Opinions of others

Hi!! I decided to share something else that I wrote sometime ago, this time it is about the opinions of other people.

“The best way to avoid falling prey to the opinions of others is to realize that other people’s opinions are just that- opinions. Regardless of how great or terrible they think you are, that's only their opinion. Your true self worth comes from within.”- the tribe.

This is something that I only understood a few months ago. That other people’s opinions are just opinions. And they don’t matter. just because someone said something it doesn’t make that true. If someone says that my dress is ugly doesn't make it ugly. It's only their opinion that it is ugly.

When we first got the assignment, to write a ted talk, I thought for a long time about things that I wanted to improve about myself. But for some reason, nothing would come to me! I spent a long time thinking. Nothing comes to me. I go over fifteen ideas. Writing and re-writing. Nothing.

Its Sunday. Still nothing. I sit and stare at the computer until my eyes water. I try to think. Suddenly, something crossed my head. I realized why I could not think of anything. It was because I was scared about what people would say about me if I said too much. I was scared of their opinions about me. So in the end that's what I decide to write about. Because one of my flaws is caring too much about what other people think about me. Not being able to find my power, and being too self conscious about myself.

What is an opinion anyway? It is a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. An opinion is not a fact. And it is hard not to care about what other people say about you! When someone says something about me, I immediately can not focus on anything else. The whole day I will keep thinking about what that person said about me and how I can change that. And even though other people’s views are important, they aren't even so important that you start obsessing over them, which is what I tend to do.

So I decided to keep track of every time I said something when someone said something I did not like. This way I can keep growing and remember everyday as I grow more. I will try and understand why people said this about me, and if I think that what they said is true, then I will change that about myself. Sometimes just listening to why a person said that can make you feel better and maybe even build a bond between you and that person. If I keep going on with this, soon I won’t be upset when someone has a bad opinion about me, and I can become a much better person. On the inside and the outside.

I have been trying not to care when other people tell me what they think about me. In the past few days when someone tells me their opinion about me I try to take it in without thinking too much about it and then trying to change myself. Last week, someone told me that they did not like me. Now, I would have felt really bad and gone home and cried and then try to change myself to please that person. But now, I would just not care. Because not everyone in the world has to like me! If someone doesn’t like me then it's a loss for them. I wouldn’t even be affected by it.

And through this, I realized is that your opinion, is not my reality. And it never will be.

Samtsrich

A few months ago, I wrote a paper on exotification! I felt like sharing it today so here we go-

Every Rebmeced, the creatures of the nacirema hold strange customs, and I, persons from Mars, am going to make observations about it.

When I first reached, I noticed that the creatures were putting out this huge green monster with spikes that could kill you, in each of their dwellings.

Everyday they present the green monster with some peculiar shaped hard things. If that is not presented to the green blob thou will be given a long colourful thing, which is worn on thou feet, filled with black asteroids which they had to stuff down a gaping hole in their brain.

Each dwelling is dirtied with thin strips of fragile colourful things, to please a Huge monster who howls HO-HO-HO everywhere it goes to tell the small creatures that it is coming to devour it. But for some reason the creatures of the Nacirema want to please it so that every Rebmeced 52dn it can leave small killing machines under each green blob for the creatures.

The creatures who are smaller in size, put strange things under the green monster for the huge monster to eat. These are, tiny helpless creatures who have been killed and baked in brown poison and covered in black dots on a white circular hard thing, and brown acid which burns through everything it touches in an acid proof container which if you touch is also poisonous. This i know from my own account, don’t ever touch anything these strange creatures own. It could kill you.

The smaller creatures also take these thin fragile white things which will break if you touch them and are made by killing the nature and also these thin poisonous yellow sticks which are as sharp as a knife on one side and have this jiggly soft pink stuff on the other. They drag the sticks across the white thing which leaves grey marks. I will take this to mars for future research. After the entire white thing is covered with grey marks, the creatures take the white thing and hang it on the green blob and go to asleep

In the night, the monster comes to the dwelling through a hole in the sky. Through this hole fire comes out. This shows that the monster is fire proof. That is a very dangerous thing indeed. The monster takes the white thing. And opens this giant round bubble and takes out some funny square things. He put these under the green blob, and flies outside the sky. Then he sits on this hard wierd thing and holds this thin strand of wires that connect to these four legged monsters with bones coming out of their brains and blood coming from their brains also.

In the sun time the creatures get up and come and sit near the green blob. They take the funny square shapes and take of the sticky stuff on it. Then they tear it apart like monsters. There are weird loud noises coming from the gaping holes in their brains as they discover what was inside.

