Personality is an illusion

Throughout generations, people have always found various ways to generate, maintain, or even break personal relationships. Attitudes, behaviour and personality traits are all synonyms to define one individual in relation to another. Whether these attributes are fictitious is still to be revealed.

To begin with, the first social circle toddlers are introduced to is family. They are nurtured not only with basic needs such as food, clothing and hygene but also with values which involve behaving accordingly in certain situations with different social groups. These characteristics will accompany them during their early elementary school years when they are exposed to diverse personality types and start to be influenced by some more than others.

Furthermore, children continue growing up both physically and emotionally and, as a result, their bodies as well as their feelings change - wat they used to feel and how they used to behave at an early age are no longer a reality. This is the time when they develop into teenagers and as such they experience a wide range of emotions that they had not been aware of before - the interaction with parents changes dramatically whereas the close-knit group of friends becomes sacrosanct.

Finally, with the coming-of-age, young adults begin a new challenge when they step out of high school, and delve into university life and, in some cases, working life as well. While their basic feelings and personal traits remain, society at large makes these individuals adapt to a rapidly-evolving world where major fluctuations occur in their attitudes towards their families, friends or peers.

To sum up, even if we as individuals carry a set of traits with us from our early years, our social surroundings will inevitably force us to decide how we need to behave which, in turn, will create, preserve or destroy who we are supposed to be.

The use of technology in current relationships

Following the sequence of Essays being written for the IELTS course I attended in London last January, I give you my... third one?  Or is it the fourth one? I've lost count already. I hope you enjoy it. Share it, like it, comment on it or just let it be... LOL

Nowadays, the way many people interact with each other has changed because of technology. In what ways has technology affected the type of relationships people make? Has this become a positive or negative development?

The introduction of technology in our everyday lives has deeply influenced not only how the world is seen but also how individuals affect one another.

One way in which people have been changed is by the use of personal computers, smartboards and even mobile phones in the classroom. The number of schools implementing these devices as learning tools is growing exponentially. This means that, more and more, teachers and students are both becoming active participants in the classroom, giving the opportunity for students to debate or even challenge sources regarding a specific area of knowledge.

Another way in which these developments have modified people's behaviour towards each other is in the field of family relationships. Even though technological devices such as mobile phones can bring families together, they can sometimes cause family feuds which may result in drastic outcomes such as leaving the family home. What's more, online gaming has been gaining adepts at such a young age that it makes it even more complex for parents to have a simple day-to-day conversation.

Finally, students at university or even young adults who are beginning to become more independent find, in the use of smartphone applications, an outlet to socialise and, eventually, on some occasions, to find a life partner.

Overall, considering the dangers that technology may pose in people's lives, the benefits outweigh the limitations.

Being involved in the Arts makes people feel better.

As promised, my beloved blog readers, here I am (come and take me... LOL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OVIPgbFh6M) giving you my second Essay Assignment while attending the preparatory course for Cambridge IELTS Exam.

Nowadays, people get too stressed trying to make ends meet every month. The opportunity for participating in activities outside work creates a sense of fulfillment that changes people's mindsets. Art can be said to have amazing effects on most people. What needs to be considered is  "the remaining few".

Let's start by stating that any kind of artistic expression is always welcome when the need to release energy is present in any individual. Examples can be found in several famous people such as Van Gogh, Poe, Da Vinci, to name a few. They didn't have an easy life so they discovered that channeling their emotions through Art would help them feel better.

Conversely, the constant criticism, being in the spotlight, or even having the feeling that it is never enough, makes other people feel frustrated or even depressed leading, in some unfortunate cases, to fatal outcomes. Such are the cases of famous celebrities either on TV or in films.

All being said, given the fact that Art is considered a positive outlet for expressing feelings and boosting self-esteem in people, there are still some issues that need to be taken into consideration as well. Nonetheless, I still encourage the promotion of Art as a means to develop people's confidence and a sense of bliss.

BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF SINGLE SEX EDUCATION. HOW YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD BE EDUCATED IN THIS CONTEXT?

Beginning with this post  - and through the following 3 posts - you, my beloved blog readers, will read a series of first-draft essays on various topics as a result of my preparatory course for the IELTS Exam in London this last January. I will not include my professor's comments because you might get bored but you are DEFINITELY free to comment on anything you want. Thank you very much in advance.

