Never give up

Nick Vujicic is a inspirational speaker born with no limbs. He started an non-profit organization called "Life without limbs" and this organization is teaching people about hope and how to find meaning in life.

Nick was born on 4th December 1982 in Australia and was caught with a disease called Tetra Amelia Syndrome. This disease caused him not to have limbs but that did not stop Nick from giving up. At the age of 8, Nick was depressed and thought of suicide though he did not do it. But when he was 10 years old, he tried to drown himself but he then realized that his parents would be heart-broken.

So, instead of suicide, Nick decided that he wanted to live a good life instead of going through life miserably. He began to master the daily aspects of life such as brushing teeth, answering phone calls, type on the computer etc. In seventh grade, he was elected captain of his school and he worked with councils in fund raising programs. He started to give inspirational talks to other people and soon started up "Life without limbs" organization when he was seventeen.

His main career path was to educate teens and help them with obstacles in life. Many teens face difficult situations and asks Nick for help and Nick will ask them not to give up and he will give inspirational talks about hope. He also talks in schools, television programs and made a CD with him talking his speeches. Nick has wrote many books too! His book, "Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life" won an award and his films, Life's Greater Purpose, No Arms, No Legs, No Worries and The Butterfly Circus won awards too. He also has a music video called "Something More".

In 2005, Nick Vujicic won the "Young Australian of the year" award. If Nick a handicap who has no hands or legs can accomplish big things in life, why can't we, who have hands and legs to do things? I hope Nick's life and this blog post can inspire you readers to believe that you have hope even though you are down. Thank You!

Poor people needs education too

Poverty sits by the cradle of all our great men and rocks all of them to manhood. ~Heinrich Heine

This video inspired me to donate money for those who are needy. If you watch this video, I hope you will get inspired and try to help needy people. There are so many people in the world but not everyone are as fortunate as us. But fortunately there are things we can do to help these children. The first thing you can do is to make virtual mentoring programs for these children. Another thing you could do is build a foundation and hire teachers that could teach the poor kids for free. But of course the easier alternative is to donate money to foundations that support poor kids. This what Amy Stokes is hoping everyone would do.

A program was created by Amy Stokes to educate poor kids of Africa. She did this because she wants to educate poor kids who have no money to go to school but wants to study. Who are the wants going to teach the students? Of course teachers! Amy Stokes is also fighting for teachers who have hearts and are willing to teach the students. Teachers play a part in education and without them, the whole process of education will fail.

Amy Stokes has a great heart and is a great person, without her, poor kids would not have chance of getting an education. She took a lot of time and effort to do this and it really wasn't an easy job for an ordinary person. Because of Amy Stokes great effort, I am very sure that she will be remembered in the hearts of many people. For those of you who are not impressed by her work, go try it yourself and I am very sure you will face obstacles and challenges while you do this.

This story really inspired me and I was really moved by the video. This encouraged me to donate to charities and also encouraged me to tell people to help donate money to charities. Fighting for education, fighting for poor children, fighting for building foundations, fighting for good teachers, this are what Amy Stokes fought for.

Fighting for the enviroment.

There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all. ~Robert Orben

The story of stuff is about Annie Leonard telling people to stop buying things. She is saying this because buying stuff is harmful to the enviroment. I totally agree with her and I feel that everyone should agree. It isn't the buying that is harmful to the enviroment but its the process of making the product that its harmful to the enviroment. The story of stuff is also about how we throw things into the rubbish dumbs and those rubbish will get thrown into a place where all the rubbish goes. Once the rubbish piles up, chemicals will go up into the sky and affect Earth's atmosphere. With Earth's atmosphere affected, more radiation from the sun can get in and eventually affect us.

This video also connects to the theme "What is worth fighting for?" as it tells us to fight for the enviroment, fight for nature and most importantly, fight off temptation that is causing us to buy stuff and harming the enviroment. Why must we fight for the enviroment? Because the enviroment is part of our Earth and Earth is our home, shouldn't we treat our home with care?

Think about it, where does things get created? How is it created? Things are created in the factory and it is created by machines with chemicals being placed in them. Factories let out gas which pollutes the enviroment. And of course it is a very bad thing. Oil spills are mainly from factories but part of it is also from ships that throw rubbish into the sea. Oil spills not only dirties the sea but also kills the animals that are in it. Examples are fishes suffocating because the oil is preventing oxygen to go in. Annie Leonard is telling us not to buy things not because she doesn't want us to have things but because the outcome of it is bad.

I feel that people should be more considerate for nature. We should also be more considerate for ourselves and this is because if the earth's atmosphere is shrinking, sun radiation and meteorites can hit earth and the outcome will be terrible. That is also one of the point of this video, to warn people how dangerous buying stuff can do to the enviroment. If people do not put in the effort to save our world, then there would be no world. After reading this, I hope that people would be more considerate for the enviroment and for ourselves and stop buying.

