Music, what is it? Music is the structured arrangement of instrumental sounds and vocals to create a mixture of noise that appeals to the brain, otherwise known as a song. These things called songs can be very powerful in ways. Music has been a form of entertainment since the age of humans. Every culture has their own diverse variety of genres. Music has played a very large role in my life ever since I was young. My dad introduced me to all kinds of legendary bands which got my whole interest in music started. My dad is a huge music nerd, so he has been teaching me all sorts of things about music and artists over the years. Sixth grade was really the year I started to develop my own taste in music. I didn't really know how to find the artists I liked so I spent most of my time watching music videos. Those music videos are what really sparked my interest in the rap scene. My music taste has been all over the place in the past years but it is never bland. I always listen to a wide variety and have multiple playlists for various occasions and moods. Music is one of my go to coping methods, there is always something available. I listen to music to work through my problems, to hear and feel through sound that what I'm going through, I'm not doing it alone. Whenever I'm struggling, I know I can always find comfort in my songs. Music is a great strategy to help cope rather than turning to self destructive methods. Music is also a great way to bond, communicate, and find a sense of belonging. Music can develop great communities based on different genres or artists. My best friend and I started our whole relationship based solely because we both liked Lil Peep, and $uicideBoy$, we ended up having way more music taste in common and just kind of went from there. Making music is also a great passtime. I recently downloaded a software that allows you to create beats virtually called FLstudio. It allows you to create your own creative sound, or re-create the sounds of other artists. You have complete control of the sounds. Hewitt L
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A topic I could speak every second about, my friends can confirm, is “childhood“. So to give you a clue why I love this topic, I’m generally aware of the importance of childhood. It is the base of your character and your personality. You will probably always have a special connection to the people you grew up with. Your parents, a good friend or other family member. In your childhood, you gain your first experiences and your main memories build up. In some cases your childhood shows the direction your life will take, you find out which hobby’s you like the most and your character traits show. Well I guess we all can agree that we aren’t fix individual personalities after our childhood, we find out other things we like or where we are passionate about. It can also happen that we are completely different to our younger selves, which is totally important and ok in my opinion. When I went to preschool and to kindergarten I was a very active child. My plan all day was to play soccer and be outside with my friends. I also loved to do things with my parents and my family. For example, play board games or go on trips. I did my homework and my tasks on time and straight. I was happy about who I was and what I made in my freetime. This life spirit kind of changed when I came into High School. High school starts with the 5th class in Germany so I was 10-11 years old. I didn’t want to do all this annoying school stuff and a voice in my head told me, I won’t need it later in my life so just relax in school and come home and enjoy your life. Well that is an attractive offer for a young boy, who got his PS4 a year before on Christmas. So my grades became worse. In the 5th class my grades were pretty much the same as before, but one year later my grades dropped. That wasn’t the only big change, I also didn’t have the energy to do sports in my free time anymore. Usually I spent half the day on the soccer pitch. So I wasn’t as sportive as a year ago. At that time I recognized that my parents were disappointed in me and I didn’t liked the atmosphere at home at all. Yes, that escalated quickly, you may think, but I knew I wanted to change something and today I know even to recognize it, is often the hardest part of it. I asked myself if this is the Konstantin I know and when one of my best friends, who I have known since I‘m three years old, told me what is going on with you, you are not yourself. I kind of had the urge to change again. It gave me confidence that my friends and my family actually knew differently from me. I decided to look back and started to act like the old Konstantin, because I knew I wanted to be different than at the moment. And it worked, nowadays it is just a bad short period of my life and I‘m happy with myself. My grades are good, I do much more with my family and one of the main things in my life is to be sportive and healthy. It even went so far that I stopped eating candies and I specifically tried to do more Sport and to take every opportunity to work on. To think back to my childhood, also helps me when I realize that I use my phone too much. My inner voice pops up and asks for the actual reason, why I’m on Insta and not outside with friends. So my advice for you is, that your older self can help you to change when you don’t feel good about your current situation. A few friends of mine disagreed with me, because for them you always have to improve, always the next step and in their opinion it‘s bad to keep behaviors.
