I AM Grace Rosien

Please don’t take this away from us…

So I know your choices are supposed to impact the government; and I understand you want to have your voices heard, and they are. But you’re being heard by all the wrong people. The people who are hearing you are the students. You cancelled our extra-curricular activities to get a rise out of the government. But it isn’t working as much as you’d like. Cancelling prom, and school assemblies and other groups and clubs doesn’t do you or us any good.

I have read and I understand Bill 115. Unlike a lot of students at my school I have read it, and I understand why you are upset, but I also understand why the government has done this. The government is just trying to protect Ontario, they don’t want our province/cities going bankrupt like Stockton, San Bernardino, Central Falls, Jefferson County, Harrisburg, Boise County, Idaho, Michigan, Allen Park and many other cities in the US have filed for bankruptcy, some have been denied and some accepted. Do you want us to go bankrupt too? And there are other unions that are getting money cuts, and pay freezes and other things too, they just aren’t making a big deal about it. In the last week the doctors (silently) signed a contract for a pay cut. My father works for Staples and he never got the choice to store up his sick days like teachers have. It was unfair to the rest of the county for the government to give the teachers that extra. So really, it’s only fair that you can’t store them up anymore. They are not being taken away from you, you can still use them, you just can’t cash them in for cash until you retire.

Now, as for the argument on whether you are getting a right stripped from you. “Rights not reduced – (6)  Nothing in this Act or in a regulation or order in council made under this Act shall be interpreted or applied so as to reduce a right or entitlement under the Human Rights Code.” Taken directly from Bill 115. I know it may seem like a right is being taken away, but really it’s not. The only reason you can’t protest longer than a day is to protect us (students). If the teachers union decides to have a strike for two weeks (especially this close to exams) that means that students get two weeks less time with their teachers to understand what is happening in the exam. A lot of students would fail class if this were to happen. So many of us would fall behind, and most likely fail our exams.

Teachers have told me since I was a kid, “You can do anything, you just need to put your mind to it. The right group of friends and you can get anywhere you want to…” We have looked up to our teachers since we were kids. When you go into high school you’re told by older students that you should join at least one club. And so we do. My friend and I joined tech crew. Honestly, I thought I’d hate it, but I have been in it for a year and a half, and it has changed who I am. Being in tech crew I have gotten to meet so many fabulous speakers and people. Some of my friendships have gotten so much stronger. Tech crew is now a way I define myself. I know that a lot of other students define themselves by their groups.

David, Fiona, Becca, and Rachel

So a lot of other students at my school hate being at school and learning and everything, but the reason they aren’t failing is because of their teams, if their grades drop too much they will be kicked out of the team or club. A lot more students will flunk out if our extra-curriculars’ are taken away. So many teachers at my school care so much about us, but if kids started flunking they would take it on themselves. Do you (the teachers union) want that hurt on your back? Do you want to see kids who have done so good in school until now fail and flunk out of school? I sure wouldn’t want that on my back.

Grade 12’s of this year won’t get a prom, they won’t get that awesome experience of growing up. That is not fair at all, they have worked so hard to get through four years of high school, Prom is a way of saying, “You made it! Celebrate now before it gets harder!” We want to enjoy high school, make it bearable. Being in a club or on a sports team makes it a little easier to bear all the weight of school. This fight isn’t worth losing students over. Is it?

People always tell me, “The choices you make today will affect you in the future.” I have learned that, it seems the teachers’ union hasn’t. If you did, we would still have our clubs, because you would know that this isn’t going to end up well. So please give us back our clubs. Because if you don’t you are tearing a part of us away. You’re erasing a part of our being.

Thank you for your time and your consideration, I hope you make the right choice for our future.

Grace Rosien – Eastwood Collegiate Institute (ECI)

“The most beautiful thing in the world has to be the way the snowflakes gently fall to the ground, the way they softly land on your closed eyelids. They cling to your eyelids like a child grasping a mothers hand as it takes its first steps. But as I watch it melts from your

And as the snow starts falling again, it picks up speed and more and more falls. Slowly trying to cover us. You gradually open your eyes, and I wonder if you were asleep… Your eyes seem to carry the weight of grogginess. The look in your eyes told me you couldn’t tell if this was a dream or not. So, acting as though it’s a dream, I pull you towards me and kiss you for the last time. As I let you go, I feel my mind go numb as the world around me fades. And I realize if there’s any way to die, this would be it…”Being happy is like holding a baby and hearing its first laugh, it’s having a young child come up and hug you for no reason, it’s like hearing a bird sing it’s song of love, of seeing two cats curled into each other, it’s seeing two elderly people walking holding hands. It’s true, long lasting love.