Citations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8

http://jesshullinger.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/stuff-story-710283.png

Found Poem: Speak for the trees.

http://www.oceansbridge.com/paintings/artists/recently-added/vangogh-all/1883-86-Nuenen-and-Antwerp/Nuenen/1885%20Autumn%20Landscape%20with%20Four%20Trees.jpg

Don't you think that it is uncool to notice a dead tree?

Do you like to see the rainforest being chopped down?

Well I believe strongly that you should not chop down trees,

I hope people would be upstanders and stand up for the trees,

whatever the consequences,

I entreat and exhort you to question authority,

to speak with conviction,

to be declarative and declare that killing trees is not okay,

I believe strongly that everyone can speak up for the trees,

So please speak with determination and help the trees.

This poem is about fighting for the trees. This poem tells people to be upstanders and stand up for the trees and stand up to tell people to stop cutting down trees. This is an example of fighting for the lives of the trees.

I as the author am begging people to stop cutting down trees in this poem. The last two lines is mainly to tell people to be courageous and speak with determination and determination is one of the key to back you up and helps you get what you are fighting for.

The fight for justice and equality

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Martin Luther King Jr

This quote is by Martin Luther King Jr, a hero and an inspiration. Martin Luther was a man who fought for justice and equality. He was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He is in the choir group and sings for the church. He is a confident boy and stands up for what is right or what is wrong.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king.jpg

He followed the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, using non-violence to solve problems. Martin Luther King has been threatened and humiliated many times but that doesn't stop him from being a bystander. Not only did Martin Luther fight for justice, he also fought for those who was persecuted but innocent. An example is Rosa Parks when she was forced out of the bus without any reason. When Martin Luther heard of this, he immediately went to protest. As a result, his house got bombed just for standing up. But does that stop him? No! He got even angrier and chose not to give up and continued to give sermons to stop racism.

Soon things started to cool down and Martin Luther even spoke to a white man on a bus! Things started to get better and after a while, he gave his inspirational speech, "I Have a Dream". People including white people felt inspired and decided not to be racist anymore. Many black people cheered for him and many were very thankful to him. Martin Luther is a well-known hero not only because black people don't suffer anymore, but because there is peace.

But then tradgedy struck, Martin Luther was shot on April 4, 1968. Martin didn't die immediately, he was first sent to a hospital and then was pronounced dead. Many mourned for his death, many didn't. But for all I know, most people today will appreciate what Martin Luther has fought for for so many years.

A new peaceful world

War kills people and nature. War strikes fear into peoples lives. War destroys many things. War doesn't benefit us but brings us into even more trouble. War turns the world into a dystopian society. If I were to hope for a new world, I would hope for a peaceful world. Because if the world was in peace, everyone in the world would help one another and care for one another. Peace would also promote a stronger relationship for one another. There would also be less war as everyone would be at peace, which peaceful person would want war? If there was no war, less buildings and land would be damaged, less people will die, less people would suffer and no one will live in fear. Everyone could also combine brains as one and try to think of ideas that can innovate, save resources, making the world become even more like a utopian society and making better lives for everyone. I am sure everyone in this world would want a peaceful world. Also, everybody would not get injured as peaceful people wouldn't want to fight. Peace will bring us to more advancement, more progress and more innovation and will stop us from reggresing. How can we develop when we keep fighting? So I hope for a world to be peaceful.

"Peace is not something you wish for; Its something you make, Something you do, Something you are and something you give away. Robert Fulghum

The black box

What would you call this story?
I would call this story "The Black Box" because this story mostly is about the black box and it is about people testing their luck to see if they get sacrificed or not. It is also cool that some people were happy and excited and some were worried and nervous and that part left me in confusion. Anyway the black box idea lead me to the title of the story.

What do you think was going to happen?
The story was actually quite boring at the first part but in the middle part I got curious in why people were so nervous in taking the paper but in the last part I was shock that a lady got stoned to death because I thought lotteries was all about money and I didn't expect death.

How did you feel when the end of the story was not given to you?
I was very curious in what will happen next and I was quite upset that we did not get to the end at that time as I was very curious.

How did you feel when you were handed the mystery paper? What did you think was in it? Did you follow the instructions? Why/why not?
I was very curious and I felt like opening it on the bus(but in the end I opened it at home). I thought that the explanation of the lottery was in the mystery paper. I followed the instructions as I did not open it in school and on the bus.


How did you feel about the black box and the blank spot/blank paper? Explain.
To my perspective, the color black represents death and darkness. My perspective also made sense as the lady who got the paper with the black spot got stoned.

How did you feel when you read the end of the paper?
I was kind of shock and kind of not because I already thought that the lady will die because of my guess about the black spot. But I was also surprised that she actually did die.

What would have helped you make a better prediction?
My predictions was kind of right but what would have helped me will be the title and the description of the lottery as those are kind of the main points and main points normally helps me.

Why did the author leave this voids in the story?
I think the author wants to make us think deep into the story and wants us to think in what will happen next and the author also wants us to feel confused and curious.

Explain the power of the void in this experience.
I feel that the void in the story has a great effect in leaving people curious and it has prevented people in guessing what will happen next. But the void really left many readers really frustrated and very eager to read the next part of it.