My Life Map- SIMRAN CHEEMA

Hey, Welcome to MY LIFE (map)!

6. Going IB- Grade 6-7

4. Going to Private a School- September 2004

7. Twin Baby Cousins Arrive! Feb. 4th 2010.

5. Getting Baptized

This is the day that the loves of my life arrived! To this day I am BFF's with my two baby cousins, Purab and Reet, and they bring me and my entire family lots of happiness. They are the latest and probably the last addition to the Cheema family.

9. Starting School at CHS- September 2012

When I was in grade 6 my school changed to an International Baccalaureate school which was a horrible experience for me. Being the perfectionist I was in the highly competitive environment I was in, the added LOADS of homework, new classes, new teachers and high expectations were too much for me to handle. At first I tried to do it all, play on all the sports teams (every team the school offered, even boys teams), participate in every school club and do all the homework. I would stay up till 3am at such a young age, only to wake up at 6 to make a 6:30 am basketball practice, but I had to stop when I was clinically deemed sleep deprived after fainting at school. After that I just gave up because I was so frustrated and I literally did no homework, slacked off in my activities and became a nuisance for the administration. I never really dealt with the problem, rather I just had fun enjoying myself doing nothing. It probably would have been better for me If I had dealt with the situation more head on, but instead I just did things my own way. This carried on and climaxed in grade 7, and I was just looking forward to going to a new school in high school and getting away from St.John's. This time period in my life is very important to me because, even though it was just elementary school, I don't think I have ever dealt with so much stress in my life and so, even though I didn't deal with it well, it showed me what I needed to work on and also that the big corporate and capitalistic institution that St.John's School was becoming was not the place for me.

Religion has always been a huge part of my life and that is why being baptized in April 2005, is a very significant date for me. It marks the beginning of a new way of life for me and also for my family.

8. INDIA- SUMMER 2011!

After pre-school and kindergarten I was enrolled at St.Johns School for grade 1. I was to stay there until grade 7 and I loved it. It has had a great impact on my life because I grew up at that school. It was a small school and so there was a great sense of community and also my favorite teacher ever was there and he helped me through a lot. Going to a private school in general was also a big change. I had gone to Quilchena, a public school, before and even though it was just for kindergarten it was still a totally different feeling. Now I was to wear a uniform in this strictly disciplined school with way more professional facilities. Although it was probably unnecessary for me to go to a private school so young, when I look back today, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

This trip was hard for me because I had to leave people behind (especially Purab and Reet) for 2 months, but it was also amazing. I had already been to India 3 times before this trip, but this specific trip was special for me. At this point I had really lost touch with my Punjabi culture and Sikh religion and was dreading the trip. However, when time came to leave, I didn't want to. I had had so much fun connecting with cousins and living in true Indian culture. I also was so grateful for the spiritual makeover I had after doing a month of pilgrimage. This trip really fostered the love I have for India.

After my horrible experience at SJS, I was excited to be starting all over again with a clean slate at a new school. I didn't know anyone and also the school was all girls, but I was confident in my ability to thrive in this new environment. This is a perfect example of how my childhood and experience growing up with so many people has helped me in my life. There were always new friends of family members coming over and, as I said before, there was always a certain level of outspokenness in the house. As a result, meeting new people and doing new things was never really scary for me. When I came to Crofton, I had a great time making friends and also grade 8 was very easy for me academically, because I had done majority of it in grade 7 with the IB program. From that day forward, even though I am not a big fan of all girls and private schools, I am thankful and grateful for all the opportunities I have at this school and for all the people I have met.

3. Going to School

2. Living In My Home

When I was born there were 17 people living in my house. We lived on the west side of Vancouver in a really big house with the families of all 4 of my Dad's brothers. In the span of 4 years this number was to increase to 22 and then later reach its maximum at 24. Although this was an ongoing event in my life (as I was to grow up in this environment) it had a great impact on me especially as a child. It gave me a sense of community because I was always surrounded by so many people, so in my life community is very important. Also, it has made me accustomed to noise, loudness and obnoxiousness, because that was what it was like in my household all the time. I like to think it shaped who I was to become because I was so heavily influenced by the environment and all my cousins. My cousins are all very much loud and confident like me, and so that was the personality of people I was exposed to the most as a kid.

Just like any other child, going to school for the first time was a big step for me, however, I don't think that was the most important step in that process. What stands out to me was the fact that before I went to school I was really only exposed to the Punjabi culture, especially because Punjabi's were very rare in the Kerrisdale area 10 years ago. But when I went to school I had a whole bunch of new cultures to learn about and just western culture in general. It was awesome to have so much diversity as a child and I am glad that I grew up in the area I did because as a result, I feel as though today I have a great balance between the traditions of my Punjabi culture and the norms of western culture.

10. Kenya 2014! March 15th - 28th

1. My Birth- August 12th 1998

My Bucket List

My trip to Kenya was a very memorable trip and I don't think I will ever forget it. I met some amazing people and made new friendships that are now very important to me. I saw another corner of the world that exposed me to another perspective of living, and there is nothing I love more than learning about just that.

This was the day I was born and brought to this earth! Yay! I was the 3rd child and second daughter my family was to raise and little did I know another one was on the way.

1. Visit every continent (3 remaining)

2. Go sky diving!

3. Go on a month long service trip in Peru

4. Go on a vacation with the whole of my Mother's side of the family

5. Sell something on a street (like cookies) and make a lot of profit from it