A dream.

5,500 athletes. 17 days. One shot. Alexandre Bilodeau, a 22 year old male made Canadian history on Sunday February 14, 2010. Just a regular boy with a regular dream who never thought he would ever make it this far. That dream all became reality when he kicked our former Vancouver native that now competes for Australia right out of first place. With a striking 0.17 more points than Dale Begg-Smith, Alexandre Bilodeau lived his dream.

The nail-biting crowd was silent as Alexandre made his way down the hill. After he landed the back double fold, Canada knew he was in it to win it. His knees were held tightly together and he crossed the finish line with a record of 23.17 seconds. He waited patiently while the judges tallied his score but when the numbers 26.75 ran across the screen, Canada was the only thing people could hear. His look of hope and fear was replaced with joy and happiness. He did it. He really did it.

"He helped me keep things in perspective all these years. Even when it's raining, I take it. I'll go train." What inspired Alex? His brother. Frederic Bilodeau who suffers from cerebral palsy cheered on his brother with the rest of the country with one hand gripped on the railing and the other raised high in the air. "He doesn't have that chance, and he's having a smile every morning when he wakes up".

Through all the pain and determination that this young man has conquered, it all became worth it for the one shot he was given. "I don't think I realize what's actually going on today and what's happening to me right now" Bilodeau stated, but we don't blame him. "I'm human so I make mistakes. If I can do it. They can all do it". - Alexandre Bilodeau.

This is the life.

I take a step out the back door of my cottage onto the sliver filled wooden deck and breathe in the sticky, humid air. I hear the waves crashing against the rocks and the sun is set high ready to bronze people's skin. The people. Oh the people are spread out over the gritty, beige sand. My toes sink into it, as my hair gets blown to the side. Sweat trickling down my face as the temperature reaches its high. The only thing running through my mind is, this is the life.

This is the life. My life. I spend my whole summer repeating this every morning. My days consist of tennis at 11:15 am, lunch and then chilling on the beach til dinner. I know what you're thinking, tennis every morning at 11:15? Well yes, there is a tennis club at my cottage and this is where I made my life-long friends. We all have known each other since we were as young as 2 years old. We grew up together every summer. Of course I'm not hanging out with my brother though. He hangs out with the kids his age. Pretty much all the people my brother hangs out with are older brothers and sisters that I hang out with. It's like a big family.

At night you can see the reflection of the setting sun spread across the calm water. The giant Canadian flag is held high and gently ripples in the evening's breeze. That sand that was once blistering hot turns to a cool arrangement beneath my feet. The lighthouse stands tall as if it knows why its there. My body relaxes and my mind sets free. This is my home. Southampton is my home.

Perfect is too perfect.

So, I looked at the blog topic for this week and it was "describe your perfect friend". I immediately thought of all my friends and thought about if any were perfect. No one really came to mind except Olivia because she's amazing at everything but I still couldn't call her the perfect friend. Don't take that in the wrong way because I still love her but wouldn't you get annoyed if your friend was perfect all the time? I admit it, Olivia's beauty, academic success and trendy clothes are all things I would kill to have but the reason I don't get annoyed with her is because she still has things that aren't perfect. I'm not going to name them because at the moment, I can't really think of any.

If I had to choose a perfect friend, it would be someone who is kind, generous and doesn't hurt you. At least not on purpose. Also, it would be someone who has appealing clothing so I could borrow them when I'm having one of those "there's nothing to wear" day. Maybe my perfect friend would be someone the total opposite of me.

I guess this all remains untold because there really isn't a machine that can make your perfect friend. I love my friends the way the are and we have buckets of fun together because we all bring different adventures with our smiles. None of them are perfect because frankly, perfect is too perfect.