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Jogilė Žemaitaitytė 6a

Family road trip

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Me and my family decided to do a short road trip. I’m not saying where for obvious reasons. Yay! What could go wrong?

We wanted to check the water level and maybe take some selfies. When we got there we saw a house. The house was basically under the water and we could only see a roof top. Hope everyone got out of there safe. There was also this electrical tower. Luckily it wasn’t under the water. The tower had a metal gate around it and security cameras on it. Every time we got near that thing, it would let out this loud alarm that rang our ear drums a little. Oh yeah! I forgot to mention, there was dogs’ poop everywhere and the bad thing was that some of it was still fresh. We started taking photos anyway. Surprise, surprise! The dog that probably laid  his stuff around this place was walking towards our car. We didn’t notice him at first until he got to one of the car tires. I could see that it was a Husky. He or she stood next to one of the car tires for a few moments, sniffed it a little bit, and well… Did his natural duty. I’m sure my dad was pretty unsatisfied about it, he washed the car a day before we went on this “wonderful” trip. Anyway, we decided to wait for the husky to walk away and got into the car.

The story doesn’t stop there! We kind a got lost. We found few flooded paths here and there or should I call them - Dead ends. Eventually at one of those dead ends my dad turned his car around and started driving backwards into the water. At first me and my mum thought it was funny, until my dad made the car go deeper in the water. My mum thought he was actually serious and started yelling at him to stop. I was still laughing because if I drown at least I can drag my father with me. Eventually he stopped and laughed it off himself. On the bright side at least the tire washed off. Anyway we found an exit and drove home. I had to wake up early that morning so when we came back I rushed to our house, changed my clothes and wen’t back to sleep.

Moral of the story – Never trust a place where there’s fresh dog poop.

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Emilija Petrauskaitė IVbg

The students are the painters of their life

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In every grade you can find a really motivated student who cares about education, however, when there is a good side, there is always a bad one. In between self - motivated students there are lazy young people, who don't care about learning at all. The question is whose fault would it be. In my opinion, the biggest impact on our achievements is given only by ourselves.

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Most of enthusiastic students are inspired in their young age. In the time spent in school students face a lot of different people who inspire them to learn, although the biggest difference is made when a child is not yet going to school. At that time parent have an ability to form personality of a kid and teach the child the most important lessons. For instance, when I was younger, I have been always taught to care about others but never to forget about the future of my own. This means that the biggest influence is given only by parents and not the strangers,

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Secondly, majority of motivated students tend to study gradually and not instantly. As it was mentioned before, in a school time children meet a lot of different teachers who lead to a fact that one teacher has not got a power to change a bit. Opposingly, caring children develop skills with age, so the older they get, the more motivated they become and the more options they get for their future paths.

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However, because of wide educational program's students get distracted because of a need to study that much. The solving of this problem depends only on the teachers. For example, biology class was not chosen by any boys because they could not stand the amount of homework. The main thing was the fault of the teachers. She could not understand how get interested students in often ways so she did not attract any.

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In conclusion, I can state that most of achievements depend on students plans and dreams. Thus, the teacher always has an ability to modify these dreams and attract pupils to learn.

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Darida Čepukaitė IIag

The person who helped me​

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I first met her at my day of birth. It was 15 years ago. Since then, that person helped me get through everything. Every single day she is by my side, helping me deal with my problems, being there for me at good and bad times. This is the person who helped me. She is my best friend.

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She is a tall, slim girl. Her wavy blond hair and ocean blue eyes make her look like a princess. Her sense of style is admiring. The way she dresses makes everybody jealous. The way she dances makes everyone loose their minds.

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What's more important, is the way she comunicates. Her sense of humour is as good as it is crazy. People could actually think that she's out of her mind for the way she acts. However, she never makes herself look like a fool, the girl is smart enough.

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She like running, skiing, doing crazy activities and it's because she's brave. She loves to do make-up, watch movies and eat popcorn. She is simple, but that makes her the greatest.

