World War One

By RJ Young

Imagine you’re off the Danish coast desperately fighting a massive fleet of Germany’s warships in one of the most horrifying wars of all time. That’s what the brave, and quick-witted British sailors had to endure during the battle of Jutland 1916. Jutland was one of many battles that would help lead to the end of the first word war. World War One was the longest and bloodiest wars of its time and would lead to millions of lives lost and families destroyed. The war was truly terrifying but in order to get a better understanding of it we need to know how it began.

It all started august 4 1914 in Austria- Hungary when the archduke, Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated. The killer would be identified as Gavrilo Princip and was sent by the Serbian government. Serbia and Austria-Hungary already hated each other because of land and territory disputes. When Austria found out the killer was Serbian, they weren’t pleased. Serbia was given two options. one, allow Austrian investigators to operate in Serbia to find who ordered the assassination or, two go to war. Serbia ended up choosing war, that sparked the beginning of WW1, and with war comes alliances. 

The first alliance was made very early, the triple alliance. The triple alliance was formed in 1882 and was kept a secret. It consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. When the assassination happened, Germany agreed to help, but Italy left the group in fear of war. Once war was declared more alliances were formed. There were the Allies, and the Central Powers. The Allies were mostly made up of France, Russia, Britain, Serbia, and Japan. There were other countries that supported the Allies but those were the main countries. The four countries that formed the central powers were Austria-Hungary, Germany, Ottoman-Empire, and Bulgaria. Though there were two sides only one could come on top, that would be done through combat.

There were lots of different battles but I’m only going to talk about two, the first battle, and the final battle. The first battle would take place September 6, 1914, and was fought in France. It was named the first battle of Marne, and it took place on the western front. It would also lead to the first victory for the Allies. Total death count was 250 000 and around two million soldiers participated. The final battle fought in WW1 was the battle of Amiens. Before the battle all of the Central Powers except for Germany had surrendered, leaving Germany helpless as the Allied forced swept in. It was a series of battles and by the end of it Germany’s troops were exhausted, so the Allies won. The Germans were greatly outnumbered. Even their military chief said, “were being depressed down to hell”. In the end most German soldiers were wise enough to surrender. Though that battle ended the fighting there were still other problems, such as what to do with the Central Powers, and the aftermath of the war.

All of the countries who participated in the Central powers were not allowed a big military, and had to pay large amounts of money to the allies after the war. There were also the civilian sacrifices during the war, they needed to build and harvest supplies for their countries. They also had little to no wheat, sugar, flour, or meats for the duration of the war as well as some time after. In total around 13 million civilians were killed, and around 8.5 million soldiers were killed. There were also millions of houses destroyed leaving people homeless. All the farms and cattle that were lost would leave food scarce in some communities.

World war one was one of the deadliest wars to be fought and no one wanted a repeat. That’s why the central powers were only allowed a small military. However even with all the measures in place it happened again WW2. World War One was truly terrifying and was one of the darkest times in history. I couldn’t imagine what the soldiers and civilians had to go through after the war.

Work cited

“World War I.” Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 17 Mar. 2021. school.eb.com/levels/middle/article/World-War-I/110198.  

https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/collection/first-world-war

https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/information-for/educators/quick-facts/first-world-war

My Sisters Birthday

So, my sisters’ birthday was January 27 and it was very crazy. just recently she got obsessed with happy Potter and all she wanted for her birthday was a giant Hogwarts castle. After her birthday dinner and cake, she opened her presents and sure enough it was the giant Hogwarts castle. she screamed so loud, and then continued opening her other presents. Altogether she got a stuffed owl, three wands, the castle, a bunch of Harry Potter dolls, and some money. We built the castle and she played for a bit ad then watched T.V. but then one of my moms work friends gave her a doll but she just got the doll last night for her birthday and then she started crying. It was utter chaos she was balling my mom was fuming and my dog saw a squirrel and started howling. As I was controlling the dog to take her for a walk I could here my mom telling my sister that she was getting greedy which just made her scream and cry even more. I was glad to get out of the house because that was absolute madness.  In all id say that this birthday had its ups and down for example the spaghetti dinner was delicious, and so was the cake but the screaming wasn’t much fun. I know one thing ill never forget the events of this birthday, who knows what will happen with mine in two weeks!