However, I guess everyone has their own truth, mine is to have a good mix of experiences from the past and the curiosity about the future. Konstantin B Recently I noticed how confusing our world is for me. Everyone tries to find at least a little orientation in their life. Some have less problems with that than others. But am I the only one who thinks that you either get influenced by the thoughts of others and accept to become as everyone else, or you try to do something special, but you´re still struggling if the decision, you´ve made, was the right one? I will dive into this more detailed later. Let me give you a little help to understand my questioning. When I had to represent it in a picture, what I define as a fast-living world, I would choose a picture which shows a scene in a big city. In this picture you can see many people on a sidewalk, and everyone has problems finding their way through the mass of people. There are some people who are wearing suits, they have their briefcases and probably a thermos cup, because they couldn´t finish their coffee at home. The people obviously try, to complete many tasks at one time. Maybe there is also a collision, happening between two people, because many of them are in such a rush. So, you can see the description as a metaphor for how I define a fast-living world. And it feels like a routine, which is created by each of us, just being one of many ways to survive in this world. But can that not be exhausting and boring sometimes? Shouldn´t we just live our life to the fullest, especially when we have such a short life, how everyone reminds me regularly? What does to ’’live our life to fullest’’ mean in my opinion? I assume that, because we´ve heard a couples of times, that we don’t have enough time to waste our lives, everyone tries to experience and to be in as many situations as possible. Perhaps also because we get the daily reminders how the time flies. And that’s probably why we´ve reached the point where no one really lives in the moment anymore, because we are in such a rush to see and to gather as much stories as we can think of. But because we´re so fast at living, sometimes we don’t even remember some of our life stages– I do that for sure. That doesn´t mean we should not attempt as much things as we want to, but maybe to do it with more awareness. To perceive how our environment looks like, which colors are surrounding us? What kind of smell does the air have? And many further things. The reason why I am writing a such specific and perhaps provocative blog, is because I learned that this kind of living doesn´t make me happy, but tired. It makes me unpleasant and ungrateful. As a result, I feel like I could become sick: That is why I wanted to change something. So, the questions which come up to our minds are: Although I am about to change something, where do I start? What can I do? On one side, I figured that out. Less social media, helps me to start my day with more awareness. To write in a diary: ’’what are ten things I am grateful for?’’. It directs the focus on positive thinking. However, for me the most important point is, to go out for a walk and just be with the nature. ’’Canada has the most beautiful trees during fall, which I’ve ever seen.’’ Nevertheless, I found myself in many situations where I wasn´t present at all. So, I still have the struggles in many moments, to focus on the people around me and not to hang on TikTok etc. while they`re with me. Somedays I am not even motivated to put any effort in my appearance. And that’s ok, that is totally normal. But for me it isn´t an excuse anymore not to work on that. To come back to one of my questions I asked in the first paragraph. I think there is no right or wrong in this world. I am not judging anyone else’s style of living. Everyone should figure out by themselves what makes them happy. I just thought the couple days that one can live with more awareness could help some of us. In my case, I am strongly convinced that it will help me, first to enjoy my life more and in addition to that: to find my strengths and interests in life and become a more successful leader.
Aimee E This topic is both very relatable, and entirely unrelatable depending on how you view it. Everyone feels bad about themselves sometimes, but I’m unsure if someone can feel such a thing every waking moment. The loathing of every group photo with friends, the despair you feel when you accidentally open the self camera on your phone, the pit in your stomach walking by a reflective surface. Self loathing is a battle everyone gets in the ring with, but not everyone can land a hit against. “Smile!” your friends say as the sound you dread the most occurs, the clicking of a camera. Your picture was taken. Instead of looking at the image, you look around, why are none of them grimacing at the simple sight of themselves? Why don’t any of them plead “please don’t post that.” I give a random explanation, and they oblige, but you still feel bad. As you walk home, your mind races, “Do I always look like that? They have to look at that every day?” Is all you think about. You truly want these thoughts out of your head, all the songs on the radio, all the cartoons say everyone’s perfect just the way they are, then why don’t I feel like that? Why can’t I feel okay with how I look? “Ugh. He’s such a jerk. Why can’t I just date the right guy?” Your friend explains to the group sadly, you of course feel pity and comfort them, but an itch is at the back of your mind, “I’ll never feel that.” you shake it away, but it stays. They always get chances with people, why? What’s so different about me and them? Well for one they are actually interesting… He’s musically talented, she’s smart as they come, they have a crazy diverse skill set, the list goes on, But me? I guess I can be funny sometimes, but that’s all I have to offer. I’m the shallow end of the pool while they are the pacific ocean. I have nothing to offer in the dating world. They have tons of options, Why don't I feel like that? Why can’t I be okay with who I am? You may expect some happy ending to this little story, But this doesn’t have a happy ending. This level of self hatred is who I am, but it doesn’t define me. Whenever I feel thought’s like I’ve said, I remember all the people who look at me in the halls and wave. It isn’t everyone because cmon, I’m me. But I’ve helped people grow and become better. I’ve made positive changes and impacts on the people I’m near and I can never let myself forget that, Or it’ll be a round one knockout, And I’m not letting self hatred take me out without a fight.
