ASSIGNMENTS:
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Guylaine
St. Hubert, Quebec CANADA
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REPORTS:
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The moon was at its fullest shining high above the already lit city of Montreal. The hospital was buzzing with nurses and doctors coming in and out of the rooms of the many expecting moms. My mom was one of them.
I was born September 26, 1985, 9:15pm (or so I'm told) at St. Mary's General Hospital in Notre-Dame-de-Grace (Montreal). I was baptized in October the same year. I don't remember much of my baby years... Actually, I don't even think I remember ANY of my baby years. The only things I know are from what my parents told me and through our photographs.
When it was my first birthday (and my first birthday party at that) Mom made a chocolate cake and gave me a piece. I simply looked at it as if to put it under my inspection. My Aunt Denise, who is also my godmother, had expected me to put my hands in the cake and be messy. I guess I wasn't "living up to her expectations." ;) She took my hands and put them into the cake! Apparently I wasn't too happy with that because I was crying. I guess I had a method to how I was going to eat the cake.
I am the eldest of four children. My sister Micheline (Mish) was born in 1987, Nathalie (Nat), my other sister was born in 1989 and my brother, Jean-Michel (Jean) was born in 1990.
When it was just Mish and I, I was somehow sneaky. I would tend to get Mish in trouble. She would be caught in the act, but I was innocent. Yeah, right! Mom had this blown up clown that was called Bobo the Clown. He was named that I think because you can give him a bobo and he wouldn't do anything back. Every time his nose was punched, he rocked back and then forward, in time for the next punch. His nose also squeaked. On day, Mish and I were curious as to how Bobo's nose squeaked. So, we pulled Bobo's nose off and Bobo started deflating.
"It's quiet, eh?" Dad asked, possibly in his broken English or in French.
"Hmm... A little too quiet," Mom replied. "How about you check on the girls."
Dad checked on us. We were playing in our room. Dad went back to report to Mom, who was in the living room, the deflated Bobo between them.
"What happened?" He asked.
Mom showed him the broken nose from the deflated Bobo.
"I'll talk to Micheline about this," suggested Dad.
"You better talk to Guylaine too because she tends to get Micheline in trouble." Mom replied. Moms know best, eh ;)? Dad was surprised that I could be so sneaky.
In Kindergarden at Vincent Massey Elementary School, we had cubby holes to put our things in (snack, art, sweaters we didn't need during the day, etc.). It was two per cubby hole. I shared my cubby with this boy named Robert. I found him annoying. He would always take things that were mine! I didn't have any proof because the evidence was eaten (part of my snack, say) or gone. I suspected him because we were sharing the cubby. I think he even left orange peels in the cubby from his snack! Gross! Anyway, one day our class was singing "Sing a Rainbow" for our Christmas Pageant. I was yellow and had to wear yellow clothes. I had a yellow turtleneck and I used my yellow pyjama pants (that I changed into at school because I was self-conscious of wearing pjs to school). I had brought my pj pants in a small Rossy bag. When I went to put my pj pants in the bag, (which was in the cubby hole) after I changed out of them, the bag was not there. I asked Miss Louise (teacher) if she'd seen it. She didn't and I couldn't find it. At one point we were in the hallway where the lockers were and I saw Robert holding a Rossy bag with his left over snack in it. (We must have been getting ready to go home because we had half days.)
"Hey that's my bag! Give it back!" I ordered Robert. No politeness whatsoever.
He was a mischievous boy too. He grinned that sly smile and said, "No it's not."
A few back and forth with this later, I said, "I'm telling!"
Either I told Miss Louise and he gave me my bag back or he gave it to me because he didn't want to get into more trouble. He was such a trouble maker.
Grade 1 was weird. My French teacher, Manon, was on duty for recess one morning. I wasn't doing anything exciting except for hanging around the line-up area so I could be the first in line. Manon was at the door and we were talking about little things here and there.
"As-tu un chum?" she asked me.
