I am 14 years old. I am an S1 student at The Berkeley Institute. I have written for the Young Observer section for about six months now, and I plan to keep writing for many more.

My family is very supportive of me in whatever I do, whether it may be attending my first ballet recital to backing up my opinions.

Without the support of my family and friends, I don't know where I'd be right now, especially since I consider my friends part of my family.

My family means the world to me. I love them because they know, and love the real me. My feelings for my family will never change, no matter what.

I don't really have a favourite in school activity, unless you call talking with my friends at lunch an activity.

My favourite after-school activity is shopping. I love to shop with my friends, and when I don't want to spend any money, I window shop.

Just spending an afternoon with my friends after school is fun, even if some of them can only finish their homework with us and then go home, while the rest of us go shopping.

The person I most admire is my Nana. I admire her the most because no matter what ordeal she has to face she's always putting on a brave face to help others.

My Nana puts everyone else's needs before her own, no matter how much we try to convince her otherwise.

She is a strong woman who knows when it's time to cry, and when you can hold tears in for a little longer.

I love and admire my Nana because of her stubborn ways, for example her garden.

If my Nana had made her garden the way we wanted it to look, it probably wouldn't be flourishing as well as it is now. Although my Nana and I don't always agree, it's easy to see that my Nana loves us all and we love her too.

My favourite Christmas gift given was the jumpsuit I got for my sister Tiffany from Pirates Port, in the Washington Mall. This was the hardest gift to get.

I remember telling my sister to go into Treats and look for a little kid's present for our younger sister, while I would be in Pirates Port.

Every time I thought I found the perfect outfit, my sister would walk through the store's doors and see it.

I had to make up an excuse that I was trying to find clothes for my friend, because my friend was small, and very skinny. I also had to keep sending her back out of the store.

About the time when I sent her out of the store for the third time, I found the perfect outfit, but my sister walked in again so I sent her out, chose a different colour in the same style and hurried to the cashier.

My sister came back in as soon as the outfit was in the bag. I got the feeling that she was enjoying torturing me like that. This is what made this gift the best gift given, because it was so hard to get.

My personal goal for the New Year is to make sure my little sister can get the best out of life here in Bermuda, before this violence gets too out of hand.

My wish for Bermuda is for it to go back to being the nice quiet place it used to be.

Not to stay a place were families have to leave the island they were born on just because someone in some part of their family used to be in a gang. I find it ridiculous that many of these people are getting killed because of revenge.

I wonder if they have ever thought about how they were going to die, because if you kill someone for revenge more than likely someone's gonna come after you for their own revenge too.

Have these people ever thought about how they're corrupting the young children's minds. Have they thought about how scared they're making the locals.

I once read somewhere that anger makes people blind — get that: blind not deaf. So they should be able to hear the complaints, hear the screams and know that what they're doing is wrong.

Just because a family member or a friend gets hurt or shot, a person does not have the right to go out and seek revenge. In the end it won't matter because there is only one greater judge, and that judge is God.