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Category: Fun

  • Dream Job: Painter

    Dream Job: Painter

    Imagine that your work is famous across Canada. That might not happen for a plumber or an electrician, but it can happen for the kinds of people who paint pictures. Do you know about any famous Canadian painters? You might have heard of some artists called the Group of Seven, who were well-known artists in the twentieth century. If you are interested in becoming an artist and you develop your talents, you might also become a well-known painter.

    In 1920, several Canadian artists were beginning to develop a new style of painting. These painters were especially interested in painting using the same modern style as the well-known painter, Tom Thompson. They decided to support each other by forming the Group of Seven. Artists such as A. Y. Jackson and Franz Johnson thought that by working together, they would be able to develop their skills much better than they could by working alone. They travelled throughout Ontario and studied European painters to learn more about art. The style of art that they developed is still easy to recognize now.

    Tom Thomson, who had inspired the artists of the Group of Seven, died in 1917 and was never part of the group. However, artists who followed his time also followed the style that he had preferred. The landscapes around Lake Superior were some of their favourite subjects to paint. Later, their style influenced artists like Emily Carr and others.

    You might never be as famous as the Group of Seven, but you can still become a painter if you are flexible and willing to work in all kinds of areas. Painters can work for businesses, schools, magazines or museums. A special type of education is generally not a requirement, but a degree in the fine arts can be helpful. Under half of the artists in Canada have formal training from a university or college.

    Special festivals and fairs are good places for painters to sell pictures to people, and art shows give customers the chance to look around for what they want. If people like your art, it might even end up in an art gallery.

    An important part of becoming a painter is developing a personal style. You might use only bright colours or darker shades. You can work with others to develop your favourite type of art or you can work alone. Whatever style you prefer, you can become an effective and successful artist.

  • Jobs with Animals: Dog Groomer

    Jobs with Animals: Dog Groomer

    I interviewed Kelly Booth, a local dog groomer. We talked about dog grooming as a career, some challenges she faces at work, and what she enjoys about her job.

    M: Being a dog groomer isn’t a typical occupation. When and how did you decide to pursue it as a career?
    K: I knew I wanted to work with animals, so I just started applying to pet stores and veterinary clinics. I dropped off my resume at PetSmart where the manager explained the process of becoming a groomer. I would start as a bather and, if I showed potential, they would send me to the grooming “academy” which is run by PetSmart. So this is what I did, and I’ve been doing it for about three years now.

    M: What kind of schooling is required, and how long does it take?
    K: The training I received was pretty basic. I just went to an “academy certified” PetSmart store where I was trained how to groom. This lasted about a month and we learned how to do the different cuts on the main breeds of dogs.

    M: What are some typical challenges that you face at work?
    K: As you can imagine, working with dogs is not always easy. They can be temperamental and unpredictable. The most common challenge I face is grooming dogs that are just generally uncooperative, i.e.: pulling their legs when I’m trying to brush them or groom them, not standing, squirming when I’m trying to do their nails, etc. I get bit and scratched quite a lot. It can be frustrating and scary because I’m dealing with sharp objects and it can be dangerous.

    It’s also really hard on your body. A lot of groomers end up getting carpal tunnel and back and leg problems.

    M: What is the career path for someone who has just completed their schooling?
    K: I started as a bather/brusher, which is basically just bathing and brushing out the dogs, clipping their toenails, and cleaning their ears. After about six months, I started my training. After that, I had to do a 100-dog “apprenticeship”, in which I had to groom twenty shave-downs, twenty sporting dogs, twenty short-legged terriers, twenty long-legged terriers, and twenty hand-scissor cuts. When I was finished that, I became a commissioned groomer.

    M: What are the typical earnings per dog?
    K: The earnings vary depending on the cut that the pet parent wants. For example, a simple shave down ranges from $55-$65 or $80-$90 for a hand-scissored poodle. Some larger dogs, like a Newfoundlander or an Old English Sheepdog, can be $100-$120. Commissions are typically 50-70%.

