What I've always wanted to do is play guitar and write songs. Unfortunately, my life just took a different path and I never took the time to find out more. On a beautiful day last year at the end of March, I crashed face first off my mountain bike onto a paved bike path to avoid hitting a child who ran out in front of me. I ended up with a really bad concussion and a fracture bone in my face. After the accident I couldn't really do much b ...

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Diary entry – Tuesday September 7, 1976…”I would like to be in the Paralympics when I’m 16 in 1980. I’ve made up my mind – if I don’t make that I’ll swim Lake Ontario.” With hard work and determination I achieved my dream to represent Canada in the 1980 Paralympics (amputee division) in Arnhem, Holland. Fast-forward 35 years to 2011. Life’s blessings and unanticipated detours have brought me back to the water. At 47, I want to compete ...

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In July of 2009, I made a bet with my friend to lose weight. When I started, I was over 242lb. I decided to attend an “Introduction to Olympic Weightlifting” course to jump start my side of the bet. One of the reasons I chose this was many women in Olympic Weightlifting have been my size or larger. Shortly after I took the course, I got the opportunity to train with my first “coach” - Chris Lemky. He worked with me from August ...

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Although I have never considered myself a linguist, I rather enjoy being able to communicate in many different languages. I am a Canadian born in Saskatchewan to First Nations parents and lived a normal English urban upbringing. In Grade 7, it was compulsory to take French and I welcomed it with open arms as I thought about my future as a bilingual person having a better choice of jobs when the time came. I continued and persevered with ...

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My goal, though it may seem small or meaningless to most is big for me. I would like to learn how to swim. I grew up on a farm in a big family and there was no such thing as swimming lessons, not even a swimming pool anywhere near to where I lived. Since I moved to Saskatoon, I have been busy raising my family and just never had the time to take lessons but I am proud to say that both of my children have become good swimmers and now I th ...

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With shattered dreams of a wonderful life with my “Knight-In-Shining-Armour” (thanks to a younger determined assistant), and my wonderful children almost “launched”, I now have independence, and hopefully a few decades of fun ahead. But now what? Soul searching, I walked across the Sahara for a week, trekked the Atlas Mountains, wondered the streets of Paris, sailed down the Nile, and stared at sunrises and sunsets. But it was a c ...

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Hi, I have never been really good at making commitments to myself or setting goals. I excel at placing obstacles in my way. On Sept 1/2009 I ran into my biggest obstacle yet with the diagnosis of breast cancer. After 9 months of treatment I am in the process of giving birth to my new life. I desperately want my old great life back but something has changed. I am now learning to live with the shadow of cancer. How do I live each day and m ...

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I am 40 and feeling sporty. In the six months leading up to my 40th birthday, I was on maternity leave with my second daughter. In need of a project, I embarked on a home fitness program. I’ve always been active and into sports, but something about turning 40 lit a fire of motivation in me. Being fit wasn’t about just me anymore. It was about keeping healthy and strong for my two little girls. I started a six-day a week program of we ...

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As a child, my favourite Rockwell print depicted a girl winning a game of marbles with the boys. That print still hangs in my home. At the age of 50, my spouse convinced me to play an amateur league no-limit Texas Holdem Tournament. It was a little intimidating to be a middle aged woman playing poker with men, many of them younger than my sons. It took several weeks before I could shuffle and deal the cards without my hands shaking, b ...

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Since I was a child, I have always wanted to learn the piano. My parents received a player piano as a gift from my late grandfather when I was in my late teens and I regret not having it earlier LONG before I moved out...... Recently, (last mother's day) my husband arranged for piano movers to move the piano from my parents house in a different town to our house as a surprise for me!!! I am so excited to have a piano in the house again ...

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