Written by Sophia Martinez Freitas
“ Andie , I think I'm in love!” “ With who, Al?” “With him. He actually smiled at me!You know who he is... Don't you Andie?” “Nope.Who is he, then?” “He is Shay Finchley, silly. I've told you millions of times before.” My name is Andrea, but everyone calls me Andie, and everything sucks now. Ali, my best friend and twin sister is making us into completely different people .Her hair is at waist length now and is always getting us into trouble. She makes me put lipstick and mascara on whenever we go out, which is hardly ever as she is obsessed with making herself look pretty because this really popular boy smiled at her three months ago, and she has been obsessed ever since. She thinks she needs to be pretty and confident to get a popular boy, who didn't even know she existed until that life changing day. I feel like we are coming apart. She ditches me and makes a dumb excuse whenever we are planning to go to a party I end up having to go alone. The only time she does go to a party is when she hears that Shay Finchley is going to the party and ditches me when we get there ,going on a search for him. We go on shopping trips together every once and a while, but I hate them because she's always asking whether Shay will like what she wears or not. Thank goodness she didn't make me change my hair because that would make me hate her a plethora of the time. Then one day she really blew it. She tried to cut my hair while I was sleeping ,and she locked our bedroom door ,knowing I would be coming up to get changed for an all girls party. In the end I got a pencil and a piece of paper, poked the pencil through the key hole, then pulled the key out with the paper. Like an angry maniac, I stomped into the room ,grabbed my clothes, my hairbrush, and my love chain, and stormed out to the bathroom. I looked ok, I guess ,but I know I would look better if I had a smile on my face. Then, I got the perfect idea, and managed to smile through the night because of the idea. When I got home after the party,I set myself to the task of making my own party invitations, as it was our birthday in two weeks time. I would invite Shay, but not give him the invitation ,then Ali will realise what she has been missing out on. I invited her to come to a shopping trip, but she said no and just sat there, looking at the picture of Shay in the school year book, as if he would smile at her at any minute. So I decided to go and get us some new party clothes myself. Ali seemed a bit bummed out at the idea of the party, but as soon as I mentioned Shay's name she bounced at the idea like a charm, as I thought it would, saying she needed some new party clothes and new jewellery and new make up, which had already been done when I went on the shopping trip. She thanked me about a million times, with relief in her eyes, and a grin came upon my face, thankful that my plan was running smoothly. When it came to the day of the party, I felt incredibly guilty, wishing I had given the invite to Shay, because she is so excited, her eyes glimmering, I have to break the news to her. “Al, I've got some bad news, some really bad news.” “Andie, I don't care as long as Shay is coming, so go on, what is it?” “It...It's Shay. He called and said he wasn't feeling well he said he can't come.” “What? Stop playing around, Andie, you said he was coming...” “I'm sorry.Al, it was a last minute cancel....But we can still enjoy the party, right?” “NO!NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!HE HAS TO COME.HE CAN'T CANCEL!!!IF HE CANCELS,WE CANCEL!!!” “But we can't cancel! Everyone is already downstairs, we can't tell them to go home!” “YES!WE CAN! Just go away and leave me alone. It's your party too...” I couldn't bear see the tears in her eyes, the spark from her all gone. Even so,I decide to go downstairs and tell everyone the rest of my plan. Even though it doesn't look like it, my plan is supposed to go like this. I lead everyone upstairs and tell them to keep quiet .I knock on our bedroom door. Nothing. My heart leaps as I think of the things she could of done in five minutes. I try to budge the door. It's not locked. Ali is just sitting there, sniffing, looking at Shay's picture in the school year book again. Now's my chance. I get everyone to shout: “TURN AROUND!!!” Ali is so startled by the loud noise that she falls off her bed. At first she looks quite annoyed but then a grin spreads across her face, a grin I hadn't seen in a long time. I knew she was back to her normal self then and there, and we have agreed that we don't need boyfriends, and all we need is each other. Who needs one smile when you have so many more. What is the moral of this story?
