Good handwriting may be the clue to success!!!

Technology is designed to make our lives as easy and comfortable as possible.Thus, we use it for the most basic things such as writing. It seems that we have left handwriting behind and that having a beautiful letter is not a useful skill anymore. But is that true though?

On the one hand, we are used to seeing university students carrying their laptops around and typing very fast pages and pages of notes. First of all, a clear advantage from typing is that it is the fastest method. Not only that but it is also more understandable and easy to read than handwriting.
Besides, some people might say that it gives the impression that you are more professional, implicated and even "updated" with technologies, and I agree with that, because, for instance, when you are submitting a CV, a project or any important document you type it, no matter how nice your handwriting is.

On the other hand, there are also many pros in having a good looking handwriting, especially at school, where sometimes laptops are not allowed and you must write down everything. In that case, handwriting is useful and should be practised, due to that it is important to write as fast as possible while keeping in mind that you have to reread it later, not an easy task! Also the way you write may influence your mark in an exam because the teacher always takes into consideration how the test is structured and if it is visually appealing, which are factors where your handwriting influences.

To sum up, I firmly believe that both methods can coexist together and that handwriting will never die. Even if school decides to allow the use of new technologies in their classes many people would still rather use paper and pen, and there's nothing wrong with that because typing doesn't have to be for everybody. 

NO CHEWING GUM, but shoe soles!!!

Chewing gum is a well loved snack for many people, it is said to reduce anxiety and to help to concentrate. So, if that is the case ,why do schools usually forbid them?


Well, a good reason is that most of those gums will end on the floor! It is very difficult to clean them from the floor because of their stickiness and that you need special equipment to do so, in fact the UK spends £50m every year to remove them. Moreover, who doesn't find annoying stepping on a gum? It surely means one afternoon cleaning your shoes. But what is worse is that they remain in the place for hundreds of years, that being bad for the environment and also for the cities, which are left with ugly streets not very welcoming for new tourists.


However, the UK, tired of this problem, has come with a new creative idea. They have placed special chewing gum bins to collect them and send them to Anna Bullus, an artist who creates all sorts of objects from them. She researched the gum chemical composition and realized that most of it was polymer, which is a versatile material, and thought that she could give it another use and recicle it.

This idea has been a success and has saved the UK over £6,000 in cleaning costs. Besides, you can buy the objects produced, like coffee cups and boots, and if you asked me they are pretty cool.



In conclusion, there are many reasons not to allow chewing gums at school and personally I am glad because I'm fed up with the situation. Moreover, I believe that the UK had a great idea , it is creative, eco-friendly and the items are cute, there's nothing else you can ask for.

Bubión on fire, but...

Every year, around summer season, many wildfires appear as the heading of the news. They are becoming more and more frequent as well as bigger. Moreover , this is a catastrophe for us, humans, but also for the animals, plants and overall the whole planet where we live.

On the one hand, many of these fires are caused by a human action. Either intentional ones or accidentals (due to the rubbish we have thrown there), they are still our fault. As far as I am concerned, we are not doing enough to prevent them ,so we ought to apply harsher measures. For instance, in those cases where the fire has been intentional, there should be no other solution, but a jail sentence. And in the other case, a great solution would be creating a fine for any kind of rubbish thrown, even if it is just a cola can.

On the other hand, sometimes they happen because of natural reasons. Lightnings sometimes reach the top of a tree and burn it down, unluckily that cannot be prevented, but we could pay more attention to the forest when a electric storm starts, as it is easier to stop a fire when it is little.

Also, a wildfire can begin because of what they call "rule of 30" (+30º temperature, -30% humidity ,wind of +30km/h and +30 days without raining),conditions which are given more often because of the global warming.

All in all,  wildfires should be at the spotlight during all summer. Quite recently we have seen fires in Bubión, a really big one in Huelva and yesterday one in Motril. Because of that we should invest more money in developing the existing technologies to detect fires before they occur.

Are school exam results always fair?

There is no doubt that Covid-19 has challenged our education system in so many ways. One of them relates to the exams. Our grades rely very heavily on them and with the impossibility of doing them the government has struggled trying to decide how to mark their students in a fair way.


On the one hand, there has been a huge downgrade in the UK. Their government has developed an algorithm which takes into account factors such as the number of students of each class and the pass result of other students to formulate their grade ,with the aid of their teachers' estimations.
This has caused many protests by the students, who believe that this system has been very unfair. Specially the students who live in poorer areas claim that they had suffered a much drastic downgrade than the people from private school.


