Time for a Break

Photograph taken by Daniel Abrams

Photograph taken by Daniel Abrams

I’ve been told time and time again that the air in the city is nothing compared to the air out there where the land remains unscarred. But, when you spend most of your life surrounded by the familiar sounds of cars hurrying to their destinations, you begin to wonder how everyday life could continue in a place without electricity and other such necessities.

So, when I got the choice of which hike I wanted to do, in order to complete the Silver level of the President’s Award, I chose one that would be far away from the goings on of the city, even though it meant I would have to get up before dawn on the first day of my mid-term. But although I was willing to sacrifice a few hours of sleep, I couldn’t fight the nerves that were storming around my body. As the hike grew closer I spent more time wondering if I would be able to cope without the luxuries I was used to (like a proper mattress and a microwave). I also wondered if I would be able to keep up with the other teenagers that would be hiking with me. After all, I wouldn’t get enough time to soak up the forest atmosphere if I was constantly trying not to lag behind.

On the first day of my hike I realized that I shouldn’t have worried about anything. The girls and boys who were with me were so friendly that by the time we got to the first climb of the day we were already prepared to motivate each other. We all walked at a decent pace which meant I had plenty of time to stop and gaze at the wonders of the forest. Thank goodness I did or else I would’ve missed seeing the majestic waterfalls, the beautiful running streams that we had to walk over and the giant Eucalyptus trees that were over 100 years old.

However, after staring at the trees and counting the leaves until my eyes started to hurt, I realized that I still had many more hours of walking before I’d be able to see the next hut. And so, I used this time to make new friends and learn new things. For instance, thanks to one of the boys I learnt how to play Water Polo, which used to be a sport that totally confused me because of the speed the game was played at. But, even though we chatted a lot there were still many moments of silence that stretched between us all and this is when I let my imagination guide me. This meant that I spent an entire hour being absolutely grateful that I wasn’t a snail because carrying my possessions for four days was enough to drive me crazy. I definitely wouldn’t be able to cope if I had to do it for the rest of my life. Especially since that would mean that the only meals I would ever eat would be oats, peanut butter on savoury biscuits and camping food. Although that doesn’t sound too bad, when you have it over and over again the flavours in those dishes start to fade and so after just a few days I was already missing real food. AKA food that doesn’t just need hot water to cook.

But, even though there were some aspects of the hike that were a bit rough (such as my aching shoulders after carrying a bag for so long), I thoroughly enjoyed the hike, made some great friends and got a chance to really appreciate the natural beauty of an area I’d never been to before.

So if you get the opportunity to choose between stressing over exams or doing something completely different, I hope you’ll make the more adventurous decision.



PS: The air really is so much purer away from the cities.

Kindness

We live in a world where thousands of people die everyday. Women and children are hurt for absolutely no reason and some people are so self-absorbed that they forget to be nice. And yet, there are still many people who go out of the way to be kind to others. These people are the nameless superheros that our world so desperately needs.

After reading through twenty quotes about kindness I've picked out my favourite few that will hopefully inspire you to start doing at least one Random Act of Kindness each day. I promise you that you'll feel really good after you've done it. You don't need to spend lots of money, even smiling at a stranger is enough to make a change.


And, just in case you run out of ideas what to do as your RAK over the next few days, I've decided to jot down a few ideas:

• Bake cupcakes and take them to work/school for your friends and colleagues. This will also earn you a few more Brownie points.
• Make an extra sandwhich and give it to a person in need.
• Be extra polite to your irritating boss/colleague/sibling.
• Do something nice for yourself preferably something that makes you smile.
• Phone your grandparents and spend some time chatting to them. They'll love this.
• Laugh at someone's lame joke just to make them feel better.
• If someone says something rude to you just ignore them instead of making a big fuss about it.
• Take your pets for a walk.
• Donate to your favourite charity.
• Phone that friend of yours who's going through a rough stage.
• SMILE! It's contagious and you might just brighten up someone's day by showing off your lovely teeth.
• If you see someone struggling offer to help them even if you're really busy.

You see being kind is not too difficult, and so I challenge you to do at least seven acts of kindness before my next blog post. If you get a chance, tell me what you've done.  I'd love to hear from you all :)

Response to a Letter I Received

Dear Samantha and all of my other readers,

This was a thought provoking letter that began turning the cogs of my imagination. After a lot of thinking I think I may have found two suitable answers for you. First of all, I want you to know that I completely understand your train of thought however, if you look at the situation differently you realize that this film was a very good thing even though it was expensive. This is because so many people were hired in order to making this film a success. As many countries are dealing with reasonably high unemployment rates this is beneficial to society (even if it's just in one country as a large amount of people would be hired).

Your second question was whether it was fair that some people got paid more money than others though their roles in society differ. The simple answer is that life is not fair and as a result seeking fairness in a situation like this will end in dissatisfaction. However, if you want a more complicated answer you need to understand that a person's role in society may not seem too important at a glance but when analysed you realize that they are more valuable than you first thought. For example, you may think that an actor is not particularly valuable in society because their job does not directly affect you. Yet, if all of the actors and actresses were removed from society you would realize that there would be fewer sources of entertainment and thus more people would be suffering from stress.

I hope this helps,
Kirsten A. Everett