Immigration

Immigration has always existed in human history. There are some countries where people have to live hard and horrible things. People are constantly moving to different countries, though, it’s hard to find a new niche in a different place. People have many reasons to immigrate; some of them could be to escape from problems and to have a better life, but it’s clear that they will have some obstacles to beat like xenophobia.

Like I said before, some countries have serious problems. Those problems could be because of religion, language, and petroleum. Those aspects have developed terrible wars and fights. For these reasons, innocent people have died. So, I think that it’s natural that people want to leave their countries and move into a new one where they can have a nice life.

The main reason for immigration is to look for a better life. The United States of America is a country where you can find people from everywhere. Those people work hard to find a new and nice niche. I think that USA is an excellent place to find a good job where you can receive good money for it. It’s also a place where you can be free and express your feelings, emotions, and thoughts. So, people who never were able to do those things might feel kind of free. Of course, USA isn’t the only good country in the world; in Costa Rica people can find a good home, too.

When you go to a different country, you have to know that it won’t be easy to start a new life there. There’re so many advantages, but there’re also disadvantages as well. Xenophobia is a problem that everyone suffers when they go to a different country. In USA, for example, Latin American people are discriminated and in Costa Rica, Nicaraguan people suffer the same problem. Those kinds of actions can cause emotional problems to people, so this can make harder the adaptation to the new place.

I know how hard it could be to try to fit in a country that is really different to yours in every way. But, I think that the most important thing is to never give up and to try hard and believe in yourself, so it will be easier if you trust in yourself to adapt to a new place. Immigrant people pass difficult situations and some of them just quit and go back to their countries. That’s why you need to be strong and fight. If you’re patient, you’ll be rewarded having the time and life you were looking for. But, also we should stop being xenophobic and rude to people from other countries who come to ours.  

Good Bye to the Sit Down Meals

Years ago people were used to have sit-down meals. Over the years that sort of tradition has changed. In the past, families had formal meals every day. Lately, families don`t get together all the time for lunch. Nowadays, few people have sit-down meals for many reasons such as, changes in the workforce, people’s lifestyle, and amount of fast food restaurants.

Since long time ago, women started to have the right to work. These days, women make up an important percentage of the workforce. We all like to eat our mom’s food at home, but also it’s tough to cook after being working all day long. So, in some families each member cooks their own food and eats by themselves at different times. This situation makes families not get together to enjoy meals.

Another important aspect that influences is lifestyle. People’s lifestyle has changed a lot, now they prefer to buy food rather than to cook it themselves. On the other hand, people don’t take enough time to enjoy their meals. It could be because of their job, college, homework, video games (boys case), study, busy people don’t really care about their meals. Those kinds of actions bring family apart because they’re so busy that they don’t take out some time to spend together as a family. 

These days Costa Rica is being overrun by fast food restaurants. It’s like a really big phenomenon. I think that people like this kind of places because they don’t have to wait too much to eat and it’s not expensive compare to real food restaurants. Fast food is delicious, but it’s not healthy. Hamburgers, fried chicken, and fried potatoes are all fatty meals, which affect our body in different ways.

In my opinion, food is connected to people’s lifestyle. In the past, preparing food and having sit-down meals were nice family’s activities. But that is changing in every single country. Now, people have sit-down meals only in special situations, such as Christmas, New Year, or birthdays. It’s kind of sad that we are losing the tradition of a sit-down meal because it is a good way to spend time together, talk, have fun, and just enjoy the meal as a family.

Senior Advertisements

Today we can see a great deal of advertisements in the streets, TV, newspaper and internet where in many we can see happy senior citizens promoting some products. It’s nice to know that people care about older people. It’s important that they feel good doing what they like most. Grandparents are wise and they need our respect.  Seniors citizens in advertisements represent today endurance, love and happiness for all people.

Elders represent endurance because their wrinkles teach us a long and beautiful story of their lives. Grandparents’ life is full of triumphs and defeats which are mark in their eyes and skin. This shows that although the many years over their shoulders, they can dance, run, exercise and enjoy life as teenagers. In fact, senior citizens have a younger spirit than teen people sometimes. For this and other reasons, they represent endurance in some advertisements.

When we think in advertisements love is inevitable when thinking in senior’s citizens, because they are love. They are women and men who say they have exhausted forces, but with accumulated youth in their hearts that are willing to give one good advice and love. In our families elders represent pure love. They are people that can help in any situation with only hugging smiling. Every wrinkle is a story that leaves a valuable teaching.

In advertisements, senior citizens represent happiness, because they can transmit happiness in a second with their smiles. This type of advertisements shows peace because when we are old, we can be happy, even with wrinkles. We can see old people live in peace and without worries. They have a lovely image that makes us feel love. So we need to be sweet and give them back our love and respect.

In conclusion, for these reasons and more, the advertisements with senior citizens are a total success. Everybody believes in the “eternal youth” and wants to live their old age full of happiness, beauty, love, endurance, and wisdom. Young people must show them respect and love because they deserve it. Without grandparents our lives will turn sad and bitter. Elders should be a model for young people. 

Why is volunteering worth it?

Since I have memory, I have always heard that there are illnesses and poverty problems around the World. Unfortunately, there is an uneven distribution of wealth. Some rich people are very selfish and only think in themselves, but of course, there are others that are the opposite and give their money to the needy. It’s important that we help every kind of person from children to senior citizens no matter what. Volunteering is all about helping others in different ways such as giving money, giving them love, and supporting people who need it.

