The Struggles of Freshmen Year in College

Based on my experience, the first struggle I had as a freshmen student in college was finding friends. Well, “finding friends” isn’t exactly hard to do since some people actually are the ones who take the first step to befriend me. The problem was I was shy and quiet, so I had trouble opening up and communicating with my new friends. Of course in due time, I was beginning to realize that having no friends in college is a very big “no-no”; because in order to survive college, one must have friends. Having good friends will help you cope with your struggles during the first year in college. They can be a support while being away from your family, but of course, it also depends on what kind of friends one has.

                The second struggle I have is my dorm-life. Every day I have to travel by riding a jeep, or a taxi to get to school. In addition, whenever I’m late, I have to ride a taxi which is very costly especially during traffic, and when I ride a jeep often times there is traffic and lots of pollution going on around me. My dorm-life itself is very boring, especially because I’m not used to it. Living only in dormitories have lots of disadvantages, for example: I had to eat outside often which is very tiring for me. Plus, no cable for television, and some dorms don’t even have a television. I guess the only good thing in my dorm is the fast internet, but of course the downside to it is that our internet has a time limit.

                The third struggle I’ve experienced involves money. My mother set up an average amount of money I have to spend each day for a whole month while I’m in school. She gives me monthly allowance, but my problem is that sometimes, I overspend my allowance and sometimes I use my allowance to buy some things that isn’t included in my monthly allowance. So another lesson I learned in college is to always manage my time and my money properly and of course, to always save money just in case of emergency.

                But the struggle that mostly affected me was school-related. I flunked most of my long exams in my course-subjects like Math, which I passionately hate. It also happens to be that my course in college loves math so much that my major subject is math. I can’t tell my family how I really feel because of how hard it really is for me and how I’m struggling. Right now, I am contemplating on shifting to another course but this is where another problem comes in. If I shift to another course, I won’t be able to see my friends usually anymore. And at some point, If I ever do shift into another course, I will surely miss them.

Pandora

In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first human woman created by the gods: Hephaestus and Athena with the orders of Zeus. As Hesiod, a Greek poet related it, she was created with the help of the gods by giving her unique gifts. Zeus also ordered Hephaestus to mold her out of earth as part of the punishment of humanity for Prometheus’ theft of the secret of fire, and all the gods in Olympus joined in offering her “seductive gifts”. 

The gifts each God bestowed on Pandora was special. Athena clothed her, Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo gave her musical ability, Hermes gave her speech and Zeus gave her curiosity. According to the myth, Pandora opened a box called the “Pandora’s box”—which was actually a jar and was mistranslated as a box—releasing all the evils of humanity.

The Pandora myth first appeared in Hesiod’s poem, the Theogony, without ever giving the woman a name. After humans received the stolen gift of fire from Prometheus, an angry Zeus decided to give humanity a punishing gift to compensate for the treachery they did. And then, He commanded Hephaestus to mold from the earth the first woman whose descendants would torment the human race. This woman in the Theogony was presumed as Pandora, whose myth Hesiod revisited in his poem, Works and Days.

The more famous Pandora myth came from another poem from Hesiod called, Works and Days. In this poem, she was given the name Pandora by Hermes which meant the “all-gifted” because all of the Olympians gave her a gift. In the retelling of her story, Pandora was portrayed to have a deceitful feminine nature and becomes the least of humanities’ worries for she brough a jar containing diseases and other myriad pains. Prometheus warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus. But Epimetheus did not listen. He accepted Pandora who promptly scattered the contents of her jar. However, one item did not escape the jar, hope which Hesiod did not say why it remained in the jar.

Halloween

Halloween is a date celebrated on the night of October 31^st. It is a celebration that is mostly practiced in United States and Canada where children would wear costumes and go to the people’s homes saying the phrase: “Trick or Treat!” to ask for candy or sweets, then the people would give it to them. This practice originally involved a threat. A threat is a statement indicating the possibility of something harmful that is about to happen. In this case, a threat could be explained as: “Give me a treat or I will play a trick on you.” However, children today usually do not play tricks even though they do not get any treats, although there are also some children who do play pranks to make fun of people. In addition, some people, other than kids, also dress up as ghosts, witches, or other scary creatures for Halloween.