On the other hand, Spain is the exact opposite case. Here we were based on our teachers' reports and we added one or even two points to our grades if we had done correctly all the assignments during quarantine. Also it was more difficult to fail a subject and we were given many opportunities to pass them by doing projects. This is also unfair but the students didn't seem as bothered with the issue and most of them accepted happily the upgrade.


In conclusion it could be said that we ought to learn from this experience and find another fairer way to evaluate, because we don't have a clue of how much this situation may last.

Jane Eyre Reader

FOMO, the syndrome striking people these days

 FOMO is the acronym of  "Fear Of Missing Out", which is indeed a reconoced type of social anxiety. Right, so, in other words; it is the feeling of having an unsatisfactory life, when you believe that you are having less fun than everyone else and you feel like you are wasting your life.

This fear is , in no small way, due to social media. In fact it could be argued that it could have been the origin of FOMO.
In those social networks you see  all your friends being successful, having fun, going to parties, travelling , buying new items.. and all of that while you are staying at home. That may affect you and make you develop FOMO. However, you must keep in mind that those are the highlighted moments of that person's life and that they are not always happy  and that ,as any other human, they have their flaws and bad times- as well as you do.
 Also, I believe that it is worth mentioning that it is estimated that teenagers have spent this 2020 an average of 3 hours a day in social media -greatly affected by the quarantine-. and that is a scary amount of time scrolling through the mobile; gossiping about others' life instead of living your own.

However, there are many things you can do about FOMO, starting by getting away from your mobile.
For instance, you ought to set goals, you can focus on things that will make you happy and help you arrive where you want to be.  Furthermore, you have to realize that you don't need a lot of friends to have the life you see on the internet, what matters is having close to you the people who matter. Specially now that we are living a pandemia and we must avoid large gatherings, you should value the quality of the friendship over the quantity.


All in all, not feeling fulfilled is a problem that many people face. It is much more complex than it seems and because of that we should strengthen our emotional intelligence to identify our feelings and be able manage them.

He told me he hadn't done it.

Anxiety is an emotion which I am sure we all have experienced more times than we would have liked to. Some of its common symptoms are sweaty palms, an increase of the heart rate and more blood flowing through the vessels, besides it is caused as a response of a real or imaginary threat.

This feeling has been a true savior during evolution. "Fight or flight" is a reaction that has kept us alive, surviving dangers of predators and other dangerous situations that could have resulted in death. Furthermore, anxiety has another positive aspect applicable in nowadays' lifestyle and it's that anxiety pushes us to improve and do our best. If we didn't have this natural response we wouldn't be able to study hours and hours to do a good exam or to keep awake finishing some project. Quoting a CEO "Anxiety and a brilliant brain is the key of success".

However, anxiety is not a motivation to do things for everybody , some people find this feeling overwhelming and it disables them to do the pending tasks. Also for some people even a small decision triggers anxiety. In these cases anxiety is considered an illness and should be assisted.

Furthermore, we might be anxious for a long period of time, for instance we might be anxious due to an exam for days or even weeks, and that is not healthy at all.

To put it in a nutshell, anxiety is a natural feeling that we should be able to handle. I believe that most of it comes from school/work related matters ,so if we learn when it is worthy to worry and when it is not we will drastically reduce our likelihood to feel anxious.

Time to bite the bullet!!

I'm sure we have all heard the expression "Netflix and Chill" and yes, although it is a great plan for a lazy day or a meet up with some friends it can also turn into a problem with ease if we spend more time than we should and we become addicted.

On the one hand, Netflix is a good option to reduce our stress after a long day, when we just want to relax, get over it and maybe have a laugh with our favorite show.
Moreover, apart of its entertainment purpose you can also use it as a fun way of learning a language. Thanks to its many language option and subtitles you can improve your listening or reading skills (even both at the same time). I do really recommend it to learn some idioms and to get used to the different accents of a language.

On the other hand, being addicted to Netflix can make you waste a lot of valuable time. This problem affects mainly teenagers and it triggers difficulties of concentration when they study or in some cases a complete lack of study. Furthermore, a lack of sleep in the long run is a risk for your health. 

To sum up, I believe that Netflix is a great tool ,but you must use it carefully and have self-control.
I personally do not have an account because I don't watch series very often, but I used to have one and I enjoyed it.

