2014 amazing year

Hey everyone. Cant believe 2014 is done. I have done a lot of amazing things this year. I can't believe I am half way done my college program. Getting a lot of A's and B's. I went on an a couple amazing trips. The first one was Stamford Connecticut were I got to see my friends that are just like me.

Then a week later my dad, mom and I went to England. We flew on a plane overnight and that was very interesting. We landed at the Manchester Airport which was fun but a little tiring. Then we toured the city. It was very different. Then we went to a pub. The restaurants were very different. You had to pick your food and then go order it at the bar. My first day at England I got to try a fish sandwich which was very tasty. Then we went on a coach bus tour to the isle of wright. The hotel that was with the bus tour was amazing. The hotel was awesome and had a lot of good food. We went to some amazing tourist attractions. Then we had a day were we got to relax for a day. We walked around the downtown city which was cool.

Then we headed back to Manchester for the Europe chromosome 18 conference. The self advocate panel was a lot smaller then the united state one which was a lot nicer. At the hotel they had a breakfast buffet which had a lot of tasty breakfast food.  Then we saw ton of an amazing speakers at the conference.

Then we went to London on a train from Manchester it was very interesting. We had a table so we could have some snacks so we got to sit together.  Then we went over to our friends flat to put our stuff away.  Then we went to a grocery store to get some food for breakfasts. Then we had a good night sleep. The next day we went on the bus tour to see where we wanted to go and explore. The 2nd day we did two walking tours.  The first tour was a royal tour where we learned about all the royal history and sites. Then we got to see the start of where they had a marching band with the new guard. We got to walk with the marching band for a little bit until we got near the Buckingham palace and then we stopped at a lawn. Then my dad and I did the Harry Potter walking tour when my Mom and sister decided to sit out. We got to see the ministry of magic. Then we went to an alley that where a candy store sold some harry potter snacks.  

The third day we went to Stonehenge in the morning and Roman's Baths in the afternoon. After that we went back to the bus to drive back to London. Then we went back to flat and hanged out.  The last day we went to the London castle where a beefeater gave us a tour and told us some really gory stories.  Then we decided to go have lunch. Then we went to the big toy store which was really neat. Then we went back to the underground and headed to the 9 and 3/4 stops at kings Cross. The line was extremely short and it took us not very long to get picture with the Hogwarts cart. Then we went to the London eye which included a 4D movie which was neat. I was nervous about it but really liked it once we saw it. Then we got in line for London eye. We finally got to ride on the London eye for thirty minutes. We went back to the flat after that for the last sleep. Then we packed everything from the flat that is my friend Carissa's house. The next day we had breakfast and moved out to get to the Manchester airport. We got to ride on a train again which was really fun. Then we went to a hotel which was attached to the airport. The next day we got up really early to head to our flight back to Toronto while my sister went to Scotland.  We got back to Toronto that day which was tiring and fun. I liked the little TVs that they had in the airplane.

After the England trip I got to go to the united states in November for a cheerleading competition. The resort that we stayed in was awesome and it had an indoor and outdoor waterpark. The resort is called Kalahari Resort. It had everything in it. I stayed with my mom, my best friend and her mom. It was such an awesome experience we competed on Saturday after lunch and then they gave us the award right afterwards. I got to keep the trophy from the competition. Then we spent some time shopping which was fun. We were on a mission to find an Olaf the snowman from frozen. Then my mom had to take a shirt back to a kohl's store because they forgot to pull off the security thing. So my friend her mom and I walked around the store and we saw the gigantic Olaf which made us laugh. After shopping we went to a restaurant called Red Ruby's. It was pretty neat because all the cheerleading athletes got to sit at a table by themselves without parents. The food was awesome and everyone got to try a bit of dessert since one person shared. Then after supper some of us went to the waterpark. We also got our new Kalahari bracelet for the waterpark for Sunday. My favourite part of the waterpark was the lazy rive and the wave pool. My friend and I also won big at the arcade. We found this game where it was like plinko and you just had to hit a button. We kept hitting the thousand ticket button and I got my ball in a secret hole which allowed me to have another chance. On Sunday we went to go pickup our prizes which was fun I got a whale tale, photo frames and a slinky with the Kalahari logo. After a fun weekend away we left the hotel and headed our way back home. I had a fantastic time and would love to go back again with my cheerleading team.

Swimming update

Hey everyone.
Just wanted to let everyone know that I am going to do my first swim race in the lanes at the special olympic provincial qualifier.

I am a very nervous about the competition since this is my first time competing in the lanes. I am also very excited about this competition. I have done two competitions in the past with the adaptive swimming category but this is my first big race in the big pool.

I have improved a lot since the first competition. I have acheived many goals such as going in at the deep end by sliding over the edge, swimming lengths without any floatation and doing lots of excercising.

I can't wait to see how i will do in the competition. My dad is going to take me to the pool so i know how to get in the deep end for the competition and be less nervous.

Just wanted to give you guys a little update. Thanks for reading.

Excited for summer

Hey everyone I went to go to see the Harlem globetrotter and it was a lot of fun. After seeing them I have been practicing basketball. I can now dribble the ball between my legs. Hoping to find a Special Olympics basketball team for next year. I am getting ready to go to the 2 conference. Can’t wait to see all my friends. I was asked to speak about self-esteem at the conference and I can’t wait for the opportunity. The first conference is in Stamford Connecticut near New York which is awesome. The second conference is in Manchester England and I haven’t been to England before so I am excited for the trip. I am very interested in seeing all the harry potter tourist attraction near London since I have been reading the books for the last three months.

