The problem with our education system.

Yesterday, I had the biggest breakdown and the longest panic attack I have ever experienced.
I couldn't breathe for twenty minutes and couldn't utter a proper sentence for almost an hour.
My principal saw me and just shrugged.

I was in school, that's right.
and I was internally dying because of school, that's right.

Is it really worth it?

I really don't know.

But is it right? No. It isn't.


As a senior IB student with four HLs and a whole list of extracurricular activities, the stress is quite understandable. What isn't, though, is the ridiculous treatment we receive from the staff at our school.
Not only are they quite unwary of the effects their actions have on us, they are, quite frankly, heartless.

After having school from 7 to 3, "Here, only 2 hours of homework today! You can sleep early tonight" said my Math teacher, then 5 other teachers, summing up to 12 hours of homework everyday, never less than 5. But wait, to remain an honor student don't forget to join two clubs and sport teams! oh.. and don't forget that you have school SIX days a week and afterschool meetings. That's about it.
Oh, wait.
Let me just add a couple of tests that will include things you never learned in class, y'know, just to drop your grade a little more.
And of course, when you try to raise it back up I'll give you a pop quiz you were totally unprepared for, just to keep you as a permanent C-.
Also, let me favor my children that I teach and the kids that I've known for longer and can make me laugh.
I almost forgot! Let me give you detention and suspend you because you wore the right uniform on the wrong day, that's just about it, easy!

No. NO, this isn't right.
I'm devastated and outraged
I am clinically depressed and a massive reason for this is school.
NO, IT'S NOT FINE, IT'S NOT RIGHT that the longest sleep I get is 5 hours a day.
It's not right.
Prisoners get better food and sleep than we do.
Prisoners have a longer life expectancy than we do.
Prisoners have a more relaxed life than we do. Their life is punishment but not controlled by punishment which is a much merciful life.
So many of my friends have constant suicidal thoughts and we are all emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted (..its only the second month of school)

Never once has a teacher asked how we felt or how much other homework we have all 14 years I was a student.
Never once has a teacher *helped* us outside the hours s/he was paid for.
Never once has a teacher showed us compassion or understanding.

My nightmares used to be about getting murdered or my family dying, now they're death in the form of my planner, detentions, drowning in work and being chased by Internal Assessments.


Of course, a generalization  of all these teachers is outrageous. Some are kind and understanding and a sanctuary, but they are as rare as the stars in my light polluted country and usually are counsellors or  coordinators not actual teachers.

The problem with school is that we no longer go there to 'learn'.

We go there to cross boxes on our To-Do Lists and to submit paper after paper that we have bullshitted our way through.

We go there to get enough credits to graduate and get into college.

We go because we have to.

We don't go to learn. We don't go because we love to. We don't go because we are passionate to learn more about the world and people around us.

Not because we aren't passionate, but because school has suffocated this passion and killed the enthusiasm and seasoned our days with all forms of unrecognizable torture.

We don't learn. We just add pile of information to pile. We 'learn' how to add number to number then our calculator begins to do it for us then we 'learn' how to use a calculator and a ton of other things that, not only will we not use in the future and will be forgotten the minute we graduate, it just doesn't help us.

Why don't you teach us about society? about how to overcome oppression and to develop a strong personality? why don't you teach us first aid or how to choose a right partner for life?

Okay, If that is too drastic a change, maybe just go a little easy on us? Maybe give us a little less homework? Maybe don't give us detention because of reasons as ridiculous and trivial such as uniform?

Many do not have the privilege we do and would love to go to school, and I understand that. But when it gets this bad and slowly changes us into emotionless, depressed robots, Ignorance is truly bliss. 

Sincerely,
a tired 17 year old.

After an eye-opening 2014, you can close your eyes and welcome 2015.

I, for a start, can not even fathom my disbelief and shock at the realization of tomorrow being New Years Eve! (today, in some countries.)

But all jokes aside, it's unbelievable that we're already saying goodbye to the most eye-opening, effulgent, heuristic, challenging, emotional, completely eventful and without a doubt, unforgettable year ever, and I'm sure quite a number of people will have to agree.

2014 was never short of surprises. Sure, a lot of 'bad' things did happen, but more good took place.
Let's have a look back on our dear 2k14 and try to focus as much as possible on the good.

