I am Elijah Rempel and I am in seventh grade, but I am born in 2009 because I skipped a grade. I like playing hockey, reading about hockey, learning about hockey, and anything else hockey. I also like working out and hanging out with my friends. I can’t wait to go to grade eight because it is always more fun to be in the older group in school.

I have faced COVID obviously, and I got my first dose two weeks ago so I haven’t fully overcome it yet but soon I will hopefully get my second dose and hopefully they both work. I had to face a lot of changes in the area because restrictions keep just opening up a little and then shutting down fully again. This year hockey started and we played 3 games which was really fun but then it got shut down for the whole year. Then spring hockey opened and I played in PHD, (Professional Hockey Development) in Winnipeg and just as I started making friends with the people there everything shut down again. Luckily, we got quite a couple skates in and some scrimmages and I improved my physical game a lot. I used to try and get around people and not battle in the corners and I was not very strong but I grew in that when I was forced to get scrappy sometimes to keep up.

Some possible challenges for next year are COVID again. Lots of people are fully vaccinated but some people don’t believe in the vaccine and that will make COVID stay longer. Obviously you should stand for what you believe and you shouldn’t get the vaccine if you have a kind of health problem that could turn serious if you get the vaccine, but if you are just staying out of the vaccine because you think COVID is a hoax or there is microchips in the vaccine, then just trust me on this. First of all, COVID is real. If COVID was fake that would be the biggest trick of history. Multiple nations and doctors and heads of organizations would all be working together and no one saying with proof that COVID isn’t real is impossible. Second, the government isn’t going to pay money  to track you when you are paying them for your phone which has basically all of your personal information besides what you had for breakfast on it right there for them to see. Anyway, other challenges that could happen is the harder math in Grade eight. Grade eight has to do stuff like pythagorean theorem and net cubes or something like that which to me right now are really confusing.

This year I have learnt how to divide fractions and do a lot of different things with fractions. I have learned a lot of cool things in science, like air pressure, laminar vs turbulent flow, and optics. I have learned how to shoot a puck properly, which might sound weird because I have played hockey for 8 years but I wasn’t shooting to maximize flex. I have learned to get better accuracy and stickhandling (Some of my OWLs) . I have built up cardio to run faster miles (another OWL) and I have learned to juggle (Yet another OWL). I have learned not to take normal day life for granted. Life used to be so normal and now during COVID in movies that were written before COVID I always wonder why they’re not wearing masks or in public if I forget to put on my mask I feel weird. I am so used to masks that when I put on sunglasses the feeling on the top of my nose makes my think I am wearing a mask. I can’t wait for normal life again.

That is my end of year post. Congratulations to all the Grade eights graduating this year, I hope you all have a great time in high school. That is it. Thank you for reading this blog.

Also, if you are looking at this post after 2021 and COVID is over, celebrate! It is over! If that happens tell me what year it is in the comment box.