Bread for today, but... (QUARANTINE: DAY 58)

One of the greatest loss of this pandemic is the one affecting education. Every kid from Spain is in this moment assisting to online courses instead of face-to-face classes which ,of course, are not the same in any sense; not the same amount of hours are being dedicated to the subjects, the themes are not being explained in the same way.. every single thing is different.

But how does it affect this generation of students forced to do on-line courses?

On the one hand, this will cause with no doubt a lack of formation to the students, due to that this way of teaching is not as efficient as the classic one (at the moment), and that the fact of having to adapt to the changes has slower the learning process. 

Also it could create a gap between students who come from a wealthier and poorer families, specially in large families, where not every kid has his own device to attend to class correctly ,or maybe the device is not modern enough to access to some programs. This creates a difference between kids with a lot of facilities and other without them.

On the other hand, it is helping some students to set up routines of study, they are becoming more independent, organized and also they are realizing what study methods work the best for them. All those are essential skills for students, but apparently, most of the students are not used to do those stuffs.

Moreover, they are acquiring a much higher sense of responsibility and sensibility about their futures.

Furthermore, students and teachers are improving their technological skills, they use programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, which are really important.

All in all, this extreme situation is producing extreme cases. Some students are benefiting from the situation meanwhile others are ending up adversely affected. Hopefully next year things will calm down and we will be prepare for any circumstance.

Is the CORONA VIRUS really the solution to CLIMATE CHANGE?(QUARANTINE: DAY 11)

COVID-19 is being devastating against us, especially for elderly people. It is killing many persons not just in Spain but in the whole world, the cypher of deaths is too high and we don´t even know the real world ´s cypher due that the misinformation of some governments and the inability to know the effect in underdeveloped countries. A measure that has been taken is the quarantine, which has reduced the number of infected people and it´s helping to slow down and decrease the curve of the pandemic.

This quarantine is key for the solution of this problem and we have to respect it and be solidary, and if we are given freedom to go outside we must be sensible and be aware of the risk that it is for us and for other people.

This quarantine is being as I said good for ourself, but also for our planet. While we are being quarantined the global pollution has decreased dramatically due that people are not using cars and staying at home. Not using the car has reduce a lot the amount of CO2 that is released to the atmosphere and has made the air quality in the cities much better, it has also cleared the sky of big cities providing photographs that show a shocking difference.  Also, the factories have slowed down their production because of the people staying at home and most flyings have been cancelled.
Many animals have returned to their habitats now that human action has stoped and we can even see them in urbane areas. Furthermore, water quality has improved.


This improvement on  our environment in just one month has made a big difference. And we are hoping some of these new habits will remain when COVID-19´s quarantine finishes. We must learn something from this tough experience and maybe some people will keep in mind this progress and use less their cars, recycle and do the shopping conscientiously.

To put it in a nut shell, the quarantine is helping us and our planet. We mustn´t be childish and respect it staying at home. Moreover we should use this time to think about the planet and how can we stop climate change.

Too skinny for the catwalk

Fashion industry is everywhere; social media, magazines, tv or on the streets. And it is represented by their models, that over the years have set the trends and have been the image of the perfect body. So this obviously has influenced people,  making them want to have those bodies and look like those models. But, is the fashion industry realistic?

On the one hand, the fashion industry has settle a canon of beauty where not everyone can fit in. Bodies very exercised and other factors that depend of the complexion and cannot be changed with exercise such as being tall, the color of your eyes, etc..
 For women it is even more specific than for men because it also talks about facial features such as having a small nose, full lips, feminine face,  and sometimes make girls think they need plastic surgery or botox.
Another thing is the amount of people that trying to fit put at risk their own health, by starving themselves in order to loose weight, doing extreme diets or diets they find on the internet that are not validated by any expert and could cause a deficit of some nutrients.
Also mental health is  affected, people are too hard with themselves and think they are not enough, also it can lead them to suffer from anorexia or body dysmorphia.
Models also struggle with this cannon, and very often they are told by their agencies to loose a little more of weigh for some jobs even when they are perfectly fine. This is dangerous thinking that the normal age for starting modeling is between 13 and 16 (18 is considered very late) and at those ages they are not aware of what they are asked and they don´t know how to say no.

On the other hand fashion industry is slowly changing. They are diversifying their models, introducing more plus sized models and more colored people to the industry. Last year the "Angels of Vectoria´s secret" catwalk was cancelled for this reason, it wasn´t "diverse" enough and the public complained a lot on social media and stopped watching it ,so at the end the company lost money and had to cancel the catwalk.
People are talking about those issues on social media and making changes, because they want to be represented too and see more types of body with which they can relate. For example, the movement of "body positivity"wants to demonstrate that plus sized models are equally beautiful.

