Who would you like to honour with a national holiday?

How do you decide who gets their own national holiday? Is it someone who is famous and popular? Or someone who has done a lot for both Canada and the world? Michael J. Fox is a proud Canadian (Edmonton-born and Burnaby-raised) who fits under both categories. Besides starring in Hollywood blockbusters such as Back To The Future and Teen Wolf, Michael has also done a lot to raise awareness about Parkinson’s Disease, which he was diagnosed with in 1991. Since he revealed his disease to the public in 1998, Michael has done countless public service announcements and has attended press conferences and U.S. congress sessions on the matter. He has also written a book and filmed a TV special that detail the struggles of living with Parkinson’s; he even filmed an interview without taking his medications to show the horrible effects of Parkinson’s. Michael is the founder of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, dedicated to helping advance research for a cure for Parkinson’s. Even with all of his work for Parkinson’s, Michael still has close ties hometown of Burnaby, where he often visits and continues to make charitable contributions to the community. Michael J. Fox is not just an actor, but a hero who won’t rest until he finds a cure for a debilitating disease. Michael J. Fox is one of the reasons that I am proud to say that I am Canadian, and that is why I believe that he deserves a national holiday.

The little girl stared up at her older sister in innocent admiration, long black eyelashes framing her deep brown eyes wide with wonder. In the mirror’s reflection, the small girl stood at her sister’s mid-thigh, her body round and supple from lots of sleep and play. She craned her head up to study her sister’s face and saw beauty there; young, but with teenage wisdom. Heads taller than her toddler sister, the older girl had a willowy body and a slender face, her dark eyes hidden beneath a curtain of mascara. Staring at herself in the mirror, she looked at herself and her body. Swiftly, she brought her head down. Too fat. Too short. Not blonde. She turned away and sat on her carpeted floor and closed her eyes, trying to recollect herself.
I am so ugly. She thought to herself, placing her head in her hands. Suddenly, she heard steady breathing by her ear and warm, sticky fingers grasp her arm. The sweet scent of cherry lollipop wafted into her nose and she forced herself to look up.
“What is it, pumpkin?” She asked, her voice soft. Her baby sister’s face bore an expression of intense concentration, her eyebrows knitted in deep thought, as she contemplated her sentence structure.
“I think…I think…you are pretty.” She told her in all seriousness.
“Oh, thanks, pumpkin-”
“Not done yet!” The little girl protested, her expressive eyes swirling with indignation. “I think…if I was ruler of the whole wide world and the universe and the sun and the moon and…Toys R’ Us, I would make…Sister Day. And there would be no school or nothing in the whole wide world because…it’d be Sister Day. That’s how pretty you are.” She declared solemnly.
Her heart warmed, and she smiled at her little sister as she gathered her up in her arms. They giggled and held each other.
“I love you, little pumpkin.” She said into her hair.
“I love you, too. Can I wear your necklace now?”

This November, on the 11th is Remembrance Day. The fact that we celebrate it on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, is no coincidence. The major hostilities of the First World War were settled on this day, back in 1918, over 90 years ago. We are supposed to honor the day, whether it is a Monday or a Thursday, whether it falls on the day of our favourite television show, or the day of our yoga class. Yet many of us find reasons in our lives, to fall short of tradition. Maybe we don't go to the cenotaph because it's raining outside, or we need to run up to the grocery store. Why do we do so? It's because the meaning of our national holidays have been lost. We view Remembrance Day as a break from work, or a day off of school. Our local businesses view it as a chance to increase sales. It seems as though this national holiday is being pushed back to a more convenient time. Did the German's sign the Armistice Treaty so that we could have a day of relaxation? In my opinion, before we add more national holidays; we need to remember the ones we have. This Wednesday November 11th, where will you be? Please remember: It's called Remembrance Day for a reason.

Melissa McKenna
Maple Ridge Secondary School

When the sunsets, and you stare up in to the empty abyss we have proclaimed space, you cannot help but feel intimidated. But there was one man, in the height of human antiquity in the Renaissance, who did not feel inadequate when staring at the uncertainty of utter darkness. This man was Galileo Galilei, a person who did not dare to wonder what was beyond this earthly plain, but tried to further his look to and outside the limits of human awareness.
He was a young man from Florence, who strayed away from the norm and the tedious medical career that his father had laid out before him. He was truly a man beyond his time, who couldn’t even comprehend the impending weight that would fall on his shoulders. With a newly made invention called the telescope, he helped prove that the world did in actuality revolve around the Sun, and that the earth was round. His ideas were dismissed by the Catholic Church and he was denounced as an abomination to their religion and was later imprisoned.
If you do not pick Galileo Galilei as a suitable person to be honoured, then I urg you to pick one of the other fathers of the Renaissance, who help contribute so much to the world we live in today. So please help pay homage to a visionary, a scholar and a man, who even near the end of his days, didn’t abandon his beliefs, but merely threw of the shackles of oppression and held on for the worlds impending relations of his findings.

