My First Job (Interview)!

Today was a pretty good day for me.

At around one o'clock this afternoon, I got a phone call asking if I could go in for my first job interview ever today.

I was really excited and nervous when I answered the phone and then they asked to speak to me. I gave in my resume to teach swimming lessons at my local pool yesterday, so I wasn't expecting a phone call today.

They asked if I could go in for 3:30 this afternoon, and I was nowhere near ready.

Seeing as I had about two hours to get ready (leaving half an hour for a drive in case of traffic), it still wasn't enough. I had to take a shower, do my hair, do my makeup, put together a professional outfit and walk two dogs.

It's fair to say that I was stressed a little bit.

I went in for my interview and there were two interviewers. I was able to relax once one of the interviewers who presented themselves was someone I knew before, it was nice to have someone I know interviewing me.

I'm not sure if these are all the questions that they asked me, but here are the ones that I remember:

• Why am I applying for this position?
• What are my strengths and weaknesses?
• What's a time when something didn't go as plan and what did you learn from it?
• Do I have any experience in services (volunteering or a past job) and how have I performed to offer a service? (what have I done to keep everything even and keep the people I've worked with happy?)
• What does teamwork mean for me and what would I bring to the staff team?
• What would I do with a swimmer who doesn't want to put their face in the water?
• Why should they hire me and what would I bring to the aquatics team?

At some points, I would have to pause to form my answer, but I left the interview feeling as though it went pretty good.

I went back upstairs to see my mom and let her know that we could go, but she reminded me of a question I had to ask to the interviewer whom I previously knew.

When I went back downstairs, I asked my question, but he turned to the other interviewer before I left and said "Let's just give it to her now, she's already here."

I was lost at that and the other interviewer noticed that, so she said to me "I was going to follow you upstairs to give you the payroll papers but I figured you'd already be gone. It's great that you are back down though!"

I was still lost, but the interviewer whom I previously knew before went over the forms I had to fill out to be an official staff worker.

The hired me right there!

I was shocked but really pleased with myself. It's a job that's slightly above minimum wage, but that's still great!

I came back out to show my mom the papers and she was also surprised! I was expecting a phone call or email in two or three days, but this was amazing.

I already have the majority of the paperwork filled out, I only have a few lines left to fill out.

Tomorrow, I'm going in for a mandatory orientation that I'm possibly getting paid for, but that just means that I'm starting soon and I couldn't be any happier with myself.

I'm immensely nervous to start working, but I think it will be good for me. I love swimming and I love teaching little kids; it seems like a pretty good job for me.

Until next time!

Newest Purchase

When I go shopping, I find anything over 25$ expensive. I don't like spending a lot of money for a singular objects, but as many of you know, sometimes we have to make exceptions.

I love music and I have played three instruments in my lifetime so far. I played the saxophone a few years ago, but I still remember a few scales, and I'm currently playing the guitar and bass.

I got my first instrument, which was a guitar, about four and a half years ago and I'm still in love with playing it. My first guitar was an acoustic guitar that was 3/4 the size of a regular guitar and I won't ever forget the day I first got it. My uncle came over, taught me a few chords and the rest was history.

The 3/4 sized guitar was my first acoustic guitar, after that I rented a full sized electric guitar and I ended up renting it for so long that it was payed off, therefore it was now mine. I had those two for the longest time until I traded in my 3/4 sized guitar for a full sized acoustic guitar which I still own today.

It's a Simon & Patrick Songsmith guitar; it projects a full, rich sound that I love and it plays really well.

Recently though, I traded my old electric guitar for a new one.

Before I had a Les Paul Epiphone guitar which was also really nice to play, but now I'm the proud owner of a Ibanez Gio RG.

 

(The difference in between the two pictures is that on the right, I added the whammy bar and turned it slightly so that the volume and tune knobs, plus the pickup switch, can be seen better.)

I absolutely love the guitar. The whammy bar is really neat, I didn't have one on my other guitar, so know I'm still trying to figure out the best way to play with it.