DRAFT 1.

We live in a world where gender differentiation is still controversial. Even though, equality has been achieved in education for both men and women, there are still schools which foster single-sex education. This can have advantages and disadvantages.

To begin with, one of the advantages of single-sex education is that children at a very young age may find it easier to interact with their classmates. This means that they will build more self-confidence, which, in turn, will result in better communication skills with others. Another mentionable benefit is less distraction in the classroom. This refers to the idea of feeling less anxious to know what the opposite sex is all about, to say it vaguely.

Nevertheless, there are some drawbacks to this type of instruction. One limitation is the struggle they may have t face when they finish school and go out into the world. The coexistence of men and women is out there and this type of segregation means a new adjustment for both sexes to live together. Another disadvantage is the type of curriculum both genders learn at school. Considering the fact that women tend to mature faster than men, it is difficult to create equality in this area.

All in all, young people, in my opinion, should have the opportunity to develop as many skills as possible no matter the gender. They should be given the same academic knowledge together with tools that might help them cope with the opposite sex.

A Harrowing Evening

This is the first draft of a short story I'm starting to write as a result of a Course in Writing Fiction I'm currently working on. There is still much to work on and more details and editing need to be given but I wanted to give it away anyway. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

"I dragged her as if I were carrying a chair around" the TV news anchor reported from interviewing HIM.

Those words resonated in my mind for hours. Awful images popping in my head. The utter horror of it all. The desperate screaming for help. The excrutiating anguish - but, most importantly - the bitter feeling of complete paralysis not knowing what to do next. It was him - a middle.aged man with a hoarse voice - and me - a woman in her thirties, struggling to survive. I remember that dreadful evening very vividly now.

It was late. I was coming back from work feeling knackered. I took the subway, as I always did at that time, and managed to sit for the whole journey home. What followed next changed my life completely... forever.

I got off the train and was heading towards the escalator when I suddenly felt someone grabbing my bag from behind. I froze... five seconds. It only took him five endless seconds to pull me down and drag me to a dark alley. I finally came to. I shouted. I kicked. I punched. Nothing. No use. He was in charge. He grabbed my wrists and tied me to a lamp post. I couldn't find strength within me anymore.  

"This is it", I thought. "This is how I'm going to go".

Feeling helpless and with nothing else to hope for, I gave in...


WAIT. HOLD ON. HELP IS ON THE WAY. Whispers everywhere. HOPE. Life was filling my bones again.

A month latet - while still in shock - I can honestly say: PEOPLE STILL CARE. HUMANITY IS NOT LOST TO VIOLENCE, NOT LOST TO CRUELTY, NOT LOST TO HATE.

The writer, the speaker and the giver of ideas

The following is an incomplete first draft for a short story derived from many teaching workshops two colleagues and I attended a few years ago. I wrote it a couple of years ago as a result of an inside joke the three of us used to share. 

It was a hot Friday afternoon in November. A group of English teachers were gathering to discuss the latest trends in Education and how to bring technology into the classroom.

Patty, Connie and Charlotte were not only great colleagues but also good friends. They went to all meetings together, sat in all meetings together and left all meetings together. They were well-organised and ellaborated about every little topic they were given. They had specific roles in each meeting without even thinking beforehand what each one of them would do or how they would participate. They managed to keep the same tasks every time they attended the workshops.

Connie, the writer, was the one who always brought a notebook with a pen and jotted down everything the lecturer explained; Charlotte, the speaker, always willing to express loud and clear what they had been discussing earlier in the assignment; and, finally, Patty, the one who had the right thing to say and knew exactly how to say it and when to do so. 

They worked at the same school with different age groups sharing both passion for teaching as well as disdain for misbehaving children.

Una storia d'amore semplice e triste

Racconto scritto da mia alunna, Lara :)

Mi piaceva il suo sorriso. Sembrava sorridere con tutto il  suo viso. 

Quando l'ho conosciuto, ho trovato un bellissimo ragazzo.

Lo ricordo como cordiale, loquace... Lui sapeva tanto di libri ed anche politica. 

Inoltre era molto divertente, aveva quest'abitudine d'imitare gente e lo fece con istrionismo che pochi conoscevano.

Quando abbiamo fatto l'amore, ho visutto la notte più appassionata della mia vita.