To sum up, fashion industry should be more open and diversify their models so everybody feels included.

Once upon a time, 400 years ago, a writer named Cervantes...

The 23rd of April of 1616 was the date where both Shakespeare and Cervantes died. They were two of the greatest writers of all time and whose works are been read until today and will probably continue to be read and studied in the future.
It is such a coincidence that they both have the same death date that the 23rd of April has become nowadays the International Day of the Book.
The truth is that they did die in the same date but not in the same day, that ´s because while on England they used the Julian calendar in Spain they were using the Gregorian one.


On the one hand, Cervantes was born the 9th October 1547 in Alcalá, being the fourth out of seven siblings. He studied at the Jesuit college and learned to read and write at a very young age. He and his family moved to Seville trying to improve their economy ,since Seville was third biggest city of those times and could give them more opportunities.
Cervantes was sentenced to lose his arm and be arrested because he was in a fight with an important person and he had to leave the city and go to a part of Italy which was owned by Spain in order to scape. And there he became as a soldier in Diego de Urbina´s company.

He fought in Lepanto Battle (1571) and he received three injuries, one of them disabled his left arm forever so he received the nickname "the one-armed man of Lepanto".

However, he went into battle again in 1573 with his younger brother in Corfú. After that he received two letters of recommendation which aim was to give him a better position but  in 1575, coming back to Spain he was captured by Turkish pirates and he was a prisoner for 5 years in Argel.

He tried to scape 4 times unsuccesfully,  he was sold to the Hassán king and in 1580 he was finally freed.
Now in Spain he decided to write. He created his most famous work in 1605, El Quijote, which was a parody of the popular genre of cavalry novels.


On the other hand, Shakespeare had a complete different life. He was born in a wealthy family of Stratford-upon-Avon. We do not have much information about the childhood and adolescence of the author,  but we know that with the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway with whom he had 3 children.
He started writing when he moved to London and his first work was Venus y Adonis, a poem. He became known thanks to his theatre; he wrote 14 comedies, 10 tragedies and 10 historical dramas.
Furthermore, Shakespeare has added to the English dictionary a total of 1700 words and sometimes english language is referred as "Shakespeare language".


In conclusion, those two authors have had a very different life as I said and they had never met in person but they have both left an great legacy in their respective language, literature and even culture.

Shall we eat? Yes, but...

A food allergy is a reaction of the immune system after consuming a specific food or substance that results harmful for the person itself. There are so many kinds of food allergy and intolerances now a days, some of the most common are lactose, egg and nut allergies ,and the reactions are also very different, while some people just feel bad or have a bellyache some people could actually die from the allergy. So it is really important for people who suffer from them to read the ingredients of every product they buy.

In my case, I am celiac, which means that i can not eat anything that contains gluten in it. In fact it is a quite usual allergy due that between the 1% and the 2% of the Spanish population is celiac (in actual numbers those are between 450.000 and 900.000 people just in Spain).

But the numbers are growing and growing as the time pass, and not just with that allergy but for all of them. So that is something scientist have observed and are tying to figure out. Why are there more people with food allergy now?  Why are there even new kinds of intolerances? 

Scientists after a lot of research don ´t have an exact answer but they explain that it could be caused by the change of our diet.

 I have lived that on my own experience, when I first was diagnosed that allergy there were many fewer cases. It made my family visit different doctors in different cities without any result because the illness wasn´t so well known. 

Also, at the end when they finally told my family what I had they had no clue of what it was and there wasn´t almost any gluten free special product in the supermarket moreover it was even worst if I had to go to restaurants where they had to explain it to the waiters ,but at the end, there was cross contamination(when products with gluten mix with products without it), so I always got sick.

Where as today that is very common and there are many things in the supermarket to buy (more expensive that the normal ones but it´s an improvement).

Also because of all those new allergies scientists are trying to create cures ,investigating why is it produced and developing new kinds of aliments without those substances that in the future could replace the others. 

In my opinion that is very interesting and it´s new field in science which surely will be very successful. And who knows.. perhaps in the futures food allergies might be solved.

Talking about tourism, all that glitters is not gold.

Spain is the second most visited country on the entire world. Right after France and placed ahead of bigger countries such as United States, even China or Italy. Over 83 million people visit Spain every year. So, as a consequence, such an unbelievable figure obviously leaves a print for the rest of the citizens of Spain, but what is not clear is if that impact brings just advantages or we should read the fine print.

