“My happiest moment was when I heard I was moving down to
Cape Town. My mom went down to Port Elizabeth to have a holiday. When she came
back she was always on the laptop. A month after she came back she told us that
we were going to move. I was at first surprised. I asked my mom where we were going
and she told me that we were moving to Cape Town. I was so happy that I started
packing. When we had to move I was sad because I had to leave all my friends
behind. When we were on the way I was still sad but when we got to Cape Town I
was happy and that was one of the happiest moments of my life.” – Sarah
Brink
“One of the happiest days of my life was when I was body
boarding and all of a sudden one of my friends from Western Province told me
that I was quite good at body boarding. We started talking and he said I should
do Western Province trials but that I must also practice as hard as I can to
perfect all of my tricks. Sadly, when the day came around I was not feeling
completely confident. I know that the second time trials come around I will be
ready.” – Lukas Hugo
“Recently, not so long ago my brother, my dad and I were
driving to a garage- BP at Longbeach to buy a gas tank. We had our dogs in the
back of our bakkie and they were barking like mad and very excited. When we got
to the garage we put the gas tank on and went off. My dad u-turned at the 4-way
stop and we headed home. When we got home I looked around for my puppy but
could not find her. I ‘asked’ my other dogs where she was but they obviously
stayed silent, after all it was time for me to feed them. My dad didn’t pay
much attention to the fact that I couldn’t find my puppy. My mom was frustrated
as to how we could lose our puppy but anyway we went back to the petrol station
to ask the attendants on duty if they had seen my puppy but they hadn’t seen
her. When went back home disappointed. My mom was frustrated as to why we came
back so early and asked if we had looked around and called. Well we didn’t so
my mom took the bakkie and we left again! We got off by the garage and started
calling my puppy’s name. We asked around but nobody had seen her. Some security
guards asked why we were calling out , we answered them, they said they saw my
puppy running across the road from MacDonalds and a lady was standing with her
hand over her mouth. We looked, called out and finally saw my little pup. She looked
so scared and then she noticed us after some time. The thought of her as a thin
stray dog made my heart ache, but the fact that we found her after two hours
and she was safe made me happy. Even though she could have ended up by Chapman’s
Peak, but the fact that she was here now was important. She seemed so excited
she even wet her pants. I’m so sad that she can’t go in the car with us again
and she has to stay home or she may jump out the window again.” –
Kuthemba
Ndyalvan
“When I was eight years old I had a hamster named Hammi. She
was three years old. I was playing with Nina my sister when my mom called me. I
went downstairs and saw my hamster was dead. I was very sad and I cried for
her. We buried her in the back garden in an egg box. I travelled to school the
next day with my lifting partner. I told him about Hammi and he said he was
sorry. After school he came to visit me with his mom. He had a box in his hands
and said it was for me. My mom, Tyler (my lift partner) and his mom watched me
open the box. It was filled with sawdust. Then something in the sawdust moved!
I then saw a baby hamster! He or she was so cute that I burst into tears of
happiness. Tyler said he bought him with his pocket money. That hamster was
very special to me. I named him or her Stripe because there was a stripe on
his/her back. She died two years later. When I opened that box it was one of
the happiest moments of my life.” – Caelan Stephans
“Ok, so one of my happiest moments of my life is when I met
this person in Langebaan. His favourite thing to do was to sail. This was
during the December holidays, it was really early and I was on my dad’s boat
and I saw him on his dad’s speed boat. He came to our boat and asked if I would
like to go tubing with them. So I said “Yeah!” I hadn’t ever gone tubing but I
thought it was going to be fun and it was. That afternoon we went looking for
prawns and we had a prawn fight, it was really funny. We became best friends
but then I remembered he lived in Joburg so it could only ever happen once a
year. One morning I woke up and saw him. He said that he was going to a school
in Cape Town. After that I visited him every weekend and those were the
happiest moments of my life.” – Meg-Rose Mauve-Lawrence
“On my 10th birthday I went up the cable car with
my two best friends, Chloe and Rigan. I had planned it since March and I was
looking forward to it. We drooled over our sweets in the car and excitedly babbled
about how we were going to have fun. We brought our tickets and waited happily.
We then got escorted to the cable car and climbed on. It shook as it was
climbing up the mountain. It was quite crowded and people kept pushing past us
but I still enjoyed it. We jumped out and gasped at the view. We went to get a
drink and went to the gift shop. We looked at postcards and fragile ornaments. We
spied on tourists and climbed the rocky walls. We took photos of ourselves and
played pranks on each other. We stood in a line for getting into the cable car
again. A Chinese tourist behind us smiled and said “Hallo”. I said hello back
but Chloe and Rigan were too busy laughing. She went into the gift store and
all of us started laughing. We went back home and eagerly ate cake.” – Erin-Joy
Williams
“On the 5th of August 2014 I woke up and I asked
my dad where he was going, at first he ignored me and asked me if I had a teddy
bear for him. I said yes and when I asked why he said that it was for the toy
run. So I gave it to him and he left with one of his friends on their
motorbikes. They were gone for the whole day. One of my mom’s friends came to
visit for the whole day. I was riding my bike when my mom had run to the car
and drove out the drive way. She never told me why. I soon found out when my
dad came home in another car. He walked to his room and laid down on his bed,
he had been in an accident. Blood was everywhere. My mom came back and drove
him to the hospital. We got to visit him in the hospital the next day. To know
he was okay was one of the happiest moments of my life.” – Rayne Brink
“The
happiest moment of my life would probably be in Jemma’s swimming pool at her house.