    M: What is your favourite thing about your job?
    K: I love working with animals. Sometimes we get dogs that like to give hugs and kisses. And the little puppies are always so much fun! I also really like being able to use my hands to create something. Helping the dogs feel better after being all matted is really rewarding.

  • How to Feel Good About Yourself

    How to Feel Good About Yourself

    Imagine for a second a world where you truly believe you can do anything; where the words “I can’t” no longer exist as part of your vocabulary. A place where you are as great as you always dreamed you could be. Now imagine that as your reality. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

    Here’s a few tips on how to feel good about yourself every single day!

    –Discover yourself: Get to know you. Listen to what you are thinking and feeling. Know what you want and why you want it. If it helps, keep a journal to help you understand yourself better.

    –Make a list every day: On the list write at least three things you really like about yourself. For instance, “I like how I can make people laugh even in uncomfortable situations” or “I like my eye colour.” It can be absolutely anything you like about yourself. This will help remind you why it’s great being you.

    –Remove the word can’t: Stop saying “I can’t do that” before you even try. Fear of failure is common and sadly it prevents most of us from doing things we’ve always wanted to do. To overcome this, think positively – don’t think of the worst possible scenario. Picture yourself succeeding. Some of the greatest experiences you will have in this life will come from overcoming things you thought you couldn’t do.

    –Treat others the way you want to be treated: It’s karma, baby; the idea you get back what you send out into the world. So send out the good, and always remember to treat others fairly and kindly.

    –Be prepared: One of the best ways to improve your self-confidence is by being prepared. Whether it’s a test you need to study for or a big basketball game coming up, make sure you are ready. Stop putting stuff off and get to it. You will feel more confident if you are ready to face what’s ahead.

    –Be grateful: Don’t dwell on what you don’t have. Be thankful for all you do have.

    –Exercise: It’s a great way to immediately boost your mood. It also helps in the long term to boost self-confidence. You will be healthier, happier and more sure of yourself.

    –Listen to your favorite song: Nothing gives me an instant boost of confidence and energy, especially in the morning, as my favorite song. It really helps me have the right attitude to face the day with.

    The most important thing to remember is to think positively. If you believe you are good enough, the world will see you that way.

  • If At First You Don’t Succeed… Try Something New

    If At First You Don’t Succeed… Try Something New

    We are always most comfortable doing what we know. It’s easier to invest time into something you’re already familiar with and it’s safer to avoid taking the risk that comes with learning new things. For these reasons, we generally like to abide by our normal routines. We walk through familiar neighbourhoods, we talk to people within our regular circles and, of course, we don’t learn anything new.

    While there is nothing wrong with sticking by a certain routine, it’s also unwise to be inflexible: by staying in your shell, you could be missing out on a world of opportunities. Think about the last time you really stepped out of your comfort zone to try something new. Whether you picked up a book you didn’t think you’d like, unexpectedly signed up for an audition or decided to wear different-coloured socks, no matter how insignificant or trivial that distinction may seem, even the tiniest bit of change is refreshing. It’s good.

    Trying new things is especially important in light of the back-to-school season. Perhaps you’re all set for another year of the regular stuff, but why not try and incorporate something you aren’t as ready for into your schedule? Most high school, college or university programs have electives you can select alongside your regular courses. Maybe you’re required to take calculus, chemistry, biology, and physics—but if you have a couple of spots free, sign up for classical literature or a foreign language. These elective courses may surprise you… and it may surprise you how well you do in them. Exposure to new material opens up even greater possibilities for your own research. You might even find yourself a new hobby.

    Of course, there are other ways to try your hand at something new. Clubs and extra-curriculars are not only fun and productive, but they can help you connect with people who share your interests (or people like you, looking for something new to do!). New courses, new pastimes, and new peers – that sounds like a sweet deal. All you have to do is put yourself out there.