The origins of Halloween started with the pagan holiday Samhain and was largely based on the Celtic religious traditions. About 2, 000 years ago, lived a group of people called the Celts. The Celts’ lives revolved around growing their food and they considered the end of the year to be the end of harvest season. So they celebrated new year’s eve each year on October 31^st, the celebration was called Samhain, named after their Lord of the Dead. Samhain was presided over by Celtic priest called Druids. To celebrate Samhain, the Druids built huge sacred bonfires around which the Celts gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to their ancient gods. During that celebration the Celts dressed up in costumes consisting of animal heads and skins.

Back then, winter was the time of year that was associated with human death. The Celts believed that in the night that marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter, the boundary between worlds of the living and the dead will blur, allowing ghosts of the dead to return to earth. They also thought that the presence of ghosts made it easier for the Druids to predict the future.

Eventually, the Celts were conquered by the romans and about the year 43 A.D., two roman festivals were combined with the Celtic Samhain festival. The first roman festival was called Feralia, a day in late October when the romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second day was a day to honor Pomona, the roman goddess of fruit and trees. By 800 A.D., the influence of Christianity spread into the Celtic lands. In the seventh century, the Celtic festival was replaced with a church-sanctioned holiday by Pop Boniface IV designated on November 1st which was known as All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. The combined and updated celebration was also called All-hallows and the night before it began to be called All-hallows Eve and eventually, Halloween.

Birthday

Most people find their birthdays special and memorable. Maybe because birthdays only come once in a year. It is an occasion when a person celebrates the anniversary of their birth. Birthdays are usually celebrated in numerous cultures, often with a gift, a party, or a rite of passage. Even many religions celebrate the birth of their founders with special holidays like Christmas and Buddha’s birthday. Of course during birthdays, a person’s age also adds up to another year and when reaching age-specific milestones, it confers into particular rights and responsibilities. At certain ages, one may become eligible to leave full-time education, or become subjected to military in some countries, and have consent to sexual intercourse, to marry and to marry without parental consent, to run and vote in the election, to consume alcohol ad to obtain a driver’s license.  

 Many cultures also have their own way of celebrating their coming of age birthdays. In Canada and United States, families often mark a girl’s 16^th birthday with a “sweet sixteen” celebration. Sweet sixteen parties mark a coming of age, the point at which a person transitions into adulthood. Like a wedding, this event can be extremely formal, casual or semi-formal. It can be celebrated as modest parties at home with close family or large affairs with hired stylists, DJs, yachts, expensive gowns and dresses, and hotel ballrooms. While in Philippines, girls on their 18^th birthday or boys in their 21^st birthday celebrate a debut. Debuts happen when a Filipino girl customarily throws a large party, complete with her own hand-picked entourage of 18 individuals or multiple sets of 18, and are usually formal. Recent additions to the ceremony are the 18 treasures in which 18 individuals each present the debutante with a gift. These usually also involves a speech from each individual.

In many parts of the world, an individual’s birthday is celebrated with a party where a specially-made cake is usually decorated with lettering and the person’s age, is presented. The cake is traditionally studded with the same number of lit candles as the age of the individual or a number candle representing their age. Then the celebrant will usually make a silent wish and attempt to blow out the candles in one breath; If successful, a tradition holds that the wish will be granted. In many cultures, it is believed that the wish must be kept a secret otherwise it won’t come true.

Of course, most countries also celebrate the birthdays of historically significant people such as national heroes or founders and are often commemorated by an official holiday marking the anniversary of their birth. Catholic saints are remembered by a liturgical feast. In some historically roman catholic and eastern orthodox countries such as Italy, Spain, France, some parts of Germany, and throughout Latin America, it is common to have a Saint’s day. It is celebrated much in the same way as a birthday and is held on the official day of a saint with the same Christian name as the birthday person.

