Stress

  Nowadays, over 19 million Americans are currently suffering from stress. According to the National Health Interview Survey, there are 75% of the general population experiences at least “some stress” every two weeks. People suffer from stress has increase rapidly this few years. What is stress? Stress is a normal physical response to events that make us feel threatened or upset. There are positive stress and negative stress. Positive stress is useful and needed because it can motivate us whereas negative stress can lead us to serious mental problems. Therefore, suitable and enough stress is essential for everyone. Stress can cause by financial problems, academics and time management.

  First and foremost, financial problem is the main cause for all adults. They need to create a family budget to avoid over expenses. Financial stress is a sadly experience. According to several polls, roughly 7 in 10 of the respondents are “stressful” about money and the amounts of people feel stress about financial problem is increasing. This problem can cause people to have health problem such as unable to sleep, headache and feel sad. Debt is a big problem for adults because they have credit card payments. Rising prices of food this days and education fees of their children are other problems for the poor. Therefore they need to minimize their expenditure. Besides, they need to have a higher income to avoid financial stress. The best ways to deal with financial stress is develop an investment plan and learn about implementing system that can help us.

  Furthermore, alphabetically first among the causes of stress on students is academic stress. Young people experience stress at a high rate in a survey shown by Associated Press / MTV. Among 13-17 year olds, academic is the most commonly stress for them. Students feel stress about their assignment, exams, fear of failure and the amounts of schoolwork. Students also need to engage in extracurricular activities and they need to get good results in their academic. So, they will feel stress about it. Students can control the impact of academic stress on their life by organize how they use their time. They can involve activities and people that they enjoy with to reduce their stress. They also need to schedule when to start their assignment. Every problem has its solution; the problem is where to find it.

  In addition, a lack of time management also cause stress on people. They need to balance their work, peer activities, home life and others. It can be difficult for us to balance it. Time and tide wait for no men. So, we need to organize time. Effective time management will help us get more done each day. By managing our time wisely, we can minimize our stress beside improve our quality of life. On the other hand, time management stress can motivate us to complete things on time. So we can be at peace with time. We can set long term goals which is challenging but realistic. Moreover, we can plan and write a to-do list. This can reduce our last-minute rushes. We can also take a short break when doing heavy task. We need to structure time for healthy living habits such as exercise and swimming. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.

  In a nutshell, stress may be affecting our health even though we do not realize it. Stress can affect our body, feelings and behavior. We cannot eliminate stress from our life, but we can control how much stress can affect us. Yoga, deep breathing can help us to relax. A strong network of supportive friends and family members is an enormous buffer against stress. Long-term expose to stress can lead to a serious health problem. Long-term stress can even rewire the brain and leaving us more vulnerable to anxiety and depression. Last, laughter is the best medicine for stress.

Movie Review - Grave of the Fireflies

Synopsis :

It is a Japanese animated war movie. It talks about the relationship between two siblings. Seita is a pre-teen boy and Setsuko is his sister. She is only a kid. Their parents die when they are young. After their parents die, they live with their aunt. Their aunt sells their mother’s kimono to get white rice. At first, their aunt give white rice for them to eat, after some time their aunt refuse to give them rice. The aunt call them write letter to their relative in Tokyo and call them to leave. They move out to a shelter and leave on their own. Setsuko has diarrhea. Her body is full of red dots. The doctor says her sister needs food to recover. Seita go down the mountain to buy some food for his sister. When he comes back Setsuko lying on the floor and there is a marble in her mouth. Seita give her food and lastly she die. He feels sad for his sister. Seita put his sister’s ashes in the sweet box.

Plot Outline :

Exposition
The story takes place in Japan when it is World War 2 on Kobe, 5 June 1945. The movie begins in a station, which Seita lying on the floor. Then, he dies at there. A man come to wake up him but he already die. That man takes a tin from his pocket and throws it out from the window. After that, Seita, Setsuko and fireflies come out from the candy tin.
Rising Action
Setsuko and Seita’s mother leave the house first to a bomb shelter. Seita bury their leftover supplies in front of their house’s ground. After he had buried the food, he quickly brings his sister, Setsuko to leave the house. When they are going to the shelter, they caught by firebombs and air raid but they are survive. All the house is burned only left Kaisei Hospital survive. Their mother has heart problem. Unluckily, their mother dies. She is brought to a hospital and she dies at there. There are many worms on their mother’s body. Seita keeps his mother’s ring. Seita writes letter to his father. They move to aunt’s aunt house. Their aunt convinces them to sell their mother’s kimonos to buy white rice. Seita go back home to take the leftover that bury on the ground. Then, he gives all the food to his aunt.
Climax
After the foods do not left much, their aunt does not want to give food to them because they do not do anything. Their aunt tells them to find their relative in Tokyo. Seita has 7000 yen so they can live on their own. Seita goes to buy stove and he finds an abandoned shelter. So, they move in. At night, Setsuko cry because there is no light. They fill the shelter with fireflies. The next day, all the fireflies die. Setsuko digs a hole and bury them. She asks why fireflies die and why her mother dies. Seita feels sad about that.
Falling Action
The farmer does not want to sell food to Seito, so Seita want to steal food. He catches by the farmer. The farmer beats him seriously and brings him to police station. After that, Setsuko ill. She has red spots on her body. She has diarrhea. Seita brings Setsuko to see the doctor. The doctor says his sister only needs food to recover. Seita withdraws his mother’s money. At that time, he only knows that his father had died.
Resolution
Seita goes down the mountain to buy many foods for his sister. When he returns to the shelter, he sees his sister lying on the floor. Setsuko put a marble in her mouth. Seita gives his sister a piece of watermelon. Unfortunately, Setsuko die because of hungry. Seita put his sister ashes in the candy tin.

