My Buried Life

http://animoto.com/play/K04X41KXtoTXlvO18SaXfw

Author’s Note 

 Hi, my name is Paige Harrington and I’m 17 years old! 

 This is a list of things I would like to do before I die, at first it kind of sounds grim. In a way it’s a reminder of death and being young I don’t think about death too much. Once you look deeper into it though you can see that it’s actually about life, it’s about living your life doing the things you want. This has really made me think of what I want; I tried really hard to make this as personal to me as possible. I tried to think outside the box, it would have been easy for me to list a bunch of places I want to travel to and just be done. But that’s not what I truly want; I want to do things that make me happy, things that will truly make my life enjoyable.

 A lot of the things listed on my list are little things I can do to make myself a better person, don’t get me wrong I do want to travel and do typical daring things but little things really matter to me. I hope that I can complete everything on my list and that it keeps growing bigger and bigger! 

50 Things To Do Before I Die 

 1) Fly In A Plane

 2) Spend New Year's Eve In Time Square 

 3) Experience Zero Gravity 

 4) Donate Blood 

5) Catch a Baseball At a Baseball Game

6) Pet A Tiger 

7) Swim In The Ocean 

8) Travel To Isle of Man 

9) Learn How To Stop While Skating 

10) Drive Down Route 66 

11) Make A Wish In The Trevi Fountain In Rome 

12) Ride A Gondola 

13) Be A Mother 

14) Go To Legoland 

15) Go TO Disney World 

16) Visit Abbey Road 

17) Attend Mardi Gras 

18) Bungee Jump 

19) Watch Every Episode of FRIENDS 

20) Learn How To Speak Fluent French

21) Go On A Safari 

22) Go To A Walk-In Aquarium 

23) Road Trip With My Friends 

24) Ride In A Hot Air Balloon 

25) Be On A Game Show 

26) Meet My Doppelganger 

 27) Watch A Meteor Shower 

 28) Go Surfing 

 29) Find A Four Leaf Clover 

 30) Try Horseback Riding 

 31) Attend A Olympic Activity 

 32) Own My Dream Car 

 33) Write A Song 

34) Attend An AC/DC 

 35) Travel To The CN Tower 

 36) Wish On A Shooting Star 

 37) Visit Sydney, Australia 

 38) Ride A Motorcycle 

 39) Host A Halloween Party 

 40) Learn How To Whistle 

 41) Go To The Rainforest Cafe 

 42) Learn How To Irish Dance 

 43) Name A Star 

44) Go Cliff Jumping 

 45) Go To Marine Land 

 46) Ride The London Eye 

 47) Drive The Atlantic Road 

 48) Plan My Dream Wedding 

49) Go Zip-Lining 

 50) Travel All Over Europe

Now What… 

A lot of the items on my list involve traveling to different places, it’s always been something I’ve wanted to do and never really had much of a chance to do. Sadly, traveling isn’t something I have the time or money for right now. I really hope to travel the world someday but I don’t plan on doing it in the near future. Instead I want to complete some of the little things on my list, lots of them are things that are so simple to complete I have no excuse not to do them! Donating blood being one, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for so long and just haven’t. There’s really no reason but I have full intentions to get it done next week!

 One of the bigger things that ideally will be accomplished soon is a road trip with my friends. We have been planning to do this for a while now and this summer seems like the perfect opportunity. If a few of us could get a good plan together I don’t see why this couldn’t be completed. I have some money saved that I would be more than willing to use for this, it would be a perfect way to start our summer and end our school year. I’m not sure where we’ll go but hopefully I can cross a few other things off the list along the way.

Pet Peeves

Here, is a list of my top 5 biggest pet peeves. This are the things that most annoy/bother me when people do them.

1)Anyway-Anyways 

Okay everybody, here's a short grammar lesson for you. There is no 's' at the end of anyway. Anyway is an adverb and adverbs can't be plural. Would you say everywheres or anymores? No, so why do you say anyways? 

2) The Sound of People Flicking Their Finger Nails 

This is my nails on a chalkboard, I cannot deal with the sound of flicking finger nails. It makes me cringe and I think it is so annoying 

3) When People Touch My Wristy power to avoid trhi

Veins disturb me, as weird as that sounds. I can't touch, scratch or even look at the veins in my wrist. It drives me nuts, the wrist is such a sentiative spot on my body. To me, seeing veins through my skin is the most disturbing thing ever. So, because of this I cannot handle when people touch my wrists. 

4) Things In The Wrong Place

This is a weird one because it's not just objects; actually it's not objects, it's living things. I don't like when other living things aren't where they usually are. For example if I go on vacation with family and I see somebody from school there. That bothers me because they are not suppose to be there. If I see a spider or mouse in my house, that's not okay because they are not suppose to be there. They do not belong in my house. 