Therefore, birthdays are celebrated in most parts of the world. It is celebrated in different traditions and cultures signifying its importance to a certain individual. Birthdays are not only celebrations for a living person but also for those who have passed away. It is a special occasion on which an individual looks forward to and will only happen once in year. Birthdays are usually happily celebrated and a day when an individual spends time with his/her family or close friends.

Valuable Lessons in Life

One of the major things in life that one may or may not have realize at some point in their life, is that family is all you can have in your life that will be truly of importance to you. A family may be those people whom you share a blood-relation with or those people whom you don’t need to share the same blood in order to be considered as your family, because you treat them as something special to you. Family,  can be considered as your home and has a very special place in your life and heart. It isn’t really necessary to have a blood-relation with them.

Shiny and expensive material things don’t matter when it comes to family and love. One day, you might lose your own life and realize that those material things you possess don’t actually matter especially in the afterlife. Instead, choose to spend time wisely, do things that you have not done before, let yourself out and explore, but keep in mind the limitations too. Spend time loving not only yourself, but youre family too. If not, remember that you might regret it in the future.

Finding love is also important. And I don’t only mean the romantic-kind-of-love. Finding love can be on all aspects. Finding something that you would love to do, to spend time with, and will hold a special place in your heart. Find a something good, not something that will only hurt you. Yes, it can be from another person who you would like to spend your time with, even for a short or the longest of time whether it can be love for family, and friends. As long as you find a reason that will serve as your inspiration to live life to the fullest.

Have faith in everything you do. Especially during those times when you are facing difficult situations and you feel like giving up. But always remember not to give up. Engrave in your mind, the oldest line in the book: “Try and try until you succeed” and keep in mind, that everybody makes a mistake and that nobody is perfect. Some people might be expecting something more in you, and you might feel as If you are becoming pressured and you don’t want them to lose their trust in you. But even when you fail, remember to always stand up. Expectations are just expectations, you are who you want to be and if you can’t do it, you can try but never give up because this will help in you in facing your fears and make you stronger.

Be who you are. Don’t try to change yourself for other people. But at the same time, also be considerate of others, if there’s a reason why people are distancing themselves away from you, or you have something that may seem negative to others. Try opening up in a good way, don’t make a façade, and don’t be mean. Being who you are has a huge impact in your social life, if you feel like you don’t fit in and you feel like you are straining yourself to be someone who you are not, then stop pretending. We all have our own uniqueness. If you feel like something needs to change, then you can. Only if you know that you’re doing the right thing.

There are still a lot of valuable lessons in life. They just need to be discovered and realized. Though life may be hard sometimes, always remember these things and think of them as your light. A guide to life that will inspire you to be successful, or will inspire you to be a great person. Treat life as lemonade perhaps, sometimes it's sweet, sour or bitter.

The Effects of a Broken Family to a Child's Development

A broken family is believed to be the cause of child’s mislead in life. Some people think that, the reason why some children behave so rashly, indifferently, or become rebellious against their parents is due to having a parent who is divorced or separated. Which is also one of the factors that greatly affect the child’s development on education, and may cause social, emotional, and even relational issues for children, and adolescent teens.  

On the emotional aspect a broken family may affect a child’s development is when after the parents’ divorce, the child can harbour strong negative feelings or resentment against their parents. While older children may seem to show less negative emotional effect from the separation of their parents. It is not actually a good thing because they are most likely to bottle up their feelings. This emotional suppression causes an emotional deficit to children. And the result may be depression or poor emotional stability of a child.

If a child is emotionally unstable, this will also affect the child’s social life and education. Because in order for a child to develop a good social life and be able to focus on his/her education, the child must develop a good emotional stability. If a child is emotionally stressed, it can stunt a child’s academic progress and will contribute to a poor educational performance. Which can also lead to more problems in the future and these problems often develop over time as the child grows up. The common problems are children being pushed to drugs, pre-marital sex, and violence.

Children with less emotional stability may also develop a personality which is cynical, introverted, or close-minded. Of course in developing a social life, children must open up to other children to play or communicate. But having a broken family can cause a child to have trust issues. Having trust issues makes it more difficult for a child to open up to others and make friends because the child is unable to be obsolete to another person. Since everyone is born as relational beings, having no friends or a social life can be very lonely. And even as a child, people who are experiencing loneliness are more prone to commit crimes and suicide.

