JENNIFER LANG

ST A THOUGHT ©
EV BISHOP

That Inner compass

§ USUAL, celebrating my birthday
Ast me to reflect on my life thus

far. Most of my questions flowed
loosely around life itself. What does it mean?
How should it be lived? Am I living as I feet I
should? Where should I go from here?

An episode from childhood came back to
me and further contemplation revealed that at
eight | probably received the best advice of
my life. I wish I could re-wind a bit and tag
myself a note, “Fhis is important direction for
life stuff, write it down, remember it, live your
life by it.” But as with most life lessons, I
didn’t recognize it as a life lesson at the time.
It’s only in hindsight that I’m wowed by its
truth.

It all started out in swim club. Water is a
place I have always felt at home. Safe.
Fast. Free. Even today, walking into the chlor-
ine scented, muggy aquatic centre causes a
happy lump of excitement to form in my
stomach,

My affinity for the water wasn’t just noticed
by me. In the summer after my first year swim-
ming with the club, a special swim camp was
arranged and an out of town coach came up to
work with those who qualified.

We lived in the pool and weight room and
watched ourselves on video, critiquing our
form and admiring others’. It wasn’t all work
though. We went to Superman at the
theatre. Spent an afternoon swimming in Lost
Lake... Never in my life have I been thrown off
a dock. so many times, It was very fun! I still
remember coming up for air and almost
breathing in a big dead toad floating belly-up
near my head.

When it ended, we were all better swim-
mers and I was already sad because I knew
that in the fall, back with the main club, it
wouldn’t be the same. After our last practice,
there was a bit of a party with munchies and
pop and funny little gifts from our coach as his
goad-byes. Most came with a few words of ad-
vice or encouragement.

I can't really remember what other people
got but I remember laughing a lot. Finally it

Walking into the chlorine scen-
ted, muggy aquatic centre
causes a happy lump of excite-
ment to form in my stomach.

was my turn.

When I opened my present, the group
roared, “A compass! That’s just what Evelene
needs!”

I blushed. I knew what a compass was and
what my coach was getting at. We'd had many
discussions about my wasting precious seconds
in my times because [ didn't always swim in a
straight line, Once, } swam in to someone in
his lane, Getting smashed into while you’re
swimming is a nasty surprise and even when
the boy wasn’t mad anymore, I was humilia-
ted. Fearful that I'd do it again, my pace

slowed and [ actually swam even more .

crookedly. Then my coach suggested that I
focus my cyes on the black line on the pool's
bottom in my lane until J] got used to always
swimming straight. It helped a lot. My speeds
improved steadily.

‘Proud though, not liking to be laughed at, I
wasn’t sure [ liked the present until my coach
added his words to it. “Evelene, You're enthu-
siastic and very strong. Just focus on where
you want to go and swim, swim, swim!”

That was it: he was onto the next gift, the
next kid. It wasn’t a big deal to anyone except
me. He thought ] could swim!

This memory has been niggling at me all
month, It is advice that I've needed my whole
life. Unfortunately, I had it all along, just
hadn’t seen how. it applied.

I’m not someone who has ever been bored
with life. Even when. hated mine, I thought it
was interesting trying to figure oul why. Trying
to botile down my interests enough to focus on
one thing and see it through to completion has
always been a battle. The worse part of this
battle is that | always feel like I know which
way to go... I just get. thrown off track by fear
or by feelings of obligation to other things.

So here in my 3lst year, slightly frustrated
about where my life is going and what I’ve
been doing with if, remembering my coach's
words caused this epiphany.

Pick a direction and go for it! 1f I don't let
fear of failure, insecurities, negative distrac-
tions or anything else couse a waffling in pur-
pose, [ will make my goals... maybe even with
increasing speed.

It is never too late.to do what, you believe
you're supposed to: be doing. Good luck to us
all in finding our inner compass.

