Without Hesitation

As we all become adults, and make our way through the adult world, we find it increasingly difficult to remember experiences from our childhood. We forget faces, names, places, and often experiences. My earliest memory is a teddy bear picnic in primary where I took my mother's teddy bear and nearly dropped him in a pond full of tadpoles.

It's the earliest memory I have, and the only one I have from primary.

I remember a lot about Grade 6. It was the year that my sister moved to BC. But before she did, she came skiing with me for my first time on my school trip. It was the year that I attended my first concert, experienced my first memorable hurricane.

It was the year my Nanny passed.

I remember certain things about our Nanny. I remember her nightgowns, her skirts, her laugh. I remember laying in her bed with her, just enjoying her company. But because I was only about 12, I don't remember everything, and it's harder 11 years later to remember at all. And I worried that as I got older, those memories would continue to slip away from me.

About 2 years ago, Mom was cleaning out her drawers and her closet. She found a broach that belonged to Nanny. I saw it and thought it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Mom told me I could have it, and I took it delicately and put it into a jewelry box. I think it was last year I put it on my winter coat. This winter, I have never received more compliments in my life than I do on that piece of glittering jewelery I wear so proudly. Compliments and admiration that come from friends, coworkers, teachers and fellow students. They come from store clerks, bus drivers, strangers who sit down next to me on the bus, people I pass in a store. With every compliment, thoughts of Nanny come flittering back to me, and I'm reminded of all those memories I fear will disappear. Because my response? Is always, without hesitation,

Thanks, it was my Nanny's.

I love snow days!

Like Dawn and Jody (and because I have no originality whatsoever), I'm going to act like a celebrity too! These are questions James Lipton asks on Inside The Actor's Studio (even though I have no idea who he or what that show is!):


1)What's your favorite word?
Lately? Brilliant!

2)What is your least favorite word
Trump

3)What turns you on?
Hrmmm...

4)What turns you off?
People who spit, motorcycles, and musicians (except Jack Johnson).

5)What sound/noise do you love
Pouring rain or crashing waves

6)What sound/noise do you hate?
Alarm clock buzzers, I need to set mine on the radio

7)What is your favorite curse word
I don't have a favorite, but the one I use the most is probably bitch.

8)What profession would you like to attempt?
Coroner

9)What profession would you not like to attempt
Vet

10)If Heaven exists,what would you like God to say to you upon your arrival?
Stacy, I'd like you too meet Charles Darwin.

A step backwards into history, and support towards discrimination.

This is just a quick blog as I'm just arriving home from school and am starving so I need to eat.

But upon my arrival home, I found mail from MSI on my desk. It's time to renew my health card. It's ironic that this came today, a mere week after a discussion in my sociology class last week.

I believe it was Cooley's Looking Glass Theory that we were talking about; where members of society tend to view themselves the way others do, much like a looking glass. One of my fellow class mates brought up the fact that homosexual males are not allowed to donate blood in Canada. I was quick to add to that fact, that they're not allowed to be organ donors either. Despite that all blood and organs are screened before being given to a recipient, donors are still asked if they are male, and if they've participated in anal sex with another male during the past 5 years. If they answer yes to both questions, they are not allowed to donate.

It was at the end of the class that the topic resurfaced and another classmate made a very valid point. She could be a straight woman, but one who makes a living as a prostitute. She could have had sex with 100's of men, men who she doesn't know the sexual past of. But someone else, a gay man, may have had sex with only 2 partners, maybe even one. Men who he DOES know the sexual past of. Yet she's allowed to give blood and he's not.

It makes me really think about the ethics that this country sometimes has. I'm not inviting a big ethical debate here either, I'm just voicing my opinion. It makes me wonder that if it's not worth the "risk" maybe they're not screening it as well as they should be. I sit and wonder, maybe one day I'll need a kidney transplant. Maybe I'll know someone who's a perfect match for me. If that person's a gay man, does that mean I'll have to wait for another match? What if I didn't have the time to wait? And not to mention, shouldn't the screening process be thorough enough to detect any potential viruses? Don't you take a risk anyways when getting a transplant? Your body isn't necessarily going to accept a foreign organ.

And it's with these thoughts that I sit here with my health card renewal form in front of me, hesitating about renewing my organ donation, something I've felt so proud to have on my card before, but now feels like a black mark; a step backwards into history, and support towards discrimination.

Then again, homosexual males shouldn't be discriminated against, but people in need of a donor shouldn't suffer from another person's ignorance.