Therefore a broken-family is large factor that will greatly affect a child’s life. As a child, having a broken-family is difficult to deal with especially during his/her crucial years in development. Through the years while the child is growing up, problems will continue to suffice and arouse more problems to come. Children are not supposed to be dealing with huge problems, because whilst young they need more support from both of their parents, instead of children having to suffer for their own parents’ problem. That is why parents should be well-aware in considering the psychological effects of their actions to their children.

The Danger of Selfies

Selfies are amongst the hottest trend of people  all over the world. Selfies are self-taken photographs that are typically shot from a high-angle, exaggerating the size of the eyes and giving the impression of a slender pointed chin. Selfies are often shared on social networking services such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. As it continues to spread throughout the world, in a press of time, more than 31 million Instagram photos have been hashtagged #selfie. According to a recent study from the Pew Research Center, 91% percent of teens have posted a photo of themselves. Even celebrities are now selfie-posers themselves.

However, while selfies may seem harmless, they can actually be dangerous to a person mentally.  For decades, research psychologists have put mirrors and cameras in laboratories to understand what happens psychologically when we look at ourselves. The first experience is self-consciousness -- we become aware of ourselves as objects. The second is comparison -- we compare ourselves to our ideal standards and think: Am I all that I should be? And the answer of many of us is no -- with the result being anxiety. Other than anxiety, studies also reported that selfies promote narcissism or self-absorption in some people and apparently, driving people to seek plastic surgery in order to achieve perfection.

According to Time, psychiatrists are now beginning to consider a compulsion to take selfies as a serious "mental problem".  A psychiatrist named, Dr. David Veal said that: "Two out of three of all the patients who come to see me with Body Dysmorphic Disorder since the rise of camera phones have a compulsion to repeatedly take selfies." Veal points to an extreme case, patient Danny Bowman, who allegedly spent up to 10 hours a day taking hundreds of selfies in a futile attempt to capture the perfect photo. He stopped attending school, lost "two stones" (around 28 pounds), stayed in his house for six months and fought with his parents. Eventually he tried to commit suicide. Bowman was treated for OCD, technology addiction and Body Dysmorphic Disorder — a chronic mental health condition in which the sufferer obsesses over perceived flaws with their body.

Other than psychological dangers, selfies are also reported to be the cause of death and injuries of people taking self-photographs of themselves. On April 2014, a seventeen-year-old, Russian amateur photographer climbed atop a railway bridge in Saint Petersburg and ended up losing her balance, falling to her death after taking a selfie. On July 2014, a fourteen-year-old girl high school student in the Philippines fell to her death after losing her balance while taking a selfie of herself and a friend near the staircase landing of their school in suburban Pasig City. According to doctors, the girl sustained a sharp blow to the head from the fall and a rib had broken, piercing her kidney. On August 2014, a fifteen-year-old boy, also in the Philippines, was critically wounded after accidentally shooting himself while taking a selfie in which his other hand was holding a gun to his chin.

On May 2015, a Romanian eighteen-year-old died when she attempted to take the “ultimate selfie”, posing with a friend on top of a train in the north-eastern Romanian city of Iași when her leg touched a live wire above, sending an electrical surge of up to 27,000 volts through her body. Also, a Russian 21-year-old woman asked a security guard at her office to give her a 9-millimeter rubber-bullet pistol for taking a selfie and accidentally shot herself in the head sustaining heavy injuries. In July 2015, another 21-year-old Russian university graduate died after falling from a bridge while she was trying to take a memorable selfie next to Moscow City financial district.

Therefore selfies actually have bad effects to people, even just by taking photos of themselves. Not only selfies dangerous to one's mental health. Selfies can also be the cause of physical injury and death of people. Many studies have shown how it can affect people's everyday lives with just one-click of a camera, or just by holding a selfie stick. Thus, one should be aware that while taking selfies, they must also be aware of what is happening around them with extreme precaution. It is not always good to be following the trends and it's not everyday people die when taking a selfie.