My Best Day

On that day in mid July when my grandparents came I was currently attending summer school. I didn’t get to go to the airport because of time issues but as soon as I came

It was on a frigid, dark autumn night that I entered this wonderful world. November 13, 2000, the date, almost November 14th. My siblings had no idea that my name would be Clayton Wayne Griep, and that minutes before midnight on that night I was their brand new brother. A few days later I would leave that hospital in Zeeland, Michigan and be welcomed to my new house, at 4096 Marion St. in Hudsonville, Michigan. Two of my siblings were more than excited to see me, but one didn’t have any idea what was going on. Cam, who was not even a year old, unbeknownst to him, had a new roommate. Jordan, who was in the 2nd grade at the time, was eager to meet me, his eyes constantly locked on me. Jalen, using her newly found vocabulary, probably babbling

I remember my first day in Canada like it was yesterday. The day I thought my dad had been hit by a car and my mom almost having a heart attack. It all started when we first got to the hotel, in Ontario, Mississauga. My father thought it would be a great idea to explore the area and buy some groceries. My mom, two brothers and I were exhausted due to a fourteen-hour flight from Dubai to Toronto so we decided to stay and take a nap. I woke up at 7 pm to silence. I thought my dad had come back and took a nap, but when I went to wake up parents, it was only my mother. At that point, I started freaking out, it’s been 4 hours since my father left. I woke up my mother and told her my dad hadn’t come back yet. My mother tried to call my father, but his phone was off. She then went to the security of the building and talked to him. The security guard asked my mother

All those years ago in Kindergarten when I was six I still remember. I remember the first sleepover at my cousin Eden’s house. I was pacing and wanted to be alone with her and her little sister. She, much larger than I, would comfort me by playing games with me. Now after all those years, I’d want to go over there all the time. Every weekend I was over there. I can remember what we did for fun, when we got our first phones. I miss my cousin.

I am nine years old, playing outside on a bright summer day with my cousins, Kassandra and Claudia. We are playing our favorite game, hide and seek. It is six o’clock in the afternoon. My father is in the backyard cooking meat on the grill, while my mother and grandmother are in the kitchen making rice and beans. The food smells excellent. After we all finish eating dinner, my cousins’ parents come to pick them up. The rest of my family stays up and watches scary movies.

On a blazing hot summer early morning with the city traffic roaring! And the hot sun blazing, birds chirping and the smell of fresh green grass. Me and my family were packing and getting ready for our yearly powwow trail trip. My mooshum and kokum were they’re usual selves laughing and cracking jokes, I and my cousins knew they weren’t that funny but laughed at their jokes anyways. After we were all packed and ready we all piled into my kookum’s van and set off to our destination with the hot sun reflecting off the black pavement. The drive to Muskoday reserve was long and tiring, the van was humid and making us irritated, so I decided to roll down my window to let the summer air cool us off, the cool breeze was flowing and the music was booming! A bit later we arrived to our destination with our eyes popping taking in all the scenery around us, mind you this was our first time being in the reserve Muskoday. The excitement of being there and meeting new people was over whelming, the anxious feeling of just wanting to run off and enjoy the scenery with my cousins and friends I had met before from the powwow trails we took yearly.

In my early tween years, I had won a National Canada Day Poster Challenge set by the Government of Canada to show what Canada means to me. I spent hours after school on trying to make this poster represent my identity, my history, and how I see the future of Canada. My little heart exploded when my art teacher broke the news, and I remember sitting on a stool in front of the poster smiling giddily as my father talked to the Minister of Canadian Heritage about what would come next. I visited the nation's capitol for the first time with my family the coming summer, and the experience was unforgettable. We toured the Parliament, the Peace Tower, and we saw my poster hanging in the Children's Museum of Ottawa on that trip. It was the first time

