Real Girl: Parise

Parise, September 2009 Real Girl

AGE: 14   GRADE: 10  SIGN: Sagittarius

Favourites: My favourite type of food is sweets, I love cherry pie! My favourite colour is red, I love to draw, I like the TV show ‘Bones’ and I’m not so much into today’s pop style music; I prefer Queen and the Beetles. Although I have 3 cats, dogs are my favourite animal. 

Hobbies: I like to read, sing, draw, bake, do arts and crafts and hang around at home with my family.

School and stuff: I love my high school and my teachers are fun. My favourite subjects are art and Spanish, and I like to play dodge ball. I was really happy that last year I passed my first semester with a 92% average.

Personality: My friends and family would say that at school I’m pretty quiet and don’t say much, but at home I have more of an opinion and talk more. I’m the type that prefers not to stand out.

Life challenge: Recently I’ve been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. I think so much that I tend to scare myself with my thoughts. The good thing is there is nothing dangerous about it, and nothing really happens. Basically I just worry a lot. Someone with what I have worries about normal fears and then thinks about it so much that they get scared about them. Sometimes when I worry it snowballs into something a lot bigger than what the original worry was. It’s easily recoverable, and I’m managing it very well. Other times I just get nervous for a little while and then I’m fine.  The night before the GCDA photo shoot I was so worried and had trouble sleeping. I thought I was going to have a panic attack, or get sweaty and possibly faint. I have gotten a little dizzy in the past, but I had nothing to worry about because I was totally fine on the day of the shoot. My message to other girls suffering from anxiety would be that there are great books about it to help you get through the worry. After a while you end up getting even more confident because you work at it. You just don’t give up and you know that lots of people go through various degrees of it and you will be just fine. Support is good too. I’m very close to my mom. My mom understands me well and supports me a lot. Any kid would be lucky to have a mom like mine.

Proud of: I’m really, really proud of my skills of being able to feel really good about myself and my grades. I’m also proud that I compete in music for singing, that my baking skills for

desserts are really good and the fact that my first language is French. Mostly I’m proud of my family, I’d love to encourage my little sister to read GCDA and be a involved in it in the future. As my little brother gets more mature we’re getting along better too. My dad works on a ship so I only see him a couple months at a time and then he has to go away again but it helps that he calls a lot and I get to talk to him.

So Parise: Always reading and being so into it (people could sneak up and scare me because I’m so into my books), playing dodge ball, drawing (I always draw and doodle around the pages of my notebooks), singing around the house, and biting my nails is soooo me!

Cool fact about Parise: I learned how to sing in Japanese. Also, since I took Spanish I speak 3 languages including English, French and Spanish.

Future: I’m not sure about the far future, I like interior design and maybe even writing or translating books. For the near future I’m planning on getting better on my socialization skills to mingle in with people better, maybe joining more clubs and teams, and maintaining my good grades and getting scholarships.

Pet peeves: When you’re in a classroom and the teacher asks pop quiz questions and someone yells out the answer without being called on while I’m raising my hand to give the answer. It’s annoying when people don’t raise their hand. I also hate it when people swear a lot, it makes me uncomfortable.

Photography by Gillian Gillespie
Parise’s cover photography by Gillian Gillespie
Hair and Makeup by Angela Gina Pirrera, Melissa Villa, Stephanie Senater, Julia Hofer, Daniella Villa

Comment

Parise
Don't give up! Talk to a grown up about it. My Mom really, really helped me because she suffered from anxiety most of her life, even when she was young, so she really understood what I go through when I have panic attacks or I'm feeling anxious. She also got me a lot of great books especially for teens living with anxiety and panic disorder. We often read them together before bedtime and it relaxes me. Don't keep it all to yourself, tell an adult you trust and get the help you need and deserve. Parise, 15 Ontario
thank you
thanks for sharing your life challenge Paris. i have anxiety to and i would be way to scared to admit it. when I see you can do it and even be in a magazine (the best one evvvveeerrr!) maybe i have hope. So i wanted to say so. -anonymus 12

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