On The Pursuit of Happiness

Just focus on one girl, a girl who is in middle school, she seems normal from your point of view, she’s nothing special really, but what you don’t know is how unhappy she really is. Some nights, she just lays in her bed and cries, counts all her flaws from head to toe right after and she doesn’t let anyone know about those nights. The worst part is, she’s one of the farthest from happy and she’s probably the one that needs it most. Everyone deserves happiness; sadly however, teenage girls often fail to see the beauty in themselves and in their lives causing depression, eating disorders and urges to cut themselves, and those are only some of the worst.


Being depressed could be feeling blue, down in the dumps or just plain miserable for a few days, clinical depression on the other hand is feeling like that weeks at a time, many teenage girls suffer with this kind of depression. Imagine the worst point of your life, for weeks and months at a time, ‘depression is a strong mood involving sadness, discouragement, despair, or hopelessness that lasts for weeks, months, or even longer.’ If you’ve ever felt an ounce of sadness, you’d know a tiny bit what so many teenage girls feel like but not nearly as painful. With feeling discouraged, some of these girls could be bullied or not see how truly beautiful they are and feel worthless instead. Imagine having lost every tiny bit of hope you might still hold on to and just falling into more sadness and depression, it would make you so much more discouraged than you were in the first place. A lot of girls feel like that, and that’s something that needs to change. Some people are so sad, they seem to want to end it all, ‘At its most severe, depression can lead to suicide and is responsible for 850,000 deaths every year.’ (Science Daily) With depression claiming so many people, it makes their lives a morbid place to be that they would rather not be living than going through with what life brings. Imagine being sad enough there is nothing joyful enough in life to want you to stay, imagine thinking no one loves you enough to care if you died. That’s what 850,000 people think in a year and who knows, one of those people could end up being your daughter, your spouse or your best friend. As a result of unhappiness in people’s lives, they turn depressed and can’t bring themselves to fight back and get better.


A large factor of girls’ depression at this very moment is their size, they think that the fact they are large makes them ugly and accordingly some of them resort to eating disorders to lose weight. So many of these girls think that being skinny is being flawless, ‘I’ve always believed if I were thin, my life would be perfect.’ (Tumblr) Since a lot of these girls have been teased about their weight, if they were skinny they don’t think they’d be teased anymore. Then without being teased, their lives could get better and ultimately happier, providing, ‘my life would be perfect’. A lot of girls aren’t comfortable with their weight and go to extremes to fix it, ‘People with anorexia nervosa have intense fears of becoming fat and see themselves as fat even when they are very slender.’ (WebMD) A lot of times when girls are insecure, their weight is a large part of it, they can tolerate their hair and face but when the get to their size, it all goes downhill. They think that if they were skinnier, they would be good enough so they result in starving themselves. Feeling like they aren’t good enough, so many teenage girls turn to eating disorders to be thinner.


The worthlessness that engulfs so many teenagers in this day and age can result in some finding a need to cope with their sadness in an astoundingly, depressing way. A lot of girls are in the midst of so much suffering that they need to get away from it somehow, ‘cutting is a way some people try to cope with the pain of strong emotions.’ (Kid’s Health) There’s three ways cutting helps tame the emotional pain in people’s lives; to be so focused on the blood dripping down their skin that they forget all their troubles, to get revenge on themselves for not being good enough and seeing the blood rolling down their skin makes them feel like a real person. With self-harming comes a flow of freedom in a way, it’s like everything you want to express or forget about get accomplished in that .01 of a second and even though life just goes back to normal afterwards, that split second helps. In the case of a self-harming, 13 year old girl, all of the painful things in her life pile up and that short span of time where the razor digs into her skin, she has relief, that everything might be okay, that she’s good enough. To find a way to get the same satisfaction of seeing the blood drip down your skin, there’s a website where you can cut your screen by dragging your cursor across a blank, white page to make it look like cuts, fatal to the flesh. There’s so many cases in this day and age where girls are struggling to find a replacement for self-harm. In an effort to replace cutting, some will go to this website instead of cutting their own skin. If you think about it, the fact that there is enough girls in the world that need a replacement for self-harm and that there has to be a website for that is depressing enough to want to go and find all of the self-harming girls in the world and hug them. If some of these girls are specifically hateful towards their size, they will go to different extremes to be ‘okay’.