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Everything about her makes me happy and that is the way she helps me. My best friend makes me feel, look, talk and be a better person. That is the best help that I could ever need.

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Laura Klymantaitė Ibg

Battling stress in school

 

We have watched a talk on the topic of stress in school. The speaker shared her experience with stress in school and the difficulty of going somewhere you dread going. Afterwards, the speaker compared herself to an African girl. A girl who would give everything she had. Most importantly, the ability to go to school.

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The main message of the talk is important to young people and those who are close to them. The speaker also encourages us. Furthermore, she shares ideas. The main message of the talk is challenging yourself to battle stress in school and find the positivities.

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Personally, I thought the talk was interesting and relatable. My opinion is quite similar to the speaker‘s. In my view, it is not a felony and not an odd situation to go through stress and anxiety in school, even if you are successful there. In my experience, the pressure that a successful person feels to keep going and live up to great expectations certainly adds on to the usual stress caused by school. Moreover, there are not only pressure and expectations. It becomes easy to lose any interest in things you geniunely  love while the world around you makes you belive the only way to succeed in life is making no mistakes and being perfect. However, just like the speaker, I have also experienced that looking for positivities, even when it seems difficult, helps. When we find positivity, we find purpose. We should try to understand that school is only a portion of our lifestand and there are many more aspects in life.  As the speaker said, many people could do anything to take our place. The more we understand the meaning of these words, the easier it might be to comprehend how lucky is to be here and have these possibilities.

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In addition to the speaker‘s talk, her presentation skills also interested me. Although she looked a little messy but not quite restless, her face showed honesty and expressed emotions. The speaker might not have used hand gestures and did not walk around, she found other ways to touch the audience. Her manner of speaking was interesting and helped her. Overall, I certainly enjoyed the talk, found ideas and thought it was interesting.

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Darida Čepukaitė IIag

Emphasise your alone time

 

The speaker presented a speech on how important it is to have some alone time. Afterwards, she proved herself right by giving examples from our everyday life and sharing the results of a few studies. According to the speaker the biggest problem of being alone is FOMO - fear of missing out. Regardless, there are lots of advantages in being unaccompanied. It stimulates our creativity, gives us willingness to work harder and lets us recharge from socialising throughout the day.

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In my opinion, these are the most beneficial things alone time gives us. Nowadays popularity is often discussed yet rarely understood. My view on the matter is that being popular isn’t necessarily always going out and constantly hanging out with people. Every single person including me values their alone time. As extrovert as I can be, there always comes a time when I simply need to recharge from the crazy world surrounding me. Furthermore, as it was said, alone time encourages us to work harder. A research proved that a group of people working together provide less ideas and work than the same group working separately. I strongly agree since doing a group project has always been a problem to me. Personally speaking, I try my best but the fact that there are more people working makes me relax and not do my best. Lastly and most importantly being alone makes us more creative. Even though it seems that more people working together should come up with more ideas it is in fact the opposite. Alone time lets us become more productive and gives us the freedom of mind.

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Perhaps there are lots of other advantages of spending time alone, however, the speaker managed to come up with the most accurate one.

 

On top of that she had a great manner of speech and made her presentation more lively with visuals. The young girl noticed a problem worth speaking about and proved  she was right by giving a convincing speech.

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Skaistė Girdvainytė 7b

Liberty to speak

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Good morning, ladies and gentleman! My name is Skaistė Girdvainytė. Today I would like to ask you all one question: what is the best thing about living?

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We all know, that technology is taking over the world. For the most part, it helps us to complete our daily tasks quicker and easier, but it steals a very huge thing from us. Communication.

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Firstly, I would like to start off by saying that I am interested in technology. In particular, coding. It is something I am very passionate about. Right now it is just a hobby for me, but I strongly believe, that it will be a serious job for me later on, when I grow up. What is especially important, is that I am going to enjoy what I do. I think that doing what you truly like, makes you happy, maybe even an independent person.