Eyad Z Well this year was certainly a rollercoaster, well at least I think it was. I feel like there are many ways we can cover it and go on to say negative things about the year 2020/21, but sometimes we have to look further than what we can actually see or think. I don't want this to seem like a reflection of the past year, or a way to feel sympathy as a grad of 2021, but I want this to give me the occasion to let me tell you my story. So there are many things that each individual goes through as we have our own life's to live, and we often pass through events that are meant to be in our lives. When those events occur, did you ever ask yourself what they meant for you, like their purpose? I guess you could call this a type of self-relfection which is the key to self-awareness. Through this practice we are able to look at ourselves with interest and curiosity. In my opinion I only self reflect after a year, doesn't have to be on paper or verbally said, but we could eventually take a step back on life and take a moment to spot out some positive impacts and be grateful about them. This past year for me was very hard to handle. I had a lot on my plate, emotions pouring out, friendships tearing apart, family disconnection, fear of being alone, and much more. And that's just barely touching the surface on some things. And you may have noticed but those were negative aspects of the past year. Now that is something I hate doing but it's natural to spot negative things as we humans are really good at doing that. Let’s put that aside for a moment and focus on the positive parts of the past year. For me I did not have school until February as the schedule changed for school. I had so much spare time to focus on my own health like my knee pain, and my dance training as it is important for me to get on top of it and take care of it. It also gave me time to really focus on my dance auditions for university applications. Now seeing that I had so much spare time I am glad I spent it well. Looking back at it and seeing my actions well chosen I feel a sense of completion or success and that creates motivation for me. I hope I'm not the only one who feels like this when they appreciate that their effort pays off. I am so grateful that this year became an eye opener, as I realized who my real best-friends were and who weren't. I guess it can be really hard for you to realize that a best friend of yours is gone in no time, but the reality can be harsh, right? Well I mean nothing comes so easy. Nothing in your life is not guaranteed to be there tomorrow, including those you love. Life can be full of hard life lessons to learn, but it may be the most important of all: Life can change in an instant. Make sure you appreciate what you have, while you still have it. Amélie G Money is not omnipotent, but no money is absolutely impossible. This is a well-known saying. It is true that 70% or even more of human troubles are related to money, but most people are often unexpectedly blind when dealing with money. Most people think that as long as I have a high income, or as long as my current income increases by 10%, any financial problems in life will be solved, but there are too many examples in life that ruthlessly overturn this view, such as Most people who win the lottery will return to the original point of wealth in a short period of time, or even worse. In fact, an increase in income often leads to an increase in expenses, which leads to more troubles! K In fact, money also has management principles, so what is the principle of managing our money: 1. Develop the habit of keeping accounts. Write down every penny of the words on the paper, so that we can clearly see where every penny of ours has gone. 2. Make a financial budget that suits you. It is the spending budget. The true meaning of the budget is to make our lives more secure when we live according to our own budget. 3.Increase income outside of work. This can make your budget more adequate and enjoy life better. There are many side jobs, pay more attention to your surroundings. 4.The increase in income does not mean the increase in expenditure. Now is a society full of material desires, and people's income is getting higher and higher. The pleasure of dopamine produced by consumption is far inferior to the pain and anxiety caused by fiscal deficits. We all want a higher level of life enjoyment, but in the long run, keeping our expenses within our budget can bring us more happiness. Kaelen F I’ve always felt like a bit of an outsider; someone that just doesn’t quite fit in with the crowd. I think that a lot of teens can probably relate to me in feeling this way, and if you are at all like me, I'm sure you have tried to figure out why. Personally, I think it's because I’m mature for my age, so much so that I’ve been told I’m an old soul (there’s a reason I’ve been misidentified as a teacher by more than one substitute). I think this “old soul” label perfectly describes me, including the fact that my best friend is probably my Nana, and sometimes it scares both her and I that we are so much alike. I believe that for me, this also has to do with my values. While I think that technology is a great thing and that the future generations are going to do incredible things with it, I also think that there is a lot of room for improvement, specifically, things that we can take from generations past. There are some things in life that just aren’t being learned anymore, many of which are things that can’t be taught in school. If you read the title of this blog post, you might know where I’m going with this, and I’m sorry for the long winded intro. Anyways, I think one of these long lost arts, not being taught, or even really valued, is people skills and the ability to have and hold a conversation. Sure, yes, we can all talk, but that’s not quite what I mean. What I’m getting at here is the ability to hold a conversation with anyone - strangers, bosses, colleagues, friends, grandparents, and how these conversations can affect both yourself and others. Have you ever met someone whom you instantly just clicked with? The day you meet and first talk to each other, you can both instantly have things to talk about and go on and on about? You understand them, and they understand