In every box there was a killing machine so that they could kill themselves and other creatures. I peoples from mars could not understand why they are so joyous on such a  elbirroh  occasion.

Now if you could excuse me, I need to report to mars to tell my peoplets what surprising things I have found on earthland.  The people of the nacirema race are very strange indeed. I will report here again for future research, but for now,  eybdoog earthland!

Kindness

Hi guys! Sorry for such a late post, but some time ago I wrote something for my school about kindness and I wanted to share it with you guys.

People usually don't understand what it means when someone says ‘kindness saved my life.’ I mean how can kindness save your life? Is that even possible? Yes it is. Kindness is the reason that many of us overcome obstacles in our lives, including me.

A few yeas ago I was diagnosed with cancer. Now there are two ways you can see this. Bad, or terrible. My family and I decided to go with bad. Now I know that there is no way cancer can be seen as a good thing, but it can be seen as bad instead of horrible. Now the only reason that my family chose to see it as bad was because of all of our other friends and family that supported me to get better. We had so many people being kind to us and doing their best to make sure that I could get better and still have fun being a child.

I am not going to lie, cancer was hard. I got a lot of unwanted stares when I walked through the street. But my family and especially my mother helped me alot. She tried to make sure that I could do everything like any other child. She would take me to school and just sit with me in class which we couldn't do everyday, but we tried to go often. It is hard to have your child fall sick, but she still tried to make sure that for those few years I could do everything a healthy 6 year old can do.

There are lots of ways to be kind. One way that I know is by just being there are helping with everything. My mother's friend, we call her Navroop aunty, she would just come to the hospital, bring lots of art supplies and we would paint together. Sometimes she would paint my toenails and sometimes we would paint on canvases or just draw. She helped me by her just being there with a smile which made me smile even through the most painful days at the hospital.

Because of the people like my mother and Navroop Aunty  who gave me their kindness and compassion, I am here today. Without them I don't even know how my life would have been. I know that almost all the people that got cancer wish that they could get a do over, but if I could have a do over, I would do the exact same thing, cancer and all. Because having Cancer and seeing how people showed extreme kindness and compassion toward me is what made me who I am. It made me into the girl you see today.

“ Kindness is an act that the blind can see and the deaf can hear” once said Mark Twain. When you are kind to someone, it doesn't need to be visible. It should be felt by the other person, like they know that they are not alone and that you are there. Just praying or thinking about someone can also be kindness, you don’t need to throw a bag of gifts and toys at someone to be kind. The smallest things like just knowing that someone out there cares is also being kind. No act of kindness is too small.

Even though people all over the world are different, they all share one thing, which is kindness. All over the world we have the same understanding of kindness and that is one of the things that bring us together. So when I moved here from India, many things were different, but kindness was something which I found the same here and there. I also found that another kind of people all the world shares are intimidators or bullies. But I have found that they are just people who have not been given enough kindness in their lives, they have not felt what it feels like when someone is kind to you. So the only way to deal with a bully is to show them some kindness, so they can feel it and learn that there are also other ways to treat someone if you want a friend. Because I believe that everyone, including your aggressors, deserve kindness.

Tell me if you like it!

love,

Risa

Parents anniversary!

Hi!
Today I'm going to tell you about my Parents anniversary. It was really fun! We surprised our parents  with a cake and made a huge card for them. We had lots of fun! here's a picture-

here is my cake recipe-

1½ cup flour1½ tsp. baking powder¼ tsp. salt½ cup butter1 cup sugar2 large eggs½ tsp. vanilla extract½ cup milk

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together the eggs, sugar and butter. In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Don't pour in the milk yet! Make sure the wet bowl is mixed very well, then pour it into the dry bowl. Then mix it super duper well. slowly add in the milk. Mix unit there are no more bubbles. pour into a baking tray and put it into the oven to bake for 30 to 35 minutes. keep an eye on it! It bakes fast! Then its all done. you can decorate it if you like. I iced it and cut up some berries to top it off. Heres what it looked like-

The cake was finished in like 5 minutes! everyone said it was yum!

Then there was holi! that was so fun too! When me and nora came through the door, our mom scared us by saying that we had done badly in math! then she came to me, I thought she was going to hit me! but instead she threw colour on me! The math thing was all just a joke! I was so relieved! Then we played indoor holi since it was like -2 outside. We had a lot of cleaning up to do next! we vacuumed and swept the whole apartment!

     
Thats it for today!
tell me what your holi was like!