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Once upon a time, a scientist A. Einstein said ,, I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots. “ I couldn’t agree more with it. Well, technology didn’t quite surpass our interaction/communication yet, but it is happening. The main point of my presentation is to pay attention to your own lifestyle. Let me say that I categorically deny that technology cannot be fun, interesting or useful. Speaking of useful, we should not forget how our medicine methods improved throughout the years, thanks to technology. Medical technology is a broad field where innovation plays a crucial role in sustaining health. The best medical inventions are: antibiotics, hypodermic needle, cardiac pacemaker and more.

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I would also like to include the fact, that our phones let us speak with people that are thousand of kilometers away from us, which is also a very useful thing these days.

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Well, sadly, phones and computers are just becoming an addiction. According to Common Sense Media, teens spend an average of 9 hours a day online!

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Overall, I firmly believe, that we can change everything. If we believe and work on it, we can do it. We just need sit down; turn off our phones and talk.

 

We must navigate our life, but we cannot forget the fact, that technology changes all the time, but human nature hardly ever. By voting in the European parliamentary elections, every European citizen can influence decisions of the parliament.

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Erika Rindokaitė IVbg

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Two wrongs do not make a right

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In this moment, 54 is the number of countries that retain the death penalty in both law and practice. Logically thinking, such penalty should deter from committing crimes, however, the statistics show opposite results as this penalty is one of the least effective solutions. After all, does anyone have the chance to decide who can live?

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Firstly, many individuals have been falsely accused. Some may recall the case of Gregory Counts and Vandyke Perry, who had been wrongly convicted of rape and abuse and spent 26 and 11 years in jail. The men were freed after the apparent victim admitted her claim was a fraud. Counts and Perry are now free even after wasted decades of their lives, but what if they were sentenced a death penalty? Innocent lives could have been taken and we may even have never found out the claim was made up. I strongly believe the law system has too many flaws and shadows for the death penalty to be a correct solution ever.

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Secondly, there is a common myth that the life sentence is more expensive than the death penalty. In fact, execution is excessively expensive. Perhaps at one time, when executions were swift and sure, this may have been the case. It is not now. Most people knowledgeable about the subject will agree that the delay now built into the system, more trial preparation, much longer time to get to trial, much longer jury selections, much more complicated and far more frequent appeals have increased the cost of capital punishment so that it is now many times the cost of keeping a prisoner in prison for life.

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Thirdly, it is time to turn the morality card face up. If we do not steal from thieves or rape rapists as forms of punishment, why should we kill murderers? When you think deeper, the lust for the offender to get killed is a form of revenge, serving nothing but impulsive satisfaction. For instance, Norway focuses on rehabilitating back criminals into society and has one of the lowest murder rates in the world. The idea is that the death penalty is the quick escape but not really a moral solution.

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Finally, this topic is difficult and my main statement is that people should not be fast to run around screaming for someone to be executed for a crime. Always remember that there is someone that needs to pull the trigger and someone who will never have a chance to change anymore.

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Erika Rindokaitė IVbg

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Enough dreaming

 

At the moment, I have your most valuable resource in my hands – your time. I have an opportunity to have your attention and meanwhile, share a very simple formula to happiness, achievements and change.

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You may be dreaming of yourself in 5 years: relaxing on a beach in the West Atlantic ocean Island while listening to chill music and drinking a milkshake, but if you’re not working towards that goal, you’re working towards disappointment.

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This is just 1 example. Out of dozens. We have aspirations that are tragically in concrete: for instance, change the world, clean the oceans, lose weight, become smarter, richer, faster…the list is endless.

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The in concreteness is the cause of failure. The more quickly we aim at something, the more likely are we to give up. Divide your goal into smaller goals.

• If you want to become smart, set a goal to read as much books and visit as much museums as possible, or attend as much courses as possible

• If you want to lose weight, aim to eat as much vegetables as possible, take as much steps as possible

• If you want to end up on that beach I was talking about previously…start learning Spanish today! Not tomorrow, not soon, not when you’re less occupied.. For a fact, I have started studying Spanish! One of the best decisions ever. Always remember, in one year you will wish you had started today.