I thought about that. "Non. Je pense je vais en trouver un maintenant."
So I ended up asking a few boys in my class if they wanted to be my boyfriend. I guess I asked them in French; I don't really remember. Anyway, one boy said yes and I reported back to Manon.
"Kevin a dit qu'il sera mon chum."
She chuckled a little and never asked again.
I don't think Kevin and I were close... let alone what the heck being boyfriend and girlfriend meant.
Then there was the new boy in class, Matthew G. Somehow he and I ended up being boyfriend and girlfriend. He would share his cookies with me.
Gr. 1 was also weird because Solomon had these cool Troll dolls that people were put in charge of having them on their desk. It was finally my turn; I had a red-haired Troll with a red jewel as its bellybutton on my desk. I had to give the Troll up (or give it to someone) or else I couldn't go to Alicia's birthday party. I give the Troll back or to someone and was able to go to the party.
Gr. 1 was when I learned how to jump rope. I think my friend Liz and some others were trying to teach me. I just wasn't getting it. I practiced and practiced and then finally I was able to do it. (I must have practiced on the weekends at the park or at our camp ground in St. Blaize because I couldn't have practiced jump rope in our apartment at the time.) When I came to school, I was so happy that I showed Liz and my other friends. They were happy that I was finally able to jump rope.
I changed elementary schools when I was going to Grade 2 because we moved from Greenfield Park to St. Hubert; from apartment to house. I've lived on the South Shore of Montreal since I was born. We've lived in St. Hubert for close to 19 years now. I knew someone in my Gr. 1 class at Vincent Massey who was also going to Royal Oak (my "new" elementary school) but she had failed Gr. 1.
In Gr. 2 I ended up following this boy a lot around the school yard. His name was Joshua. He asked me one day if I had a crush on him. Because of my French-ness, I thought he was eight talking about something to crush or the soft drink company. He explained to me that to have a crush on someone is to like them and maybe wanting to know them more. Then I told him that I did like him. He liked me too. We were boyfriend and girlfriend until Sec. 1 (Gr. 7).
In Gr. 3 some of my classmates were somehow made in charge of my markers and pencil crayons. I also had to give my Galettes (large oatmeal-and-strawberry-middle cookies) to someone. I think all this lasted for a good part of that year.
For my eighth birthday I had a birthday party. We played Charades and Twister. My aunt invited everyone back for the end of the school year for a pool party! I invited my whole class! It was fun! The watermelon didn't taste so great though.
I joined the South Shore Children's Chorus in Gr. 4. I was in the choir from then until Sec. 5. I started out as a second Soprano and then became a first Soprano (highest voice) the following year. I helped the choir years after I graduated from high school.
Also in Gr. 4, Patrick, our French teacher kissed me on both my cheeks because it was my birthday. I was so embarrassed...
Gr. 5 long division was so hard with large numbers. I was never a math wiz. We went to Quebec City for a day as a French class excursion.
Gr. 6 was fun. Mrs. Boismenu had poems each week or so (maybe it was each month) to memorize. The desks were set in groups. Depending which day we recited the poem we would get points for our group (50 pnts on the 1st day, 40 pnts the next, and so on). Mrs. Boismenu had a Monster List for those who hadn't completed assignments. They would have to stay in at morning and/or lunch recesses to complete them. I was on it a few times only because I was absent to something. At the end of the month, the students who were all caught up and not behind would go to MacDonald's, or Harvey's. It was a great treat! Mrs. Boismenu would give us each a dollar and our parents would supply us with whatever money we needed.
I went to Centennial Regional High School from 1997-2002. In Sec. 1, this guy, Kamaal, said that his friend Liam liked me and wanted to go out with me. I looked at Liam as if to ask him if this was true. He was blushing and was shaking his head no. Then he started "beating up" Kamaal. A couple of days after, Jean-Philippe said Liam liked me. Chantal and Danielle said it wasn't true. (They weren't real friends of mine, only classmates.) This all happened near the end of the year so over the summer I developed a crush on Liam. We were in all of the same classes that year.