Nowadays, there are a lot of ways you can give money to charity. For example, there’re organizations which appeal to people so they can help to those who are poor or ill. There are also famous people who own foundations. They have helped way too many children, women, families, and people with health issues. They also create programs to solve education problems. For me that’s amazing because they’re wealthy so it’s good that they use their money to benefit others.

I think that money isn’t the most important thing in life, but it’s necessary to survive. In the world, there’re many countries that are very poor and that present serious health issues. All the people that live in those places need our help but also our love, especially children. There’re may be hundreds of children dying every day and some of them don’t have a single person by their sides taking care of them. People should be more conscious and take care, and love more every child of the world.

In my case, I had an experience with a 7^th year’ old little girl who has a family that was a real mess. I met her when I was doing my community service in a little school; there we became really close. This little child had serious problems in her family like drug deals and fights. One day, she was crying in school, so I had the opportunity to support and show her how much I loved her, and I think that was awesome for her because at that moment she needed a person who made her feel how especial she was. Like her, there are a lot of children who have to live that terrible situation.

When you grow up in a close family full of love, you believe that all the families are like yours until you meet a person who makes you realize that not everything works in the way you think. In that moment, you should be grateful and do your best because you never know what you have until it’s gone. On the other hand, I think it will be amazing if everyone donates a small portion of their income to a good cause. It could be to help people or an environmental organization which is really important as well because we need to take care and to be concerned about our planet. It’s great that rich people donate the money they don’t plan to spend while they are alive because with that money, children, women, men and senior citizens can be helped in different ways. For me volunteering is worth it because if you have the chance, you can perfectly be a light in the dark life of many people.

Animals

Currently, most scientific experiments are testing with animals. It is not good to take away the animals from the environment. People should be more concerned and think first about the issues these actions will cause the ecosystem. Humans must see the animals such as living things not like an object. People should not conduct experiments using animals   because they are living things, they have rights, and they help our environment.

People shouldn´t use animals in experiments because they are living things like us. Animals have feeling as well, so we shouldn´t practice on them. Nowadays scientists try their new theories or experiments on animals such as mice and monkeys. I have always asked myself would scientists like to try their theories on themselves. I think the answer would be NO.  So, why do they do it on poor animals? They should   think in that before acting like insane people, hurting animals.

Like human beings, animals also have certain rights and they must be respected and treated in a good way like every person in the world. Scientists shouldn´t experiment with animals because they can be hurt and have severe damage.  They also have life and we must consider their rights. Many people test on animals, removing them from their habitats to take them to labs, where they will test them in different ways to see their reaction. Although testing on animals is prohibited, sometimes penalized, but people continue doing it without thinking about the feelings of the sweet animals.

People should not conduct experiments on animals because they help on environment. Animals help to preserve our ecosystem. Animals should live in their own habitat. Besides, providing food, fur, leather, feathers and medicinal products, they provide other important benefits. Some animals can help. For example,

ü  “Insects are responsible for pollination of most plants. Other animals are responsible for spreading the seeds.

ü  Many invertebrates are farmers and shredders. They the soil to improve its texture to open furrows and pores that hold water and air and house the roots.

ü  Animal droppings enrich the soil. The manure is an excellent organic fertilizer, which can be applied directly or used in the production of compost.”

http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/006/W1309S/w1309s08.htm

Humans should stop making damage to animals. We must think first if we would like that kind of situation to happen to us. Animals have rights like us, so laws should be stricter in that aspect. Animals are important for the environment because they help to preserve the ecosystem. It’s time to realize that we are affecting nature, so we should stop treating animals in a bad way because that´s damaging our world.

By: Ericka, Tanya, and Irina

Soul Surfer Essay

The movie is about a girl called Bethany. She lives in Hawaii with her family; they’re all surfers. Bethany and her best friend, Alana, are always involved in competitions, doing what they love (surfing). One day Bethany had an accident which changes her life forever. Although Bethany is just a teenager there are things that we can admire about her like her passion, courage, and solidarity.

Bethany has grown up in a family of surfers, so she had always felt a great passion for that sport. Because of that passion, she and Alana have been part of many competitions. In every contest they do their best, so most of the times they won the first places. One day Alana and Bethany sneak off with some friends to go surfing, including Alana’s father Holt and brother Byron. As Bethany dangles her left arm in the water, a shark bit it off near the shoulder. Thanks to the tourniquet that Holt did in her arm and his quick thinking and decisive action, her life was saved.

After the accident, she thought she will never be able to surf again; she lost all her faith. But the support of her fans, family, and close people around her made her change her mind and do the best to be back to the sport the she loves. Her family always encouraged her to persevere. After the recovery period, Bethany decided to get back in the water so she tried so hard to learn how to surf with one arm. Then, she reentered to a completion but she didn’t perform well because she couldn´t stay on board long enough to go out and catch a competitive wave, so she didn´t win. She felt so bad that she decided to give up with competitive surfing but I think that she had the courage because at least she tried.

One day while she was watching T.V she saw this news, where they presented a disaster in Thailand, an Earthquake and Tsunami. When she saw that she decided to joined a group of young people with a mission to help people in that country.That represents the solidarity that she had trying to help people with bigger problems than the one she had. Once she was there she met a boy who was afraid of water. One day she went into the water to encourage the boy to do the same and forget about his fear. When all her friends saw her they supported her, so she felt inspired and decided  to returned to practice surfing.

At the end of the movie she signed in for the national championship of surf where she almost won. She did an amazing performance that even she lost everyone felt inspired by her. In an interview she said that losing her arm was an experience that made her understand a lot of things of life. For Bethany the fact that she lost her arm gave her the opportunity to embrace more people in life and she used it as a teaching. For me it’s so amazing how that people never give up, don’t matter what they always fight until the end.