By the way, Oxford dictionary defines the word happy as ‘’Feeling or showing pleasure or contentment. When you achieve your goals that are the exact same feeling!

 

Moreover, I’ll teach you a simple trick you will be glad you have learned – it’s

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The 2 minute rule is the killer of procrastination and it can be used in two different ways.

First situation: If you have a thing to do and it takes 2 minutes or less, do it immediately. You will eventually see how less errands you have to do.

 

Second situation using the 2 minute rule: If you want to form a habit try this: do something for two minutes and then stop. Go for a run, but you must stop after two minutes. Start meditating, but you must stop after two minutes. Study Arabic, but you must stop after two minutes. It’s not a strategy for starting, it’s the whole thing. Whatever you’re doing can only last one hundred and twenty seconds. When those 2 minutes quickly pass, you’re very likely to continue. Less daydreaming, more doing.

 

The point I’m trying to get across is the toxicity of dreaming that leads nowhere. We all wish to make great things happen, but sometimes are a little too lazy to act upon. Don’t think about yourself in a decade, look at your surroundings and think what could be changed now. Make the best of any moment. One day I realized I wanted to get rid of the clutter in my house and start over. I didn’t wait for the another day or the full moon. I became a minimalist that day.

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And If you’re not proud of your current reality and surroundings, customize them!

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Erika Rindokaitė IVbg

Unequally equal

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According to law, all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

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Nowadays, this is common sense in so called developed First world countries. Or is it not? Here is where I introduce the word privilege, which, according to Cambridge dictionary, is defined as ‘’an advantage that only one person or group of people has, usually because of their position or because they are rich’’.

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The concept of privilege dates back to 1903 when American sociologist and historian W. E. B. Du Bois published the essay The Souls of Black Folk, in which he wrote that although African Americans were observant about white Americans and conscious of racial discrimination, meanwhile white Americans were unaware about the situation of African Americans, nor about the effects of racial discrimination. Du Bois wrote about what he called the "wages of whiteness", which he described as including courtesy and deference, unimpeded admittance to all public functions, lenient treatment in court, and access to the best schools.

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In short, the most common types of privilege are race, socio-economic, religion and gender. The parts of society who do not have certain benefits struggle in a dozen of ways, starting from social exclusion, ending with even physical attacks. Moreover, this concept is not a modern theory, more likely – something that has been existing since human groups started their own hierarchies.

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Sometimes it is not that easy as it may sound to accept your own privilege. In other words, it may seem just because beating up someone for their appearance is illegal, everyone is equal and their social situation depends only on their own input. It depends what makes it so hard to grasp the superpower – privilege – that you have, it could be laziness, ignorance or general indifference. Luckily, we have evolved a lot since the days of W. E. B. Du Bois.

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As previously mentioned, privilege comes in a plethora of forms: availability to college, medicine, not being targeted as a terrorist on an airplane, being able to walk anywhere and do anything due to no mental or physical disabilities. When babies are born, they already have a basket consisting of family wealth and background, country or region they live in, race, certain diseases or disabilities, a specific appearance. The fact that a person’s life quality could be more a lottery than a result of work is shocking, but true in a lot of cases.

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My main point is that privilege is everywhere. All of us experience in some way or it another and we make a big impact on its importance’s growth or shrinkage. For instance, when was the last time you were surprised someone with  certain looks is smart and well spoken? Have you ever questioned why ‘’nude’’ color clothing or bandages are light brown? Why are some people that are illegal?

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Erika Rindokaitė IVbg

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The fastest dying municipality

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I live in a well-known municipality in the West of Lithuania called Pagėgiai. It is known not only for political knots and lies, but now for its languishing as well. To begin with, it is announced Pagėgiai is the fastest shrinking municipality in the country, the statistics are cruel- it is prognosed every fifth person will emigrate within 5 years. Moreover, Pagegiai is ranked in 60th place based on the index of the quality of life. 60th out of 60! What does this mean to me as a  teenager? Seeing your hometown being constantly bashed by the media, sidewalks gradually getting emptier, faces getting more miserable, houses less accomodated - feels awful without any doubt.       