With so many people unhappy, so many people are worthy of happiness; teenage girls often are the ones that deserve happiness and this results in depression, eating disorders and an urge to self harm. Tonight when you go to bed, I assure you there will be countless numbers of girls crying themselves to sleep just to get away from the pain. These damaging nights could continue for months and months longer but not if you proceed to do something. If you know anyone who is suffering with depression, an eating disorder or self harm, make sure you reach out to them and bring happiness back into their lives.

One Broadcast At A Time

Out of the 7 billion people in the world living, 8,806,866 of them don’t have a home (Statistic Brain). Either running from war, corruption or poverty most of these people live in refugee camps, separated from their families. Just from the Democratic Republic of Congo, 455,852 have run from corruption or lack of law that could help them and decided life on the run would be better. The Democratic Republic of Congo, transitioning between a civil war and semi presidential republic where there is a president a prime-minister that are both active leaders or the country. Although the government may be trying to take care of their people, there is not an adequate amount of safety and the human rights of many are not met. Many of these refugees being children have been separated from their families during the chaos of fleeing and would obviously want to be reunited. After having lived in a refugee camp, Baruani Ndume understands the pain it causes, so he helps other refugee children through his radio programme by providing a place for counseling and hopefully reuniting them with their parents.

Being away from your home country and in a very foreign environment would cause some emotional trauma, provided that, Baruani is making a difference in many refugee children’s hearts by providing counseling on his radio show.  A lot of the time all these children want is someone ‘normal’ and like them to talk with, ‘with only limited resources, he (Baruani) has succeeded in setting up a radio programme in which he talks about problems and challenges with his peer refugee children’ (Children’s Peace Prize). Baruani knows the troubles most of the children are going through after running from their home country and understands how much pain they would be going through. In the refugee camps of Tanzania, many people spend their lives waiting, waiting for food, waiting for permanent homes, waiting to get out. These camps, being such dangerous places, women and minorities aren’t often safe, albinos and their families have to live inside closed fences to ensure their safety. (Pulitzer Center). Since Baruani knows the pain he knows that it would’ve helped so much if someone had talked about it with him. Baruani had no one to talk to about his issues and so he created a place for those who needed it. ‘There are still children who are not capacitated yet to have self esteem to talk about issues which concern them’ (Baruani’s Blogpost). Baruani Ndume’s radio programme is a way for some of these refugee children to open up when they need to and slowly begin to talk about their issues. In Middle School as well, many people don’t have the self esteem to talk about their problems and it helps me understand why Baruani would help his peers and why they need help. Needing someone to talk to is vital in a person’s life, if it’s just to let out your feelings and your circumstances or to get advice on what’s going on, you should never keep it bottle up. Baruani has provided that opportunity for many children in his refugee camp. With all the tragedy in the world, some people need to take initiative and help others in need.

Since so many refugee children have been torn from their parents, Baruani has decided to help children with a possible reuniting with their families using his radio programme. What Baruani is doing has been quite successful, ‘He (Baruani) has succeeded in setting up a radio programme...thanks to this, many children have now been reunited with their families’ (Children’s Peace Prize). Although Baruani didn’t have the advantage of being reunited with his parents, he wants other children to have that privilege, Baruani fled the Democratic Republic of Congo only to be separated from his family somewhere in the journey. With his limited resources he managed to have enough hope to set up his programme so he could pass his hope onto others. If kids’ parents have continued to flee past Tanzania, Baruani’s programme helps them find their families. ‘The programme has been highly successful and is now broadcast in DR Congo, Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda’ (Children’s Peace Prize).Obviously only starting with a few successes, Baruani’s radio show began to grow and has now brought love back to so many children that have a life so much worse than ours. These children deserve the chance they’re getting with Baruani’s radio programme. As a result, many children, affected by Baruani’s good deeds, now have him to thank as they bask alongside their parents’ love.

