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Write a letter to your past self. What would you say? Would you tell them to do the same? Or differently?

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Write a letter to your past self. What would you say? Would you tell them to do the same? Or differently?

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Be you, be yourself, don’t pretend to be someone you’re not it’s not fair to you and other people. For me I would just really emphasize how important it is to be yourself, it will bring you so much more happiness than it is trying to dress/impersonate other people simply because they fit in or have the status that you want. Your happiness is more important than the way other people view you. Although, yes people may judge you or say something negative about you, don’t let it get to you. If you dress and act like someone you know you're not you will only attract those people you are pretending to be, you truly don’t like these people and the way they treat others, so don’t be like that. Act how you want to, kind, compassionate and thoughtful, dress the way you want, brightly, patterns, unique. You will always stand out more if you decide to be you, being comfortable with yourself will lead to you attracting the people you actually want to be around, the people who won’t judge you or speak badly to you behind your back. Although, maybe knowing what people to stay away from is good, it’s almost like learning a lesson as to what to stay away from. I would really want myself to beginning being myself at a younger age, be different, stand out in a different way than other people, in personality, looks, and confidence.

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Describe an important object in your life. How did it become so important? Is it still today? Go beyond saying, “My phone/computer/etc.” and think about something unique to you that no one has.

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Describe an important object in your life. How did it become so important? Is it still today? Go beyond saying, “My phone/computer/etc.” and think about something unique to you that no one has.

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Feeling the wind through my hair, feeling more free than ever before, with triumph in mind. Ice skates; they seem insignificant, a tool and people use them for a hobby. For me, it goes deeper than this; my first pair of ice skates was meaningful, Jarred Schlener, my boyfriend’s dad; gave me his old beat up hockey skates. This seemingly insignificant exchange opened up opportunities that I never even thought of before and at the time still didn’t think of. First time I skated with them, at the Ice Centre at the Promenade. Constant falling, slipping, I had no hope that I would get anywhere with this, my frustration would continue to grow until I took it out on my boyfriend. I still hadn’t grown as a person, I decided to give up and take them off afterwards. My knees were bruised and scraped, a reminder at the time, I was a failure, I couldn’t learn no matter how much effort I put in. I took a long break, I was frustrated and convinced myself I couldn’t do it. Christmas came around, I mentioned to my boyfriend about Bauer hockey skates I saw, in one simple comment. When it was time to unwrap presents they were right in front of me, I couldn’t give up now, I need to get back into it, and this time I'll triumph. So I continued to keep trying, frustrations continued to grow, until I ultimately got sat down by him. Multiple times, and I wouldn’t listen to what he had to say, but overtime I began to develop a need to be better, and not only with ice skating, but my life. Beginning with ice skating, something I could control and a goal could easily reach. I realized if I consistently put myself down, and say “I can't do this”, or “I’m stubborn”. I learned to think more positively, to say that because I say I am all these things that doesn’t mean it's true, if I can change the way that I think about myself I can reach goals I never thought I could achieve. Thinking small leads me to think big, if I can achieve a small hurdle such as learning how to ice skate I could jump over the hurdles of other aspects of my life that I find difficult that leads to me giving up. I can do anything with the right mindset.

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Review something from your life that you find is minor but significantly influenced who you are.

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Review something from your life that you find is minor but significantly influenced who you are.

