2016, New Year, Same Old Me

Welcome to 2016, it's hard to believe 2015 went by so fast. 2015 has been a great year for me over all.  I did things, things I hadn't done before. I'm no longer as anti-social as I once was. I have friends in my own peer group and it's amazing.

Small Coed 4.2

This year I competed in my first Cheerleading competition back in May on my college's level 4.2 Small Coed Team, we came in 2nd. It was very different from doing shows with my old high school acrosport team.  It was one intense spring for 2.5 minutes, instead of a 45 minute marathon of a show. I love both sports respectively, but I also love the change in pace. This year there is only one team a Level 6 Large Coed, and I'm looking forward to what we deliver in 2016!









I've never been a fan of the saying New Year, New Me. I don't want to be a New Me because I love myself, and I'm completely happy with who I am.  I find that statement sends a negative message that for a whole year YOU weren't good.

However this year, I'd like to change some things, some habits that I have. I'd love to cut my soda consumption down at least by 25%, and I'd like to start eating healthier. This past semester I fell into the trap of regularly buying lunch on campus, or getting some Tim Hortons here and there and it really hit my bank account, and my waistline.

I'll definitely be going back to pre-dominantly packing lunch from home. I can have healthier and more hearty meals. I have a six hour long class this semester, and I think having my lunch handy on that day would be so much more appealing.

If anyone wanted to know, I'm a fan of the Easy Lunchboxes I've been using them for over a year and a half. They're super durable and have stood up to both my Dad and I carting them to work, school, sports, and a memorable off the top of my buddy's pick-truck. They come in some great colours as well.

I'd like to be a little more active in the weight room. I'm more the type to indulge in sport ball, and not bar bell. However moving up to level 6 coed, I need the gain some more explosive power in my upper body, something I have, however not on the level I'd like it to be at. I'd also like to drop a good 20lbs in effort to make tumbling less strenuous on my joints and easier to learn in terms of having to employ less power during skills.

The biggest thing, I want to make memories and effect positive change in this world, give people a reason to smile.

That Secret Christmas List

Ssshhh It's a Secret

Now Christmas is about making memories with the people you hold dear, and celebrating the birth of Jesus ( if you'r e into that). Now I've always been thankful for everything I've ever received during the holidays. Many of them I would not have survived school and life intact without.  However we all do it, we all have that little list in our heads, of things we want, and will never put on that list our wives, husbands, siblings or parents have asked about. 

For as me, as I grew older it became harder to produce that Christmas list my much older siblings and my parents requested each year. It wasn't so much not having any ideas, it was knowing the value of a dollar. I started to request simpler things that I needed for school or last year it was a pair of desperately needed snowboard bindings, that I put last on the list signifying it being not the most important on the list.  I was blessed that year, Dad found away to get them for me. My parents new I'd been patching my bindings with spare parts since 2010, and they were too small.

This year I thought it'd be fun to put those few things I would love, but won't put on my Christmas list on here. Do any of you have those secret things?

1. A New York Rangers Martin St. Louis Jersey, ever since I was four years old I would ask Santa for a Rangers Jersey. I grew up and would put on the list to my parents. It was one of those Christmas wishes that ultimately did not come true.  I got older and understood why, but I've always longed for one, and Marty is my favourite career player.  This would be a win/win situation.

2. A Fighting '81 mug from Chicago Fire. It's kind of cheesy but I love the show and a mug just seems awesome. I need a morning hot chocolate mug.

3.  Nfinity Halos, I'm a cheerleader and Nfinity are the go to brand. I'd be blessed to have new competition shoes.  

4. Favourite T bedding Sheets from Pottery Barn Teen in a King. The look so cozy! I've never quite had new new sheets before mostly just hand-me downs from my oldest sister. It be cool to have a nice set of grey sheets to go with my navy comforter.

5. A Prime-Time collegiate locker by Gladiator Garage Works, I love the University of Kentucky it has the best cheer team. I'm an athlete who has to store there extra sports gear in their bedroom, as well as my camera gear. Something like this would not only be cool and quirky it'd serve so much function.

6.  Then there are those amazing SMS Audio First Edition: Star Wars Rebel Alliance headphones.  I'm a Digital Video Student and I do need good quality headphones, except I always buy dollar store budget earbuds to save money.  These would speak to my geeky heart but serve me well in school.

Those are the things I secretly would love to have, granted they'd all serve a current need. However they are wants that I can do without or find was to adapt around. However the thought of them is nice.

My Fall Essentials

Well hello, I know, I'm still alive and I'm sorry for being so quiet as of late. The college circuit keeps me busy.  Digital Video Production is an awesome program, I've got some courses that are proving a challenge this semester. I'm however maintaining a strong GPA. I'm hoping to bring up a few of my marks over the last few weeks of the semester to really round out my average. I'd love to stay at a 90% average for my grades, however I will be content with a 4.0 average to retain my spot on the college honour roll, and keep myself in the running to finish another program on the President's List.