Character Description :


Seita
He is a pre-teen boy. About 14 years old. He is Setsuko’s Brother. His mother dies in the war. After the bomb and the black rain, he becomes an orphan.
Setsuko
She is a kid and she is only 4 years old. Her brother is Seita. She also an orphan after the bomb. She loves to cry. She always cry because she miss her mother.
Aunt
She is Seita and Setsuko’s aunt. They live with their aunt after their mother dies.
Farmer
Seita buys food from him after he moves out from his aunt’s house.
Doctor
When Setsuko ill, Seita brings her to see the doctor.
Mother
She has heart problem. She dies because of the air raid.

Character Analysis :

Seita
He is a caring person. When the war is coming, he quickly calls his mother to go to the shelter first while he will bring his sister to go to the shelter later. Besides, he brings his sister to see the doctor when Setsuko ill. He also takes good care of his sister. He always makes his sister happy when she cries. When they live in the abandoned shelter there is no light in, he fills the shelter with fireflies to let his sister feels comfortable to sleep. He brings his sister to beach to play and cooks for his sister. He does not want to let Setsuko knows their mother dies because he scares she will feels sad. He is also a brave person. Although he is only 14 years old, he lives with his sister in an abandoned shelter.
Setsuko
She is helpful. She helps his brother to collect some branches for cooking. She is also an intelligent girl. Even though Seita does not tell her that mother had passed away, she knows about that and she does not want to let her brother know she knows about that.

Reviewer’s Response :

I like the movie because it is very touching. I think Seita is very caring and he looks like Setsuko’s father. Although he is only pre-teen he can takes good care of his sister. I feel sympathy for them because they become orphan. They are young and they already become orphan. I do not like their aunt because she does not like them. She sells their mother’s kimono to get white rice for all of them. At last, she does not want to let them eat white rice because she thinks they do nothing and everyday live at home. She calls them write letter to their relative in Tokyo.

Likes

In the era of urbanization and globalization, computer and internet is now popular in the whole world. Therefore, I like to search information through the internet. It is faster and convenient for me because I need not need to go library to find information. I just need to type some words and then press the button “search”, the answer will come out rapidly on the screen. I also like to online my facebook account and MSN or Skype to have a conversation with my friends. It is free and easy to access. I can access it by my hand phone or computer. Nowadays, many restaurants have Wi-Fi, so we can just online after we enjoy our dinner. In addition, I can keep in touch with my friends that live in other country. I like it because I can do it my past time.
Moreover, I enjoy watching movie with my friends and family. In my country, the ticket on every Wednesday is the cheapest and we can get discount on Monday to Friday whereas Saturday and Sunday‘s ticket is on the original price. So, I will go to cinema on Wednesday and sometimes I go to cinema on Monday. It can enhance my relationship with my family. Therefore, I can know more about my family likes what movie they will like to watch. This can show I know how much about them. I like to watch movie with my friends too! In consequence of this I can build my friendship with them while going out with friends for a movie or a cup of tea. Next, if I watch English movie, I can also learn English from the movie.
Travel all over the world is also one of my likes. I like to view the scene of the world because every place have different scene and I enjoy that feel. By travelling I can view the sightseeing of the country. Besides that, I can know their culture and the history of the country after I go to their museum. Travel can let me relax after I had study in the whole year. A school holiday is the time for me to travel. I can increase my knowledge after I go to the country. For an example, I went to the Dubai on the school holiday. I like their desert because the sand is very fine and soft. I like it very much. I have camel riding and henna painting in Dubai. I did not have this experience before. I also have sunset photographs when they drive us on the desert. The car went up and down. It was very exciting! I enjoy the tour very much.
Last but not least, I like to go to the beach because the wind there is very cold and cool. I can have many activities there such as picnic, swimming, build sand castle, and collect seashell. I enjoy the activities with my family members. I can go swimming with my siblings. I can keep my body slim and healthy by doing this exercise. Besides, I can take many pictures there for my memory. The sea is very clean and clear. I can collect many beautiful and unique seashells on the beach. The air in the beach is very fresh. It is not polluted by others. That is the time to let me breath in the fresh air that I could not breathe in the city.

Attitude toward writing

   I like and dislike writing because writing is slower than reading and talking. I like writing due to I do not need to pronounce it. If I read or talk I need to pronounce it accurately so that others will know what I am talking about. Besides, after I write, I can read it again and again to see whether it is correct or not. I can also remember it if I write it down. My handwriting can improve if I practice every day. On the other hands, I dislike writing because I need to spell all the words correctly. For an example, I use the word frequently but I could not remember how to spell it and I need to check it every time when I use it. Furthermore, I dislike writing because I do not have confident about what I want to write. As English is my second language in my country, so it is challenge for me to write. Sometimes, when writing an essay, I need to think very long and what I am going to write. I think writing has many stress for a student. As a student, I do not want to be stressful when I am studying. I want to have a memorable day in school and in my collage life. Nowadays, parents want their children to become clever and have a high performance in their studies, so they want their children work hard and write more. It is neutral for me on my attitude towards writing.