Wednesday, August 8, 2012

OUR LIVES AS A CRAZY QUILT


OUR LIVES AS A CRAZY QUILT

Everyone’s life is built through years as a crazy quilt. We live everyday different stories; some of them to remember forever and others to forget. We must be in the world always trying to do our best .Our mission in this world is enjoy what God gave us and help others every time we can. For this reason, we have adolescence time to enjoy many parties as we can, young adult time to develop us as professionals and adult time to continue living happyly.

First of all, adolescence time is the best stage in our life if we focus on no responsibility. That is the beautiful time when most of teenagers only study. When they study and do their homework, the rest of the time they only think about videogames, parties, movies etc. That’s the time when parents should teach their teenagers values as an important base for the future. This is a part of our life I recommend to enjoy at maximum.

In the second place, young adult time, when we have enjoyed adolescence a lot, is our new challenge. This is a very nice time when we continue enjoying but with more responsibility. We continue going to parties, having dates, courtships, until marriage and having kids. This is a wonderful stage where we must be independent, develop as a professional buy a house, a car,etc. In this time, we must prepare us to be healthy adults for the future.

In the third place, adult time is a great time too. It depends on what we have done in the last two stages of our life described before. This is the time to enjoy a lot the work we have done through years. It is time to share with offspring, grandchildren. It is a good time to travel, continue doling exercise, buying a property for vacation, etc. This is not a time to prepare to die, absolutely not, incredibly, some people think like that.

Life is only one and very short. We don’t know when it will finish. It’s unbelievable that many people spend their lives being angry, frustrated, pending on what other people do to try to be happy. Our life is written day by day and we can compare it to a crazy quilt where we can see or remember every nice or bad story to make us grow and be better every time more. It is never late to check our life’s crazy quilt to make changes and improve our life.

Sunday, July 15, 2012


OLDER PEOPLE NEED THEIR INDEPENDENCE, JUST LIKE YOUNGER PEOPLE
If we have some people who are respectable, they are older people. Society must see them like very important people because they are the ones who built all what we can enjoy and share right now. Maybe, some of us, one day, will be elderly, have nieces and nephews and share valuable information and knowledge with future generations. Elder people need to be independent, respected and having society´s support to have a good quality of life and achieve their goals.
Nowadays, older people are considered for most of the people in our society like a problem, something else to take care of, an object. For this and many other reasons, many adults are afraid and sometimes they do not want to become elderly. In some cultures, elder people are considered wise because of all that they have learned through their life. Society must realize that they are still useful and they can provide interesting contributions in every area we need. What they need is independence; they need we make them feel they are important for us, for young and not so young people.
It is not possible that we think that when people get retired they are starting a way to death. No, elders are starting a new age in their life; they must be very motivated to achieve goals they thought years before. All of us, like citizens, humans, relatives, must respect elderl’s ideas. Some of them made a lot of sacrifices for others when they were young and now this the only time they have to enjoy and make their dreams come true. We must do what it is done in Japan; elders are considered wise and have a special position in their society.
Every human being has rights; it doesn’t matter if you are young, elderly, black or white. The CostaRican Government is making a good effort to take care of a portion of elderly people. For example, AGECO and CONAPAM are institutions that are providing programs for this part of the population. They have health and sports programs to protect them and provide them activities that help them to have physical and mental exercise. This population, for me, is a real treasure we must care for them and learn from them.
An elderly person has the same conditions like every other person to live, to learn, to enjoy. Society needs to learn again to see elderly people like any other person and not to marginalize them. We do not have to fear to become elderly; we must just prepare us for this beautiful age. I know many elderly people who run, are constructors, drive cars with no problem and have an independent and happy life. Remember most of them have worked very hard for others to enjoy some activities until this age and, they are not only special, they are lovely.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012


DIFFERENT KINDS OF ANIMAL CRUELTY MAKES SOME HUMANS SAVAGE.




