In Which The PEYge Gets MUSHY and You Feel The MUSH

MUSHY? Yes you heard me.

Most

Ultimately

Sincerely

Humble

Young PEYge

MUSHY.

Well, here I am! The big city of Toronto.  My mom and I are all moved into our new apartment and I’m getting ready to start my first day at Queen’s Park on Monday!

I can’t quite believe this is all happening. Part of it still feels like a dream to me.

I can’t believe how much hard work and time it has taken to get here. It feels good to be accomplishing my goal.

BUT

Something feels even more FANTANTABULOUSLY EXCELLENTLY OVERWHELMINGLY AWESOME and that something is …

ALL OF THE LOVE AND SUPPORT AND HELP I have gotten from my family, my friends, and my community.

Do you know how many people it has taken to get me here? Lots! Lots and LOTS and LOTS! I couldn’t have done it without SO many of you!

I have to start with my grandparents.

My Noni and my Boppa help me with a lot of things a lot of the time. It can be really handy to have grandparents who were teachers (especially when there is homework you don’t quite understand!!!). In fact, it was my Boppa who told me about the Page program so I wouldn’t even BE here without him! And my Noni, well she likes to help me shop so when it came time to buy the PERFECT shoes to wear while I’m here (fashionable AND comfortable, hello!!!!) she was with me!!!! My Noni and Boppa contributed for me be able to come here and they are being EXTRA helpful because they are staying with my sister while my parents were here getting me ready for my stay and while my daddy is at work. Anyone who has to look after my sister as a favour to me REALLY deserves a big thank you!!!!

My other grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa, actually live right next door to me at home which is neat because when I need something or want to spend time with them, I don’t have to go far to see them! When I was packing up and getting ready to come here, they were there to give me big hugs and wave goodbye!

I have the BEST grandparents!!!!

But you know what else I have?

The best NEIGHBOURS!

My favourite neighbour, Uncle Bruce, is so much fun and so nice! Thank you for your help, Uncle Bruce (and a BIG SUPER SQUISHY LOVE HUG TO CLAUDETTE! Hope you feel better soon, Claudette!!!!!)

My other neighbours are also awesome because they came over to my yard and bake sale when I was helping to raise some funds to cover my accommodations here. And talk about a win-win situation…. they helped me AND got to devour some pretty excellently delicious ginger cookies at the same time! :D

How can someone have SO MANY AWESOME PEOPLE IN THEIR LIFE? I don’t know. But I do!

My school is also awesome. Awesomely awesome!

Thank you to my teacher, Madame Paris, for helping with all of the paperwork that the Page Program needed to have from the school …. even though it means that now I have some extra homework to finish! :D

All of my teachers were actually really nice about getting together all of the information and materials that I needed to bring with me and they had to do it in a really short amount of time because I was only at school for 4 days before I came here!

My principal Mr. James had to sign some paperwork too that gave me permission to be out of the school for so long. 

You see how many people it takes to organize these things?

“But can there be more PEYge?” you are asking? Yes. Yes, there CAN be more and there IS more.

When some of the service groups in my community found out that I was going to be coming to Toronto for 5 weeks and that I would be responsible for my food, transportation and accommodation while I’m here, they were very generous and offered to help with some of the cost!

Thank you SO much to the Merrickville Legion, The Merrickville Lions Club AND the Merrickville Fire Department for helping me be able to make this dream come true.

You know what else was awesome? How excited all of my friends, family and neighbours were when they found out that I was accepted into the Program. Everyone’s support really means so much more than I could say…. and if you know me, you know I like to say a LOT so …  that’s really saying something! :D

To my family and my friends, to my school, my classmates, my neighbours, my community and really, my whole riding of Leeds Grenville, THANK YOU!

I couldn’t have done it without your help and I am so proud and honoured to be here representing you all in the Legislative Assembly.

Okay. That’s enough of the mush, right? Back to business! There’s no crying in the Legislative Assembly!

---PeyThePEYge