Bisons ready for first playoff tilt in 5 years - Canstar

Bisons ready for first playoff tilt in 5 years - Canstar

Remember walking down the street and knocking on your friend's door?

I had to work Boo at the Zoo this weekend. And last. It was cold out. But that isn't what this blog post is about. This post is about something I said out loud while I was there.

As you know I come from a small town, so naturally I have friends from said town. Now I haven't had the chance to get back home in a while so that means I haven't seen my first friends in a while.

So here I am at Boo at the Zoo freezing my little tush off and I hear,

"Allison? Allison!"

I turn to my left and BAM! Little Tia is standing right there waving and smiling at me. Tia turns 18 on Wednesday do she came into the city for a "real bar experience."

At first I was super excited to see her. I love her, she's like a little sister to me. But then I got mad.

"How come you never told me you were coming in!"

I pretty much scolded the poor kid but my emotions were running high- I was so freakin excited but she caught me off guard and I don't like being surprised.

"I got a new phone so I don't have your number. I couldn't text you."

"You have me on Facebook! Coulda messaged me on there!"

Did I really just say that? Yes I did bout loud. People stared.

Now I'm all for social media, I love it a lot. But sometimes I miss the days when I would tell my friends to "call on me" which meant coming to knock on my door later to see if I could come out and play.

I wonder what life was like for the generations before mine. No Internet. No cellphones. I doubt they could even fathom what an "app" was.

I'm all for moving forward in today's world. Social media is huge. Everything is becoming digital these days. But sometimes I wish I could be that little kid again- when I could hear my mom calling me to come home from a block away because that woman is a powerhouse when it comes to yelling. My curfew was when the street lights came on. And 50 cents was enough for a jumbo freezie at M&Ms convenience store- and a jumbo freezie was enough for both me and my best friend Dillon to share. That would be really hard to believe if you saw him now... A whole box of freezies probably wouldn't fill that kid up.

I used Facebook as a verb. End of story.

These are some pics of me and Dilly over the years. He's my besty.

1000 farewells.

We read 'A Thousand Farewells' by Nahlah Ayed for J class. After reading the book we had a test in class and were set to blog about it. Because I can't think of a creative way to dive into this blog post I'm just going to answer the questions our instructor told us to answer. Brief rundown- Nahlah Ayed lived in Winnipeg before her parents decided to pack the kids up and move back to the Middle East and live in a refugee camp for a few years before moving back to Canada. Later in her life, Nahlah travels back to the Middle East as a journalist and she encounters many horrible things like mass graves and being beaten up in a war zone. This is her recount of these events.

What works?

Nahlah Ayed is amazing at painting visuals in your head. She basically makes you feel like you're right there.

What doesn't work?

I felt there were a lot of points in the book where I had to re-read the same thing a few times until I fully understood what I was reading when it came to deciphering the names. Half the time I wasn't sure if she was talking about a person or a place.

What's missing?

I felt the book was well-rounded enough. I didn't think it was missing anything in particular.

What can journalists learn from this?

They can learn what it's like to be a journalist in a foreign country and that it's not always daisies and rainbows. At one point Nahlah and her crew got attacked and were physically beaten just because they were reporters. You have to be prepared to accept whatever life is going to throw at you whether it's negative or positive when traveling as a journalist and you may actually have to put your life on the line to get the story you're after.

How does it compare to another non-fiction work of your choice in any medium?

I'm not sure I've read a story similar enough to this one to actually compare it. But I do applaud Nahlah for being able to open up and talk about her experiences of living in the Middle East as a child and going back as an adult and the struggles she faced.

How did reading this book affect you?

It definitely opened my eyes to what it's like to travel overseas and try to make your way in a country that doesn't want you there. I've never been a foreigner in my life so I've never experienced what it might be like to feel that way. After reading this book it changed my opinion on pursuing the journalist route. I'm not really sure I want to do it anymore.

No stereotypes here- just stigmas.

I spent my younger years growing up in a small rural community about five hours north(ish) of Winnipeg. Swan River, MB is where I was born and raised for a little bit. I was introduced to aboriginals at this young age and they became a part of my life because a large majority of the people living in Swan River are aboriginal. They were my friends. They were my parents friends. They were the people that I knew. They were just people, the same as me, not different at all.

But when I moved to Winnipeg my eyes were opened to a new form of racism. Not the normal "white people don't like black people" kind of racism I was used to. Winnipeg was bigger than Swan. A lot bigger. My elementary school had more kids in it than there were kids in Swan and the surrounding areas.

This kind of life was so new that it took some time to adjust to. I felt the need to conform to what everyone else was saying. And when you're seven ears old, that seems like the only logical thing to do. So I did. I hung out with the white kids, (even though I was visibly darker than them) and I did white kid things. Which I now realize is not any different than what kids of any other color do. I just felt different playing with these kids than I did back home- with both my white friends and my native friends.

As i got older I realized I felt the most at ease when I'd go back home to visit because I felt as though I would shrug off this fake person I was pretending to be. Everyone loves everyone in Swan. That's just how it is.

In Winnipeg there is such a stigma attached to aboriginals. They aren't treated like everyone else. In my opinion they are treated the worst and I can't seem to understand why. They are people. Real people.

One of my best friends is aboriginal. Swampy Cree in fact. She was born in Norway House, MB. A RESERVE!! Yes. Not just a regular old Indian from the north end. An Indian from a reserve!

Kia Wilson is 19 years old and now attending Brandon University studying physical education. She graduated high school ON TIME and with honors.

How's that for a stereotype?

"I'm going to school to prove it to myself and those people who doubt not only me but all aboriginal people."

Out of Kia's graduating class of 32 kids, only 5 continued on to post secondary education. She knows the rate of post secondary education is low in reserve communities but she doesn't believe that's how it has to be.

"I try to set an example for the younger kids in my community who think they won't amount to anything because that's all they have programmed into their heads by everyone else. "

Kia is a strong woman that believes in herself and what she stands for. Her goal is to destroy the stigma attached to people coming from reserves. But the stigma doesn't just come from outsiders- the city people. It comes from within the community itself. Many communities strive to stick together and be proud of their accomplishment but Kia said sometimes when she goes home the people around her treat her differently because they think she feels above them for continuing education.

"It amazes me that some supposed 'educated' individuals think that all aboriginal people are on welfare or drunks or just stupid. Most people doubted me when they found out I was from a rez because I speak very well and am an excellent student."

Kia is no different than me or you. And the only thing that might actually set her apart from us is that she can speak in her native tongue and live off of the land if she needed to. That doesn't make her a savage. It makes her a well rounded individual who is going places.