We can definitely say autumn is in the air, and we're rolling into winter.  Well today it was unseasonably warm and registering at 20 celsius. I literally went outside to warm-up because it was colder in class. However I thought I'd share my 5 fall essentials. 

1.  It's fall, and it's great time for layers. I'm a layers guy. I can always take-off what I got, but I can't put on what I don't.  This year I've taken a liking to having a nice woven flannel shirt. 

2.  Convertibles,  yes it's an essential. I don't mean the car, that won't be a reality until I'm making good bank and not on a college budget. I'm talk about Glove Mittens. I'm in a video program and that involves both video/ photography and my hands can get pretty cold. These let me keep my hand mostly warm while freeing my fingers to work with the camera. Then when I'm on the go and not actively taking photos they convert into mittens. 

3.  A good travel mug, I like to take a hot chocolate on the go in the morning. I have to leave before the sun is up some mornings and it's nice to have my drink still be warm by the time I get on the bus. I'm not a coffee or tea guy. It's just never been my thing. 

4.  Halls: I'm not even joking your peers will start dropping like flies, and eventually you'll catch that itch in your throat, and the cough'll kick in. There is just something about that fall air. I always have Halls Extra Strong Drops on me. Sometimes for my own relief and often times to give one to the person sitting close to me who needs it.

5. Agenda: I may go large chunks of the school year without touching my agenda. However semesters are often back weighted, it's the end of the semester where all the final projects are due and all the exams are licking at my heels like hell fire. This is around the time, I need to start writing things down and keeping it all in check and not just relying on my memory.

I hope you enjoy these fall essentials.  What are some of yours? 

A Call to Cheer Coaches on World Suicide Prevention ( it is applicable to all coaches)

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, and I need to get something off my chest.  It's no secret that I have been bullied, most of my life. However something I don't always talk about, as teenager I struggled with self-harming. It became a pain I could control, an ironic balm to the sooth all the pain inflicted upon me that I couldn't. To this day, I doubt my parents even knew the depths to which it went. they only saw the surface. I'm very fortunate in having amazing skin, I've never permanantly scared before. Even the deepest of cuts faded and disappeared over time. Not to say I don't bare the scars unpon my soul. I had my fair share of deep contemplation on if it was really worth living. I'm proud to say I've survived.

Now let it be said, I can't completely fault my coach. It isn't always easy being a student/ athlete/ coach and being hardly out of your teens. I can even say at times I could see the qualities that would make them a great coach, and outside of the gym they could be pretty great. However they've got some growing to do as a coach but I'm confident enough in due time they'll grow into their own as a coach. If they ever come across this, I hope it'll a teachable moment and not shatter their confidence, because in the larger picture they're a good person. Because it's not meant for that. I'm not vindictive.

A little over five months ago, I'd posted a photo on Instagram.

I said it was from cheerleading, it wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth either. I left it to people to make the assumption it was sport related. It's time to clear the air.

I allowed a wound to fester, and eventually unloaded on my coach. I apologized for being a screw up, and that I try damn hard to master my counts. I practiced at two and three in the morning, knowing I had to be up at six am. I told them how they often make me feel worthless, and that I had no value. I was breaking a part. I bolted from the mats. I wanted to run, and I never wanted to look back. It was raining out, and my nfinitys are white.

Who'd want to muck up their competition shoe?

 Instead I flung myself into the bathroom, closed the door and broke apart. I cried for every bit hurt building in my heart. I cursed the fact the coach was pretty blind to what they were causing. What sucked, I could hear the coach making an example out of me from the bathroom, instead of you know checking on their athlete.  As much as I wanted to walk, I made a commitment to my teammates and I wouldn't leave them no matter how much I was hurting.

I pulled as much of myself together and walked back into the gym. My heart was still shredded and I was bleeding through all the cracks in the tenius armour I'd built back up, but I went in. I went to my correct spot in the routine and my coach yelled at me and said get off the mats as they filled in my spot. A clear message of " Your replaceable". I went to the side and sat with my to the wall and watched, just incase something changed in the routine.

Sitting there intently watching, I had bit my finger nail down to a sharp jagged point and proceeded to gouge out the flesh on my forearm. When practice ended, I was bleeding like a stuck pig. Outside the gym, I gave the coach my competition money and they told me " I don't mean to make you feel that way, but I'm not here to be your friend. What happened tonight, if it happens again your off the team" ( which was ironic since they were friends with people on the team) all while demanding I look them in the eye. I didn't want to, I was looking away so they couldn't rip off another bleeding chunk. The coach so seemingly pissed at me during practice failed to notice their own athlete self-harming not even five feet away. I posted the picture on instagram, to remind myself I couldn't be completely destroyed. However that same image brought on so much dissapointment with the hurt I'd been feeling that night. I hadn't cut or self-harmed in almost eight years. I wore mittens to bed that night. Needless to say I spent the next couple of weeks battling back to an even keel.