Vampires, the black cloaked pale princes of the night are becoming more popular in our literature and media. They appear on other genres than horror and are becoming more than an icon of evil. But they have lost their only day, (which was Halloween) to the undead and homicidal maniacs.
Vampires come down from a long time from all civilizations in different forms. In medieval Europe, they appear as epidemic spreading, blood sucking corpses. In Madagascar, the ‘ramanda’ eats noble’s nail clippings as well as blood. In New England, vampires were active in the 18th century, but this was most likely a result from mass hysteria. For a long time, vampires were feared and a synonym of the devil.
Writers and movies changed the reputation of the vampire. In recent literature and TV, vampires are portrayed as charismatic and Gothic looking immortals they are. Attributes such as fear of sunlight, crosses and garlic may be attached and taken off like Barbie’s outfits depending on the author. They could be blood lusting villains, but instead, they were also written as the protagonists of a tragic tale. This way, the vampire became more popular.
It seems now the vampire is one of our favorite supernatural beings! Please have sympathy because Vampire Day will take place on October 13th, which Halloween refused to take because the day will be unlucky for everyone, but I’m sure the vampires will manage to use your support.

Because of all her hard work and dedication to helping make out world a better place for everyone, Dr. Jane Goodall deserves to be awarded with a national holiday. In 1991 she got together with some local teenagers in Salaam, Tanzania and discussed some problems they had all gone through. This inspired her to start a foundation called the Roots and Shoots Foundation. She has been working incredibly hard to make our world a better place environmentally, and better for both animals and humans. This foundation has reached over to over 100 countries, and has influenced many lives. The Jane Goodall Institute supports wildlife research, and takes action to improve the lives and environment of animals.

Her work has influenced and inspired many to educate and help take care of our planet, and the animals on it. She has done so much for animal research, environmental education, and has influenced our world in amazing ways. There are many people who could be honored with a holiday, but I chose Dr. Jane Goodall because she in so passionate about animals, and creating a better world for everyone. If we're going to make a national holiday, shouldn't make one for someone who is generous, dedicated, caring, and passionate? She should be honored with a national holiday because she has put out so much hard work and dedication into everything she does, and we should take a day to appreciate everything she has done for our world.

Imagine: You walk into your Geography 12 class for the first time. You soon discover that it just so happens that you’re not on speaking terms with anybody in the room. After establishing this, you realize that this dilemma does not apply to anybody else taking this course. You know no one, but everybody knows everyone else. Suddenly, you’re the new kid. If you’re anything like the awkward teenager that I am, you’ll sit there on the outskirts of the main group with your brain in automatic awkward mode. I mean, it’s not like you don’t have friends. You just don’t have friends right here, right now.
This is why I would honor the new kid at school. I’m not talking the elementary school new kid. When you’re that young, a “Will you play with me?” would suffice. I’m talking about the high school, I-can’t-talk-to-her-or-else-she’ll-stick-to-me-and-I’ll-be-royally-screwed-for-the-rest-of-the-year, new kid. Metaphorically, everyone has been in that place before, even if they’ve never switched to a new school. We’ve all felt uncomfortable. We’ve all felt lame. We’ve all gotten shafted. We’ve all gotten the stink eye. Simply put, new kids are brave. They feel what we feel for a moment for days at a time. That’s reason enough for their names to be printed in size-8 font in a calendar. They deserve a day where they get to hear the words, “I’ve got your back,” for all the times they didn’t get to hear them.
Rebekah Ho
Fraser Valley Christian High school

Serenity can be found in the most unexpected of places, especially in a world so polluted with pain. For me in particular, I’ve found this place within the boundaries of the music I listen to; and I know for many others, they have found this too.

I was told to give any one person a national holiday, but I can’t. For I think it’d be an utter shame to merely dismiss the many multitudes of people who are so deserving. There are so many unnamed people, strangers just passing by us, not knowing who we are.

It seems no matter what I go through there is always someone ahead of me who has faced the same battles. They then wrote about it, sang aloud, and made my day by simply assuring me with the knowledge that I am not alone. Simple melodies strummed upon a old guitar, or played by the finest piano, mixed with the inspiration of lyrics; that’s what keeps me going.

There is always a song to describe the feelings we have, as there will always be someone who has lived the same fears before you. I could be wrong, but people don’t like feeling alone, or afraid, and that that simple reassurance can cause the warmest of feelings, if only for a minute.

This one is to acknowledge every artist who was ever inspired to share their story or thoughts through music. Thank you for doing so, and thank you for giving me my peace of mind.

Your alarm clock rings, you roll over and look out the window; the sky is grey, it's cold and rainy. You wish you could just stay bundled up under your covers and forget about your bad grades, the due dates, the competition you have this weekend and the misaventure you had yesterday, that rewarded you with a grouding. You are debating whether you are going to fake being sick so that your parents will let you stay home or if ou are going to get up and face your life as it is. Usually, the first person to know will be a friend. Friends live with you through everything, they grow up alongside of you, they know what's happening to you.
It could of been the National Best Friend Day but there is not only one person who is there for you. Everyone has more than one person there for them, and I'm not talking about family.
When you get to school on one of those bad days, a good friend will come up to you and hug you, they know something is not right. It only takes that much and already, you feel so much better. Is it because you didn't have to say anything? Is it because you just needed a hug? Or is it simply because you know that somebody is there for you? That there is somebody, or hopefully a group of people that won't let you dowm, no matter what.