On the one hand, tourism is one of the key building blocks of our economy. Many millions of employments are created to manage that many people who come to our country.   Jobs which directly depend of them such as the hotel sector, catering or travel companies or amusement parks besides of jobs which depend of them indirectly suffer dramatic variation and crisis if not as many people visit us.
Tourism is also an inducement that pushes many towns and cities to improve their appearance, trying to call the attention of foreign people but also being beneficial for the local ones. An example of this is the "Blue Flag", which is a symbol given to some of the cleanest and most beautiful beaches of Spain and it places them into an international map. So, having this symbol makes many people to visit the beach and also is a commitment with the city to keep the beach clean and well-kept. This is positive for both the city and the environment.


On the other hand, having a big demand increases the price of the products, so that some of the products of the supermarket become expensive for the Spanish people who have to buy them during all the year.
Furthermore, high prices are not only in supermarkets, but also happen when looking for an apartment, because it makes more money renting apartment to tourists with a short stay than renting them to Spanish ones who are looking for setting there for a long period of time. Making this almost imposible to find an apartment for a reasonable price in cities with a lot of tourists.

To conclude, I think tourism is great for our country and population but we should sort out the issue of the apartments because that one really is a major problem

Strengthening your mind!!! (QUARANTINE: DAY 9)

It´s been ten days since quarantine started and it is now starting to become our new lifestyle. We know that this is not holidays, however, some people that are getting used to wake up at 12 am, wear  their pijamas all day long, and go to bed really late at night... (I have to include myself in some of those mistakes) but we shouldn´t.

 We have to take advantage of all this free time and build up new healthy habits such as practicing sport ,that is extremely important right now due to that we are having a really sedentary lifestyle, and it could be risky for our overal health. Also it is great for start reading that book you left because you were too busy or getting used to do brain training exercises like puzzles, crosswords or whatever that keep your brain active and improve your mental agility.

It is important doing those kind of things while we are isolated because it is vital to preserve a good mental and physic health. Moreover, a thing I find curious and interesting is that those subjects that are the least valued at school; physic education, music and art, are now what scientist and tv are recommending us to do to in this difficult stage we are living

To put it in a nut shell, We have to use this free time to create new strong healthy habits. And stay positive looking for the good side of everything.

Going where the work is

Some people have not other option but having to go to other countries looking for a job.
It is not related with the level of formation of the person because there are people who travel looking for jobs which do not require qualification such as waiters/waitress, home keepers etc and people with high studies trying to investigate really new stuffs. Both of them wanting to have a decent pay for their job.

In Spain it is difficult to find jobs which doesn´t demand a title. And specially in summer. So that is a huge problem.
Also there is a "brain scape" because we forme a lot of people but we are not able to give them a job so they go away to countries where they can offer them a better salary.

We must find a solution because moving to other countries is not pleasent for everybody and it is a desperate option due that you have to leave behind your family, friends and maybe your partner if he/she is not willing to move away. Also not everybody have this possibility because you have to know the language of the country where you are going and the people who can not are stuck here in Spain without a job or with a badly paid one.

In conclusion it is a hard situation and even if people don´t want to leave sometimes it is their only option.

Who are healthier?

It is obvious that doing sport and having an active lifestyle is very important, and it is something done by kids and adults because of different reason. but, Who are more likely to be more sportive?Kids or adults?

Firstly, kids reason to do sport is to have fun, so when they do sport is not as intense at all as when a adult does it, because they do it with the main reason to shape their body, however it is more regular and consistent that when adult do it because while the kid does it without even realice they are doing sport an adult is more likely to give up.

Secondly, kids are usually forced to do sport because their parents signed them into extracurricular clases to not having them at home doing nothing. Adults are not forced by anyone but themselves to practice it, so sometimes they make up excuses for not going to the gym or running. They also have less free time and a more busy schedule that make them exhausted.

Finally the lifestyle of a kid is more active than the one of an adult. The kid has more energy and wants to play all the time and the adult is usually sedentary and depending of the job they have they can spend a lot of hours sitting in a chair.

In conclusion I think kids are more sportive than adults but it will depend on the person.

LIFE STAGES

In some countries the age to be considered an adult is 18 like in Spain, however in some others the age is 21. But from my point of view adulthood can not be defined with an age, it is more about maturity, which can come in any stage of your life. Also it isn´t something that could change from one day to another one like waking up and suddently being an adult, it is a long slow process which varies depending on the person.