Risa

Conflict Minerals

Hey!
I haven't posted in forever, so I thought that I should post this essay I wrote for school. Its about Conflict Minerals. Tell me if you like it!

Conflict Minerals: Leaving a scar on Congo 

Have you ever wondered where your computer came from? Ever picked up your phone and thought, Who made this? Companies sell your electronics and design them, But the materials to make them come from very far. In Congo, a country in Africa, hidden beneath the ground are the minerals that make your Electronic devices. The 3 TG’s,- Tin, Tungsten, Tantalum and Gold. But they don't come without a price, thousands of Congolese people are forced to mine for them, as slaves. And the money they make? It’s used to buy guns and rifles, to give to children so they can become soldiers and fight in the war. That why these minerals are called conflict minerals, they are the cause for the conflict in Congo. Because of its wealth in naturals resources, The Congo is considered the poorest nation in the world. 

You would have thought that because of these minerals the Congo is blessed with good wealth, But that is wrong. Instead of a blessing these minerals are a curse. All men and boys are forced to work at gun point being shot if they even try to escape.They are given almost nothing for their work. The younger boys are given guns are forced to fight in the war, while Congo is the most dangerous place to be a girl. The Congolese people have no say in how they are treated. We thought slavery was over but no one looked deep enough. There is war in Congo, so the rebels thought that they could take all the people and force them to mine so that they could make money for war supplies. 

Even the greatest Companies have their secrets. This is a secret of many companies that make the best electronic devices, Companies pay to get the conflict minerals even though they know 

how they are mined. ‘Apple’ is one of the world's most famous, but it doesn't benefit everyone. People in congo suffer because of these companies. Children who could have been the next masterminds of the world were forced to forget their dreams are focus on risking their lives to fight. Because only a very few children have a chance to go to school, there are not many good schools in Congo. People have to carry sacks of minerals which way up to 200 pounds up a mountain so that they can get to the trucks, since they can't even afford to get a cart. 

Congolese people have said that they do not want this to stop, they want to be paid the right amount of money at the right time for all the hard work they do. Out of the two million dollars that the stores make only 35% goes to congo, then when that is distributed among the people there is often not enough for everyone, as little as 0.3% is distributed to the people. There have been a total 5.4 million because of conflict minerals. People often get a job to mine because they are afraid of being forced to fight in war and think it is better to work than to die. Many girls in Congo say that their lives are useless and people treat them like dolls throwing them everywhere and selling their bodies so that they can get money for their family. 

Every single day people in Congo suffer because of Conflict Minerals, But the real creators of these problems are the people who use these conflict minerals. That’s us. We are the real cause for the conflict in Congo, and we can fix this for them. Next time you go to buy a device, ask for a Conflict Free one. Remember, you can trade one laptop for the lives of 10,000 people. 

Works Cited 

Dibinga, Omekongo Dr. Interview on Conflict minerals, 1/31 

www.raisehopeforcongo.org 2/23

Ford, Jessica. Background on Conflict minerals 

https://www.sourceintelligence.com/what-are-conflict-minerals/ 2/20 

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/conflict-minerals/gettleman-text 2/24 

https://thinkprogress.org/9-things-you-need-to-know-about-conflict-minerals-76b1c6f89a2e #.1fy8lxmw8 2/20 

We've Moved!

Hi! Sorry I could not post for so long. I was so busy moving that I forgot about posting! So... now I live in Philadelphia! Its really nice here but I miss India a lot. Its so cold here while its so hot there. We go to a school called the Philadelphia school. the funny thing is, its a private school where there are just 43 children in 6th grade. In India there were around 200 children in 6th grade. that was also a private school. this is because most of the children in america go to public schools. We are really enjoying our new school. we learn things that are different from what we learned in Delhi. One thing I'm really happy about is that we're away from india at the right time when there was so much pollution in delhi. My mom is studying all the time so she can pass her exams and guess what... I finally got a phone!! I am so happy about that. I will post every week for sure! so I can keep you guys updated about whats happening. bye!
risA

The move

Hey Guys!
I'm back! Summer vacation has started so I'm free 24/7 today I would like to tell you guys about something that is a life changing opportunity for my family. We're moving to Pennsylvania for a few years. My mother wanted to do her MA in children literature. she applied to four university's and got into three of them. She has decided to go to UPEN in Pennsylvania. That means that we'll be moving for 2 to 3 years. I'm so excited because i will get to go to a new school in america but I'm also sad because that means that I have to leave this school and all my friends behind. this is our 2nd last month in india. we're moving in august, but this doesn't mean that I still can't continue my blog! I will always continue it until I can.
Risa