Humans of St. Marcellinus By Leah & Areeba

Saleemah Alli

The Big Move

Moving to New York was a big decision my family and I made when I was eleven years old. They decided to move to Queens, New York, where my entire dad side of the family lives, but it didn’t bother me because I had many cousins and family friends that lived there. On July 2nd, 2010, my dad and I moved to New York while my mom and brother stayed back in Canada to finish with the last minute packing. At that time, we did not have a house, so we stayed with my Aunt (dad’s sister) for a month. In about two weeks, my mom and brother joined us in New York. During that time, my parents, Aunt, and Uncle worked together to design a house from scratch to show the builders the next day. It took the builders a month to complete the project. I realized that it was only two minutes away from my aunt’s house. The move had impacted my life, because I realized that in September I would have to make new friends, get use to the environment around me, and learn about the new curriculum at my new school. On July 2nd, 2011, my family and I moved back to Canada because we were not getting use to the environment around us. I miss living there, but I prefer visiting rather than living there. I have been to New York more than ten times in my life. It’s basically my second home. It also has the best deals for shopping.

Jessica Rampersad

Smiles for Miles

They call me Smiley. I’m known as the positive, energetic, outgoing kid, but I’m not always like this. I, like many people can get anxious, stressed and overthink in situations. High school brings a lot of that on me, but we all have those days. The reassurance and support from my peers and most teachers have kept me going as well as extra-curriculars. Cross Country, Sound and Lights, Spirit Media, Yearbook, Team Unbreakable and Badminton have been my outlet for the past four years and I’m glad that I was able to surround myself with positive people because without them, I wouldn’t have a reason to smiles for miles.

Darienne Sison

Unrequited Love

Love has always been a drug for me. It is an addiction that I am desperate to quit but can't bring myself to do. Maybe it's because I'm in love with the feeling of caring for someone so deeply, or maybe it's simply because I just don't care about the long term side effects it has. When I was 15, I fell in love with a boy in my class. He was everything that I wanted; I didn't want anybody else. The only thing was, he didn't feel the same back. We only remained as friends, but how can you be "just friends" with someone you like without falling harder for them? After him, I never loved anyone else. I was desperately waiting for my Prince Charming to sweep me up and give me a happy ending just like how Cinderella got hers, but I learned the hard way it's not like that. It's nothing like that and so my opinion changed. To me, the word love holds deeper meaning when you really feel it, deep down in the heart. It makes you feel vulnerable. It opens up your heart so someone can get inside of you and mess you up without even trying. You build a barrier around your heart so nothing and no one can hurt you but when you let someone into your life and you give them a piece of you, the way you feel starts to change and then, your life isn't your own anymore. It'll get inside of you and it will leave you heartbroken in the darkness. The worst part? When that love isn't returned, the hurt and emptiness you feel will turn into a glass splinter and make its way into your heart. That, was how he made me feel like and it was the worst experience in my life.

Sahar Qureshi

Passions

My name is Sahar Qureshi. I am a grade 12 student at St. Marcellinus. There are quite a few things that I am passionate about, one of these being books. I love books. I love reading. Every time I get a book from the library (which is most of the time), I get a fine for returning it late. Just recently, I got a twenty dollars fine because I read the book and then reread it and then reread it again. Whenever I read a book, I feel like I'm in a different world. So reading is basically like travelling and exploring. I love almost all the books I read (as long as their interesting) so it's difficult to choose specifically one to be my favourite. I really love Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter books. Her new series that will probably come out sometime during the following years has a character named James Herondale. He's honestly so amazing and wonderful. I love him so much. Clare released some sneak peaks of the book and he also showed up in the The Shadowhunter Academy. From what I've read he seems so dreamy. I cannot wait for the book to finally come out. In fact, for months now I've had his picture as my phone's wallpaper (Clare had someone draw a picture of James and she posted it on her website). I told my family that I would keep his picture as my wallpaper until the author released The Last Hours (the new series he's in). I'm so excited for it. James is so sweet. He got bullied when he was little and then got expelled for just being how he is. I feel so bad for him. Also, he's a quiet boy who loves to read. Clare always comes up with amazing new characters but I think James will be my favourite. Another thing I'm passionate about is the Pakistani singer and Indian actor, Ali Zafar. He's so amazing. It's like he pours his soul into his songs. He's done remakes of old songs and they're just amazing. I have never been one of those people who goes crazy over some singer, but Ali Zafar is an exception. He has an amazing voice and he's very humble too. When he started off, he started as a painter. He would sell his paintings to collect money to make his videos. God has blessed him. He became such a hit that he was given bollywood movies to act in. Even with such fame, I haven't seen him be even the least bit arrogant. He is so wonderful and his songs are one of the only things that help calm me told when I'm stressed or make me happy when I'm upset. I love his music so much. These are the two things that I'm the most passionate about.

