a different culture? For me I think it was all that and so much more. It is one thing to go to Kenya on a vacation, go on a safari, and see the glamorized side of the country. But it is another thing to immerse yourself in the side of the country that not everyone gets to see. To interact with the people of the community, experience first hand what they do on a daily basis. To be able to experience the culture first hand is far more valuable than any vacation or safari.

No one has ever become poor from giving

https://www.facebook.com/XplicitNationTV/videos/816838985032115/?pnref=story

In this social experiment an actor pretends to be a homeless man and instead of asking for money from those walking by he instead attempts to give those same people money. At the beginning of the video he raises a very good question: In today’s society it is socially acceptable for the wealthy to give money to the homeless. Is it socially acceptable because it’s one individual helping another? Or because one individual is better than another?

After watching the video it’s hard to think that it’s socially acceptable because it’s one individual helping another. I feel that majority of people in our society give money to the homeless to make themselves feel better about themselves and make them feel as if they are better than the person they are giving the money to.

I know for myself personally, when I give money to a homeless person it is not so I can make myself feel better or so I can seem like I am better than them, I do it to simply help a fellow human out who is going through a struggling time.

Watching this video I am just disgusted by some of the comments that come out of people’s mouths, especially the guy at the end of the video. I am even slightly disgusted by the one girl in the video who originally said she didn’t have any money but once he offered her the money she had some change to give away.

After you watch this video think to yourself why you give money to the homeless. Is it to simply help someone out or is it because you’re better than that person?

110 Days

This past September I was forced to transfer schools due to unforeseen circumstances of not getting into my program at the school I was originally attending. As I entered this school I carried the idea in my head that I would just keep my head down, stay focused and get in and out in the two years I planned. That was until I was presented with an amazing opportunity to travel to Kenya on a Me to We trip with the college my university is affiliated with. It has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember to travel with Free the Children and Me to We on a volunteer trip. Although I was not concerned with where, Kenya had always been in my sites. The trip however posed problems not only financially but also in terms of my education as it would be conflicting with a placement I was supposed to be doing. It was becoming a very difficult decision to make. Do I go on the trip of my dreams or do I do as planned and get in and out of school as fast as possible? After a lot of thought and arguing with my family I finally made the decision to go on this trip. I realized that not only is it the trip of my dreams, but also the trip of a lifetime. School will always be there and I am always able to finish certain courses at other times, but an opportunity like this does not come around every day. In 110 days I will be travelling to Kenya to help build a school, learn from the Masai Mammas and to be immersed in an enriching culture. I feel that what I have learned from just making the decision to go on this trip is when opportunity knocks, answer the door. You never know when that same opportunity is going to knock again. There are so many things that seem like they are the most important things in the world; at the time. It’s not until you miss out on something that could have changed your life that you realize some things aren’t as important as they seemed when you first started them.

We Don’t Do That Here

As I watch the movie Bully for the second time I cannot stop shaking my head at the ignorance shown by so many of the schools that these victims are attending. From sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me to telling a student that they are just as bad as their bully because they refuse to accept an apology for death threats it is clear that our educators are blind to the epidemic that is raging through our school system. Children as young as 8 are taking their own lives because they can no longer deal with torment they face every single day. Eight year olds shouldn’t be considering or even understand the concept of suicide yet. The only things they should be focused on is what they’re going to have for dinner or what game they’re going to play with their friend at recess. One of the girls documented for this documentary was so fed up with the bullying she faced on the school bus that she took her mother’s gun and threatened her tormenters. It wasn’t that she had an intention of murdering anyone; it was that she could not think of any other solution to get her tormenters to stop the bullying. If the fact that a young girl saw no other option to end the bullying she was facing than to pull a gun on her peers is not a sign that our school system is failing in protecting our children from bullying than I don’t know what is. One of the police officers that dealt with the case said how he saw no reason, unless she was being physically harmed, to justify threatening her peers with a gun. I couldn’t help but shake my head at the ignorance that police officer showed in that moment. For those of you who read this I am sure have either been a victim of bullying, been a friend of a victim, have a child who is a victim or perhaps even have been the bully yourself at one point in your life. For myself personally, I was a victim throughout the majority of my primary schooling. I was made fun of for my freckles, for the way I wore my pants, for the fact that I enjoyed reading at recess over playing, and for many more reasons. The bullying I experienced wasn’t contained to just the walls of my school, it was outside at recess and on my way home on the bus. Until you experience bullying first hand I feel that you have no right to say how a person should be feeling or that one’s choice of how they handle the bullying is not justified because they weren’t physically abused. The saying “sticks and stone can break my bones, but words can never hurt me” is the farthest thing from the truth. Hit me with sticks and throw stones at me, leave cuts, bruises and broken bones that will heal in a few days or weeks. But the wounds that never heal are the ones beneath the skin. Words cut deeper than the sharpest of knives and they leave scars that never heal. It is time that our children are able to feel safe in their schools. It is time our educators stop saying “we’ll do something” and they actually start doing something. If bartenders are responsible for the actions of the people they serve, even after they leave the bar, than shouldn’t the bullies be responsible for the children’s actions to harm themselves or take their own lives?