                     

What we are proud of

 Pagegiai has a bright side as well. Many talented, intelligent people have born there. For instance, Martynas Jankus and Algimantas Mackus. They are plain excellent and we must extend what they have started. Not mentioning our main tourist attractions - Witches' fir, Rambynas Regional Park and Martynas Jankus museum would be a sin. We are in Minor Lithuania and we are proud of that. Our region is exceptional. This should give us a responsibility to do great things to it.

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Being realistic

But there are obvious problems. It's about time to quit beating around the bush and talk what caused these problems and what can be done. I won't recommend unrealistic methods because personally, if I had given a command to stop politicians from lying, I wouldn't know where to start. For a change, I will tell what all of us actually can do.

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What caused the problems?

First of all, I firmly believe many problems were caused by lack of knowledge, whether it is people's own fault or not. For example, many kids from small towns imagine the town mayor as a special person, visiting a shopping centre such as Mega, Akropolis is exceptionally exciting. Museums and galleries are often ignored. However, walking through shops with ''big'' names feel like meeting the big world. Many generations like this have grown up (pause) and their habits stayed. Adults are shocked by shopping centre openings in their city, organize mass boycotts but fail and are easily brought back by 70% sales. All of this is caused because people haven't seen the world. Studying and travelling are ''the cures''. Taking children from small cities to bigger ones is a great tool to raise a smarter generation.

 

Elections

I am encouraging everyone to question what we do. When you participate in elections, look up the participants' biographies. Is a person who hasn't gotten proper education or even has crime history really eligible for our future? It is crucial to dig deeper into who you are voting for. Hold on, I'm not implying the government is responsible for all problems. However, the laws and important decisions, such as referendums are in their hands. An election is a responsible task and we should look at it seriously.

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Start from yourself. Tips

It may seem like you have heard this a thousand times, but this time it'll be different. If you want change, start from yourself. Mother Teresa once said: If you want to change the world, go home and love your family. Obviously, our city or country won't become a better place overnight but you can impact someone's day in a good manner. When I hear a person complaining how bad our city was, I usually ask them ''do you do anything besides sit on your phone all day?''. Most don't. Don't be one of those people.

 For instance, you compliment a stranger on a street - you immediately put them in a good mood. What if they were nervous for a job interview at the moment? You relieved their stress, raised their confidence and helped them get a job. It's that simple.

Another example - how much boxes of things you don't use do you have? Most people, just like me, have a lot. That is to say, over 20 % families live in poverty. I can guarantee you have things that you don't use - board games, juicers, toys, books and obviously - clothes. They clutter up our garages and our minds, but there are families in need, but they can't afford them. Call up your local social services OR more easily, post in your city's face book group and you will make a family happier than you'd ever imagine - I saw it with my own eyes.

 What is more, adopting an animal from a shelter is a great thing to do. One pet is just one of millions to us, but we to them, we are saviors who can easily change their lives. Personally, my family has adopted 8 pets. The animals are happy; we are joyful of our new family members. It's easy just like this.

 One last tip - speak up. You are given a voice for a reason. Unfortunately, sometimes we are frightened to tell social services about animal or children neglect in their community. I personally believe the fact someone's life is in their hands is more important than our fear of ''what might happen''. Yes, I am talking about these cold, -25C winter nights where animals are left chained outside. Sometimes it takes a cup of coffee and a good conversation to solve major problems. As you can tell, big issues are solved from, at first glance, small, steps.

                                                                      

To conclude, I'd like to stress the importance of taking action and raising a new brave generation. Ignorance is a curse. I personally believe we have a lot of power and as long as we leave ''we are just simple irrelevant citizens'' mindset, we can change a lot. The truth is that as individuals we may feel powerless, but we still must feel responsible. Our family's, city's, country's and our own future is in our hands.  I named a few tips where to start.  Once you realize the power of your casual behaviour, you will realize how important you are.  

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