Kriti

Travelling

Hi, I am Kriti, a student at St. Marcellinus. I have quite a few hobbies but out of all of them, travelling is dearest to me. I enjoy getting out of the monotonous cycle of life to try, experience and learn something new. travelling a lot has its pros and a few cons like being a Jack of all trades but a king of none. I find the pros or best parts of travelling to be making new connections, studying and understanding different cultures, learning new languages and stepping out of my comfort zone. A traveler may know, understand and love a lot of countries and cultures. To date, I have visited 14 different countries, lived in nine of those countries. My family has a record for not staying in one place for a long time. So far, Canada is the only country I have lived in for almost five years. Travelling to me is like a breath of fresh air. A chance to do something I haven’t done before such as paragliding and underwater diving to name a few. It is also a great source to learn new things and lessons, because as they say life is way too short to make enough mistakes to learn from. I enjoy listening to folk tales, myths, history of kings, traditions etc. Moving so much has given me the opportunity to make many friends, to play many games, to try a variety of fruits. If a traveler doesn’t try different cultural food, I think the travel cannot be called a complete travel. Furthermore, travelling is the perfect time to let go of stress and broaden our understanding of the world. To conclude travelling is a lot of fun, so much fun. It is an adventure that descriptive words cannot do it justice but it always leaves a sore spot knowing that a well-travelled traveller may be called a Jack of all trades but a King of none. A well- traveled traveler relates to a lot of countries, its cultures, and its people but since they spend their time travelling they are not able to stay in one location long enough to completely drown into its colours.

Zahra Arshad

Ineffable State of Mind

The biggest punch in the face was that I know it was real. He might deny it. But it was. He didn’t just randomly feel the need to keep talking to me, even though he knew it was wrong of him to be talking to me and her at the same time. He’s a good person he wouldn’t intentionally hurt people. I know that his intentions were good. He wasn’t just messing around with me, something must’ve felt right about it. And that’s why it cuts so deeply, that he just dropped that, he just threw that away because it was the right thing to do. Everything was a twisted mess of right and wrong. Right seemed wrong and wrong seemed right. And so I think each of us closed one eye to what we couldn’t handle; I saw and held on to the right in the midst of wrong and he reacted to the wrong in the midst of what was right; even though from the corner of our eyes, we did see the other side. It’s the cliché notion of trying to separate black and white when everything was so clearly gray. You can look at it from the outside and you will see the black and the white. And yeah some of it was simply black and white, but when you are immersed in it as deeply as I was, even the grays looked like vivid colours. The self-indulgence in me will probably never forget those colours and I might never stop chasing them. And the self-preservation in me is buried somewhere under everything. But I just can’t seem to make myself dig for it. At least not right now. I think maybe the worst thing you did was make me believe that someone could want me. Maybe even need. That was a hope I never knew existed. Perhaps the most painful thing was when you ripped that away like it was no heavy thing. When you came to your senses after the damage was already done, in your attempt to make up for it and assumed that I was too broken to handle it. So you tried push me away, but only after the point of no return, only after digging a crater so big that you couldn’t fill it. So that’s probably what I’m doing, filling the void. Your void. I don’t regret leaving my heart open to you. Never. I don’t regret anything because I know I could’ve been enough for you. I’m just sad you couldn’t see that. But I don’t know, maybe you did. Maybe you thought about a lot of things. And now I just have to deal with the fallout of what is and I am trying to do that the only way I know how.