Cross country

This year I joined the school cross country team with some of my friends. We went to most practices and found them challenging but very fun. At the end of the fall we did a run and any intermediate students could run in the races. There was a 3k run and a 6k run, I felt like there would be less people in the 6k, so I decided to sign up for it. Only one of my friends from the team signed up with me Connor McLean. The race would be three laps around the school property we would loop the track, go run the school yard tight to the fence, then go through a gap in the fence,  go up the grave yard to the road then cut up through the middle of the grave yard, finally back to the track. I started with a slow pace and almost immediately fell in last place, but I never gave up. Around the second lap was when the pain in my body stopped because I went numb, but I ended up picking up my pace because I could see my friend Connor gaining on me. The one thought going through my head was I must beat Connor, to be honest I don’t know why I wanted to beat him so bad but in the moment it seemed important. The third lap really did a number to Connor, he got to the point where he started walking. I felt bad for him, but I couldn’t stop. When I finished I completely collapsed but the cross county coaches told me to walk it off, that’s when I spotted the snack tray suddenly my legs went so tired and I “ran” (it was more of a wobble) to the snack table and grabbed some chips. My final time was 43 minutes I think witch I thought was pretty good, but I could definitely improve. Then when Connor finished the 6k the 3k runners took off. Most of the runners weren’t on the team so thought they could sprint the whole thing. Me and Connor cheered them on, but it was hilarious seeing all these kids trying to sprint it. Then I asked this girl if she was okay because she was wearing rubber boots in a race. She looked at me and was crying and then shouted NO IM NOT OKAY IM WASTING PERFECT ENERGY, then continued running. Me and Connor were dying laughing, I mean like what did you expect to be doing in a race gaining energy!

Where I’m From

By RJ Young

I’m from the scratching of the ice

The whoosh of the stick

And the roaring of the crowd.

I am from the thump, thump, thump of my feat

As the cracked chiseled road zooms by.

From the smell of pine

The branches sticky with sap that let me look out upon the rows of fields

I’m from the trips down east

The salty ocean breeze blowing through my hair

From the soft white sand crunching beneath my feet

And the long strands of seagrass that tickled my feet

Swaying in the endless waves.

From the sweet gingery smell coming from Grandma’s oven

The warm cookies melting in my mouth

I’m from the early runs with Grandpa before the first bird cawed

Our footsteps unheard amongst the chorus of crickets.

I am from the undying loyalty

Until the door is left open for two seconds two long

Then the terrifying moments of desperately calling Ella Where Are you! Into the corn fields,
from the warm cuddles and the sweaters full of hair

And the annoying Arooo! When people walk by the house

If you have ever played hockey or any other sport that has tryouts you would probably know what they are, but if not here’s a summary. In hockey there are 5 divisions triple A, double A, Rep, B and C. For each team in order to get on the team you need to participate in a series of practices (usually about 3-5) during those practices evaluators (people who evaluate your performance) if the coach and the evaluator think you looked good you make the team if not your cut. So, I tried out for the B team it has always been stressful but this year it felt extra stressful. There was no rep team so there would be more kids, and more skilled kids. trying I really wanted to make the team because a lot of my friends were trying out and most of them would end up making the team. The first night was easy, we did some drills like crossovers, laps, and shooting. The second night we did a scrimmage all the kids trying out would be divided into two teams and would have a game. But the third night was brutal we would be playing a game against a the Morrisburg lions who have already had 3 gamed and 21 practices and we had one 0 games except for the scrimmage and 2 practices. They beat us but surprisingly not by much considering their reputation, the lions were winning games 13-1 and 9-2 they beat us 6-1. However, the score is debatable because the referee didn’t call the goal but Aiden and his line said that the puck was in the net so the score could be 6-2. In the end I wasn’t cut and when I received that email I was so relived and happy that I made the team with a lot of my friends!