Time for a Break

Photograph taken by Daniel Abrams

Photograph taken by Daniel Abrams

I’ve been told time and time again that the air in the city is nothing compared to the air out there where the land remains unscarred. But, when you spend most of your life surrounded by the familiar sounds of cars hurrying to their destinations, you begin to wonder how everyday life could continue in a place without electricity and other such necessities.

So, when I got the choice of which hike I wanted to do, in order to complete the Silver level of the President’s Award, I chose one that would be far away from the goings on of the city, even though it meant I would have to get up before dawn on the first day of my mid-term. But although I was willing to sacrifice a few hours of sleep, I couldn’t fight the nerves that were storming around my body. As the hike grew closer I spent more time wondering if I would be able to cope without the luxuries I was used to (like a proper mattress and a microwave). I also wondered if I would be able to keep up with the other teenagers that would be hiking with me. After all, I wouldn’t get enough time to soak up the forest atmosphere if I was constantly trying not to lag behind.

On the first day of my hike I realized that I shouldn’t have worried about anything. The girls and boys who were with me were so friendly that by the time we got to the first climb of the day we were already prepared to motivate each other. We all walked at a decent pace which meant I had plenty of time to stop and gaze at the wonders of the forest. Thank goodness I did or else I would’ve missed seeing the majestic waterfalls, the beautiful running streams that we had to walk over and the giant Eucalyptus trees that were over 100 years old.

However, after staring at the trees and counting the leaves until my eyes started to hurt, I realized that I still had many more hours of walking before I’d be able to see the next hut. And so, I used this time to make new friends and learn new things. For instance, thanks to one of the boys I learnt how to play Water Polo, which used to be a sport that totally confused me because of the speed the game was played at. But, even though we chatted a lot there were still many moments of silence that stretched between us all and this is when I let my imagination guide me. This meant that I spent an entire hour being absolutely grateful that I wasn’t a snail because carrying my possessions for four days was enough to drive me crazy. I definitely wouldn’t be able to cope if I had to do it for the rest of my life. Especially since that would mean that the only meals I would ever eat would be oats, peanut butter on savoury biscuits and camping food. Although that doesn’t sound too bad, when you have it over and over again the flavours in those dishes start to fade and so after just a few days I was already missing real food. AKA food that doesn’t just need hot water to cook.

But, even though there were some aspects of the hike that were a bit rough (such as my aching shoulders after carrying a bag for so long), I thoroughly enjoyed the hike, made some great friends and got a chance to really appreciate the natural beauty of an area I’d never been to before.

So if you get the opportunity to choose between stressing over exams or doing something completely different, I hope you’ll make the more adventurous decision.



PS: The air really is so much purer away from the cities.

Kindness

We live in a world where thousands of people die everyday. Women and children are hurt for absolutely no reason and some people are so self-absorbed that they forget to be nice. And yet, there are still many people who go out of the way to be kind to others. These people are the nameless superheros that our world so desperately needs.

After reading through twenty quotes about kindness I've picked out my favourite few that will hopefully inspire you to start doing at least one Random Act of Kindness each day. I promise you that you'll feel really good after you've done it. You don't need to spend lots of money, even smiling at a stranger is enough to make a change.


And, just in case you run out of ideas what to do as your RAK over the next few days, I've decided to jot down a few ideas:

• Bake cupcakes and take them to work/school for your friends and colleagues. This will also earn you a few more Brownie points.
• Make an extra sandwhich and give it to a person in need.
• Be extra polite to your irritating boss/colleague/sibling.
• Do something nice for yourself preferably something that makes you smile.
• Phone your grandparents and spend some time chatting to them. They'll love this.
• Laugh at someone's lame joke just to make them feel better.
• If someone says something rude to you just ignore them instead of making a big fuss about it.
• Take your pets for a walk.
• Donate to your favourite charity.
• Phone that friend of yours who's going through a rough stage.
• SMILE! It's contagious and you might just brighten up someone's day by showing off your lovely teeth.
• If you see someone struggling offer to help them even if you're really busy.

You see being kind is not too difficult, and so I challenge you to do at least seven acts of kindness before my next blog post. If you get a chance, tell me what you've done.  I'd love to hear from you all :)

Response to a Letter I Received

Dear Samantha and all of my other readers,

This was a thought provoking letter that began turning the cogs of my imagination. After a lot of thinking I think I may have found two suitable answers for you. First of all, I want you to know that I completely understand your train of thought however, if you look at the situation differently you realize that this film was a very good thing even though it was expensive. This is because so many people were hired in order to making this film a success. As many countries are dealing with reasonably high unemployment rates this is beneficial to society (even if it's just in one country as a large amount of people would be hired).

Your second question was whether it was fair that some people got paid more money than others though their roles in society differ. The simple answer is that life is not fair and as a result seeking fairness in a situation like this will end in dissatisfaction. However, if you want a more complicated answer you need to understand that a person's role in society may not seem too important at a glance but when analysed you realize that they are more valuable than you first thought. For example, you may think that an actor is not particularly valuable in society because their job does not directly affect you. Yet, if all of the actors and actresses were removed from society you would realize that there would be fewer sources of entertainment and thus more people would be suffering from stress.