Alla fine, alcuni mesi dopo, lui mi ha spezzato il cuore.

Non l'ho visto mai più.

Oggi ho paura di non poterlo mai più baciarlo, mai più stringerlo...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU43Dc9KZbE

Love (is blind) and Madness (walks with it)

My beloved bloggers,

It's been a while since I last wrote. I haven't had any kind of inspiration or even randomness to share with the Universe... I mean, with you, my readers... wait? Are you MY readers? Do you follow ME? Hmmm, maybe I'm wrong (or Maybe I'm Amazed ;)

Anyway, for a few weeks now, I've been willing to share this well-known fable, legend, beautiful story from an unknown (?) author (psst, if you know the author, let me know in the comments below, please :) ). It's about the most complex human emotion ever created... LOVE (and all the others)

I don't remember when it was the first time I ever read or heard this story, but it's come up again in a recent discussion with a student of mine while dealing with the topic of LOVE and RELATIONSHIPS.

Enjoy it, comment it, share it. SPREAD LOVE. LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED.

Love and Madness....why love is blind....

A long time ago, before the world was created and humans set foot on it for the first time, the virtues and vices wandered bored, not knowing what to do.

As Tedium yawned for the third time in a row, Ingenious came up with an idea: “Let’s play hide and seek!”

Cabal raised her eyebrow and Curiosity couldn’t help but ask: “Hide and seek? What’s that supposed to be?”

“It’s a game” replied Ingenious. “One of us will start counting. From 1 to 1000 000.In the meantime all the others will hide. When the one counting is done he’ll start looking for us and the last one to be discovered wins.”

All of them liked the idea immediately. Excitement and Euphoria started dancing with joy.

And Joy was cutting capors in such an enthusiastic way that even Doubt and Indifference wanted to take part. Only some of them couldn’t be convinced: Truth preferred not to hide at all, why so? In the end she’d be discovered anyway. Pride thought it was a dumb game (really he was just angry because it hadn’t been his idea) and Cowardice didn’t want to risk too much.

Then Madness shouted: “I want to count, I want to count!”

And since nobody was crazy enough to want to seek Madness, all the others agreed.

Madness leaned against a tree and started to count: “One, two, three…”

As Madness counted, the vices and virtues went hiding. Laziness was the quickest to find a hiding place, he just dropped down behind the nearest stone. Faith rose up to the sky and Envy hid in the shadow of Triumph who had managed to climb all the way up to the top of the tallest tree. Generosity had difficulty to find a place to hide in because each spot seemed to be the perfect hideout for one of her friends.

A crystal clear lake… a wonderful hiding-place for Beauty.

A dark cave… perfect to hide Fear.

On the back of a butterfly… the best spot for Lust.

A gentle breeze… brilliant for Freedom.

Egoism had found the right place from the start, airy and cosy… and just for himself.

Lie said that she would hide behind the rainbow, but hid at the bottom of the sea.

Passion and Desire were hiding in the centre of a volcano and Forgetfullness… well, I forgot where Forgetfullness hid, but that’s unimportant.

As Madness counted: “Nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine…”, Love still hadn’t found a place to hide. Every spot seemed to be already taken.

But then her eyes fell on a rose bush and she decided to hide between its branches.

“One million!” counted Madness and he started to search for the others.

First to be discovered was Laziness, just three paces away from the nearest stone.

Then one could hear Faith arguing with God about theology.

Passion and Desire could be heard vibrating inside the volcano.

At a lucky moment Madness found Envy lurking in the shadow of Triumph and thus discovered Triumph too. Lie was found hiding at the bottom of the sea, no wait she was behind the rainbow. Egoism turned up all by himself because his hidey-hole turned out to be a wasps’ nest.

All the running and seeking made Madness quite thirsty and when he approached the lake he found Beauty. Doubt had been easy enough to find too for he was sitting on a fence unable to decide on which side he should hide. Thus madness discovered one after the other. Talent lying in the lush grass; Fear cowering in a dark cave.

Only Love was nowhere to be seen. Madness looked everywhere. He sought in every nook and cranny. And just as he wanted to give up he saw the rose bush. He picked up a little branch and started stabbing wildly at the rose bush. He stabbed and stabbed until a heart-breaking cry made him stop. Love emerged from the bush covering her face with

her hands.