Since living in a refugee camp most his life, Baruani Ndume created a radio programme to help other children through the problems he knew they would have. By helping children through troubles, Baruani has given them the hope to continue their lives with their loved one’s and to strive for the help of the misfortuned later in their lives. It is because of these good deeds Baruani Ndume was awarded the Children’s International Peace Prize in 2009. Baruani is an inspiration to many refugee children around the world as he continues his work in world peace to aid many more children that need it. With the amount of peace necessary in the world today, only a few people are doing something about, one day, if Baruani Ndume continues his work and many others start, there will be a bandaid on the earth and it may start to heal.

Where I'm From.

I am from Hannah Montana, Patrick Star and Bubbles, Buttercup and Blossom.

From Barbie.com and Tamagotchi’s to GIF’s and onedirectiondarestodream.

I am from Hi-5 and The Wiggles, to Jesse McCartney and Justin Bieber.

I’m from Milo, Milo Nuggets and Milo Cereal.

From UHT milk and Honey Stars

Tim Tams and fairy cookies

I am from a whole lot of Ribena,

to the healthy stuff like dragon fruit and lychees.

 I’m from How Great Is Our God

To Potter you Rotter

I am from Bigger than Ben Herr and Yeah or Neigh

To  Vas Happenin’  and Yeah Buddy.

I am from the pictures on the stairs to the pictures outside my bedroom door.

Taken years ago,

Waiting to start the legacy of the Angell family.

Understanding Power

To maintain control, you must have power. I think that this statement is legitimate because in England during the Middle Ages, King William would've had no chance of staying king without control. I think this because none of the people in England really liked him and would have been happy to take his crown away due to the fact that he was a foreign king and he replaced all of the English lords and dukes with Normans. To keep his royalty, King William built Motte and Bailey Castles all over the country so that he could intimidate people around England and also keep an eye out on them. That is an example of someone that maintained control by having power.

I think that another example of a leader that has maintain his/her control with power is Hitler. After he was voted as the Fuhrer of Germany and started killing Jews, he used false propaganda to keep control. For example, in 'The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas' movie when Bruno's father was shown a propaganda video of what the Nazis were showing people about the concentration camps. Hitler made the video to make the concentration camps seem like a pleasant and enjoyable place to live really when he was killing masses of people daily. I feel that Hitler is a modern example of someone using their power to keep control.

Who Had The Best Claim?

In 1066, three men hoped to become King of England after Edward the Confessor died. These three people were Duke William of Normandy, Harold Godwinson, the Earl of Wessex and Harald Hardrada, the King of Norway. One of Duke William's claims to the throne was that he had the Pope voting for him to become king. In the olden days if you had the Pope on your side, it was one of the largest advantages you could have. While Harold Godwinson had the recommendation of the previous king, Edward, and Harald Hardrada had an ancestor, King Cnut, that was a former king of England. Out of these three men, I think that Duke William of Normandy had the best 'claim to fame' and in the end Harald Hardrada and Harold Godwinson were killed leaving William the Conquerer with the crown.

Values and Choices

Think about a time you witnessed bullying/ostracism/peer pressure/exclusion/discrimination/violence. How did you respond? How do you wish you had responded? What stopped you from responding that way?

'Can I borrow some stickers too?' I had desperately asked at the age of 9 during lunch in Ms. Ludeman's third grade class. 'NO' Isabella Sullivan replied. Although it might not have been the worst scenario of bullying, the girls in my 3rd grade class had definetly made an impact on my life. A group of about ten girls had been trading stickers, dying to be 'in' with their group I tried to trade stickers with them. To start I simply asked, 'Can I borrow some stickers too?' Then I was shut down with a simple but productive 'No.'