This is one of the many stories I wrote with the phone during the first week I had it. It’s so easy to type in, and if you have a sudden story idea, it’s easy to record it or write a quick note to remember an idea for a story.

The camera (as you can see) is also quite fabulous, it seems to capture pictures and their best qualities and freeze them into place. It grabs perfect lighting in perfect detail mixing it together for the perfect as can be picture. The video is just as awesome. If you are like me and have an unsteady hand, it makes the video less wobbly and more sturdy so the camera isn’t shaking all around.

The editing is awesome, me being someone who loves editing pictures it’s easy, efficient and effective! It is one click away then you

Do you know that feeling you get with a new gadget that makes your tummy tingle, your brain go fuzzy and everything around you seem soo perfect? Well that feeling doesn’t fade with this phone, yes like every electronic out there, there are glitches, but this phone makes up for the glitches with making everything else perfect.have 7 or so different options for the edits.

Within a week I wrote at least 5 short stories and took about a hundred photos.

If you’re in the market for a new phone and don’t know what to look for, check this one out! It will blow your mind!

• GoGirlfriend – Julia Rosien
• Ottawa Valley Moms ~ Erin Blaskie
• Canadian Dad ~ Chris Read
• Parent Club ~ Caroline Fernandez
• Freckles the Mom ~ Christy Laverty
• Tara’s View of the World ~ Tara Robertson
• Shelagh Cummins ~ Mombiz Retreat

Me being silly…

During sit in protest

Group of protestors!

Kassandra being silly.

She was my friend, yes, my best friend? No. I’ve never had a girl best friend. I’ve had plenty of friends… but people never took me seriously enough. But, I’d rather have just friends than no friends at all.

We were walking in the park, Jessica, Andy and me (Maddy). We were on the bridge giggling about nonsense when I saw the most attractive guy ever. He looked right at me and smiled. So, I smiled back slightly blushing. Andy saw that my cheeks were slightly pink and turned. When she saw him she gasped, “Dibs!” I hated that, you can’t dibs a guy. Just like a guy can’t dibs a girl.

So being a good friend, Jess and I convinced her to walk up to him. So she walked over and his friend, Jake, walked over and started talking to us. They were in third year university; he was going to school to be a doctor, and his friend -Dustin- to be an architect.

Jessica was in third year to be a dancer, Andy third year to be a singer/actor and I was in second year for being an actor/director. I met them at a show, and we clicked and stayed friends.

After Jake convinced Dustin to go on a date with Andy he called her telling her he’d pick her up next Saturday for a picnic. That’s so cute… he’s talking her on a picnic! When Saturday came around, we helped her get ready. She wouldn’t listen to me; she wore all this fancy clothing. She kept thanking me for making her go on the date. I didn’t know how to respond, so I smiled and nodded.

When he knocked on the door I answered, he smelled so good… but I welcomed him in and told him she’d be down in a second. We made small talk and joked about how it shouldn’t take that long, it’s just a picnic. When she came in, she gave me a look that told me to back off. But when he saw her, he tried keeping his laughing in. He didn’t do so well. “We’re going on a picnic… not a movie premiere. You ready?” I laughed as they left. She wore heels.

We invited Jake in and hung out until she texted me asking to pick her up.

We all went and waited by the park gates. We heard them before we saw them; I could hear her voice all high pitched. And his lower. She was yelling at him. He was saying she was snotty and annoying. She was calling him old fashioned, stupid, gross and old. He’s her age… weird.

She came to us crying, Jess and I comforted her as well as we could, but there wasn’t much for us to do. The fight had started by him playing country music on the way there and then got gradually worse throughout the date and when he asked her to go camping with him and some friends she snapped. She hated everything out doors. Country music, cottages, camping, bonfires, ect. She just hated it. And whenever she’d visit my apartment, she’d make me turn off my country music.