It was funny because my older cousin came by and he also plays the guitar, so I showed him mine and he liked playing it, he thought it was really cool. Apparently a few weeks later he sold his own guitar and bought himself an Ibanez guitar because he liked mine so much.

Something special about that type of Ibanez guitar is that the strings are locked in place. 

Right where the strings start to go down the neck of the guitar, that's where the lock is. I find it great because it locks the strings in, they don't move around as much as they would on a guitar without a lock, therefore it stays in tune a lot longer. I could go a week or so without touching the guitar and I could pick it up and play a song that's in tune.

Because the strings are locked at the top, I don't actually use the pegs at the top of the guitar to tune it, I use small and round pegs at the bottom of the stings. They're right behind the spring loaded tailpiece which holds the end of the strings to the body of the guitar.

I'm so excited to own it and to be able to play it, but I have to admit that I'm a little scared of tuning it and changing the strings later own because the tailpiece is spring loaded. I have to remember to balance that and only remove one string at a time.

Hopefully I'll get more comfortable with it after practicing a bit. Until then, I'll get my dad to help e with it.

Until next time!

Summer 2015

I haven't posted on here for awhile and I'm very sorry for that! The end of the school year is a stressful time for me because there's still projects to finish and essays or test to write, but seeing as it's the end of the year, I tend to procrastinate a lot and let the work pile up.

That's never a smart idea.

Anyway, seeing as it's the end of the school year and summer is coming faster than I thought it would, I thought that I'd share a few things that I want to do this summer. 

1. I want to spend the day with some of my friends out and about the city and then go back to someone's house for a movie marathon. 
I don't necessarily mean all day out in the city and then have a movie marathon overnight, maybe spend the morning in town and then have the afternoon/evening to watch movies. I think it's a fun thing to do with friends and it's not something you need a lot of money for.

2. I want to find a new shop.
Whether it's a book store, cafe, library, whatever it is, I want to find a little hole-in-the-wall type of place where I can escape to and sit around in whenever I need to get away from things. I love hole-in-the-wall's because I always find them relaxing and interesting.

3. I want to make a mixtape. 
I want to make one for the reason of having all my current favourite songs on one CD so that I don't have to skip through 20 songs to find the one I want to listen to. I find mixtapes quite efficient for road trips.

4. I want to do well at my job(s).
I got hired by a museum in my city and I believe that my job will be to give tours, then again I could be wrong. If I do end up giving tours, I don't want to have to second guess myself with the facts, I don't want to feel unprepared. This is something I want, so I'm going to study for it as often as I can. 
It's also possible that I apply to be a swim teacher this summer, and if I do end up doing that, I want to be confident in myself.

5. I want to do something that scares me.
That could be anything from telling my family and friends something personal about myself, going out for the day alone, playing my guitar or bass guitar with my family home or doing something different at my job, but I want to do something that scares me, whatever that may be.

6. I want to go out and take more photos.
I don't have to go all that far to take pictures, but I really do want to set aside time to go out into town and around my city to take some pictures. I want to take some for practice, to have fun with and hopefully some that I'll post on here.

7. I want to do more with my blog.
I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I want to do with my blog and what type of blog I want it to be (even though I'm sure it's going to turn out to be a personal blog where I write about whatever comes to mind and whatever motivates/inspires me).  I want to write more, create good content and be happy with what I post. I want to take some time in the evenings to write and edit my posts and make them as good as they can be.

That's all I have for now for things I want to do this summer! Any of you have specific things you want to do this summer? Feel free to comment what they are!

Until next time!

Getting My Life In Order For The Future

As I may have hinted in other blog posts, I'm still currently a student in school.

I've never really minded school before, I was always excited to learn about my favourite subjects (but admittedly I was never all that excited about math), I would be able to hang out with my friends all day and overall I became to learn as I grew up that I would be learning about the world I'm living in. 

How is that not amazing?

Recently, I've had to do a lot more thinking about school and my future.

I'm currently a student in a Francophone school, so all my classes are in French except for my English class. It's great to be in a Francophone school for the reason of keeping my French culture alive every day, but it's becoming more and more difficult.

