I'd really like to think I was fortunate as a child and up to the present day. I'm going on 22 years of age this upcoming November and for the most part my extended family is all in great health and though some are aging it's great to be around them every chance I can get, especially on my father's side both his mother and father are approaching 80 years old and both still drive and are in excellent health.

I want to share two memories I've had, both are pretty personal to me and they aren't the happiest however they've helped me grow up to the person I am today.

The first one being my first visit into a funeral, if I can remember I was 13 years old and I was in Newfoundland visiting my family during the summer, a tradition we had every year. My great grandfather who was I believe going on 97 years of age ironically passed away during this time, I remember visiting him a day or two before he passed and he was simply unresponsive to anything. I remember the morning I got woken up by my mother who was extremely close to him and she told me the news, it was all new to me because I never had a family member pass away that I remembered, his wife died when I was only a young kid so I don't really have any recollection of her but I do remember visiting him often and he was always a very spirited man.

Something took over during the funeral, I didn't know him too well but I was on the breaking point of tears, it wasn't more so his death however everyone around me mourning. It truly was one of the saddest sights I've witnessed, seeing my grandmother and her sister, my mom, aunt all in tears over his death and that got me really choked up. I've only been to one other funeral since that time, so I'm still never used to it and the fact that I've always been a very emotional person it won't be the greatest when I have to visit a funeral of a close relative.

Another memory which in terms has really screwed up my family, would be alcohol. My mom's sister had married a man who for years was a very nice, genuine person. For anyone that lives in Canada and knows of Pizza delight, he owned several restaurants throughout Atlantic Canada. They had lived in Newfoundland their entire lives but eventually moved onto the mainland (that's what we call it) in the same province as us, approximately an hour and a half away.

I never knew, but my uncle always had a problem with alcohol and finding out that alcoholism had been in his family for a long time. When they moved it brought out the worst in them, his drinking went to a whole other level and this would lead to more than once my mom having to drive more then 90 minutes from our home to come pick up her sister and my cousin because my uncle had been drinking too much and it simply took over him, turning him to basically an evil man. He brought my aunt to her mental breaking point, hearing eerie stories on how she burnt all her wedding pictures and even my cousin who's a single child having a door slammed onto his leg. It's really made me ridicule alcohol and I don't wanna sound like one of those guys but I'd much prefer to smoke weed rather than drink.

That's not saying that I haven't drunk though, however I think there's been around a handful times throughout my life that I've actually gotten drunk before, it just doesn't interest me that much and a lot of the people who I chill with would rather smoke anyways which is fine by me.

Despite these events, they've molded me into the person I am today and I believe everything happens for a reason. The situation with my uncle hasn't gotten any better and it's gotten worse believe it or not, but I don't like talking about it and it's just gotten out of control.

Just some stuff I wanted to share, for everyone to get to know me more.