I guess what I'm saying with it being World Suicide Prevention day, and it being the start of the season for many college, high school, and all-star cheerleading teams. This also marks the start of many sports seasons in general.  Don't be the coach who preaches about leaving it at the door, create an athmosphere where your athletes feel like they can talk to you, without fear of judgement and ridicule. Don't be quick to judge an athlete who seems like they're only giving you 60% instead of 110% because that 60% might be %180 of everything they can give. Don't pass off an athlete as uncoachable and preach it to them with a message of your replaceable, because they'll internalize it.  Talk to your teams about real world problems that could effect them or maybe effecting them now.

Talk to them about triggers, and ask them away from the others if they have any. That way you'll be best able to work around them and not accidentally trigger them. This was something that played a huge part into what happened this year. My coach was close to my age, in my peer group and having them yell at me even deservedly, tell me to quite being a little bitch and the like it set off emotional triggers. It put me in a place where I genuinely couldn't fight back because I'd lose my spot on the team and it did nothing for our generally athlete/ coach relationship.

As coaches this year please watch out for your athletes, even the ones who seem happy go lucky. Value you all of them, let them know they have your friendship put yourself in a position to be the force that keeps them from the edge and not the one to push them over it. Coach your athletes to look out for their teammates and to show an unconditional love for eath other.  Create an enviornment built to break up sucidal thoughts that reminds your athletes they have something to be here for.

I'd also like to say that I am going back to try-out again for the college cheer team. I love the sport and for the most part my teammates. Cheer may not come easy to me at all, but I it's something I give my all too. This year my goal is to get a toss to hands unassisted and maybe a punch front round off back tuck this season.  I'll most likely still work those skills even if I don't make the team. I've also been talking to someone about how I better could of handle that situation and situations like that in the future from my end. I'm happier these days. My forearm has also healed 80% of the way and I only have one small scar to remind me of that battle and I'm sure by May of 2016 it will have left me too.

-H

Croatia, Scotland, Fiji

Scotland

I've never really gone on a "BIG VACATION". Sure I went to Jamaica when I was 6 and my sister was getting married. I don't really remember to much beyond wearing an itchy outfit, and being paid Five Whole Bucks to shut up. I've got a good set of pipes, if I wantcha to hear me....YOU DO!

Fiji

I've decided I'd really like to go to Croatia, but I'd really love to visit Scotland and Fiji sounds really cool as well.

Croatia

It'd be an interesting growing experience to take a trip, independant of my parents, family or a school team. One I've financed completely on my own, where I must be responsible, prepare and call the shots.

Is there anywhere you've ever wanted to visit?

Stay Beautiful...

I realize we live in a society that puts so much emphasis on physical beauty. I know the world can be full of people uttering hurtful words.  I know when I turn on the TV, I am not the only one who sees commercials, music videos, shows and movies filled with very good looking people. I know what it's like to see that, and feel average or sub-par. But I have something to tell you, You're beautiful.

Look in the mirror, you've got beautiful eyes. You might have hair that is curly, straight, kinky or a million different cowlicks, or you might not have any hair at all, But it's still all beautiful. You've got a unique smile that is all your own. There are so many incredible things about you inside, and out that make you beautiful.

Life can get tough, it can get ugly and it can be cruel. However Life will always be Beautiful and so will you.

Stay Beautiful.

-H

Some Veterans and Fireworks just don't Mix

Image from: Releasing The Past

I'm a Canadian, and I've grown up with a healthy love for the Military home and Abroad. I remember vividly being a young squirt, laying spread eagle on the floor, and watching my parents tv. I was completely captivated by Lt.Dan in Forrest Gump. I wanted to be a Marine. Mind you I was a young kid and I wasn't able to link Marines up with America, I mean I could hardly tie my shoes. However as I grew, my dreams changed but my love for the military and it's servicefolk and veterans has remained.

With the 1st of July( Canada Day) and the 4th of July( Independance Day:USA) there are going to be a lot of fireworks. However not everyone enjoys them, some veterans because of PTSD end up in terrifying flashbacks of warzones, danger and losing their brothers in arms. Fireworks after all are essentially very colourful, non-destructive and pretty bombs.

If you live in an area where civilians can set of their own fireworks, and you know or possibly think you may have a veteran in your area. Try and gather all the neighbours wanting to set of their fireworks together and have a big show away from the homes. If this isn't possible, maybe you and your neighbours could each chip in 5$ or 10$ and gift your neigbourhood with a pair of good noise cancelling headphones and some Dinner on US cash so they can order out and have their own quiet dinner and movie. Take some pictures of your fireworks, print a few out and have the neighbours sign them and gift them to your veteran. They need to know you're in their corner, and you don't think less of them for not quite being able to handle the fireworks.

Now I've always wondered as a community, and knowing what we do about PTSD and the effects it can have on people. Why haven't we organized and put into place a night of fun for our local veterans ( and their family) where the noise associated with the 4th of July & Canada Day would be muffled or kept at a minimum? Maybe a night at the movies where a family funny, non-violent film ( New or Old) could be shown. It's just a thought, maybe you'll be the one in your area to start something like this.

Long story short, please respect your veterans and some of the mental scars they carry over these two holidays.

-H