    Yet most people are afraid to take even the slightest risk, worried that they won’t be good at what they do or that they’ll be made fun of for their efforts. In anything you do, there’s the possibility of failure, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try anything. Avoiding life is a waste of your time and talents, and believe it or not, people can be surprisingly supportive and understanding. So what if you mess up a little? If you want to commit to something, like any one of your current interests, it’s going to take a little work before you get comfortable with it.

    Maybe you won’t be good at what you try (at least not right off the bat). Maybe you won’t even like it. But at the very least, you can say you tried. Then it’s up to you to decide whether you want to stick by it or not.

     

  • Keeping a Journal

    Keeping a Journal

    Keeping a journal is a great way to find clarity in your thoughts and to express yourself. Maybe there are issues you are going through in your personal life such as family problems,  issues with your friends or maybe the passing of a loved one.

    Writing daily or weekly in a journal/diary is a great way to let your emotions and feelings out. It can prove to be very therapeutic.

    Getting started is very simple. Grab a notebook or diary from the dollar store, write the date and just start writing. It would be helpful to write alone in your room or outside in quiet area that you may find peaceful. Write about anything that comes to mind and don’t over think it. There’s no right or wrong. Write about what you did that day. Where did you go? Who did you see? What did you accomplish? What do you feel during that moment? Are you sad about something? Are you happy? Are you stressed?

    You can even write about your short-term or long-term goals. What steps do you need to take to get there? Write them down. By writing down your dreams and goals, you are making more of a concrete commitment to them instead of just thinking about them. By writing them down and seeing them, you are more likely to act upon them later.

    Keeping a journal is not about just writing in it. It’s a great way to reflect as well by reading past entries. Maybe as the days go on and you read what you wrote before, you’ll realize that life isn’t so bad after all. You may feel better about a particular issue you were having before or maybe you changed something in your life for the better. You will see progress in your life. Maybe you accomplished some of your goals. Knowing that you achieved something that you wrote down from before is a great feeling in itself.

    As you get older, you will be glad that you kept a journal to see how your life was like in your younger days and how your life is different now. It’s a great way to keep track of memories and important moments in your life that you may forget otherwise if you didn’t write them down.

    Overall, keeping a journal is a great tool that serves many purposes. Happy writing!

  • The Importance of Being a Dreamer

    The Importance of Being a Dreamer

    Without having dreams, you may find that your life is kind of boring. Although being realistic about life is important, it’s good to have dreams as well.

    Maybe you are in school full-time and you work two part-time jobs to cover the costs for school and yourself. You are starting to feel stressed and exhausted. Knowing your overall purpose and goals in doing all of this is important. You need to finish school to get that degree so you can nab your dream career and live the lifestyle that you want. That’s your dream and, in order to make that come true, you need to do whatever it takes now to accomplish that for your future.

    Maybe you are working a 9-5 dead-end job and don’t feel fulfilled in your life. You have reached a point in your life where you feel there is no career growth in your job and you feel you are stuck because you have responsibilities and bills to pay. Who has time to dream, you may ask yourself? What can possibly come of it?

    If you don’t allow yourself to dream, you are truly doing an injustice to yourself. You may have decided at a young age exactly what you wanted to be when you grew up. But now that you are planning to go to university to achieve that goal (or perhaps you are already there), are you happy? You have to ask yourself what is it that you really want to do. What are you passionate about? Maybe you want to be a dancer or a writer. What’s stopping you from pursuing your dreams? The answer is you.

    Yes it’s important to pay those bills. But why not have that full-time job and pursue your dreams on the side? If you want to be a dancer, take some dance classes on the side to perfect your craft and connect with people in the dance industry.

    If you want to be a writer, start emailing editors of blogs, magazines and newspapers and say you are interested in contributing even if it for no pay. This way you will establish contacts in the journalism industry, you can get exposure and you can build your portfolio. These are just a few examples.

    You will be pleasantly surprised to discover that your dreams can become a reality. This is why it’s so important to continue dreaming – you never know what can come out of them.