The year began on a more peaceful note than previous years.
Countries vote on constitutions that give women their complete rights, faith in humanity is restored time after time, conflicts are solved.
A rare blue diamond is found in Africa, this year's Oscars has become one of the most memorable ones, the oldest Roman temple ever discovered was uncovered by archaeologists, and scientists successfully found a way to transform normal cells to stem cells.

But some of the most talked about events included the passing away of beloved Robin Williams, the outbreak of Ebola, Brazil loses the World Cup to Germany, the biggest margin of victory in FIFA semi-final history, two Malaysian flights go missing, but are eventually found, and another Air Asia flight goes missing a few days ago, but no news of it are heard yet. Kim Kardashian finally gets married to Kanye West, Scotland votes to remain as part of the UK, Joan Rivers also passes away, Cristiano Ronaldo wins the 2013 FIFA Ballon d'Or, Malala wins the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17 and is the youngest ever recipient of the prize, al-Sisi is voted president of Egypt, the first ever video to reach 2 billion views on YouTube is 'Gangnam style' and that's another broken record. Luis Suarez is expelled from the World Cup after his biting incident, the HeForShe campaign is launched, and over 5 football world records are broken.

Quite eventful.

So much happened this year, it's just crazy, especially personally. I started this blog, had a whole new life, a new school, new friends and new places visited, I met so many new people, and quite a lot has changed. I went into 2014 not suspecting a single change or expecting anything unusual, but in a blink of an eye my whole life turned around. Who would have seen it coming? Definitely not me.

However, 2014 taught me some really valuable life lessons. The world is huge, yet small in a way. You'll met hundreds of thousands of people, and if you get affected by every person you meet and allow them to put you down, you'll never go anywhere other than your bed with an ocean of tears. I learned that sometimes its okay to let go, its okay to be a little bit heartless, but its never okay to see a chance to do good and not take it. I most importantly learned that it is impossible to please everyone. This year, I've lost so many people to death, but I also learned that I should find the positivity in the situation, and every other situation because there's nothing more pleasant than a happy person, and a ton of other lessons.
Life is not fair but you can always make it wonderful the way you perceive it.


For everyone we've lost in this year, for every wasted second and for every frown, we shall make up for it in 2015.
And for every friend we gained, every cherished moment and for the happiest of smiles, we give three cheers.


But as all good things come to an end, so will 2014.
And for now, I can thank it for every lesson, memory, smile, and friend, breath a sigh of relief, close my eyes and welcome 2015.
Let's hope it's even better than the current one.

 

Happy New Year's Eve, readers!

see you next year xxx

 

Life; A Passion.

In my opinion, I believe there are three types of people in the world.
The people that loathe life, the people that live life and the people that love life.

Everyone has a mixture of these days. Some may be good days that make a person love life, and some may be bad days that make a person loathe life. And some may just live life without really hating it or loving it. But even so, the majority of our days fit us into which ever category we believe ourselves to be in.

Those that love life are mostly the happiest. They find joy and beauty in the little things that make up life. They cherish and they care. They help and they protect. They're a natural beauty themselves, just because of the beautiful things they do that make them love life. And the most surprising of all, is that it really doesn't take much for you to love life. You just have to spread lots of love and joy around you, and watch how people and things rejoice around you.




Life isn't that complicated and as difficult as we make it seem. And that is the problem. We cant seem to enjoy life because we are way too busy trying to complicate it and worrying about it and complaining about everything. And that slowly kills all of us, because no one likes a problematic, complicated life. It is the reason behind all the loathe.

And for all the world, that's the secret to a happy life. You don't complain and you don't complicate, and you never worry. Because after all, life is a passion, and you need to love it. It is that simple.

Love the life you live, so you can live the life you love.

Till Next Time, Readers.
-Jessica xo

Death

Death.

A topic that has always interested me. It pulls me in yet scares me away. I find myself wanting to know more but then I also find myself not wanting to go on the little investigation, because it just breaks and pierces my heart.

Most of us, atleast I did, have gone through a death experience, where a family or a friend passes away and we spend a week before even recovering of the shock and moving on with our life that we think is incessant. But truth is, anyone of us can be gone any day, any minute, any second.

A couple of days ago, a new friend of mine in my new school told me about a girl that had passed away; a graduate of my current school. The story is quite heartbreaking and ironic. I researched her death and her life over the past 2 days, and let me tell you the story..

Finally, she's 18 and a newly graduate and she got her driver's licence. What more could a perfectly rounded student like her want more? Life was great, and she never thought - not in a billion years- that she would lose the future she planned before even living it. She was driving to school to get her report (or so i've been told)
on the 4th of September 2006.

