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The first time I went abroad.
Nine years ago, I was really excited for summer vacations to come. The reason of my enthusiasm was that I was going to Panama City that year, and I had been quite impatient for months since it was the first time I was going to visit another country.
The first things I remember about the plane was that the seats were really uncomfortable and the food was nasty. I spent almost all the time playing video games on my cellphone.
When I arrived I walked fast out of the airport to see how Panama City was, and to be honest, I was not impressed. The main reason of my disappointment was that I was expecting a big city like New York, but instead of that, I got something pretty much like my hometown.
After I had spent three hours unpacking everything, I realized that I forgot to bring my cellphone, I was going to kill myself! How was I going to listen to music or talk with my friends?!
Despite my misery at the beginning of my journey, leaving my phone at home did not affect my trip at all. The first thing I visited was The Panama Canal, which was quite amazing. I watched for hours the ships that were passing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, while I was wondering how everything was built. After that I went to a famous restaurant of the region (whose named I do not remember), where I ordered a big plate full of seafood. I have to admit that it was delicious!
The second day was more about shopping than anything. I covered the Albrook Mall in one sitting and left with a bunch of bags in my hands. I got a lot of new clothes, but I was not so enthusiastic about it; I was twelve years old, and kids of that age do not care about clothing.
I spent the other part of the trip visiting stores and emblematic places of Panama City. One of the places I liked the most was “Panama Viejo”, where I saw a lot of ruins and old buildings.
After all, it was a great trip, and I enjoyed it a lot. I would like to come back some day and go to the beaches, a place I totally missed due to the limited time I had.
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Why is my written English pretty good, but I cannot speak it well?
My listening, reading and writing skills are great! Most of the time I recognize all the words while reading a book or talking with a native speaker; and my writing skills are pretty good.However, when it comes to spoken English I just get stuck. I can not even think of the correct words I should use. Can you give me some advice on this? And why does this happen?
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Consumerism and Middle Class
Everyone is trying to impress people in order to be part of the society, or to be more specific, to be popular among the others. Around us, we always see how people prefer to buy new cellphones or clothes that they do not need, just because they are afraid of what the others will say. However, this is an unpractical way of living, especially for the middle class. First, there is the economic problem, hence people usually neglect the purchase of basic needs to buy luxury that can be showed off. Also, this behavior may create psychological anxiety between the members of a community.
Imagine, for instance, a community in the suburbs compound of several families. When one of those families buys a new car, the other families in the area feel the need to do the same, or even, get a better car than their neighbor’s vehicle. By the same token, companies take advantage of this situation by producing new models of their products every year (or even less), including new revolutionary (not really) features: a new name or color. And before you can explain someone what the term ‘fake marketing’ mean, you will find yourself immersed in “look at my new….” conversations.
Without paying attention, everyone lives their life in a consumerism cycle, just to pretend something they are not. Essentially, the majority of the financial problems in the middle class have their origin in people’s mind. It is not that we do not earn enough money to maintain ourselves, it is just that we spend a lot of money to impress people that we barely know.
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The Person in the Buffet.
Since I can remember, I have always liked to be good at everything, but even though this may be seen as a convenient behavior, the merits of being interested in a diversity of subjects are debatable. The problem lies in the difficulty to find something where I will be able to stand out.
When I was in high school I participated in a lot of activities and events that the school held. Also, I was an excellent student in all the academic subjects, a member of the swimming team, and a keyboard player in a band. However, I was never passionate about any of those activities, and I just did them to get a place in a good college.
My major problem started when I had to decide which career I was going to take at the University. At the moment, I heard a lot of stories about people who took a career they did not like, and ended up living in frustration. Additionally, I knew other people who studied more than one subject in their life, like a fat guy desperately eating different types of food in a buffet without paying attention to the taste of each meal. Like that guy, that people ended up collecting a lot of knowledge from different areas without deepening into anything.
In spite of everything, I made my decision, and I hope that the path I have chosen is my real passion. Nevertheless, I feel that I will never stop being the person in the buffet, inasmuch as I will always be interested in more than one topic; and although my goal is to be focused in that one thing I am really passionate about, I have to find an equilibrium among all my interests, so I can really enjoy the journey of life.
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Does modern transportation has made the world a better place to live?
Let's imagine how was the world before cars, planes, and trains were invented, how did people transport from a place to another? Well, actually it is pretty obvious that horses had the principal role on this. However, with that method everyone used to wait a lot of time for letters to arrive and visit family and friends. That is why I believe that modern transportation and shipping has made the world a better place to live.
Firstly, it is clear that with the modern cars we can travel longer distances in a couple of minutes, which in the past meant spending hours in a horse. In addition, life has become faster with the new transportation technologies, thus we can order food, furniture, books... and receive everything in minutes or days. In addition, when in the past leaders needed to make decisions, consult their plans with other politicians, or give orders to the soldiers; they had to wait a lot of time for letters to arrive, and when the message was received, maybe it was too late, and actions had been done already.
Secondly, even though detractors of modern vehicles claim that global warming is a result of using modern transportation, it has been proved that there are another reasons behind this phenomenon. For instance, the excrement of the cows is the principal cause of methane in the atmosphere, which is the principal gas that accelerates global warming. Also, engineers and scientists are working together on projects that will develop new types of electronic and bio friendly cars and trains, and in a few time the carbon dioxide produced by cars will not be a serious problem.
In conclusion, modern transportation has made life easier and increased the productivity of humans.
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Arts or Physical Education
All the people have different tastes, which it is clearly seen when we go to high school, where we all pick a lot of classes in correlation with those preferences. But what if the educational institution has to pick one of those areas of study over another one, which it would affect one of the portion of the student mass of the school. For instance, when the budget gets short in some schools their first option is to cut some classes, and physical education and art programs are the more common targets. I personally think that physical education classes must be the priority over art and music courses.
Firstly, I believe that art programs are part of all the courses we take on high school. The overall required courses of sciences, social studies and language include painting, modeling and drawing in their programs. For example, when I took World History, we used to do models of the Parthenon when we studied the Ancient Greece, and also, in Biology Class we used to draw the human body in our practices. If the school eliminates the sport programs, the change would be more dramatic, thus the physical activities are not included indirectly.
Secondly, the physical education programs are more popular, and therefore will provide more scholarships for the students in the institution. In general, it is most common to see a student who gets a scholarship to a college because of his or her achievements in sports than on arts or music. This is a very important point to take in count, thus a major population of students can lose their future due to the decision of cancel sport programs.
Because of what I explained on the last two paragraphs I chose to eliminate art and music programs over physical education courses, and although I believe that art is important in the life of younger students, the absent of sports in schools would mean a more colossal disaster for the social and educational development of the institution.
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