My school offers classes from grades 7-12 and we're sitting at about 450 students, while my local English high school that offers classes from 10-12 is currently sitting at somewhere around 900 students. 

If I stay at the school I'm attending now, I might not be able to get the classes I want/need to take. If I change to the English school, I can get the classes I want/need, but it will be like starting all over again. I'll have to relearn the names of math terms and science terms in English and I won't know many of the other students.

With all of that being said, it's a pretty big decision, yet the answer is pretty obvious for me.

I've decided to switch to the English school. Change is great, yet even if I end up not liking it, I can always switch back to the French school.

In the end, I still have no idea what I want to do when I'm older. I know that I have no interest in science and that I love languages and cultures, but that's still a world of opportunity!

I still have a bit of time before university, but what happens if I still don't know what I want to do?

I'm trying my best to get my life in order, but does anyone ever have full control over their life? I'm terrified of making wrong decisions with my life, so I guess I'll take life as it comes.

Until next time!

Weekend After Wisdom Teeth Surgery

I've wanted to write this for about five days now, but after spending those five days doing nothing, I finally got around to doing it!

It's not that I've been postponing this, it's more so I haven't been feeling up to doing it.

I got my wisdom teeth out Friday and the recovery is worse than what I thought it would be.

I don't remember much from the surgery itself, the only things I clearly remember was feeling as though the surgery lasted only 10 minutes when in reality it lasted almost an hour and the only thing I could feel was light scraping.

On the ride home, I had gauze in my mouth and could barely open my mouth, yet I still attempted to talk. Apparently I sounded like a kazoo and hasn't comprehendible at all, but that's about it.

The recovery, however, has been really slow.

I'm still on a diet of smoothie, pudding, applesauce, jello, scrambled eggs and pasta.

As a kid, that would seem as the almost idea diet, but when your older, you get sick of it fast and want whatever healthy food you can get.

There's almost nothing you can do during the recovery period.

Doctors want you to take it easy and not go back to a full schedule for 3-5 days after the surgery, they want you to take Advil or pain relievers of some sort every 6 hours immediately following the surgery for about a week and then there's the matter of dealing with the boredom.

Usually when I'm bored, I would read, do homework/get work done or watch movies.

Saturday, I didn't feel up to doing much. I felt as though if I read, I would forget everything I would've read and then I'd have to go back and read everything again, so I decided to watch Friends.

Sunday I was feeling better, so I read for a bit, went out to go watch my softball team practice that I was missing and enjoyed a family dinner for Mothers Day.

Monday I went to school for one period and then I went to a class for my WSI (Water Safety Instructor) course and I forgot to take my pain medication. It got really bad that I felt as though I could no longer talk and I had to go home early. As the result of that, my parents made me stay home today.

Today was pretty sad on my part.

I watched a whole season of Friends in one day.

I really don't know if I should be proud or ashamed of this, but at least I can say that I did something today.

So that's what happened to me four days after getting my wisdom teeth out.

If anyone has any stories, feel free to share them!

Until next time!

Being Body Positive

Nowadays, if you ask people if they're happy with their weight, the majority of them will say no.

That's a problem.

Although everyone struggles with body images at times, I'm mostly going to be referring to girl clothing because I have more experience shopping in that section and I'm not all that sure as to how boys jeans sizes work.

While girls are striving to fit into those double 0's jeans, a study done in 2015 has proven that the average jeans size in America is 14.

The main goal in 2015 for girls is to have the perfect boobs and butt while still maintaining a slim body.

One of the biggest beauty icons ever known, Marilyn Monroe, had stretch marks. If we have stretch marks now, that's considered a bad thing,

I remember this one time when I was shopping, I overheard these two girls talking.

They were just chatting while looking through the clothing, but one girl stopped and said "Oh my god, this is so gross. I'm usually never this size, but I'll have to get this shirt in a large if I want it."

I left the store before they did, so I don't know if she got the shirt in the end.

Although I don't know what happened in the end, I do know that it's a problem.

We live in a society now we're the word "fat" is considered bad or as an insult and the size "large" is too big to be considered hot or sexy.

