For this next project type thing, I am going to be talking about my history. The goal of this assignment is for us to discover how the 6 key ideas of what make history, history… (as seen in my last blog post) can be applied to events in our own life. We were told to create a snapshot of four different events from our life, the first one had to be our birth but the others are up to us. For me I decided to do getting my first ever pet that was just mine, joining PLP, and my trip to Africa. We were also told to create or use some sort of visual so enjoy my wonderful photos, along with a short podcast type thing of my mom talking about my birth. Enjoy!
My Birth
I think the main reason we had to include our birth was because it was the most significant part of our entire lives. Its hard for us to know that happened though, we have to go off all the story from our parents and the people there. From what I know is my mom wanted to have a home birth because it was more natural and less clinical. At the time we were living in Nelson B.C, and my mom decided she wanted to give birth to me in a blow up pool in our living room. After a long 9 hours I was born at 5:12 am on November 10th. While my mom was pregnant, she was reading the book “The Climb” by Anatoli Boukreev… a Russian mountaineer. She grew a liking for the name and decided that that would be my name. The only problem was it didn’t sound very girly… so she simply added an “a” on the end and voila! Anatolia.
(interview with my mama about my birth and my name choosing)
Getting my Bunny
When I was 13 years old I was convinced I wanted a pet of my own, I’m not sure what triggered this because we still had my dog Shore at the time so it wasn’t like I didn’t have any pets at all. Anyways I tried and tried to convince my parents to let me get a bunny. I did ton of research on them, and when I say tons I mean tons. I created a giant poster board with all the information a person would ever need. For example the price of everything, my weekly schedule with the times to feed and play with and exercise the bunny, how much care they need… everything! I had saved all my money and had just enough to get everything. After probably months of begging and begging they finally agreed to let me get my bunny. After a gymnastics competition in Surry we went to this ladies house and out she came with my little bunny rabbit. Little did the know this was the runt of the little and their would be some problems later on… I had never been happier I went home with my little bundle of joy and so proud that my plan and all my planning actually worked. About a month later, little Ella (my bunny) went to the doctor and we found out two thing 1) Ella was actually a dude… so we renamed him Cedar. 2) That Cedar was actually sick because he was not raised properly at his other home, and had infections spread throughout him. I think it was just under two weeks after the vet visit we had to put him down. This was one of the saddest things because I had worked so hard and spent all my money I had on this little guy and after only a month he was gone. Although this was such a hard thing for my little 13 year old brain to wrap around this taught me so much about how not everything you plan for always goes as plan and the significance of money. After little cedar died I had to sell all his cages and toys and I ended up losing about $200.
Joining PLP
After I finished 8th grade I had the choice to either join Flight (now known as PLP) or continue in the normal school stream. Little did I know that this decision would shape the person I am today so greatly. Thinking back to when I was making this decision I could never image not joining flight (sorry Ms Willemse that is what it was called when I joined so thats what I am going to call it) Joining this program brought me together with people who I now call some of my closest friends. The PLP program brought me out of my shy shell if you know me thats kinda hard to believe I ever was shy. I use to hate talking in front of any audience and now I go to speaking events and speak in front of 75 people. It has also taught me what hard work truly feels like and the success you gain from the work you put in. These skills I will carry with me throughout the rest of my life. This program allowed me to gain incredible experience all over the world while also enhancing my learning. Never in a million year did I think or even image that I would be able to go to California, the Southern States, Las Vegas and so many more with my class while also learning. This program is something I will always remember not only the experiences I gained but the people I experienced them with…. Sorry that was kinda cheesy
Trip to Africa
I have traveled a lot with my family whether it be moving or just exploring. But in March of 2017 I went on a trip that completely changed my view on the world and sparked the traveler inside of me. I knew my family had been wanting to travel to Africa for a while and we had this giant piggy bank in my main hallway that we would always put change in and we called it our “African Pig”. After probably years of saving up and planning my dad was finally able to take us on the trip he had always dreamed of taking his kids. We traveling around Kenya and Tanzania for 3 and a half weeks, completely off the grid, no phones or anything. We went on safaris, visited a school, and many towns, learned about their culture. I had never been anywhere like this or had this type of experience before where is was like no where I had ever known. It was very crazy because yes we learned about all these different people and different cultures but it is a completely different thing to actually experience it all. I loved every single minute of this trip and cannot wait to go back. It not only opened my eyes on different the rest of the world is from our little corner of Deep Cove, but also sparked my inside traveler. This again is one trip I will never never forget.