you, sometimes almost as if they are in your head. I love when I meet someone like this, and in particular, my relationship with one of my best friends is like this; the same day we met we talked for numerous hours with no shortage of things to talk about. These kinds of experiences bring us happiness and joy, make us feel valued, important and like we’re not alone. Being an outgoing extrovert, conversations with others give me joy! I especially like when those conversations are meaningful and personal, such as when someone goes above and beyond in answering how their day is going, and shares something more personal, or the brutally honest stuff. Even a simple question or comment from a stranger brings me joy. Sometimes, if I’m feeling frustrated or upset, having a face to face conversation can make my mood totally turn around and help me see the good and positivity in my day. Often those random conversations are the highlight of my day and my daily gratitude takeaway. Being brutally honest, I struggle to have these conversations with many other teenagers. Often I feel like too many of those conversations, if I have them at all, are bland and surface level. When it comes to technology, sometimes the very thing that was created to bring each other closer together (technology, social media, and other communication apps) only creates a bigger wall that we have to break down to truly have these deep conversations. As much as I love that technology is bringing us together, it only makes it easier to see, hear, or communicate with one another. It doesn’t build these personal relationships for us. Personally, talking over the phone or messaging someone through Instagram or Snapchat just doesn’t feel the same. Because of our current situation of quarantining and social distancing due to Covid-19, we’ve had to learn how to use technology as our only connection to keep personal relationships going and to stay connected with one another. The first time I learned to use Zoom, I felt like I only missed that person more after seeing their face and talking to them through a computer. It just wasn’t the same. We’ve all had to learn and adapt during this time, but communication using technology would never be my first choice. If I did have a choice, I would way rather go up and talk to you. I don’t know about you, but I really miss these in-person conversations. I hope that this time during Covid-19 has helped society (and each individual person) see what the world is like communicating from behind a screen and that we should never again take face-to-face conversations and personal connections for granted. Olivia K Do you know the feeling of self pressure? How do you define self pressure? I define self pressure as something that you require or expect on yourself. You can pressure yourself in different life situations or example in school, friends or hobby. I think self pressure could be great. I need self pressure so that I can reach goals, get better, work with more concentration and work faster. Without any self pressure I would be lazy. But it isn't healthy when self pressure makes our life worse. So don’t ignore the pressure. Don't ignore symptoms of your body. When you have the feeling you should take a break, have a break. I'm not sure if you know the feeling of self pressure and I don't know how self pressure looks like for your case. But for example when you worked hard the whole week for school and you went late to bed and woke up super early. Take the time and go to bed early or sleep off the next day. It could be healthy and helpful to have a break between your activities and take a rest for a moment. Instead of going forward and ignoring all the signals that your body sending you. If you ignore all signals you will have probably one day a big problem. Where you have to take a break for a longer term. In case of one day. I know a person who worked hard for 3 years .He didn't take any breaks. The result
was that he was burnt out and depressed. He only worked for his goals. His goal was to get a 0.8 average. He got it. Then he started to study psychology and build a business. He Got it. He achieved all his goals but he didn't take any breaks. So the result was that he had to take a huge break. But self pressure doesn't have to look like this. I also can see it by myself in small situations. For example when I felt sick, I had to go to the gym because my goal is it to go 4 times in the week to the gym. But I knew it would be better when I go to the gym when I'm completely healthy again. But I saw that I can achieve my goal and so I went to the Gym. The result was that I was really sick the next day and I couldn’t go to the gym for a longer term. Emily P If I were to simply ask you, “who are you?” I'm sure that everyone would be able to answer this question. But if you go deeper, do you actually know yourself and not just the name. We all lack the ability to see ourselves and accept how the outside world thinks of us.
There is a common phenomenon in today's society: to think too highly of oneself. And this phenomenon appears in most events. For example, many people consider themselves above the average. Often, we are particularly susceptible to this "false superiority" when making judgments about the qualities we most or least want to have. Do you believe you are someone's best friend? Are you sure you can be a blockbuster artist? Or do you consider yourself the smartest person in your class? If that's in your head, you're at the beginning of a phase of self-knowledge -- self-doubt. The ability to doubt yourself is a sign that you're starting to have a hard time with yourself. Here are four stages of self-knowledge: -doubt -deny -observe -cognitive Many people suffer from self-perception bias. This is not because they think they are too high or low, but because they are unable to determine the standard of self-evaluation. This self-perception bias leads to the duck effect, which is defined as "the lower the ability, the more likely people are to have a high evaluation of themselves, at least their ability evaluation above the average level; People with higher abilities tend to underestimate their abilities, which is a cognitive bias." GUAN W |
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