Writing Ideas

So i love writing with multi coloured markers in my A4 visual art diary. I love writing with my hands instead of typing, the only problem being that my handwriting is second to chicken scratches on a page.

I love mind maps, so i done i few and I will upload a few shortly from one of my novel ideas and a story board

will post soon!

promise

if i remember lol

Quote

I was watching 'Never mind the bollocks...Here's the Sex Pistols' documentary. These words by Johnny Rotten summarised what I believe the power of writing holds for me :)

“How can you ban language? Words? How are words offensive? Why should I have to tolerate your interpretation of my words? I'm the one using the word, ask me how I'm using it, don’t tell me. And if you don’t like the way I'm using it, so what? It’s my right; it’s my freedom of expression. Without that we’re nothing but slaves.”
- Johnny Rotten

Why I became a donor :)

I remember sitting in the RTA at Hurstville filling out an 18+ card in 2008. I had just turned 18 and had no license so I had to get this card.

On the second page was the part where you choose if you want to be a donor. I took a good hard look at it and I felt dread - What if I were alive and they cut out everything?!?! etc etc and I think its natural to feel that way.

But I ticked the boxes anyway. I ticked everything - heart, lung, liver, kidney, skin, cornea, etc.

"Why?" my sisters asked me. "Why would you want to give everything away??"

But I replied with "Why wouldn't I?"

In 1997, my uncle Wayne Flavell died of malignant bone cancer. Being seven at the time, my memory of him has become dimmer as time passes. Though he will always be in my heart, if had my way I would choose to have him in my life. That man who always remembered my birthday and would mysteriously appear on the day with a gift for me, who was the best brother to my father, who lived at the beach with a car much like the movie "Christine." So far it has been 13 years since he has died and if I could give him something minute such as bone marrow transplant to keep him alive to stop feeling like a tiny piece is missing I would in a heart beat.

As I made the decision to donate my organs I thought about my Uncle. I didn't ever want to feel this way again, I wanted to be sure that if my family was ever in need of a transplant someone would be there. For those who wait years for a second chance at life, I dont want to feel such turmoil. I don't want to be sitting in a doctor's office or at some hospital and being told that me or my family being told that we would have to be placed on a donor list and have to wait for someone else's misfortune to be able to get an organ.

It is everyone's choice whether or not to be an organ or blood donor but I choose to give. As a farewell to living, seeing and breathing in this world I give back the gift of life for those who need it most and hopefully, those who deserve it.


I leave my liver and kidneys so that they could take the bad stuff that life has dealt them and filter it so that the stuff that matters will hold true and stuff that is unnecessary will be excrete...and that is me putting it nicely :)

I give my corneas in the hope that my love of seeing, reading and looking at the world and knowing that by living you are making a difference. Take these eyes and stand strong, make a change for the better and read some more for me, mainly the romantic kind of novels. Look around you and hope others, those who are in need because there is no greater satisfaction than doing one good deed a day.

I gladly give my skin. I wear my heritage proudly through it and it is used as a shield. Skin in your first defense against the heat and keeps us cool. Feeling and touching is one of the best ways to learn about the world. The skin tells a story of its own, so wear mine as proudly as I do and do what you can to protect it.

I leave my bone tissue, so that you stand firm when issues in life try to knock you down. Know that I was raised with 3 sisters so I can hold my own and so will you. Bone tissue is what strengthens your bones, so I provide you with the glue that it will hold strong that which was bursting.

I give thee my lungs, because each time you breathe you are breathing in life. Suck in the air and breathe out the satisfaction that you will live to see new things. For me, breathing is the beginning of living. Nothing is better than breathing and it provides you with new experiences each day.

Most importantly, I give my heart. So that their world will be filled with lots of love. So that he or she can share their heart with someone else. I know that there are technical terms for how the heart works, but I believe that you have to want to life for it to truly function. Love is one of the most important feeling in my life and it will enrich the life of the lucky person who gets it.

By simply giving away what God blessed me with, I leave behind a legacy to those who were unlucky. I live on through them and I hope that they find joy in being able to live again. I give these people a new chance at life and that is a feeling that overwhelms me.

So, why don't you?