5) When The Colour of Your Jeans Fade
I don't wear jeans very often, and I absolutely hate wearing jeans once the colour has faded from them. I do almost everything in my power to avoid them fading. 

Social Fiction Short Story- "My Crazy Aunt Mari"

Created by: Rebecca Roger and Paige Harrington

http://25.media.tumblr.com/75ffc90508934573b8c1690594c76653/tumblr_mqq18aC9sW1qee12to5_1280.jpg 

On Twitter @Katy_Durant

 https://twitter.com/Katy_Durant 

 "My Crazy Aunt Mari" 

 It was no surprise that my aunt was weird. If the way she talked and dressed didn't give it away, then her house sure did. Aunt Marianne was the talk of the town, and when you lived in a small town like I did, there wasn't much else to talk about. So, you can only imagine my excitement when my parents told me I would be staying with her while they vacationed in Jamaica. 

 "I just don't get why I have to stay with her, she's so weird," I grumbled in the car on the way to her house. "Katy, it's only for a week. It'll be good for you to get to know her better," my mother replied in a very exasperated tone. 

 "Hmmph, that's not fair," I complained, and continued to stare angrily out the window at the passing fields scarce mountains. 

 After about half an hour of driving and complaining, we arrived at the ten storey building in which my Aunt resides. I guess you could say she’s kind of rich. Her place looks like an apartment building, except each floor looks like it’s made of a bunch of scrap metal boxes; each one placed more and more crooked then the last. I guess my brother was a little more excited than me to be here because he jumped out of the car and ran straight into my Aunt's bear hug.

 “Joshy, how’s my favourite nephew?!” Aunt Mari exclaimed. I followed slowly behind them, hauling my huge bag up the steps as my Aunt let go of my brother and turned her attention to me. 

 “Oh Katy, how you’ve grown! Do you need help with your bag?” Aunt Mari says, giving me a kiss on the cheek. 

 “Hi Auntie Mari, I’m fine thanks.” 

 Once we were finished our greetings and my parents said their goodbyes, Josh and I were told to pick our own room, because after all there were about a million of them. I picked the purple one on the sixth floor. Far enough from everything but not too far away that I would be isolated from everything. Josh picked a room just down the hall from me. It had green walls with these weird dinosaur stamps all over the ceiling. It was kind of childish but it had a huge bed and a TV in it, so I understand why he chose it. Once I was settled and had explored the sixth floor, I decided to see what the rest of the building was like. I walked out of my room, but before entering the elevator I called out to Josh. 

 “Hey Josh, wanna go exploring?” I yelled down the hall. 

 “Yeah!” he said, poking his head out the door and running to catch up with me. We got into the elevator and stood there for a minute, debating which of the nine other floors to check out first. 

 “Up or Down?” I asked Josh. 

“Let’s go….down,” he said and hit the button to the second floor. 

I don’t think either of us expected what we saw; the entire floor was designed like a green house. The walls were all made of glass and the room was lit entirely by sunlight. There were plants and trees everywhere, flowers of all colours. I couldn’t identify any of them, but they all looked tropical. It was gorgeous! Right in the center of the room there was a table. It was white but the paint was chipping to reveal the wood underneath it. It had four matching chairs around it, all with the same white paint. If it wasn’t in a house it might have been a normal sight. We looked around for a bit before proceeding to the next floor, three. 

We stepped onto the floor and were faced with a hallway. It was long and narrow, with doors on both sides and a huge set of double doors at the end. I started opening a few but the rooms looked pretty average, some designed like bedrooms and some like bathrooms. I hadn’t noticed that Josh had skipped all the side doors and went straight to the end door. He swung open the huge doors and you could see what looked like a zoo. There were wild animals everywhere; it was equally thrilling and terrifying. They weren’t normal house pets either, from where I stood I could see a lion, tiger and zebra and by the noise level I could tell there were more we couldn’t see. It smelled absolutely horrible, you could definitely tell there was more than one type of exotic animal living here. Josh got a little ahead of me and turned a corner out of sight while I walked slowly up to the lion’s cage. He was huge, but he seemed tame behind the vintage, gold bars of the cage. Just as I turned around to look at the tiger behind me, I heard Josh yell.
 “Oh my god, what the heck is this?!” he let out. He didn’t sound scared, just shocked.
I jogged around the corner and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw what he was talking about. It was in a glass cage and wasn’t much bigger than a dog, but it definitely wasn’t a dog.
“Is that a dragon?” Josh asked stepping towards the cage.
“It can’t be a dragon,” I replied, following him. Although I was doubting myself, it did sort of look like a dragon. It had green and blue scales that covered his entire body, and sharp yellow horns coming out of its head.
“It doesn’t have wings,” I said to Josh. “It can’t be a dragon. Dragons have wings.”
“Yeah, but look at his claw feet, and weird horns,” he answered, pointing his finger at them.
 “It must be some weird lizard,” I concluded, starting to back away.
 “Not like any lizard I’ve ever seen,” Josh replied as he turned and walked to the door.  I was still looking at the animal when Josh asked if I was ready to move on. I ran down the hall to the elevator and pressed the button to the fourth floor.