RRACE STANDARD

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 4, 2003 - BI

638-7283

Summer of arts coming

More children’s

classes in works

By JENNIFER LANG
THE KID’S summer art program
at the Terrace Art Gallery will
neatly triple in scope this year,
thanks to a federal grant that al-
lows the gailery to offer art clas-
ses from June to August.

“It's very exciting,” art gallery
coordinator Aron Strumécki says,
adding a number of details still
need to be worked out.

Last summer, the gallery of-
fered 32 children’s art classes
over the course of 16 separate
days as a pilot project designed to
gauge public interest.

It was a hit’ Now, with a
Human Resources Development
Canada grant worth nearly $,4,000
to pay for summer student wages
and another $1,500 from. the Ter-
race and District Arts Council to
pay for art supplies and materials,
the program is looking to expand.

“We're going to be able to
offer substantially more,” Stru-
mecki said, adding the arts coun-
cil money will help offset student
fees for participants.

“We're hoping to keep it as
low as possible to keep it access-
ible,” he added.

Plans for the new, bigger and
better summer art program call for
96 classes from June 28 to Aug.
30. ;
The art gallery is Jocated in the
basement of the Terrace Public
Library, home to a hugely popular
summer reading program for

’ children.

Strumecki says he is collabora-
ting with the children’s librarian
to organize a summer extravagan-

za -— a combined literary and arts
week that will feature a book-
making course.

“The kids will have a chance
to write their and make their own
book,” Strumecki says. “We’re
inviting local authors to help.
We're looking to make an antho-
logy and get it hard bound and put
into the library collection as a
memento of the program.”

GALLERY coordinator Aron Strumecki holds a mobile created by Ie local kids ‘in last summer's child-
ren's art program. Expect many more activities for children there this summer. JENNIFER LANG PHOTO

gram was developed by coordina-
tor Jessica Lord, Strumecki cites
her important role in laying the
foundations for the program.
Classes will be designed for
children ages six and up.
Last summer, she had students
make colourful mosaics out of
plaster of Paris and broken tiles as

Another lesson saw students
creating their own mobiles. They
designed scratch pictures using
erayons and black paint in another
lesson.

The two-hour long sessions
took place mornings or afternoons
Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Call the gallery for more infor-

New photo gallery

The Standard's newest online
photo gallery celebrates local vis-
ual artists and their works.

Just surf to www.terracestan-
dard.com and click on the Our
Artists link under Photo Galleries.

We'll be adding new photos to

The gallery’s initial art pro-

part of one activity.

mation at 638-8884.

our artists gallery over time, |
“eT,

Small
business

LEMONADE TY: |-
COONS Dylan Swans-
burg, Damon Brown
and Justin Swansburg
plied their trade out-
side of their homes on
Medeek Ave. on May
17. Warm weather,
thirsty customers and
good advertising all!
helped the boys turn
their iced lemonade
into profits - and extra
spending money. JEN-
NIFER LANG PHOTO

symphony
soloists take
centre stage

THEY SHONE at the recent Pacific North-
west Music Festival. Now watch them in
action as they make their local concert
debut.

Saturday, June 14 is a big night for some of
the younger members of the Terrace Symph-
ony Orchestra.

That's the night the TSO presents Debut, its
season finale. The evening features solo per-
formances by a selection of TSO musicians.

The TSO wanted to give these talented
young people a chance to share their talent
with a concert audience — something most mu-

sicians have to wait until university to do, says’

spokesperson Bonnie Juniper.
Expect solos. by violinists Marie Claveau
and Jamie Norton, Andrew Johnstone on trum-

pets and Melissa Bahr, Norbert Ziegler, § and

YOUNG SOLOISTS from the Terrace Symphony Orchestra will give a season-ending
performance in Debut at the R.E.M. Lee Theatre on June 14,

John Ottens on the French horn,

They'll be joined by Robin Willis on flute
and Yvetie Bos on clarinet, performing a
woodwind duet accompanied by the orchestra.

The TSO’s season finale takes place June
14 at the R.E.M. Lee Theatre, The performance
begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets at Misty River
Bocks, from symphony members or at the door,