I responded in an extremely bitter way, ready to yell in their faces. I wish I had reacted in a nicer way like my mum had told me to. I remember her telling me, 'When other kids are mean to you, respond to them in a nice way because that is what would make you proud.' Then she read me the Bible verse Proverbs 25:21-22. 'If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.' I wish I would have responded in a more honorable way to be able to do what the Lord says in the verse above. What stopped me from doing that is the hatred that I had stored in my heart and my unwillingness to forgive those girls.

The Courage of Le Chambon

What did you learn from the stories of rescuers?
I learn't that you don't always need to regard yourself as a hero when you have done a good deed, as the people of Le Chambon did. They taught me that some things are simple and it is common sense to do them. For example, should I save the Jews or let them get killed? It is sort of an obvious answer even if most people didn't do anything to help.




What do they teach us about human behavior?


'If we do not work towards developing confidence in our spiritual resources, we will be responsible for producing in due tima a world devoid of humanity.' This  quote explains that if people are to scared to do the right thing everything will change later. That I think this quote is relevant to the question because our generation is the future and if we do silly things in the past, it will change the future for the worse.

Victory by Sonia Weitz

Victory
by Sonia Weitz

I danced with you that time only.
How sad you were, how tired, lonely...
You knew that they would "take" you soon...
So when your bunk-mate played a tune
You whispered: "little one, let us dance,
We may not have another chance."

To grasp this moment...sense the mood;
Your arms around me felt so good...
The ugly barracks disappeared
There was no hunger...and no fear.
Oh what a sight, just you and I,
My lovely father (once big and strong)
And me, a child...condemned to die.

I thought: how long
before the song
must end

There are no tools
to measure love
and only fools

Would fail
to scale
your victory.




This poem touched me because I can imagine that if I was going to lose my father, how devastated I would be. One of my favorite lines in this poem is 'little one, let us dance, we may not have another chance.' I loved this because again, I can't directly relate to it but the despair that would've filled me if I had to have just one last dance with my father would be huge. When I read this poem, I pictured a withering away father and a withering away daughter enjoying their last moments together.  They were dancing for the last time, with hope in their eyes and the terrible background of 'ugly barracks' fading away. I think the mood or feel of this poem was hope. The name of this piece is Victory because Weitz might have finally felt like she had one small 'victory' against the Nazis and the terrible things they were doing to the Jews. The fact that she was able to sneak into the men's camp and find her father was most probably the treasure that gave her the will to keep holding onto life throughout the bad things that happened to her in the rest of the holocaust. 'Only fools would fail to scale your victory.'

Germany 1918-1933

I believe that the creation of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 was one of the factors that helped Adolf Hitler and the Nazis rise to power. This was vital because so many of the German Citizens despised the treaty because it was putting them in debt, and since Hitler claimed he would expel that law he won many votes that way. The other event that helped the Nazis start leading Germany was the Reichstag  Fire in 1933 because Hitler blamed the communists and due to the fact so many people believed him he also won the votes that the communists had. I think these were the two events that helped Hitler gain power the most.

Nuremberg Laws

1. Who could now be defined as a 'Jew'?

In the Neremberg Race Laws anyone that didn't practice Judaism would be considered a Jew if they had four Jewish grandparents.

2. What was meant by 'aryanizing' Jewish Businesses?

In those circumstances aryanizing Jewish businesses was meant by all Jewish managers of workers would be fired and their companies would be bought by Germans for a small price.

3.How were Jews who were professionals (lawyers, doctors etc.) restricted?

As a Jewish doctor, you wouldn't have been allowed to treat any non-jews and lawyers would be stopped from practising law.

4. What did Jewish identity cards need to include now?

Jewish identity cards needed to include a red J stamped on them and a middle name if the person's first name wasn't recognizably Jewish.

5. What was the 'Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of German People'?

'The Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of German People' was a ban on any marriages including a person with a hereditary disease.

The Treaty of Versailles

Although there is several points of view on whether the Treaty of Versailles was fair, in my opinion it was not. I believe this because I don't think Germany caused the war, because they were not the ones that assassinated archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Serbians did. Since the Germans were not the ones who caused the original problem that started the war I don't think they deserved such a big punishment.