I hope this helps,
Kirsten A. Everett

A Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity

I love reading for many reasons. One of them is because when you read a book you are able to unlock someone else’s imagination and be whisked away on numerous adventures. Even though this is the same for when you listen to an audio-book I don’t enjoy it as much when I hear someone else tell the story. After all, when this is done I don’t get to hear the tale being told by my own voice (in my mind of course) and when I hear someone else describing the characters I actually find it harder to picture them.

However, when you don’t want to know a certain piece of information it’s easier to ignore it if it’s in writing partly because you can just close your eyes. But, if someone is telling you the information it may trickle passed your blocked ears and into your brain.

So, when I was invited to speak on Jacaranda FM I couldn’t refuse the opportunity. Especially since my voice would finally be able to reach the ears of hundreds of people; that thought alone should have put me under a lot of pressure. Yet, when I climbed up the stairs to the recording studio I felt lighter than a feather. Not an ounce of me was nervous even when I sat down and put the pair of headphones on. In fact, the only time I felt a little anxious was when Martin Bester asked me the first question. Because then I knew that I wasn’t stuck in a dream. My voice was actually being recorded as I shared my passion for rhinos with the rest of the province. And hopefully, after hearing my story they will accept my challenge and join me on the 4th of October for the Global March for Elephants, Rhinos and Lions.

Click here to listen to my interview:

http://www.jacarandafm.com/post/taking-to-the-streets-for-elephants-rhinos-and-lions/

Lessons from a Mountain Biker

16km doesn't sound like a very long distance. In fact, you would probably cover it quickly if you were in a car or on a road bike. However, when the tar beneath your tyres turns into loose rocks and the terrain around you becomes mountainous you know you're in for a challenge. And so, when the hooter screamed and the bikes around me lurched forward I grinned. After all I wouldn't be a true mountain biker if I didn't love challenges.

My legs spun propelling me forward whilst my thoughts flew back a few years to my first cycle race ever. I was young then and not very fit but that never bothered me. Actually, I was planning on sprinting my way through the entire route and thus beat all of the eager boys in front of me. That didn't happen, however, I learnt a very important lesson on that ride:

If you don't concentrate whilst riding through a rocky section then you'll probably fall off of the bike.

I've learnt many other lessons since then. Some of them are obvious like: if you don't clean your bike the dirt and mud will make your cycle less pleasant and another one is that if you don't wear gloves you can't really complain if you fall and lose some of the skin on your hands.

These are valuable lessons however, as I pedaled up the first (proper) hill of the day I realized that I hadn't quite learnt all of the lessons that there was to learn. So, I kept my mind open as my legs tired and my back was starting to hurt. To be honest, the ride wasn't easy especially since I wasn't too fit and so when I got the opportunity to stop halfway up the hill. I took it. I was breathless, my entire body already hurt and frankly I didn't want to go through the same pain again just to do the second lap. But, I bit my lip and carried on around the dam and up the slope past the starting banner. I had eight kilometers left. Eight kilometers up rocky hills and then back down again. It wasn't my legs that got me through that second lap. It was my mind. And that was the lesson I learnt that morning, your mind is your strongest tool. You can get through a race even if you're not too fit as long as your mind is calm and determined, however, you can't even ride half the distance if you're fit but your mind falters and your will isn’t there.

So, if you're tired and feel like giving up just remember "success is how high you bounce after you hit [rock] bottom."

www.chahal.com

Arbor Day

Friday the 5th of September was Arbor Day and so around the world various events were being hosted to celebrate our trees. One such event took place at Johannesburg Zoo where thousands of schoolchildren gathered to hear speeches, explore the zoo and learn more about the world they live in.

Even though the event specifically focussed on trees Rhino SA was invited to have a stand and educate the schoolchildren about rhino poaching in South Africa. My sister and I went along to help Irene Huysamen and Emma-Rae Philipson in spreading the word about rhinos. In the four hours we were there we spoke to around a hundred children between the ages of 3 and 15. It was a very interesting experience for me as I’d never spoken to four year olds about rhinos before and as a result they helped me to be creative in my explanations.

I was honestly surprised at the questions and blank faces that I was greeted with by the older kids though it reminded me how important it was that we were giving up our time to spread the word. I was grateful that most of the children understood the importance of the issue and promised us that they would do what they could to stop rhino poaching.

After standing and speaking all morning Emma-Rae Philipson and I went to the rhino enclosure where we recorded our message that will be sent on the behalf of Rhino SA to the World Youth Rhino Summit next weekend. Hopefully our message will inspire many more people to join the fight against rhino poaching.

Spring!!

So today is the first of September and almost a whole month since I did my last blog post. I hope that everyone has had a relaxing few weeks and is ready to start off Spring with some great goals ahead. I certainly am, but if you haven't and you aren't into the Spring spirit yet then hopefully this pic will make you glad that Winter is officially over!!!

http://ifthislove.blogspot.com/

As you already know I haven't been posting much recently but that's because I've been so busy dreaming up new, inspiring and interesting ideas for blog posts. So, I hope you all have a great Spring and I look forward to posting creative posts for you to read ;)

Here's a Spring riddle from http://www.2020site.org: 

How is the letter A like a Spring flower?

The answer will be revealed in my next Blog post but you can send me what you think the answer is and I'll tell you if it's right :p