Divine Vijayakumar

A bit about me, Divine

Hello, my name is Divine and I’m a grade 12 student who currently goes to St.Marcellinus. My birthday is on October 9th. Ever since my childhood I’ve always had a passion for music. I can play the piano, violin and a little bit of the trumpet. More importantly I am passionate about singing. I have sang in the school choir, at the church and other special occasions. Music has been a big part of who I am, even listening to music makes me relaxed when I am feeling stressed and also at the same time it helps me focus. However, as much as I love singing, my ultimate goal would be to become a criminal lawyer in the future. I’ve always loved investigating things, and solving mysterious that I find it thrilling! Crime shows have also influenced me to become a criminal lawyer. They investigate crimes and it’s pretty interesting to watch how they solve them. I want to become a defense attorney and defend the innocent who are wrongly convicted and make sure the guilty faces their consequences. Overall, high school has been a great experience for me. Obviously besides all the downfalls I’ve had, I’m still learning from my mistakes and hopefully I’ll continue to keep the lessons I’ve learned in my heart and use them in the future.

Tina Matharu

My Life

My life. My name is Tina and this is my life story. Growing up in an Indian household being sick and all had its downsides which is the first thing that impacted me. Though my mom was raised in Canada, she still had those traditions that she wanted to pass down and having a father from India was another factor that impacted these traditions. I was always fighting between getting good grades but also sticking with these Indian traditions. It impacted me negatively at first because I felt like I couldn't do anything and had to fight my way through it but it impacted me positively because it taught me to be independent and strong and fight for my beliefs. So I grew up and things got better but it was in sixth grade where everything fell down the drain once again and that was due to bullying. Between the years of grade six until the summer before grade nine I got bullied to the point where it felt like the whole world was against me. I developed an eating disorder along with insomnia, depression, anxiety attacks and a stress disorder which ruined my whole life to the point where I did become suicidal. This was the all time low for me. I would get beat up and would come home with bruises and bleeding noses. I was physically, mentally and emotionally harassed for 3 years of my life which felt like never ending years. Throughout these hard years I had developed a lot of physical health problems which made things one hundred times worse. So at this point I was dealing with my damaged self. The person who was totally broken and thus the reason for my suicide attempts. But I overcame it. It took me until grade eleven to overcome these problems and fears. To be myself and accept myself. I opened up and realized that those negative things have impacted me but in a positive way. They taught me to love myself and how to overcome issues. These years of my life taught me to push as hard as I can to achieve my dreams. These year taught me that after a horrible storm comes a rainbow. That's my story.

Do you know what struggling is?

Carol Laquie

Carol Laquie ......Do you know what struggling is? Maybe or maybe not. Do you know what it feels like to be pressure by your parents, more specifically a single parent and being the only child? Maybe you have, maybe you haven’t. Either way they both make you feel like crap, well me at least, because they’re both connected. Since I was about 10 or 11, I’m not sure; my dad would always pressure me into doing things I had no interest in whatsoever. I’m talking about sports. He put me in every sport that could benefit me financially if I were to make it pros in the future. And the thing is he never once asked me if it was a sport I wanted to do, so I would perform badly on the field, court or anything. Some sports I liked, just never loved so I didn’t care much about how I did. My dad begin to see that and would always be mad at me because I wasn’t meeting his expectations, I was already bad in school, so that fuelled his anger even more. Everyday I would struggle to meet his expectations, whether it's at home or outside of home, I try. I guess whatever I did I, it was never enough. Even up to this day, which is worse as I speak. Everyday I’ll do something which causes me to get yelled at, even if it’s the tiniest mistake. I'm just at a point right now, where I don’t care about trying to please my father. I just want do something that makes me happy, because at the end of the day, its only going to be me, myself and I.

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