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Written By: Sonya-Marie Dariya
It may be a boring topic for some but to me it is and interesting and important one. Firstly, I want to start with a disclaimer; ‘’I am in no way an expert on feminism, nor is what I state fact. I am just a young feminist who need a voice.’’ Secondly I want to explain the type of feminists there are. There are first wave feminists, who you may know as suffragettes, they believed strongly in basic rights for women such as the right to vote. Then we have second wave feminists (most modern feminists) who look more intricately at social injustices, such as wage gaps, gender roles, female objectification and media representation, but don’t ignore that men have problems but instead want them to acknowledge the privilege that they do have. And lastly we have…. Third wave feminists. These are the overly-radical feminists who give us second wave feminists a bad rep. They believe that male power is oppression and want women to be above men. Personally, they make me cringe. Now we have got that out of the way I want to actually make my point. I believe feminism has been misunderstood over the years by society and those misconceptions are passed onto young people today. I cannot count the amount of times someone has said to me ‘’I’m not a feminist but…[Insert feminist idea here]’’ and that hurts me as I realise that through society’s need to stereotype and the media’s focus on third-wave feminist, feminism has been turned into something as negative and counterproductive as women who hate men. Feminists are people who believe in equal gender rights. (Notice how I said PEOPLE not women, men can be and are feminists too) and that is all there is to it. So if you ever find yourself asking yourself ‘I am I a feminist?’ then ask yourself ‘Do I believe in gender equality?’ If you answer yes then, hey welcome to the, non-exclusive, feminist club So today we have learned: -Feminism is not bad -Not all feminists are women -You are most likely a feminist If you have any opinions to share, email me @[email protected] But for now it’s goodbye From, your friendly neighbourhood feminist Written By: Carolina Oliveira
A lot of people like to talk about horoscopes because it helps them to sort out their lives and what’s going on. People need to know who they are, why they are the way that they are, who they are compatible with and what they should do with their lives. Astrology (not just horoscopes) is important because it helps to understand many things that are otherwise not understandable. Horoscopes have been true for over 3000 years. Most people think that astrology and horoscopes is all about foretelling the truth – but do not be fooled! Astrology is all about you – yes you – to get to know yourself in and out. Astrology reveals your true nature and your real face. Astrology tells you the truth about yourself, your talents and your failings, your enthusiasm and your prejudices, your potential and your probability of success. Written by: Sonya-Maria Dariya
OMG! She said the R-word. Yes She Did. As it is black history month I decided that this moth I would blog about race and racism in history and now. I wanted to start by explaining the definition of race which I am going to use for the sake of clarity. I will refer to race as ‘a reference to groups of people who have differences and similarities in biological traits’ but you may see it as something completely different. Additionally, I will define racism as ‘Words or actions used to segregate, marginalize or stereotype an individual or group of individuals based on their race’ You may sit there saying to yourself saying ‘But racism is over, why do we still need to talk about it.’ If you think this then please keep reading. Unfortunately, we are subject to racism almost every day. For example, a study done in Arizona revealed that ‘A white man with a criminal record is 3 times more likely to receive a job that a black man with a clean record and the same level of education’ It was also proven that this was not always on purpose and the cause is racial bias that has been strongly engrained into society. Another smaller example of everyday racism are simple racial stereotypes such as: -All Black people like chicken -All Asian people are good at maths -All White people can’t handle spicy food (yeah, you can be racist to white people, too) -All People of an Indian heritage are cab driver -And many more Though the above examples may not be directly damaging to an individual they can still marginalize an individual from a race they are proud of or even taint their pride in their race as they may not abide by all this ‘criteria’. Overall we have learned that: -Racism still exists -Racism doesn’t always have to be directly negative to be damaging -And that we need to talk about race more in order to come to these educational conclusions. That’s all from me this week, if you have any opinions to share with me you can email me at: [email protected] Much Love, Your friendly neighbourhood feminist. Written by: Jon Kabashi