In Sec. 2 we had the same French class. He sat in the desk in front of me. Somehow I managed to pay attention in class. I guess I was able to turn the distraction switch off. If he did like me the previous year, I would have never known because he was going out with someone. I asked to dance with him at a Valentine's dance. It was great! It was probably the closest I ever got to him because that crush went away.
Sec. 2 was the year I met my best friend, Robyn. It was in Physical Science class. She was new and came from New Brunswick. This guy, Anis, asked what we thought of the new girl. He said she looked like a baboon! I told him that wasn't very nice and that I would tell her. And I did! (Seems to be a trend.)
"You're Robyn, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Hi, I'm Guylaine. Nice to meet you!"
"Nice to meet you too!"
"You know that guy there?" I asked her as I pointed subtly to Anis.
"Yeah..."
"Well he just said you look like a baboon! I told him it was a mean thing to say! I don't think you look like a baboon."
She must have thought me weird or something. But I guess I haven't scared her away, because we're still best friends.
In Sec. 3 this guy Erik (who was Sec. 4) liked me. We "went out" for four days and said that I wasn't "superficial enough." I didn't even know what that word meant! (I don't even know if he knew what it meant.) Two seconds later he's got his arm around one of my friends, Amanda. He even called Mish a Pokemon! How insulting!
Sec. 3 was the year I got Iritus for the first time. Iritus is an inflammation of the eye. It hurt so much that I had to wear sun glasses to prevent much light from getting into my eye. I think it was my right eye. I ended up going to the optomologist and she prescribed me with two sets of eye drops; one to take every four or six hours, the other one was every hour. It finally healed in time for the end of exams. The Iritus came back in my left eye at the beginning of Sec. 4 and it also went back into my right eye. The optomologist had take blood tests to see if there was anything in my blood that was causing it. The morning I took the blood tests, I was running the one kilometer run for gym class. It wasn't my best time, but I did ok anyways.
In Sec. 4 I dated Alex. He introduced me to Crosstalk Ministries' (CTM) Crossroads; Day Camps and Senior Youth Camp. CTM is a Christian based organization that runs youth camps in the summer. Alex and I dated until 2004 (which was my second year of CEGEP). 2002 I started CEGEP at Champlain in St. Lambert in Publication Design and Management. Alex was at Dawson in a program for working in the field of social work. Anyways, we didn't work out. I was a jerk and went out with Andrew two weeks after I broke up with Alex. Not my proudest moment.
I graduated from Champlain in 2005 and was on the waiting list for Concordia University's Digital Image and Sound in the Fine Arts also known as Computation Arts. Art History was my second choice and got accepted in that. Computation Arts finally accepted me in August when classes were starting soon. I went into Art History thinking I could transfer for the following academic year. I applied to Computation Arts and was not accepted. In 2007 I applied for only Design Art and my portfolio was not evaluated highly. Maybe I was meant to finish my Art History degree.
Andrew and I were together for almost four years. We were engaged in 2007 but he broke up with me because we had nothing in common. This break-up was in February 2008, right after Valentine's Day. The nerve, right! But people move on and I didn't cling onto him.
In July of 2008, I was asked out by Matthew (not Matthew G.), whom I love dearly! He's so sweet, kind, and caring. We've been going out for almost a year now. We even see a future together.
Currently, I'm finishing my final semester at Concordia. I'm looking to graduate in June. I am finishing this assignment for an exam and I have another exam to work on. (They're both due soon.) I have been accepted to Algonquin College, Ottawa in Graphic Design! My portfolio was reviewed with high excellence! =) I work as a secretary at two places: Crosstalk Ministries and St. Paul's Anglican Church. It got pretty stressful during the school year, but Summer's coming, so it won't be as stressful. I've been working at CTM for four years and St. Paul's for one. It will be a change when I move to Ottawa; however, I believe that this is where God wants me to go.
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