Nowadays, animal cruelty is a global problem rapidly growing in our society. Animals are being abused and starved everyday and a lot of helpless animals die each year because of heartless owners. There are many kinds of animal cruelty; the most common are scientific research, animal fighting, and abandonment. Non violence leads to the highest ethics; which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are savages. (Thomas Edison, 1847-19731, inventor)

First of all, a common kind of mistreatment to animals in our society is that scientists need to research to improve relevant matters like economy and products. Usually companies test products on animals for the safety of people. Monkeys, rats, dogs, and cats are some of their chosen used for laboratory investigation. The biggest problem with animal testing is that animals usually suffer in a traumatic experience. Many animals finish with burns, hair loss, rashes, gashes or they even die.

On the other hand, animal fighting, for me, is a real crime. It’s very cruel; here in Costa Rica some people think it is a sport. Animals are placed in an arena with each other, and they fight to death, most of the time innocent animals die. Some animals such as dogs and chickens are fought. Incredibly, they are only put in the ring for people’s entertainment; these people ruthlessly abuse their animals, and then make them animals kill each other. Thank God we have in Costa Rica a law that regulates this, the Health Ministry is fighting hard against this.

Abandonment is another kind of animal cruelty with animals. Some irresponsible people adopt a pet for example and when it grows up, they abandon it. Another kind of animal abuse is hoarding; many humans do that, in these conditions people cannot take care of animals just fine. Animals live in pens covered with feces and urine and, because of this, they suffer fatal diseases and die. In Costa Rica, we have especial organizations that receive animals, take care of them and, after that, they give them in adoption for example “Rescate Animal” who is integrated for volunteers. Please, support them to continue fighting.

These are three important reasons why all animals should be treated with love,: Domestic animal rights vs. wild animal rights, animal hoarding, animal fighting, and abandonment. Animal cruelty is a current issue, and should be eliminated before the world can progress towards being a better place. Many humans still look like savages currently; they hurt animals and do not respect their rights. It is time to stop this; it is everyone´s responsibility.











Sunday, June 24, 2012

A POSITIVE ATTITUDE TO SUCCEED AND OVERCOME OBSTACLES




Nowadays having a positive attitude is very important for every one of us; it could really help a lot of people. We could have a large number of benefits by having a positive attitude. Investigations and true stories about this topic show us that having a positive attitude can make us get wherever we want. I can mention people who are considered disabled because they have no legs or an arm like Oscar Pistorious, Laurent Molina or Bethany Hamilton, but, they don´t feel like that and have had a successfully and a normal life because of their positive attitude. If we have a positive attitude in everything we do, this could help us to have a better performance, overcome obstacles and achieve goals.

A positive attitude can make us have a unique view of the world to face anything we do. For a positive thinking person, everything is possible to get. Reading and watching stories about Pistorious, Molina and Hamilton shows how their positive attitude has improved their performance gradually and with consistently strong work. Positive attitude has enabled them to improve their competition times until obtaining titles and championships. For example, watching soul surfer we can see how Hamilton´s attitude takes her gradually to improve her performance and with a lot of work to show her she could be a champion.

On the other hand, overcoming obstacles is a lifestyle for them. They don´t think making mistakes are bad because it allows them to grow and improve their movements or techniques next time. If they face a problem or they make a mistake, they often learn something, and recover from it and find a solution to solve it. Learning from mistakes, people can easily adapt to different situations like they did. If people focus on the positive aspect of things, they will be happier and will be able to overcome every obstacle they can face.

Having a positive attitude is the first step to succeed, to achieve our goals. The positive attitude always comes in our mind but actually we do not use it. A negative attitude can make us feel tired, angry and frustrated most of the times. The use of positive thinking for example, can get us to reach every goal we have set in our life. Positive attitude makes us stronger and feel healthier by the way. Incredibly, with this kind of attitude there be goal we can achieve.

As we have seen in stories named before and any other examples in life, a positive attitude can help us to be succesfull. A positive attitude can make us feel better, increase our self esteem to fight hard to get where we can imagine. With an attitude like that, we can influence positively other people. Pistorious, Molina and Hamilton, inspired every person who knows their stories to go ahead. Limits are only in our minds; you decide if you believe in yourself or create limits in your head to justify something you can make better again until you succeed; sometimes it is not easy, but it is possible.




"Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success." - Dr. Joyce Brothers



Ronald Rodríguez Acosta
English III/ULACIT/2nd Quarter, 2012.