This blog is going to be talking about social norms and what is expected of you from society. I will discuss whether these values of society are a good or bad thing and why. Today, I will be talking about the word ‘No’. ‘No’, it's just a simple word, meaning you refuse something or give a negative response. But in society, it can be taken as something offensive in some cases. For example, a group of acquaintances ask you if you want to go out to Starbucks and get some hot chocolate. You don't want to go, so you say ‘No, sorry I've got work to do. Maybe another time?’ If you would say this, they would understand that you are not able to come because, in this context, you have something important to finish. However, if you just said ‘No’ and walked away, they would think you are being rude and you do not appreciate their offer. But why? I personally think that it's because today society is not used to getting a negative response without a reason to rationalise it. I mean, you could say yes to that same question and proceed to go to Starbucks without having to explain yourself. So why must you explain yourself when you say no? In my opinion, you should be able to say no, walk away and no one gets offended. Maybe it's because people don't like negative opinions? Maybe it's because people were raised to receive positive answers? There is no definite answer, but people should, in my opinion, consider learning to receive a negative response without a reason to rationalise it. I mean, I get the fact that you don't want a negative response, but sometimes society has to learn that not everything revolves around them. It would benefit some people if people would learn to take a negative opinion. For instance, you don't feel like going somewhere so you just say no, with out having to give a reason. I don't know about some people, but for me, that would help a lot. I wouldn’t want to refuse someone's offer and hurt them, but at the same time I don't want to lie to them. If you ever get stuck in this type of scenario, you are basically between a rock and a hard place! To conclude this discussion, I understand why it is a custom for people to not be able to accept a negative answer, and I appreciate it. I suggest that people should not be able to take a negative reaction and be able to. It just depends on the situation and the person. I think that by taking this into consideration, many people would benefit from this. Thank you for reading this blog entry, and I hope you have a fabulous day! Written by: Maciej Antoniuk
This might not be one of the most colourful, most-pleasing-to-the-eye blogs but it sure will talk about such a big part of our school lives. This is why I strongly believe that sacrificing a minute or two on reading my blog will surely be productive for any student, even if you think you have something better to do. I will now show you some mesmerizingly negative aspects to a life full of homework: Social life is very important and homework acts almost as a restriction, preventing many students from having a mental break and just relax. And the school day is almost as long, if not sometimes as long, as the legal limit to how much a person can work each day over the age of 18 in the UK, but when you add homework, that 8-hour limit is broken, and we, in many instances, find ourselves exhausted for the next day. Fact: My school related day in year 7 used to be 14hours and 30 minutes long. I would wake up at 5:30am, go to school, end school at 3:10pm, get home at 4pm, and finally finish my homework at 8pm. And no, I am not lying. I made sure that I missed no homework and had done it to the best of my ability. But questioning whether I was lazy or slow at doing it isn’t true. Plus, to many students’ delight, homework isn’t part of any law meaning not doing it isn’t a crime and this means it can be reduced without any legal action. Though teachers can tell students off for not doing it, teachers themselves cannot force students to do homework, even when it seems that they do by handing out detentions, X’s and reports for students who missed homework once and to those who done it few times in a row. For me, trying to literally make children do something which separates them from any communication for few hours which seems ridiculous. Overall I think that homework is just a waste of time as it doesn’t even elaborate on what we learnt in school, but just repeats it resulting in us spending long hours at home and not actually learning anything except what we learnt in class. The word STOP is a phrase used on anti-bullying posters to prevent bullying but I believe that it can also apply to homework: Sevral Times On Purpose So, you could say, homework is a bully as it makes us do it several times on purpose every school day after school. This is why homework should be banned. Written by: Nicole Sylva
Olympics were hosted this year in the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. This year Britain broke their record gaining 67 medals in total and coming second place in the total of gold medals, with 27 gold medals, only beaten by the US and for the first time ever GB beat China which closely followed with 26 gold medals. The US in first place achieved a grand total of 121 medals, with 46 golds. Brazil, host of this year’s games, won a total of 19 medals and came in 13th place which is the highest they’ve ever scored. In these Olympics we had many amazing and much admired athletes saying goodbye to the Olympics as they will not be competing in the future Olympics in Tokyo. One of these athletes being the legendary Michael Phelps, who alone won 28 medals, 23 golds, for America. Another legendary athlete saying goodbye to the Olympics is Marta (the best female football player in the world) who almost managed to bring the Brazilian football to winning a bronze medal but losing to Canada 2-1. Another legendary athlete who also competed in the 2016 Olympics was Usain Bolt who won gold in all of his races, winning 3 gold medals for Jamaica. One of the biggest football matches during the Olympics was the gold medal match between Brazil and Germany in the finals. Most people were worried about this match due to Brazil’s 7-1 loss to Germany in the 2014 World Cup. It was a very close game