The campaign “We Don’t Do That Here” was founded in Barrie, Ontario. Take the “We Don’t Do That Here” pledge and agree that for 21 days (hopefully longer) you will:

Talk/Social Media POSITIVE about yourself
Talk/Social Media POSITIVE about others
ENCOURAGE others daily
GENTLY remind others who are speaking/social media-ing negative that WE DON’T DO THAT HERE
RESPECT others – no matter who they are
NOT gossiping (includes not listening to it)

If you see a negative post on social media than post “We Don’t Do That Here” in the comments to show people that bullying is not tolerated

http://www.wedontdothathere.ca/thepledge

#BellLetsTalk

Smiling at someone as you walk past them, helping someone carry their groceries to their car, paying for someone’s morning coffee, it’s the little things that can change a person’s day.
I feel that sometimes we can get so caught up in our own lives and our own busy schedules that we forget to look at the people around us. We can let some of the smallest things, such as dropping your coffee on the floor change our entire attitude/day. But if we just looked at the people around us we would realize that some of our problems aren’t as big as we make them out to be.

The other day was Bell Canada’s annual “Let’s Talk Day.” This campaign is used to raise funds for mental health awareness and funds for mental health initiatives. For every hash tag #BellLetsTalk on Twitter, every share of a Bell Let’s Talk picture on Facebook and every text message/long distance call made on a Bell cell phone 5 cents was donated to mental health initiatives. The last I read there was over 5 million dollars donated to the campaign because of a simple hash tag, share, text and/or call. The whole point of the campaign is to not only to raise awareness but also get rid of the stigma attached to mental illness.
When I saw this picture posted today I couldn’t help but smile at how appropriate the timing was. Molly Burke, a Me to We speaker, was diagnosed with depression due to bullying because she went blind at the age of 14. I myself have been a victim of bullying in the past. Thankfully I never became clinically depressed, but that does not mean I didn’t have moments of depression. My parents are the reason behind my strength, they are the ones who changed my life.

Now what I want you to think about is how you can change the life of someone around you. Maybe it’s through a random act of kindness or maybe it’s just by smiling at someone as you pass them on the street. They don’t have to be someone you know or even like, but you can still change their life. Think about all the people you interact with on a daily basis and think of ways that you can change their lives, and next time you start to get upset because something didn’t go your way try and remember all the people out there who are dealing with something much bigger on a day-to-day basis and they are just waiting for that one person to come around and change their life.

One million begins with One

Last week I had the pleasure of attending We Day Toronto as a youth ambassador. Honoured by such an incredible opportunity I had to ask myself sometimes how I managed to get here. Being surrounded by so many young individuals, such as myself, who were wanting to make a difference in the world around them, both globally and locally, I couldn’t help but feel empowered.

I remember growing up my parents always told me that I could do anything I set my mind to, but sometimes when I brought up different of ideas of what I wanted to do they would make me re-think the idea and tell me how it’s not very practical and would be difficult to accomplish. But as I got older and as I got involved in Free the Children I found myself surrounded by thousands of youth just like me. They wanted to make a change in their world but were also told that they wouldn’t be able to do it.

It makes me wonder what would have happened if Craig Kielburger had listened to those who told him he couldn’t make a difference because he was too young or because he was just one person? I wonder what would have happened if Spencer West had listened to the doctor’s when they told him he would never be a functioning member of society? Or if Molly Burke had let her bullies define her?

What we seem to forget is all these people and many more were all told at one point that they wouldn’t be able to do anything because they were just one person, or because they were too young. If Craig had listened to those comments, Free the Children wouldn’t have become the world’s largest children-helping-children network. Free the Children wouldn’t be around to inspire millions of youth, like myself, that they can make a difference in their world regardless of their age.

We need to remember that one million begins with one. It took one person to lead a nation to change, like Martin Luther King Jr. It took one person to change history such as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf when she became the first woman head-of-state in Africa as the president of Liberia. It took one person to create a foundation that empowers youth every single day that they can make a difference, such as Craig Kielburger. It takes one person to change our future, such as you.

It just takes one person; one spark, to create a fire.

Redefine Possible

Myself and Spencer West at We Day Toronto celebration dinner.

He is a large inspiration to me and what I do.