Their pool was small but heated and when it was smaller it felt big. We used to
jump off the top of a wall into the water and climbed up from metal pipes in
the wall or ‘shower’ in our swimming costumes under the spray of the water. It
seems so long ago I only remember snippets of it, the bubbles and the way the
world looks underwater, we used to play games with our sisters and try to swim
away from them. We used to play underwater charades and speak to each other
underwater. I don’t know why out of all my happy moments in my life I chose
this, it just seems to be that nothing bad happened near that time and if bad
things did happen, I don’t remember them. I wish I could go back to then.” – Miriam Grindley
“One of the
happiest moments of my life would probably have to be when I woke up one day
and I brushed my teeth, ate my breakfast, got dressed, shook my sister awake
and when I woke my mom I told her “ We need to go to school now! Its 7:45” but
she said calmly, “Ben it’s Sunday.” – Ben
Kelly
“One morning
on the 6th of May 2014 (my birthday), I woke up to see a bunch of
presents sitting next to my bed. But one stuck out to me (the biggest one of
course). But sadly I had to wait for about a half an hour till I was able to
open it. Once that time was up I opened all the others first they were all
great but the next one would change everything. When I opened it I found out
that it was a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1”. I was so happy. That was one of the
happiest moments of my life.” – Adam
Coelen
“I set off
to Australia all by myself. When I arrived I met lots of people for the first
time. I stayed in Sidney first, it was extraordinary! One day I went to
Sydney’s Beach-Bondi, the water was warm and clear, the hot sand was between my
toes and the sun was bright. My cousin and I were going on the Bondi
waterslides. The mats we were on led to a clear rock pool with multicoloured
fish and exotic corals. We played with my frisby and built huge sandcastle with
pink seaweed and lots of shells on top. Afterwards we went to Starbucks and a
nice cool milkshake and that for me was a wonderful day.” – Lily Carman
“The
happiest moment I’ve had was when I first came to school. I was really nervous
and I can’t remember much but I remember I was having fun and I played and
watched movies. I was kind of sad when my parents left me. The teacher was very
kind and she welcomed me with open arms. My fellow pupils were very friendly
and even though I didn’t know anyone we got along very well. The school day
wasn’t very long but it felt like ages, when my parents finally fetched me I
was so excited. We went to a restaurant and then we went back home. I will
always remember that day.” – Kieron
Parris
“The best
day ever was when I my dog and Adam were on a deserted island. Adam was lying
on the sand under a palm tree stroking his leg hair. I could feel the fresh
crispy air through my hair, the sand between my toes. I thought this will be
one of the best days ever. We swam in the cool blue water, ate exotic fruits
and played games. We made sand castles and had a sand ball fight. We listened
to all the latest music and danced to it. We body boarded, fished and snorkeled. We saw green spotty fish, red ones and all of the coloured ones,
but all things have to come to an end. We got picked up in a big silver boat
and when I got home I thought we left Adam behind, oh well.” – Aidan Coulthard
“Two months
ago... As I walked in through the gate to my mom’s house my cousins rushed up to
me and out of breathe they said “we have a new kitten!” A smile swept across my
face and I immediately asked where it was. They took me by the arm and rushed
me into the house and led me to a blocked off room where I stood in silence. I
was so happy I could hardly speak. I asked my cousins what his name was and
what did they say... Revron Mordecai. I looked at them and asked “Seriously?”
and they said “Seriously!” I stepped over the boogie board that was blocking
the way and went to pick him up. (Morde is what I call him now) He touched his
light to mine. My cousins say that’s his way of saying I like you. Then he
started licking me, from that day on he is my favourite companion that always
comes looking for me, just like Patches once did." – Alyssa Mitchell
“One of the happiest moments of my life was when my aunts
came down from Australia. They were only staying for two days but was worth
seeing them. I’ve only ever seen them 3 times in my life. The emotions filled
with me. We travelled all over the place with them. We made lots of memories.
When they left I felt so sad. I was chilled though. I’ve met two of the most
amazing role models ever. They gave me lots of presents, but their presence is
all I ever asked for. Being so far away from most of your family is really
hard, but you cherish every moment you get to spend with them. I will always
remember the day I saw them step off the plane, to the time they were stepping
back on it.” – Kate Alberts
