Author: Gurjas

IRJE #1- “THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL”

The School For Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani, is this fictional story about two best friends. One by the name of Sophie and the other Agatha, in this small village called Gavaldon. In this village laid a mythical (or known to be) story of The School For Good and Evil. Sophie dreamt of going to The School For Good and Evil (S.G.E.), meanwhile Agatha thought of it being as real as Cinderella or Snow White. People around them had a pretty… interesting perspective about them. They believed that Agatha is a witch since she lives near a cemetery, she wears black, and is weird (in addition to that her mom is a ‘witch’). Agatha knows she is weird, but she doesn’t really mind what others have to say about her. Though, at times she did want to be ‘normal.’

Agatha said nothing for a while. Then she touched Sophie’s hand. “Why do you want to leave here so badly? That you’d believe stories that aren’t true?”
Sophie met Agatha’s big sincere eyes. For the first time, she let in the tides of doubt.
“Because I can’t live here,” Sophie said, voice catching. “I can’t live an ordinary life.”
“Funny,” said Agatha. “That’s why I like you.”
Sophie smiled. “Because you can’t either?”
“Because you make me feel ordinary,” Agatha said. “And that’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted.” (Soman Chainani 16-18)

This scene in the book truly describes and shows us that the two girls really just wanted to feel whole. Like a completed puzzle and not feel as if there was a piece missing. If they weren’t enough. Little did they know they already did. When they were with each other. In my opinion, Sophie in the beginning of the story treats Agatha like a charity case just so she can somehow manage to get into the School For Good. At times I found Sophie being the most ignorant person on this planet and that really made me feel like slapping her. Other times I could feel some what empathy for her and could actually see where she was coming from. Many would disagree with me when I say she wasn’t all bad. She was just dedicated and wanted to reach her goal. Like any one of us. She just wanted to reach it no matter what, even if the cost was big. She really wanted her mother to be right about her being special. She lost her mother, the only person who truly got her, so she tried to patch it up in a way by trying to find The School For Good and Evil and have her happily ever after. At least that’s the way I saw it. In the end she found herself once more and that helped me humanize her better.

The moment Agatha was introduced I found her very relatable. I had a quite similar background to her. Being weird and an outcast. The quote above just really tied the knot. Everyone in the story differentiated the word ‘good’ and the word ‘evil.’ So much so that it became their reality. She didn’t believe that everyone’s perspective was right. She doesn’t believe that anyone is truly good or truly evil. The moment that she put that in my head, the moment my point of view began to change. Sometimes we tend to get distracted by everything and everyone around us that we start believing the act and lose sight of where we are or who we are. Agatha was backstabbed, used, and even felt disincluded at times along with being dumbfounded because of Sophie. Yet she still remained loyal to her. That makes me really look up to her character.

PW#1- My Experience at Cowichan Lake

Today I stared thinking about Cowichan Lake. I’ve been to Cowichan Lake a million times by now and I still love it. I grew up in Cowichan so my parents took me and my brothers there often (especially when my cousins come to visit). The last time I went was two years ago during the summer. That… was an experience. My cousin and I were begging my mom to take us to Cowichan Lake. We were very busy that day, but as a 13 year old I was very stubborn. My mom agreed, but only if we finished all of our chores before hand which we did. Once we were done, we packed everything that we will need. My dad was already in Cowichan for work reasons so we also packed his bag. I took my bag and put it in the trunk. We left for Cowichan.

When we arrived we first went to my dad’s worksite. It was really close to my old school so my brothers and I decided to roam around it for a bit and shared some memories about all the stupid things we did there. When we actually went to Cowichan Lake I checked the back of my mom’s car and saw only my cousin and my bag. I looked at her and she looked at me. I asked her if she put the other bags in the trunk and she replied by saying she thought that I PUT THEM IN!!!

“DO YOU NOT HAVE EYES?! I SERIOUSLY PUT MY BAGS BEFORE YOURS!!! WHY WOULD YOU THINK I PUT THEM?!”
“BRO I DON’T KNOW MAYBE ‘CAUSE I TOLD YOU TO!!!”
“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT I FREAKING TOLD YOU TO PUT THEM IN!!!”
We went on and on and my mom was getting mad at me. My dad (being the best person to ever exist) calmed everyone down along with saying that whatever happened happened, and we should just make the most of it. I honestly felt bad, but decided to go in the water anyways since that was the main reason we came and went where the current wasn’t as strong.

My cousin being the stupid being she is somehow moved towards the VERY DEEP END. At first I thought she was fine, but I saw her struggling and me being the AMAZING, AWESOME, AND COOL cousin I am thought to myself, “Yeah, I don’t really want her to die today.” So I started going towards her knowing THIS IS MY MAIN CHARACTER MOMENT (I was really scared) told my brother (Who was ten at the time and very dumb. We are not going to tell him I said that) to NOT follow me. Pretty clear instructions if you ask me. I mean he knows he can’t swim. So I start going towards my cousin, thinking I’m about to save her life and will never let her forget… even if she saved my life a million times; she starts to restore her balance and move towards the shore.