This summer, in the first week of August, we went to Brighton, Michigan. I along with my grandma Sharon, my same age uncles: Logan and Cole, and my brother Hayden were all going. At 10:30 AM we left, getting into her in her car piling our stuff in. This consisted for me of 3 books, a deck of cards, a stick of deodorant and a few changes of clothes. I finished the first book, Rangers Apprentice The Lost Stories, about three hours down the road and halfway through it we stopped at the Iowa I-80 truck stop, the world's largest truck stop, for lunch. After that I talked with Cole for another two hours. We stopped at a rest stop just out of Chicago and stretched out our legs. from there it was a straight run up into Michigan and from there into

“It was only a short while after our picnic that Mother died.” (Carr 38) I am Emily Carr. I was born in British Columbia the same year it joined Canada, 1871. I am the youngest of nine children. It was five girls, including me, and four boys. All of my older brothers passed away shortly after birth. My father was a strict Presbyterian. My father chose to move us to the Vancouver Island so he could practice English customs but still follow his British citizenship. My father was not much of a talker. Every day he did the same thing. He would work, come home and tend to Isabella, his grapevine, eat, tend to Mother for half an hour and then go read his paper before he slept. “I resented him because he would tend to Isabella before Mother.” (Carr

“When we were finally allowed n to the city I was so happy, it was beautiful, but I was scared until I met Louis, the man to whom I was betrothed.” They asked when the wedding was, I didn’t know my parents were in charge of that and I was left to my last few months of being a Nalylinquoi. As the sun began to rise we began to see thick forest thinning. And the sow began to fall, I continued my story, “I remember leaving New York City and heading west to Louisiana and then back north to Kentucky. When we began building our plantation I heard word of Louis, and that he left to follow me so we could be married.” This excited my cousins particularly the fourteen year-old covering her head with her parasol. A Calin came to a halt the small hickory wood cabin white roofed with snow stood there. And we all jumped down from the wagon and some of the girls took our things inside and the older ones came to help me put up Calin, when we went in to the barn there was a surprise waiting for us, two large chestnut brown mares. All tied up with a note that read. ‘For my granddaughter may this barn and house my gift to you, my blessings on your

“BEEP, BEEP, BEEP”! As soon as I heard my alarm, I then realized it was time for me to get up and moving. It was 6am and I was extremely tired. Because of going to sleep around 2am, I felt the need to lie back down just for five minutes. The time was awfully going by slow, because I kept checking the time to see if the minutes were up yet. As the time went by, those minutes were up and I then decided to get up and moving to get ready for school.

As a child, I would wake up in the morning before my older brother went to school. Together we would walk down the street to a neighbor’s house and have breakfast with the three boys and their mom, Jackie. As I got older, I started walking to breakfast on my own but my mother would wake up very concerned on where I was at 6 a.m. We soon got a magnet to put on the fridge and when I left to Jackie’s, I was instructed to put the magnet on one side of the fridge so my mom would know. I grew up with the two younger boys, Kyle and Jacob, and my brother grew up with the oldest one, Larry. We were very adventurous kids, running through the woods, on bikes, running around bare foot, I even stepped on a few rusty nails in my childhood.

It’s May 22nd 1830 and I just arrived in Canada along with the others, we are now just resting in a town. This is our first day here. We took the underground railroad, those routes and safe houses kept us safe the entire way here from The United States. At the safe houses, we got food, clothing, and a safe place to rest. It was dangerous, there were many times where we could have been caught and taken back into slavery, but we didn’t get caught. We were some of the few who got through safely. Many of my friends from back home never made here.

At the beginning of the party, as the family and some close friends started to arrive, everyone exchanged greetings. It had been a few months for the whole family to reunite, so everyone was pleased to see one another. Once they had surprised my uncle’s mother, the party had officially started. At first, it was wonderful seeing and getting together with the family. After several months apart from my cousins, it was awesome to be around them again. My cousins and I would always spend time inside

“BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!” The shrill noise of the alarm clock jolts me awake, and I sit up groggily - to realize that it is not an alarm clock.