finishing 1-1 after extra time so this stressful match would finish in the penalties. The first few penalties were alright as both teams scored successfully. When it came to another penalty the Brazilian player scored the goal however Germany’s Nil Peterson got his penalty defended by Brazilian goalkeeper Weverton so all the pressure was on Brazilian football star Neymar to score the penalty and help win it for Brazil. Neymar successfully scored the penalty helping to win the match for Brazil at 5-4 in the penalties. So Brazil finally got revenge on Germany by taking the gold medal and leaving Germany with silver. All these great events and athletes show just how amazing the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro were. Most people can join me in saying that we can’t wait for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo which we hope will be just as extraordinary as the previous Olympics in London and most recently Rio de Janeiro. Written by: Imran Barakzai
There are multiple reasons for the Brexit vote, but in my opinion by far the most important one can be summarised in a single word 'immigration'. Only a couple of weeks before the vote, the leave campaign was ruthless in focusing on our fears of foreigners. Unfortunately this has been shown time and time again to be a great vote winner all over the world. The British public have suffered extremely badly since the financial crisis. The real wages of the average person fell by almost 10 percent between 2007 and 2016. This had nothing to do with what class you were in- poor, middle and rich all have lost out. It had been longest sustained fall in average pay since the great depression and it has made a handful of people very annoyed with the establishment. These wage falls and poor job prospects have nothing to do with immigration and everything to do with the financial crisis and its slow recovery. But because immigration tripled since 2004, lots of you have a friend or a family member going for a job and a European migrant gets it. Trust me it sucks. Obviously it’s easy to point a finger at foreigners as the cause of labour market problems. This is the 'lump of labour fallacy' in action- the false idea that there is a fixed number of jobs to go around. People often find it very hard to get in a good school nowadays for their kids. Since there's such a broad scale of migrants using the public sectors as well. That’s what people think 'I pay tax but I am not getting the top quality public service I deserve'. Again, this is completely wrong as immigrants pay more in taxes that they take out it welfare, so they are on net subsidising public services for the UK-born. The BBC being the main source of information for ordinary people, which was particularly awful throughout the referendum debates. It reported for hours the breath taking lies of the leave campaign in particularly over the '350 million a week EU budget contribution'. This created the impression that there was just some disagreement between the sides, whereas it was clearly a lie. The media and the BBC also failed to reflect the consensus view of the economics profession on the harm of brexit. A survey of British economists showed that every one respondent though there would be economic benefits to brexit over the next 5 years, there were 22 who thought we'd be worse off. But only time can tell. So now to the question many young people will be asking 'how will brexit effect us'? Britain’s membership of the EU means that citizens are able to not only work but also live anywhere within the 28 countries of the EU. The exit of the EU does majorly effect those who would like to go to University and study abroad. Figures from OECD last year showed that undergraduates in England pay the highest tuition fees in the world. This has led to some younger students who are not that financially well off to study in much cheaper European universities, most likely in Germany and Netherlands. More than 15,000 study in Norway and Turkey according to the daily telegraph. Brexit will have a major effect for those wanting to come into England and study or those in England who want to study abroad. This makes the situation harder than it already is. Many young people choose to take a gap year in Europe or travel regularly on the continent. The threat that brexit poses to visa free travel is a concern for some. Recently from the guardian they interviewed Jason Naylor from Wigan and he said` I personally don’t want or live or work in Europe but travelling for holidays is essential for the majority and it would be great always to have the option to live or work there too. I think Brexit would leave out ability to travel, live or work in Europe` from that we can conclude that leaving the EU could lead to many restrictions for travelling around Europe and finding work even harder as well. A key issue also raised is the ongoing housing crisis, which is disproportionately affecting us young people, and migration will naturally have an impact on the number of available homes. Being concerned of immigration does not make you racist or immoral, but don’t believe the lies about EU migrants being pushed up the social housing list. Exiting the EU will not change the fact that the government is not building enough homes for us. We are all young, and you have the whole of Europe at your feet. Some people in this world don’t have that privilege. Do not throw it way. As others have said, the middle aged want a divorce and they don’t care that it’s the children who will suffer the most. They want to build a fantasy country. Let’s think to the future. |
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