When we got to the floor, we were welcomed with the warm smell of freshly cooked food. I recognized the smell of fresh baked bread, and followed it into a dining room. To my surprise it looked very normal. A large table took up almost the entire room and my aunt sat at the head of it.
“Oh kids! It’s like you read my mind, I was just about to call you down for dinner,” Aunt Mari said, spreading her hands to the empty seats around her. Both Josh and I took a seat on either side of her.
“What were you guys doing?” she asked.
“Just…exploring,” Josh answered, looking at her and then smiling at me.
 Yeah, but we only got to see two floors,” I chimed in.
“You have much more to go then. But that’s okay, you have all week!” she replied, smiling at both of us.
'Hmm,' I thought to myself. 'Maybe this week won’t be as bad as I thought.'

Top 10 Favourite Movies

This is a list of my top 10 favorite movies, not necessarily in order.

1) Stand By Me
2) Now You See Me
3) Grandma's Boy
4) Breakfast Club
5) The Goonies
6) Pitch Perfect
7) Role Models
8) The Art of Getting By
9) Jon Tucker Must Die
10) Mean Girls

Dialogue and Non-Verbal Body Language

Verbal Body Language 
Non-Verbal Body Language 


"I'm sorry Dorothy, but I had tea with a mad hatter. I don't know what's more exciting than that," said Alice in a sympathetic voice. 

"Yes," she emphasized "But I followed a yellow brick road from munchkin land' said Dorothy defensively.

"Meeting munchkins is nothing compared to being the size of a munchkin! I shrink so small I almost drown in my own tears" she replied throwing her hands up in the air.

"I walked through a field of poison poppies that put me to sleep and was then captured by the Wicked Witch of the West" she said getting frustrated.

"There is no way she was more wicked than the Queen of Hearts, she tired to cut off my head!!" Alice said while shaking her head. 

"The witch tired to kill me too! She sent flying monkeys after me. Have you seen flying monkeys?" Dorothy replied quite loudly. 

"No, but I've seen hedgehogs and flamingos being used to play croquet with" she said.

"Croquet?! How cruel!" she exclaimed and threw her hands over her mouth.

"Exactly! Now, can you please admit I have lived a more exciting life? said Alice rolling her eyes.

"Never! I've seen things you could only dream of, I've seen a real, living scarecrow, a tin man and a talking lion." she replied annoyed.

"I've seen a talking white rabbit and a Cheshire cat! Not to mention this life size, colorful caterpillar!" Alice said, obviously getting very frustrated.

"Wow," Dorothy admitted "maybe we could agree to disagree? Clearly we've both seen extraordinary things" she suggested.

"You're right, agree to disagree" she said with a small smile.

http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/image/61377693601

19 Signs You're Doing Better Than You Think

1. You are alive.
2. You are able to see the sunrise and the sunset.
3. You are able to hear birds sing and waves crash.
4. You can walk outside and feel the breeze through your hair and the sun’s warmth on your skin.
5. You have tasted the sweetness of chocolate cake.
6. You didn’t go to sleep hungry last night.
7. You awoke this morning with a roof over your head.
8. You had a choice of what clothes to wear.
9. You haven’t feared for your life today.
10. You have overcome some considerable obstacles, and you have learned and survived.
11. You often worry about what you’re going to do with your life – your career, your family, the next step, etc. – which means you have ambition, passion, drive, and the freedom to make your own decisions.
12. You live in a country that protects your basic human rights and civil liberties.
13. You are reasonably strong and healthy – if you got sick today, you could recover.
14. You have a friend or relative who misses you and looks forward to your next visit.
15. You have someone with whom to reminisce about ‘the good old days.’
16. You have access to clean drinking water.
17. You have access to medical care.
18. You have access to the Internet.
19. You can read.

http://www.marcandangel.com/2012/11/28/19-signs-youre-doing-better-than-you-think/

Weekly 'If' Question

If you had to name the single most important thing in your life, what would it be?

(Question taken from ‘If x2’ by Evelyn McFarlane & James Saywell)

To me, the only two possible answers to this question are friends and family. I strongly believe that in the end, if you don’t have people you care about and people who care about you. Wither it be friends or family; you have nothing. The people in my life are the most important part of it.

Now, to pick between them;  I would have to pick family. Family has been there since the second I was born. They have watched me grow, change and live. They have accepted and supported me through all stages of my life and that’s something I can’t get from anybody else. My family are the only people who truly know me, I can be completely me in front of them and that is the best feeling in the world.

My family are the most important part of my life, because they are my life. They’re a part of me I didn’t choose but still love anyway. No matter how much I put them down, or how bad I make them sound they will always by my family and for that I’m grateful.