I'm fat.

I'm fat because I don't fit into society's view as a perfect body. I'm fat because I don't have a flat stomach or abs. I'm fat because the skin on my legs shake for a second longer than they should when I walk.

I'm fat because I don't have big boobs, hips and butt while having a small torso and legs.

Because I'm not someone's view of good-looking, I'm automatically fat.

Because of that, fat is now considered a derogatory word.

It's extremely difficult to be body positive when you only hear words that have evolved to be insults about yourself because you don't live up to someone else's standards.

Even though it seems like an impossible thing to do, we all have to start loving our bodies and being body positive.

If you wear jeans that are a size 10 and are self conscious about that, then rock those jeans! I bet you nothing else would look as amazing as those jeans do.

That goes for every single person out there who are unhappy with their jeans size.

Personally, I'm different sizes for jeans. I have jeans that are sizes 3,4,5,6 and 7. Those are five different sizes for jeans because they all have different cuts. If I try on a pair of jeans and I have to go a size up, I slowly became to accept that because I realized that different jeans will all for differently.

The same goes for shirts.

I have all sizes from small to extra-large because it all matters on the style of the shirt.

People seem to think that once you've been in one size for awhile, that's what your always supposed to be.

Of course you can lose or gain weight, but it doesn't matter if you bought a shirt that's a size small yesterday, you can buy a large today.

Sizes all depend on fits and how comfortable you feel in it.

You can't be body positive if you aren't comfortable in what you're wearing.

It's okay to not be 100% happy with your body right now, but you can build yourself up to the point of loving it.

If you think that you need to take different measures to feel better about your body, then so be it.

If you don't like something about your body, there's always a solution. If you don't like your hair, get it cut or dye it! You can use nail polish if you don't like your nails.

Do whatever it takes to make you, and you alone, happy with your body.

Saying that you like something about yourself does not make you vain. Even if you think it does, what's the bad part in that?

You're loving your body, the only one you'll ever have, and I don't think that that's a bad thing.

I can't remember where I saw or heard these words, but I would love to share them. Just know that they're not mine.

In the end, it doesn't matter what your body looks like. We all have the same goal: to love life to the fullest and die with no regrets. When we're gone, we aren't remembered by what our bodies looked like, but we're remembered by the things we do and the people we reached out to.

Those words helped me get through my low self-esteem and is still helping me everyday.

It's okay to not be happy with your weight, it's okay to have flaws, but you will come to love yourself. I can't say that it will be soon, but you will love yourself. It will happen.

I hope this might of have an impact on you guys as it did for me when I heard those words from before.

Until next time!

Surfing (The Web For Websites That I Love)

I love both types of surfing. The one outside, in the water with a board, yet I also don't mind the one where I can sit down with my laptop and go from website to website.

I recently got into Pinterest and I'm loving it, lots of makeup and hair tutorials that are rather easy to follow. Clearly, I also love finding blogs to read, Tumblr is something that I'm often on and I enjoy watching YouTube videos when I'm bored or can't sleep.

It's safe to say that I do spend a lot of time online, however I do know when to disconnect so I feel as though it's alright.

One of my favourite websites at the moment is Polyvore. 

Polyvore is this website where you can go on to create your perfect look, whether you use it for fashion or home decor, you can make your dream creation.

I'm one of those people who will go out shopping, not knowing at all what they want to buy, but end up wanting everything they try on. It's a horrible habit because you might end up splurging on items you don't even need.

I'm really loving Polyvore because I can create these outfits and physically see them and decide if I actually like them or not, so when I go out shopping I can look for items that are similar to the ones in the set that I've created. 

It's such a great website to use because in the end, you save both time and money when you're out shopping.

I started my account awhile back, about two years ago, but I actually forgot about it until recently. I forgot how fun I found it to create outfits like that, so hopefully I'll keep doing it for a little while longer. If you want, you can check out my account HERE. 

I know I haven't mastered how to use the website or anything yet, but I still love using it.

Hopefully some of you guys will find an interest in the website. If you do, let me know! I'll love to see what you guys create. 

Until next time!