The day had finally come; my first day of Grade 1. Suffering from severe insomnia the night prior, I was in no way ready to divorce my bed and begin my day. Shortly after arriving at school and having the I-don't-know-anyone-but-like-me attitude, I had already formed bonds of friendships with many others to my own surprise. We all got along quite well, the only sort of trouble I got myself into was putting rocks on one end of a teeter-totter and then another child would jump on the opposing side catapulting the stones. This all seemed like a good idea until one day my teeth turned into the culprit rather than the rocks.
My Name is Kinsey Oliver and I am an optimist. Quite a few things have prepared me for the never-ending swim, but one that sticks out in my mind is my move to Vancouver Island from Ontario. At the time I was only the tender age of 5. My Mother had the opportunity to place me into a grade 1 class rather than kindergarten since I was previously in a French immersion “Pre-Kindergarten”. As a little kid, I hated being in trouble or in the wrong. When I was in the 5th grade I had an experience that changed me for the rest of my life. The bright shining personality who held the explainable tie that was my family had passed from cancer; from then on I had a pact with myself that I would never again take life for granted. During my switch from elementary to middle school and my current, that feeling of “I don’t want to get in trouble” has matured into an all-encompassing life outlook of “stay positive.” Life can be taken in two ways: one being you take the plunge or on a lucky off chance you score a perfect swan dive into most things. My motto of “stay positive” is the oxygen in my tank that keeps me breathing in the ocean that is life. Then came my flux into high-school; a shift that not many young adults cope well with. If anything, starting high-school only assisted in teaching me to always seek the good in people, which I consider to be my best accomplishment.
Now that I’m in the water, I have to get used to my new surroundings and map out where I want to go, what direction I want to explore. Being an advocate of my own mantra has only brought around positivity. My absolute favourite part of this positivity is the people I choose to surround myself with. If their absence was a possibility my high-school years would have been one colossal failure. Needless to say, it would have been a horrible experience. Between going on long evenings of homework with Paige, sharing a joke with Jessica, long hours in advisory with Tiffany, or swapping fashion advice with Hayley. Of course, my friends aren’t the only ones who made my journey through the hallways of big-kid school enjoyable. Family is something anyone will have when their friends are absent. If I factor school and friends out of my life, I’m left with some of the best experiences of my life. From exploring Europe for an entire month last May with my grandmother, road trips to Florida with my brothers and both of my grandparents, or trips to the Calgary Stampede with my step-dad, my spare time is virtually non-existent. I have now become accustomed to my surroundings underwater, and I’m ready to go deeper and swim around a little bit. I have an over-abundance of oxygen left in my tanks which will allow me to scrutinize my surroundings until my heart is content. Being a soon-to-be