  • Don’t Forget to Have Fun!

    Don’t Forget to Have Fun!

    Starting off in high school can be scary, especially if your list of things to do and your goals are weighing down on you. As important as it is to have goals and to be prepared to work hard, it very important to also be able to manage your stress by letting go and having some fun.

    Everybody has fun in different ways, whether by playing a sport, playing a game, hanging out with friends, doing art, writing or spending time with family and friends. Playing a sport is a great way to focus your energy on something other than whatever is worrying you. Playing a game is a great way to learn some new things, whether it is through a video game or a board game, like Scrabble. Hanging out with friends will help you to connect with others who are facing similar problems and help you to cope with any stress that you are experiencing. Laughing with friends is a great way to release the ever important “happy brain chemicals”, your ally when it comes to facing stress in your life. Doing art can help you to explre any feelings that may be “stuck” or that need to be addressed. Writing can help to mobilize any thoughts or emotions you might have that are lying unconscious, under your level of awareness, ready to be discovered through creative writing.  Spending time with  family is a great way to connect with meaningful people in your life and share any stresses that you may be facing. Also, just relaxing and hanging out with people who you care about will help you to feel good and have fun.

    The important thing is to avoid getting bogged down by your worries and seek an outlet for the playful part of yourself that can get pushed down in times of stress. By relieving stress and having a good time, you release feel good chemicals in your brain which will allow you to better survive and adapt in your everyday life.  Basically, in order to preserve our natural instincts, we must be able to let go and have fun every once and while. This will help us to be stronger and better adapted to our present day life.

  • The Importance of Finding Peace Within

    The Importance of Finding Peace Within

    In a world filled with obligations and seemingly never ending stress, finding inner peace can seem like the stuff of fairytales. The reality is that the majority of us are feeling the pressure of our daily lives in a big way. Poor quality food (yes chips, I am talking about you), poor sleeping habits (five hours a day truly isn’t enough) and mismanaged time can leave a person feeling perpetually like a ping pong ball darting back and forth on the table of life.

    As busy as our lives might be, it is important to find the time to look inwards to find a sense of peace in order to have some semblance of balance. Not only does finding inner peace feel good, it is essential. Inner peace means different things to different people, but the core of the definition remains the same; feeling internal harmony with an absence of internal strife. As previously mentioned, inner peace is essential; our three states of being (physical, spiritual and mental) rely upon it. Without it, anxiety, stress, depression, fear and restlessness – all bi-products of an absence of inner peace – are given leeway to take over our lives.

    As cliché as this may sound, inner peace helps to make the world go round. Let’s take that statement and apply it to a hypothetical situation. If there was a doctor who was manic depressive and due to his depression was unable to focus for long periods of time, developed chronic memory loss or became unreliable in his or her attendance at the office, said doctor could wind up causing some serious damage to or even killing one or more of his or her patients. The wrong medication could be prescribed, a client could be misdiagnosed or a hopeful patient would have traveled to the doctor’s office in vain looking for an absent doctor. Medical and legal chaos would ensue. As extreme as this example may seem, the absence of inner peace can cause such a large amount of discord in our lives through blindsided snowball effects that it can alter it and those around us.

    In an effort to find inner peace many of us turn to spirituality or religion. As the Dalai Lama so wisely stated, “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” His words mirror the teachings of so many religions today. In some way, shape or form, every religion functions on the act of mastering internal peace and then applying it externally. This transference of peace dictates the way that we live and communicate. Aside from religion, other methods of obtaining inner peace are through meditation, listening or creating music or engaging in a relaxing activity. Regardless of what you choose to do, remember that a peaceful person is a happy person and so are the people around them.

  • Keeping a Journal

    At first, keeping a journal doesn’t sound very cool. It conjures up clichéd images of TV journalists or of diaries with scented pages. However, there are actually lots of benefits to keeping a journal, especially during the exciting time after high school when the world is open to be explored.

