Shane Bernier

Here's an article by an Ottawa Newspaper that caught my attention. I'm mailing him a card tomorrow and if you read this blog, please consider doing it as well. I did some online research, and it's not a hoax.

For most of us, birthday cards are a nice gesture. But for Shane Bernier, every card will mean the world -- as in world record.
Shane, a cancer patient at CHEO, will turn eight on May 30 and all he wants is a card from as many people as possible so he can set a Guinness world record.
There is no actual record for most birthday cards received in a single year, but another child who had cancer holds a greeting card record of sorts. Between his eighth and 22nd birthdays, he received 350 million get well cards.

Shane Bernier has received 10,000 cards so far. Another 1,000 come daily.
Guinness is considering whether Shane's idea could be considered a different category.
The quest started when Shane told his mother how he loved receiving cards in the hospital. He later told her he'd love to get lots and lots of birthday cards in May.
His grandfather and his mother let all their friends and acquaintances know and that's when the world record quest began. Now, between the Internet, radio and television coverage, his mother, Nathalie, figures they've collected 10,000 and the cards keep coming. Every day, they receive about 1,000 more.
"Everywhere he looks, there are cards," Ms. Bernier said yesterday when she and Shane returned to their Lancaster home from CHEO. "They're in the living room, dining room. There are boxes of them everywhere, all over the place."
They can't display them all, but Shane opens every envelope and reads the cards that are written in French. His mother and grandparents read the English ones to him. He displays his favourites, including Spider-Man cards and ones with pop-up features.
Ms. Bernier admits it takes a lot of time to get through them, "but it makes him happy, so we don't care."
Shane was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia three years ago and had early remission, but then relapsed in July 2006, just 22 weeks short of his treatment protocol, which was supposed to have finished at Christmas.
Now he's receiving stronger chemotherapy until the end of June and then he'll be in a maintenance program with weaker chemo into 2008.
If the chemo doesn't work, he might have to have a bone marrow transplant at some point. His six-year-old brother, Jacob, is a match.
Shane's weekly treatment doesn't make him throw up, but it often gives him a fever, which means he ends up in hospital so that he's not exposed to infections that could make him sicker.
After this round of treatment, he has an 80-per cent chance of being OK for the rest of his life, Ms. Bernier said.
When he's well, Shane loves to play road hockey and baseball and listen to "the oldies" music from the 1950s and '60s. "He doesn't like the new stuff," said Ms. Bernier, who is a single parent.

Dreams, Money, and Opportunity

I have been thinking a lot about what to do when I'm not in school over the summer and when I graduate in December. Ideally, I would like to work for an international non-profit and gain some experience in the field which I could use later in studying international law. Ideally. But it's turning out to be very difficult to turn my idea into practice.
All the non-profits I have looked into have plenty of volunteer opportunities and internships available. The problem is -- they are all unpaid. I am trying to pay my way through my last semester in graduate school, and there is no way I can afford to live in Washington or New York, or to travel overseas without a source of income. How are people interested in working for non-profits going to get the requisite experience to get a paying job if they don't have the money saved?
I have a lot of friends who are doing exactly what they want to do with their lives. I am jealous of them, not because they accomplishing their goals, but because they are doing it without having to worry about who's paying for them to accomplish their dreams. These friends are out traveling the world, applying to the most expensive schools, volunteering and interning for free in many countries, and they don't have to worry about where their money is coming from or what will happen to them if they don't succeed. They know they have a financial safety net -- either through their families or inheritances. They can pursue their dreams because they are not constrained by their finances.
How can those people who are not as lucky get their lives on the path to success? Do you try to make enough money and push your dreams to the backburner with the idea of coming back to them when you are financially stable; or do you throw caution to the wind and pursue your dreams even though there will be noone to catch you if you fall? Why isn't there a simple, paid internship alternative that eliminates the problem altogether? The way it works now just reinforces the concept that money, in too many situations, defines opportunity.

24

"But Time makes you bolder/ children get older/ I'm getting older, too"
These lyrics in Fleetwood Mac's epic song Landslide express perfectly how I feel today. I'm going to be 24 in a little over a week. I remember being little and thinking that 20 was ancient. "Children get older..." and now I'm almost ancient. 24. All I can say is, I understand why Ponce de Leon travelled half way across the globe to look for the fountain of youth. It's all wrinkles and fat deposits from here. Good god.

Cooper River Bridge Run

Yesterday was a day of triumph. I, along with over 40,000 people, competed in the annual Cooper River Bridge Run, a 10K, 6.2 mile race across Charleston. I had trained for the race, because it's pretty impossible to run for an hour without being physically fit, and I didn't want to make a fool of myself. I did a practice run a week ago, and managed to finish in 60:00 minutes, a little under 10 minutes per mile. I was pretty happy, and pretty tired. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. My goal, I told myself, would be to run it in 58:00. Cutting two minutes off of a 10 K is pretty tough, so I was convinced that I'd set myself a good goal.
Yesterday was race day. I got up at 5:30 AM and crammed in a car with 5 friends. We got to the race and took in the sights and sounds. Everywhere you looked, there were people... hundreds and thousands of people. Really fit people, really unfit people, nervous people, calm people, tired people, wide-awake people... just all sorts of folks. After all, one authority claims that the Cooper River Bridge Run is the 3rd largest in the United States and the 8th largest in the world. After waiting a good while, we got to the starting line. People were separated based on how fast they claimed they could compete the race. I joined the crowd that claimed 49:00 - 60:00 minutes. Of course, I told myself, I was going to be on the tail end of that crowd.
Yesterday the race gun went off, and off with it went 30,000-40,000 people. I was one, racing alongside my best friend and running mate Anna. Initially, one could only go as fast as the crowd would let one, which wasn't very fast. Soon, Anna and I started looking for holes, and we started sprinting into every opening we found. Right off the bat, I knew I was running faster than usual, but my body was not feeling the strain, and I couldn't gage how fast. The race was eerily quiet, for being comprised of so many people. All one could hear was the thump, thump, thump of feet hitting the ground. Once on the bridge, the sounds were even more condensed. Thump, thump, thump. I paid attention to the sounds, I paid attention to the openings, I paid attention to the people around me. The only thing I did not pay attention to was myself.
Yesterday I ran the fastest race of my life. After a few miles of running, I began to notice that everyone around me was extremely fit. I was surrounded by the "serious" runners -- the people in professional gear, displaying typical "runners" bodies -- lean, strong, and focused folks. I was surprised that I fit into the group, but once I got accustomed to the idea, I was overcome by an exhilarating feeling. I just wanted to go faster. And so I ran and I ran and I ran until I saw the finish line. Then I sprinted, and passed every person in front of me that I could see.
Yesterday I ran 10 K or 6.2 miles in 54:15 seconds. I ran at a pace of 9:17 seconds per mile. I ended up in 4,957th place out of 28,641 people who finished the timed race. Out of the women, I finished in 1281st place out of 15,587. Out of the women 21-24 years old, I finished 228th out of 1919. Overall, I'm pretty darn proud of myself.
Yesterday I beat my goal by a whole 4:00 minutes, and I ran 6:00 minutes faster than I had the week before. It's a powerful feeling. Next year, I'm going for less than 54:00 minutes.