And bam, a crash and her whole life passed before her eyes. The innocent girl was instantly killed.

Born on the 4th of the 4th month, and died on a 4th- the young woman's story broke my heart into a million little pieces.
I kept wondering.. wow, she got through the hardest part of life, she actually succeeded and she had an entire life ahead of her, and then she dies?
How unfair life is.
How abrupt can a person's life end.
How unbelievably shocking,
 And then thats when I realised, any of us could be gone at any minute; while going to school or while we sleep peacefully or even on our big days.

I never knew her.  Never met her, but now I know about her. And that stranger's story made me tear up- imagine how her closed ones would feel?
But seeing all the love she received after she was gone, and all her friends in tears over their loss, made me wonder, all this because she was a good person, from inside and from out.

And too often I now think to myself, what if I would go now? Will people remember me after I was gone? Will I be remembered as the person that everyone loved? And that has honestly changed me in many ways.
Maybe there really is a lesson to every accident

Tragedy will never cease and we need tough hearts to go on living.
We all will leave one day, sooner or later, and we need to leave a positive mark on earth before we depart.
Death takes alot of people away from us, but it never takes away the feelings they gave us or the memories we lived with them.

And everyday, as I pass her memorial at school, a moment of silence is most necessary.
Rest In Peace Samar Al Ansari.

Death is nothing but temporary. We shall all meet soon.

Failure = Motivation

Failure:

Failure is defined as a lack of success in normal English dictionaries.

But not in mine.

In my dictionary, the word 'lack' is replaced by 'ladder'.

Failure is a ladder to success.

I mean let's look at it this way.

If you really want something, a test result or a grade won't matter to you. If you really want something, you'd go after it till you get it, no matter what odds stand in the way, because failure only makes you better and tougher at what you're doing.

Failure is like a test to see how much you want a thing

And to be quite frank, e v e r y o n e  has failed in something atleast once!

Whether it's famous people like; Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Henry Ford, Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, Abraham  Lincoln, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, J. K. Rowling, Mozart, The Beatles, Beethoven, Michael Jordan, and hundreds others that failed year after year, before becoming who they are, to people like me and you. We all failed sometime, someday in something.

If these people had given up from the first, third or fifth time, we would not have had any apple products (not apple pies, apple iphones xD ), no Disney Channel, no Internet Explorer, no lightbulb (thankyou Thomas Edison), no Harry Potter, no wonderful piano and violin music, no The Beatles or even silent comedy.

Failure meant nothing to them, it only meant "how about you try harder/differently this time?" and if you give up as well, who knows, maybe we won't have a banana YouPhone or a new famous channel.

So If you've failed once, try again.  Fail again? Try again even harder!

Try try try, till you succeed, things always have a way of working out.

Failure should motivate you, sharpen you, make you better and teach you a lesson - just like mistakes- not put you down and destroy your hopes of the future.

Better things are just round the corner.

Maybe failure isn't such a bad thing if you look at it from that perspective.

Just as you won't let your past determine your future, 

Do not let failures determine your success.

(Dedicated to all those that will receive their exam results this week. Goodluck.)

Friendship.

Well, since it's World Friendship Day, I'll post a little article about friends. :) 

"An Acquaintance merely enjoys your company, a fair weather companion flatters when all is well, a true friend has your best interests at heart and the pluck to tell you what you need to hear." - E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly.

Let's be very honest, we are surrounded with tons of people; or lets say.. 'friends' and there are so many different types of friends. The fake ones, the acquaintances, the school friends, the two-faced friends, the 'i-just-want-your-success' friends, friends with benefits and of course, very rarely, the true friends.

Friends that just claim to be your 'friends' are not really friends, and its time we realise this. They are more like shadows; appear when there is light and success, but when it dims, they just simply disappear, and you never know where on earth they've just gone, and to be very frank, these kinds of friends are worse than enemies/people that openly express their dislike towards you. Let me tell you why.
Firstly, they're extremely two faced and its such a dilemma trying to think of which face to slap first.
Second, they give you a lot of false hope, that you actually have a friend;
And thirdly, when they abandon you, they leave you broken hearted & betrayed, and trust me, you don't want to go through that!
So in all ways, fake friends are the worst type of people, and its better you get them sorted out at the beginning. Hard to sort the sheep from the goats when they're all wearing horns, but I guess they'll show their true colours when it's time.