    Life can get stressful, especially as you take on more responsibilities and challenges as you get older. Sometimes going to school, maintaining a social life or working can clutter up the mind with worries. Keeping a journal is like a kind of private therapy; you can write down your fears, hopes, dreams, frustrations and the troubles of daily life without any fear of judgment. Many people find that writing their thoughts down in a journal helps to clear the mind, reduces overall stress and helps to maintain an ordered lifestyle.

    If you choose to go to college or university, keeping a journal can be really helpful for keeping track of assignments, classes and presentations. In addition to that, this can be the most exciting part of your life and keeping a journal is a great way to preserve your experiences as a young adult for years to come. Furthermore, keeping a regular, up-to-date journal can help keep one’s writing and English skills fresh and ready; a distinct advantage if you find yourself needing to write an essay.

    Keeping a journal can be great for creative reasons, too. If you’re a poet, writer or like to draw, a journal can be an excellent place to exercise your creative muscles and write stories, draw pictures or write poems in addition to writing down important daily events.

    Writing before bed can be very relaxing, and the importance of a good sleep schedule can’t be stressed enough – especially when entering the workforce or university and college. Doing a bit of writing before bed can help to establish a good routine, a solid sleep schedule and can help cause drowsiness for a good night’s sleep. Writing isn’t just for bedtime though; keeping a journal can be therapeutic at any time of day. It can really help you to sort out your feelings, whether they are anger, sadness, love, happiness or frustration. Seeing your thoughts put down on paper (or on a computer, it’s up to you) can help to put things in a different perspective or show things from a different angle which can really help with problem solving.

    Whatever your age, occupation, or education, writing a journal is an awesome way to keep your thoughts in order, deal with personal problems, relax and chronicle the highs and lows of your life.

  • Why Music Education Matters

    Why Music Education Matters

    Little in this world can affect people more than music—whether it’s a catchy song on the radio or front-row tickets to the philharmonic, people invest themselves in the musical world, and for good reason. Music is more than just entertainment; it can teach us valuable lessons on how to think, how to act, and how to feel. It brings people together so that they can listen and learn in harmony. It is this music we should be teaching to incoming generations, for this will shape their choices (and their lives) for the better.

    Learning to play, practice or perform music is more difficult than it seems. Mastering an instrument, whatever it may be (the clarinet, the piano, the voice), takes much dedication. There is great value in such a skill: by playing music, whether for an audience of thousands or in the privacy of your own room, you are bringing a composer’s message to life. Music is one of the most beautiful means of self-expression, and you can contribute to that simply by playing the notes on the page. The theory behind music is also beneficial, whether you’re studying the lives of famous composers or learning to write music of your own. It is essential to get a comprehensive understanding of music, not only for what it is, but for what it was intended to do.

    But this education extends far beyond musical aptitude. Aside from the obvious practical benefit of learning to play an instrument, music helps fine-tune a variety of skills. When playing in an ensemble like an orchestra, musicians are taught the importance of listening to one another, of cooperating as a team to make a beautiful, unified sound. When sight-reading a new piece, a player learns how to focus, to push through even when the subject matter is difficult beyond belief. When playing scales for hours on end, a musician becomes disciplined, determined to do whatever it takes to succeed, no matter how tedious the task.

    Musicians develop an incredible sense of precision, making sure to catch every note and rhythm and cadence, and the melody that follows demonstrates the truly incredible merit behind their hard work. Oftentimes, this merit cannot be measured: it can only be felt. The thing about music is that it expresses what cannot be put into words, and brings about feelings you didn’t even know you were capable of. It is easy to be moved by music, for it is the product of the performer’s heart and soul (oftentimes, they are telling the composer’s story through their own lens). Continuously, people are inspired by music; they are motivated to keep the tradition alive.

    Music education matters because it helps people find their passions and share them with those who will listen. By keeping music alive, we are promoting teamwork, perseverance, and hard work. And by keeping music alive, we are helping people find themselves along the way.