Thanks for reading!

check this out

Hello Everyone,
This is Becky's big sister Sarah. I just wanted to share this amazing link with all of Becky's followers. This is a great blog post about positive exposure which is an organization that has done amazing things and shown everyone Becky's beauty both inside and out

http://mariashriver.com/blog/2014/02/positive-exposure-change-how-you-see-see-how-you-change-daniel-jenks/

This is the amazing Rick from Positive Exposure

A great picture from Rick of Becky and I at the past conference

trying skating

Hey everyone.
A few weeks ago during the Christmas break I tried skating at Julia F's skating party and had fun. It was a fundraiser for the Chromosome 18 Registry and Research group. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet some of my friends from the chromosome 18 registry and from camp. I got to see Noah Banton, Julia F and Emerson. I even met some of my other friends like Erica.  It was difficult at first but after a while I got used to skating on ice. The one thing is that the skates hurt your feet after awhile but at least I got some exercise. I enjoyed every bit of it and had an amazing time. My family won a chromosome bag and I got a juniors buzzer jersey. Can't wait for the next fundraising event.

Getting ready to skate in the change room

Me and Noah on the ice, I was nervous so Noah helped me

Hanging out in the penalty box with Julia (it is her skating party)

All the Chromosome 18ers partying

This is the jersey the hockey team gave me, I have it on over my coat

Noah, me and Julia hanging out in the penalty box taking a break

Highschool graduation ceremony

On Friday October 25 I went back to my old high school to graduate. During the day I helped clean the house. For supper on that night I had a hotdog. My mom and my grandma took me to the school so I could get ready and they could save seats. Then at 7:30pm the ceremony started and after waiting for a little I got my diploma. Which was neat. When everyone was finished we did the big graduating tradition where everyone moved their tassel from the right to the left which was cool. Then we headed to the  cafeteria to have a snack and refreshments. I visited with two amazing teacher who helped me survive high school and I got to see a couple of my old friends too. My tutor also came to graduation ceremony which was cool. I have had the same tutor since grade one. One of my psychologists said that I would not have been able to read without all the work my tutor did with me. Then after a couple of pictures we drove home and had a party with our neighbours and friends. We had pizza which was Hawian, Canadian and a tomato free pizza (for Sarah). For dessert we had a marble slab Rolo icecream cake. Which was delicious and the gathering was fun. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us. Also thanks to everyone who helped me to get through school and graduate. I will add some photos later but thought I should post this.

Rough Beginning - College essay

Hey everyone here is my essay that I got an 89% on.

Rough Beginning

I have seen so many people that have a more fair life than myself. For example, most people never have to the hospital ,or have teachers that actually believed in them. Compared to many people, my life as treated me unfairly, especially  due to attitude of doctors, teachers and also because I have a rare genetic disorders.

First throughout my life, I have had some good doctors who believe in me and other who thought I would not make it. For example in grade 3 I had to go to physiologist who told my family and me that I wouldn't make it pass grade four level. This affected my family badly because they knew it wasn't true. Another thing that was unlucky for me was going to a speech therapist to learn different letter sounds. For example when I was younger I would make the k sound like a T so I would call myself Betty instead of Becky. The last reason why I believe life has treated me unfairly is this: when I was younger, I had to have needles every single night. These needles will help me grow physically and mentally. I felt very lonely because I was the only person to have them.

The second reason why I think life as treated me unfairly is that some teachers didn't care about me. First some teachers thought I was not capable of anything, and never gave me a chance to show what I was capable of. For instance in grade ten cooking class, a certain teacher would make me wash the dishes instead of cooking. In addition I have had a couple of teachers who underestimated my learning skills. In grade 8, for example, my music teacher thought I would never be able to do anything music related. Thirdly some teachers didn't know me at all. When I was in grade seven, the special education teacher tried to put me in the life skills classroom without letting me graduate with my friends in grade 8. In addition another example of this poor treatment was my grade 8 English teacher who thought I was scared of speaking in front of the class. Even though I have done it many times. Throughout my experience in elementary and secondary school, I had teachers who didn't know me well, and other who didn't want to waste their time to know me. I felt like I was alienated by someone who was supposed to show support for my learning.

The final reason why I believe life as treated me unfairly is because I have a rare genetic disorder. Due to this I have had lots of surgeries. Some were major like heart, bowel ,and eye surgeries, and others were minor treatments like dental work. What hurts the most is that some ignorant people won't even accept disabilities that they can't see. For example, when I go to Disney's Magic kingdom park most people look at me in a weird way for having a disability pass. Indeed some people just don't want to learn anything about me. For example, when I told my grade 8 music teacher that I was different she just kept ignoring me.

     

To conclude, doctors, teachers, and people who have treated me unfairly by ignoring me or not showing support because of my genetic disorder. Even though I have had all these unfair events in my life, it makes me realize that those events made me who I am today, and I am proud of that !  I have learned that I need to work hard to achieve success. I have also learned the importance of standing up for myself to become my own self-advocate. Most importantly, I have learned to be thankful for these teachers, doctors, friend and family who have believed in me and supported me for who I am.