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A boy, a stupid teenage relationship, who affected me terribly, yet shaped me into the person I am today, and who I am developing into. I was cut off from my friends and family, I thought that it was okay, so, almost a year of being terribly influenced by him and his friends. Relationships can be good for people, that's what I was always taught, I was never taught to spot what wasn’t okay and what was and what I was dealing with was absolutely never okay. He would constantly bring me down, mentioning other girls and how I didn’t compare to them, and I should be more like them. I was told this was okay, what was I thinking? What was my thought process? I was so heavily under the influence of him and his friends, I was cut off from all my friends and even lost some friends as well. I didn’t know what to do at the end of the relationship, I began to become emotionally neglected, he would constantly yell at me and make rude comments. I convinced myself it was okay and would at times take it out on other people instead of taking matters into my hands I would deal with it without complaining, but emotions boiled over and couldn’t handle the way he would speak to me anymore. I was planning on breaking up with him, but the impact he made on me was already there, I thought being rude to a significant other was okay, my family can testify to the fact I would come back in a bad mood all the time and yell at them too. Finally, at the end of the school year we would hang out like we usually did, today was particularly bad. He was quiet and secluded and the only time he would speak to me was when he wanted to yell at me or say something negative about me. I could anticipate he was also planning to break it off, I stood in his house and cried, knowing that this was the last time I’d ever step foot there even though he was terrible to me. He was the only person I had at the time. So I wanted it to be over and done with, we sat down and I asked, “Do you want to break up?”, with tears swelling in my eyes. He responded, “Yes, I'm sorry”, somehow even though our relationship had come to an end, I felt relieved, almost like I had been freed from something, because I was. After a while, I got over it, but this still had an impact on me. After talking and reconnecting with the friends I had lost and gained new friends, even befriending his ex-girlfriend. She would share that she went through the same things I did, and that what he did was not okay, so did my other friend when I told her what happened. This put into perspective, I began to think about the type of person I was at the time of the relationship with him, I was cruel to other people. Then, my current boyfriend came along, this was in September, and to this day he said that I changed a significant amount, he put into perspective what he had done, and I still thought it was okay, he told me how he felt about what happened. To this day I am still healing from it, but I am now a completely changed person with a positive perspective, and actual self respect for myself.

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The Smiths, How Soon Is Now? It's about aching to belong, to find connection in a world where you're constantly on the fringes, for prompt

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The Smiths - How Soon Is Now? (Official Music Video)

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The Sundays, Life Goes On, Finding hope and resilience during difficult times

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Describe a shift in your life. After all, Shifts Happen. How did your senses feel during those moments?

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Describe a shift in your life. After all, Shifts Happen. How did your senses feel during those moments?

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Shifts happening so fast it’ll make heads spin, I feel so different yet so free. Maturity is easily the most important shift that will happen in anyone’s life, you grow up and mature, at least most people do. This happens as you grow up, and I went through this and I still am. Growing up I was a normal kid, but antisocial and secluded myself, but change truly came when I reached middle school, I was surrounded by people who were growing up, going through big changes. Most everyone was immature, and honestly that was fair. I was too, I wasn’t the nicest person, I wasn’t a good influence, yet so were other people. Slowly I began to grow up, as everyone does. As middle school came to a close there was the beginning of a shift, shifts don’t immediately happen but they begin and persist throughout one’s life, even if I may not notice a shift occurring, it is.. When I went into high school I realized that there needed to be a shift, maturity mostly, I felt a shift about halfway through my freshman year I realized that my friends weren’t truly my friends, they didn’t mature with me, I felt like I was back in middle school again with the same people as always. When the year ended, I befriended some of my older friends from middle school, they matured, they grew up. A big shift that happened again was then my first semester of my sophomore year though, I was alone for the first time in my life, no friends to hang out with. I would sit in class silently half the time and during lunch would leave as fast as possible to go skate, and even then I was alone. During all this thinking I had to realize, I didn’t appreciate what was right in front of me, good friends and good times. It hit hard, when I was friends with them that shift in maturity wasn’t happening yet. Then, I began trying to socialize with people I knew at lunch, getting to know them, see, I hadn’t really had friends like that ina while where I would hang out with everyday, it was very different and took some accommodating, which I still am. But again, some people don’t mature, they don’t go through that shift. After a while of getting comfortable with them they began to drift off from each other, since it was essentially 2 different friend groups, one day at lunch I sat with one of my friends as usual. I sat farther away from the group of girls I usually sit with & she began to criticize the body type of one of the girls, I was shocked. I played it off and decided to not really say anything to be rude to either of the girls, after all they were both of my friends. Maybe she hadn’t went through that shift in maturity where it isn’t okay to say these kinds of things behind someone’s back, especially to someone that considers her as her friend. I realized, I had changed, the old me would’ve probably talked badly on her to try and “fit in”, but this, this made me uncomfortable. Shifts happen and are important for development, it matters for people to go through this, it can turn you either into a better person than you were or a worse person that you were before.

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Maturity will set you free

Where I once was blind, I now can see

And maybe you should pity me.

For a youth I am no longer,

For a man I have become.