Stellar images

Something to brighten up your day and waste hours looking at them, as if you were on holiday enjoying the view.
"Time spend wasting was not wasted"
- John Lennon

Teaching, my passion

Im so happy that i get to follow my passion and for that, I thank my Mum and Dad for allowing me to study. Without them I would have to find my own way.

Growing up in Whangarei New Zealand and going to Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Te Rawhitiroa, I was restricted learning English. In fact, I never had a proper english class until I was ten and even then it was just one day a week.

I remember my first day. I was looking forward to going to my english class that I braved the torrential rain even when I was given permission to stay home. I had waited so long to learn this subject that nothing was going to keep me back. I felt so proud that on top of being gifted with learning the language of my Maori ancestors I would be learning the language of the world. English gave me the ability to excel as a Maori of which I could express in English.

Right now, I am in the middle of completing a Bachelor of Arts/Masters of Secondary Teaching. A long way, almost 10 years, since I began that first lesson. Many who know me are really surprised that I learnt english so late in life. They are usually surprised and it makes me feel proud.

I may be auto didactic but to get to a stage of being self taught I learnt from the best = Teachers.

I could tell you of the teachers who got me to this state: first of all, my family, my first primary teacher Whaea (Maori for Miss/Mrs) Tatiana. Matua (Maori for Mr/Sir) Alex Henare and most notable in my life Matua Ross Smith, Whaea Dorothy Waetford, Whaea Vee Almark and Whaea Ana Henare. If there ever was an Olympics for teaching, they would have taken out the gold medal. I felt that these teachers were proud of me and could see me as a student who loved to learn. Apart from serious illness, nothing kept me from going to school and wanting to know what we were going to learn about today.

Then, in December 2001 I moved to Australia and began middle school the following year. It was a whole new world and I was an alien in it. But where I had little hope in myself and my lack of understanding for english, like essays and assignments, I found it again in my teachers. Particularly my english teacher Mrs Brody who encouraged me to read (something I really love then and now) when no one else did. Ms Beasly my french teacher was also an inspiring lady, Mrs Harrison my Computing teacher and Mr Belinfante my art teacher, Mrs Sant and Mr Forrero my maths teachers. And I would like to add that Ms Rogerro, a substitute teacher, was one of the best. Part time actor, she was someone who was passionate about life and learning and she too saw something in me that encouraged me to find out what was shining so bright within me.

But the downside of the move was that I had no way of maintaining my link to my ancestors through speaking te reo. No one at home spoke it a part from my sister Stacy, who was ashamed to speak it. For me, it was like severing my umbilical cord to my ancestors by not speaking Maori every day and as a constant student I wish to pick it up once again.

Going to Penshurst Girls Middle School, I became comfortable and my education was steadily increasing. I had gotten into a set rhythm and I liked it; I knew what was expected of me and I was in my comfort zone.

That was until 2006 when I had to attend Oatley Senior High School. I absolutely hated the idea of attending a co-ed high school. I was comfortable and I hated change. There was no way to get out of it and my first week was filled with fear and uncertainty.

But my fear was soon relinquished. I had teachers that I was mature enough to not take this feeling for granted. I had teachers who I chose as mentors in my life Mrs Karen Vitale who I saw as someone like me. She was who I wanted to be and a teacher who taught her subject with constant passion and interest. Someone who would be in my autobiography. Another teacher,

Dr Robert Hamilton, inspired this blog. See, he is going through a legal dispute regarding him as a teacher and all I can say is that it is a shame. He is someone who touched my life and was more that a teacher, he was a human being. I know that his legacy will go on in me.

My 13 years of schooling, both Maori and English, has taught me that where I go in life, teachers are always going to there and needed. They make up the fabric of my life and I hope that by becoming a teacher it will be a tribute to what they have done for me. That I could be as passionate as they that I could inspire people life me. Where there is hopelessness there will always be an equally brighter light that would draw those who need it, so that this light would make them want to see a brand new day. I want to be that light.

Thats the key; to love learning and never stop. Always be thirsty for it, always want more because life is so short not to discover everything. We only have a small amount of time here so discover it: our history, current affairs, events, cultures, countries, space, occupations, maths, science all of it.

Grasp life by always being a student of the world and loving it.