 However, true friends are simply treasures. They are always there every step of the road, always there to cheer you up or comfort you, always counted on, always there to make you feel special, and you're the luckiest person to have one of these friends, because they're the people that will really matter, the people you will see as bridesmaids and best men years from now, and these are the people that deserve to be celebrated today. These are the people to be appreciated atleast once a year, and thats why we have a friendship day.

Life without friends, is just like a party without music and snacks and a meeting without people.
So take a few minutes today and thank someone for being the diamond of your life and for being one of those rare friends that you should stick to, no matter what.

Happy Friendship Day, Readers.
Till Next Time;
-Jessica xoxo

An Opus Of Imagination.

Books; the lives after a tree.

Can we just please talk about books?
But where do I even begin?

I, personally, am a major bookworm, but the same doesn't apply to all of my friends; and when they ask me what is it that I love so much about books, I can't help but get into a series of reasons and ways in which books are beautiful and are one of the best things on Earth.

So let me tell you exactly why books are a piece of heaven.

Books are so beautiful. Maybe not in the decoration from the outside, but its what's inside!

The depth of every word and every sentence, the series of realistic emotional events, all the feelings that books give you; from tears of joy, to tears of sheer pain and sorrow when your favourite character dies and leaves you with an empty hole in your heart that is soon filled with a new sense of hopefulness towards the future. Every tiny detail describing a character makes up the big details and completes the image of that certain character, and then before you know it, you are so inlove with the book and the characters in it, that it is impossible for you to put down the book even for a minute - and as if plastered to your hand and soul, you take it everywhere with you and then you start to develop a personal attachment with the book .And honestly, I can go on forever, till the part where you officially become a 'fangirl'/'fanboy' and the whole world is never the same again because you see it with a whole new perspective; which is the book.

There's just so much to a book than that of which could be described, and that includes feelings that you didn't even know existed.It's just full of goodness and emotions,- as a matter of fact, I don't think there's anything negative about a book!
Let me list a few of the wonderful things about books:

1- Books improve your English (or any other language you read in) and widen your vocabulary.
2- If you have books, you have a partner for life.
3- With books, there is no room for boredom!
4- Books make your imagination grow, which helps you in essays and life in general.
5- If you love books and you get inspired to be a writer; you'll be a millionaire overnight!
6- Books are simply beautiful, and yes that counts as a reason to read.
7- Books give you a lot of confidence and make you read better!
8- If a book is turned into a movie, and you've read the book, you'll have much more insight on the movie and you'll be one of the first fans.
9- You can visit the entire world within the comfort of your room if you have a book.
10- You can make new friendships with people that have also read the same book as you, giving you something in common to talk about.

I could go on forever about books *.*

However, you don't just wake up one day and start reading 25 thousand books all of a sudden, at first it may seem like the most boring thing on earth, but you just have to push yourself to read the first four pages or so, and then you're done! Its just the beginning that may not seem so interesting, but trust me, once you start, you can't stop!

Some of my personal favourites are ofcourse, the Harry Potter series (JK Rowling has unbelievable talent!), The Divergent Series -Divergent, Insurgent & Allegiant (the third book destroyed me.), The Hunger Games Series, and who could forget The Fault In Our Stars, and several other books whose names are less common. Basically your typical teenage books.
But why do all my favourite characters end up dying! :( its heartbreaking really.

“You know what’s sad about reading books? It’s that you fall in love with the characters. They grow on you. And as you read, you start to feel what they feel - all of them - you become them. And when you’re done, you’re never the same. Sure you’re still you, you look the same, talk in the same manner, but something in you has changed. Something in the way you think, the way you choose, sometimes, even the things you say may differ. But it all comes down to the state you go to after a nice novel. The after-feeling. It’s amazing, but somehow, you feel left alone by that world you were once in. It’s overwhelming. But it makes you sad. Cause for once you were this, this otherworldly being in… Neverwhere, and then you suddenly have to say goodbye after a few weeks from when you read the last page. When you’ve recovered from that state it’s just… quite sad.” -Suzanne Collins. Author of the hunger games.

But anyway, to wrap up this post, the final thing I have to say about books is that the best thing about them is that you don't get to judge the characters based on their looks or features, but it is on their actions and personalities. When reading, we don't fall inlove with the character's appearance. We fall inlove with their words, their thoughts, and their hearts. We fall inlove with their souls.
After all, you're the ones that make them up in your mind; how they look and how they would act.

Till next time, readers.

-Jessica xoxo