Dear Ms Bagley,

I am proud of my heritage and I have a rather confusing and diverse family. My mother, Floortje, is dutch and she is the most outgoing and competitive person I know. She is always off on some crazy mission, I worry about her sometimes though, especially when she is off on the GodZone or when she was in Wyoming competing in the Multi-sport Worlds. When I was four, she met her husband, my Step-Father Darren. He’s a good guy. My Father, Jethro, is the complete opposite of my Mum, like black and white. Just thinking of them together makes a feeling of dread creep up my spine. My Dad was a mountaineering guide and discovered many of the canyons in the area. He thinks very strongly and highly of ones Education and believes it to be a very important thing (I would almost go as far as saying that he thinks its vital). I am not, however as you may suspect, an only child. I have two brothers, both are 10. Liam is the youngest, and Domenico is the eldest and they drive me crazy! I can never escape them, but I suppose that’s a good thing because I love them both to bits. Domenico and I look nothing alike and would never be pinned for siblings, as he has very strong Italian features.

I have a passion for art. Many of the women in my family, on my fathers side, are artists, so I suppose it’s a gene I have acquired from them. Reading is one of my favorite pass times, I read so many books, that I now don’t have enough space for them all. I have already filled my bookshelf, contributed to my Dads and taken up the space around the bookshelves with piles of books. I have a slight fear of heights, yet my favorite sport is canyoning which is pretty much nothing but heights. I think I enjoy canyoning so much because I’m facing my fears and am pushing through them, which gives you this amazing and rather addictive rush.Recently, I have also discovered a newly found passion for public speaking, although I do get a bit nervous I love the thrill that you get from it.

Last year, I took to heart a quote, it read “A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true”. This quote stuck in my mind and wouldn’t let go, this I suppose, is a good thing. It got me started into making my dream of helping children and families in third world a dream with a date: a goal. This goal of mine quickly became a plan, until after much hard work it became a plan backed by action that achieved results I could have never imagined. I am now sponsoring two children, a boy, Nicolas (5), and a girl, Abyshang (5). I hope to sponsor them through out their schooling careers. From this a new dream has stemmed, to visit them one day, hopefully this year. I have been working full time recently to accomplish this new goal, and my parent know better than anyone that when I am set on something, there is often no stopping me.

Many people think I’m very opinionated and that this drive I have when I have something set in my mind, is a bad thing, but I just like to think that I am simply rather passionate in my view points and have something people call ‘grit’ and a strong will to not give up.

I have a focus for this year at school, as well. I hope to improve my grades throughout English and Maths, and to be pushed by my teachers, to help my achieve this. I also hope to get the art award at the end of the year, as art is a very important thing to me, so much so that I don’t think I would be the same person without art as it’s in my day to day life (I am a quite competitive when it comes to art).

For English, I feel that my weaknesses are in writing responses to a piece of writing, especially in unfamiliar texts. With practice, homework placed in this area and much needed feedback, I may be able to further improve.

Food, food, food… What is your favorite food? This question, I feel is commonly asked. A specific favorite food is hard to narrow down to. Fruit is by far my favorite food category, and either passion fruit, mango, pomelo or passion fruit is my favorite.

My name is Ella, and this is me.