Madness, so anxious to find Love, had stabbed out Love’s eyes. “What have I done! What have I done” Madness shouted. “I have left you blind!” and he started crying and he apologised and promised her to be her guide forever more.

And so it came about that from that day on, since the first game of hide and seek was played on this earth, Love was blind and was always accompanied by Madness

Aceptación, resignación o da lo mismo?

Es lo mismo aceptar y resignar? Que nos pasa cuando aceptamos y que nos pasa cuando resignamos? Acaso no perdemos algo en ambas actitudes? Acaso no ganamos un poquito de tranquilidad en ambas actitudes?

Llega un punto en el cual yo ya no sé que es lo más conveniente entonces dejo que el tiempo decida sin mucho más alboroto. Pensar demasiado sin expresar nada de lo que quiero no sirve y aceptar todo como viene sin cuestionar al menos una pequeña parte tampoco. Entonces, cuál es el equilibrio?

Leyendo de aquí y de allá, charlando con amigos e incluso meditando y reflexionando sobre mi forma de ser y de actuar me llevan siempre a la misma conclusión: ya fue, deja que todo siga como tiene que ser y listo. Por qué? Porque me considero una persona bastante pacifista y no me gusta ni nunca me gustó entrar en discusiones por diferencia de opinión ya que termina siendo una lucha de ego y no me termino sintiendo bien al final. Por tal motivo, últimamente decidí optar por dejar ser sin ceder mi punto de vista pero sin entrar en banalidades de quien esta en lo correcto y quien esta equivocado.

El peligro o miedo o defecto que le veo a esta forma de pensar en muchos casos es la de no plantarme con lo que soy ni con lo que pienso y dejar que el otro tome la posta y se sienta "ganador". Aún mas, me ha ocurrido de verbalizar situaciones que me molestan con otras personas que no son las afectadas por el conflicto generando una situación en la cual no rescato nada mas que la lógica pura de hablar con quien tenga que hablar.

De signo Géminis me caracterizo por no guardar rencores con nadie pero sí de medirme más a partir de algo que no me haya gustado entonces vuelvo a ser yo y se genera un ciclo en el cual ocurre siempre lo mismo.

Cómo salir de ese ciclo? Cómo aceptar que hay situaciones y por ende actitudes que ya no van mas? Resigno mi forma de ser en pos de la tranquilidad del otro solo para no discutir ni pelear?

You'll always be my...

A veces, todo lo que uno siente y quiere decir se resume en una canción con la melodía perfecta y la letra exacta (ni una palabra más ni una palabra menos) en una noche lluviosa y fría...

Will Young - Silent Valentine

Change of plans...

Sorpresas que te da el desorden de tus estantes al reciclar y reducir papeles, apuntes y fotocopias de la facultad: encontrarte con un draft de una historia que nunca mandaste a corregir ni nunca diste a conocer a ningún profesor, compañero de facu ó amigo. Me dio tanta nostalgia encontrarla que decidí liberarla al Universo y compartirla con ustedes, mis queridos lectores. No modifiqué el argumeto, la estructura ni los personajes. Lo que leerán es lo que originalmente escribí hace 12 años:

Change of Plans

Characters: Peter - 25 - project manager at a big company.

                    Jane - 45 - clothes designer.

It was a sunny day in Dover. Peter had decided to enjoy himself swimming in the oean as it was his first day on holiday there. When he finished swimming, he saw an attractive woman sunbathing near the shore. He decided to approach her and a couple of minutes later they were having an amusing chat.

As time went by, things went on smoothly but rather quickly. By the second week, when Peter had to go back to his home, they had already discussed the fact of moving in together. He went away with the promise of coming back to her and getting married in 2 months' time.

However, it turned out that he didn't keep his word. After a month, Jane received a letter in which he explained to her the reasons why he was not coming back: something unexpected had happened when he was arranging the last details to move out of his apartment. He ran into his former fiancée and the mutual attraction that existed at the beginning of their relationship was renewed. He apologised very deeply and said he would always keep her in his heart.

When Jane finished reading the letter, she burst out crying. Afterwards, she put herself together and made up her mind to move on with her life.

After 10 years' time, Jane lives her life as a successful independent business woman. She owns a big modern apartment in central London and she enjoys a very active social life. On the other hand, Peter is unhappily married and leads a routinary life regreting the decision he made 10 years ago.

THE END.