This one time - at band camp - HA! Jokes. A time that I was brave was when my (then) 11 month old baby had a table tennis table collapse on top of her. I was 8 months pregnant at the time and I was trying to stop the table from collapsing as there were some (NAUGHTY) children jumping on it and no other parents around. I could see that the table was caving in and held it up long enough for all the kids to get off safely but I didn't see Isobelle underneath. A friend of mine screamed to me that Bella was beneath the table and when I lifted it up she was laying there - with a big wound on her face, I scooped her up, at which point she started screaming (that was great as I then knew that she was alive) and I needed to get her to the hospital. A friends husband drove us rather than waiting for an ambulance and she was attended to very quickly. I found it incredibly hard to see her face uncovered as it looked it her whole nose was hanging off. She had micro surgery the next morning which the plastic surgeons and to be honest that was the time that I had to be brave because she was really difficult to get to sleep and I had to restrain her and it was horrible. So horrible. Holding my limp baby. I was brave for her but I cried and cried and cried when she went into surgery. That was tough, and it still makes me feel yucky thinking about it even though she was and is fine. She has a fair scar on her nose - that is pretty obvious when she is tired or angry, but really it is irrelevant in terms of what it could have been. Children force you to be brave.
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Dear 40 year old me,
OMG 40 years old!! I hope that you still feel 21 in your mind! I can remember, for the longest time, thinking that 40 was SO old. In fact I remember thinking 28 was old. I am becoming at realise that old is relative to the age that you currently are. My Oma is turing 89 and still talks about the other old people - and to her old people are in their 90's. It amuses me that she doesn't think of herself as old! Well, by 40 I hope that you feel as though you have everything together and perhaps that you are not pretending so much. I would like to think that you are a lot more settled and perhaps able to save some money by now (I know the whole budgeting thing has been a steep learning curve) and have a good work life balance. Work at the moment is going along really well and I thoroughly enjoy what I do. I hope that is the case in my fortieth year still! I'm thinking that it would also be great if you are still at st ignites as by now 4 of the kids would be a secondary school - & therefore the whole saving any money thing immediately becomes null and void. A couple of tough years ahead financially for you! I hope that you Kirsty Allan still have an enthusiasm for life and that you still love to laugh! I also hope that you have had a chance to squeeze a holiday in at some stage - or some form of travel at the least! It would be nice to have returned to Indonesia at some stage. I am happy and healthy and do hope that is still the same! Dear Vanessa,
I hope that this letter finds you well - or at the very least better than the last time that I seen you. I am really concerned about you and the choices that you are making for your life. You are a smart, funny, handsome and gifted young man and I feel as though you have forgotten who you are and where you have come from. I know that your family would not be supportive of your lifestyle choices. Imagine what your mum would think? I know that you may not really care what your mum thinks right now, but I am sure that you will someday soon. Your family love you very much and do want what is best for you. As your closest friend I feel as though I have to address this with you. I am not sure if you can see the ramifications of the choices you are making. You a extremely thin and sickly looking, you have withdrawn from life, suffer paranoid/hallucinogenic episodes (and if you think that is not fun for you, can you try to imagine how distressing it is for me to be there with you?) I laughed the first time you thought you were a monkey, as you were happy but the other day when you thought the room was full of spiders and you could not recognise me (or anyone) and you were very distressed was awful. I know that you hate spiders, but you were violent and inconsolable. It was heart breaking - especially as I knew that there was nothing I could do (because you didn't even know who I was!). I understand the want to escape, to relax. That is normal, and I love my down time with you. Well, at least I did. I want you back. The old you - the one that made me laugh and watched ridiculous movies with me. The you that cared about how I was. The you that looked after themselves and engaged in interesting discussions. The you that I know you still are. I want that back. I want you to care about how your behaviour is affecting others. Let me, or us help you. Drug addiction is hard work to kick but we will support you all the way. I cannot however continue to support what you are doing. It is killing me. I am thought that you are aware of all of the side effects of the choices you are making, but now I am not so sure. Lets talk about it. I have looked into a few different options and would like to chat to you about them later. I love you. I will always love you. Don't push me away now, I can help. I'll call by this afternoon and we can talk. Please don't be too angry (or alternatively be really angry - but stay with it, don't get high to escape those feelings). I am worried about you. Kirst Whoa! What a busy couple of days camp was. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole camp experience - from getting to know other students and staff better to not having to cook my own food! I shared my cabin with Miss Windmill and Jess. It was good to just have some time to chat with them about general stuff rather than just school stuff. I also enjoyed having the time to see my students in a different light. There were definitely some of you that shone on camp - which was terrific to see. It was wonderful to see students face their fears and be open to new and exciting experiences. Watching Alice In Wonderland was enjoyable - seeing the reactions of the students that had not seen the movie made me smile. The food we were served was delicious and I certainly did not feel hungry at all while on camp. The weather wasn't awesome but at least we weren't rained out. It was a little disappointing that we didn't do the beach carnival but the amazing race activity was fun - aside from me smacking my nose on the railing accidentally (it is still very sore and swollen inside). The giant swing certainly created some fabulous memories! I'll upload it when I can! I arrived home exhausted from camp and fell asleep watching a movie with my kids! I hope that you all had a positive experience and I look forward to hearing your feedback. |
Kirsty AllanA Prep to Year 12 teacher currently teaching 7 English & Humanities, 9 English & VCAL Literacy. Hopefully inspiring my students to write!! Archives
August 2019
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