I see this and decide to turn around myself just to see MY BROTHER RIGHT BEHIND ME DROWNING!!! Since he was close to the other side of the river (close to the shore) and so was I. So, I grabbed on to a nearby branch and pulled myself up. I was about to lift my brother up and started thinking about how the hell my going to be guiding him back to the other side.

Luckily, there was a stranger willing to help. He was alone and I was shocked that he even decided to help because most of the time (the sad truth), people just watch. They don’t do anything they don’t really care. That’s just basic psychology (The Bystander Effect). He helped my brother get to the other side. I will forever be grateful to him.

After processing everything that went down in the last 30 seconds I decided to go back to the other side myself. We basically were all done with the day after this and all of us were starving so we went home. My mom (and everyone was) was shocked that I actually know how to swim (it had been a while). Honestly I was shocked myself. We all learned that day that we all really cared for each other and would rather put ourselves in risk then to watch the others suffer. Cowichan Lake brought us closer that day in a really weird way. Also irrelevant, but a few days later we went to Sooke Potholes and my brother also nearly drowned again.

WWI Readings: Prose 1 and 2 (PR- Personal Response)

All Quiet On The Western Front was written from the perspective of Erich Maria Remarque. The book was published in 1929. The protagonist of this story was a German soldier from the German Army in WWI who is known by Paul Bäumer. This novel was able to express the feelings, emotions, and help us understand what exactly the soldiers went through. Through reading this book, I learned that no matter what we know about what happened inside of the war, we may understand it unless we had actually been put in the spot and went through it ourselves. Paul had mentioned something like that himself, explaining that no matter what the people said they wouldn’t understand what he had gone through unless it was one of the other soldiers. To be honest, I didn’t truly find the book interesting because I had a problem connecting to it or the way it was written. I usually find war stories fascinating, but it was either I wasn’t in the mood for that type of book or I couldn’t get the main idea to stay in my head in general. I am planning on looking back at it though, just at my pace this time.

The WWI Readings, Prose 1 & 2, helped me see WWI in a different perspective and from different perspectives. I found Prose 1 to be more confusing and I had a hard time understanding anything, but when it came to Prose 2, I actually started understanding more. Besides the War itself, I also got to learn different writing styles (also from the WWI Readings: Poetry) which some I found to be more clear (like Chevallier and Barthas) and some sounded like Gibberish to me (like Herbert and Chevalier from Prose 1). I did find the poems to be more interesting though and it was easier to concentrate because I just thought of it as poetry (which I love) and nothing else.

About me and my background- Gurjas Kaur

My name is Gurjas Kaur Randhawa. This is my first year in Brookes. I am excited to see where this journey leads me. This is my 9th school and I’m in grade 10. I move quite often, but who knows, maybe this time I’ll stay longer!

I was born in Surrey, BC, on the 10th of July 2009, but I lived in Duncan, BC for the longest period of my life. I really miss Duncan. I’ve known that place for as long as I can remember. For the last 3 years of my life (grade 7-9), I’ve been living without my parents. I’ve been living with my cousins, grandmother, aunts, and uncles. Which meant a lot of ferry trips! I’ve been going alone on the ferry since I was 12 years old (when you’re considered an ‘adult’ for the ferry and are able to). I’ll be honest, it wasn’t all up hill. At first, I was having a hard time adjusting. The year before (grade 6) I was a very overconfident kid. I believed I was the smartest, coolest, funniest person out there. That I was the chosen one or something (we all went through that phase). Let’s just say that I was humbled. I learnt to not act so high and mighty today, for tomorrow I might fall on my face. That’s a bit of my background. My experience there has really shaped me into the person I am.

I have two pet rabbits. I recently got them last year (they turned a year old on September 1st). I can especially relate to one of them because he too is afraid of my mother. Growing up I had a lot of pets. I used to have two dogs, two cats, baby chicks, parrots, and two peacocks (my biggest flex) all around the same time. I also love sports (even if I’m not very good at them), especially soccer and swimming. I used to do a lot more before covid, but soon had to quit. So, I can officially say that I hate volleyball and field hockey (the two sports most people I know love). Ball hockey is pretty fun, though. I also used to be very good at it until I hit a girl on the face with my stick (by accident) by being too aggressive and nearly broke her nose… It’s safe to say that she never talked to me again after that and I never again held that hockey stick again during P.E.

I am the oldest of two siblings. I have two brothers, Arpan (two year age gap) and Gurditt (we call him Gavi. Six year age gap). I’m also the second oldest cousin (and the best at taking care of kids) so I always ended up being everyone’s babysitter (till this day). I’d say I am doing a pretty great job. No one died or has any brain injuries (that I know of) so I am doing a pretty great job.

I also love gaming. I don’t have much time anymore to game much, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like gaming anymore. Another thing I love are animations. On youtube I can usually be found watching animation channels because I find them painfully relatable and I really want to learn animating myself. Whenever I watch animated movies or shows, I always pay close attention to the background, what colours/shades they used, how well they lip sync the characters, etc. I have tried to animate, but it never ends right. One thing I do really love is painting. I know how I should blend the colours, what steps to take, and how I want it to turn out. I’m not good at drawing (in my opinion), but with colours I can be pretty creative.

I hope this post summarizes what kind of person I am; I’m excited to get to know everyone!!!