Also, experiences trigger maturity. It is not the same one person who has lived in different countries, had to adapt multiple times and has known a lot of different people that other person from the same age who has grown in the same place doing the same things with the same people.

Moreover, because of all of this I think it is a waste of effort denying arguments from other people because of their age with the excuse of "You are too young for talking about that" or "You don´t know about that yet" which is something old people usually do when a teenager speaks. There are many young people that have won prices about revolutionary inventions, debate etc whose voices had to be heard.

To put it in a nut shell adulthood doesn´t depend of an age and responsibility doesn´t come with it either.

Teachers armed with...

Trumps proposition of giving teachers guns was none the least controversial.
Many teachers showed openly their disagreement to the situation and also did many parents and students. Thanks to the social pressure that law wasn´t made. However just the possibility of having guns at school gave a fright to the population and re-opened the discussion about guns in general.

From my point of view that proposal was very extremist. The quantity of shoots at school in America is very high and it is due the easy teenagers have access to those weapons, so from my point of view the law of letting people have guns for selfdefense should be over. It is a very old law which has not sense in now a days lifestyle.

But this is something many Americans are not going to let happen because they think it is traditional and are not going to look up for the security of the country, so, at least it should be harder for people to get a gun and not just selling it in a supermarket. I think that if there is going to be a gun at the house all members from the age of 12 would have to pass a psychological test at least once every year or two years. I think it isn´t a total solution but it might reduce some cases.

To sum up it is a very difficult matter to fix because whatever action is done about it is going to have many people against it.

Quareantine

The government has announced the "alarm state" in Spain and because of that we are in quarantine. School has been cancelled for 2 weeks(but we still have homework) so it should remark how important it is.
During this quarantine we should stay at home. It is the most basic but most important advice I could give. If we have the symptoms we should´t go to the doctor because all hospitals and sanitaries are collapsed and busy, and they must be used for more severe cases and people who have other important issues like a heart attack, a car accident etc. Also for most of the population this virus will pass just like a flue so the solution for all of them is to stay in bed, treat it like another one, don't panic and do not spread it.

What do we need to pass English? Resilience!!!!

English is a great language to learn due to the multiple advantages that it offers. If you speak English you will be able to travel to other countries where the spoken language is not Spanish, you will be able to meet new people from other countries (online or in real life), furthermore you will have more opportunities at work.


To pass the English subject you should:
-Pay attention in class. That is vital because you have to understand what's going to be on the exam!!
-Do your homework. Also very important, because English requires practice.
-Write comments of the blog sometimes. It will improve your writing a lot and that's like "studying" for the writing exam.
-Participate in class. Show that you care.
-Behave properly at class. A bad behavior can low your grades.

And that's all. If you do all those things you probably will pass the subject and you will have learned English for whenever you need it!

Would you go on a trip around the world?

Traveling around the world is a thing I've always had in my to do list. For me, getting out of your own country is necessary. Not just to have fun, which is something you will do for sure, but also to learn and to have tons of new experiences.

I have travelled to a lot of different spots of Spain, that even if it´s my own country it is worth to visit it because its just beautiful .Moreover I have been in some countries such as France and Ireland multiple times because I have to admit that I fell in love with those places and I will never get sick of them so I'm sure I will go back again.

In my desire of traveling the world some of the destinations that head the list are the Alps, the Grand Canyon ,Thailand, Hawaii, Japan and the Black Forest . I have never been outside of Europe and I wish I could go to those interesting places someday.

To sum up, traveling is amazing and for doing so it´s important who you go with besides of the location. For me traveling with my close friends, my sister or my family is what makes it unforgettable.

Time to take stock

The year 2020 has already started, allowing us to look back to last year and see our mistakes furthermore what we did right. Also we have finished the decade giving us, the generation z, a reality hit, we are not in our childhood anymore.

For me, 2019 has been one of the best year of my life. I have lived so many new things, I travelled, I struggled and I have learned a lot of thing . For the first time I have experienced what is like to be alone without your family and I feel it made me grew and become the person who I am now- equally the bad times as the good ones.

I also made some great friendships with fascinating people, who are all very different to each other, broadminded and with a lot of things to say to the world. It breaks my heart that some of them are not longer with me but most of them still on my side.

I will remember forever some of the things I've done like literally hiring a bus for one day with my friends and visiting places, swimming on the Atlantic Ocean or exposing a project at the NUI G.

For this year I just wish I enjoy it the same. I also would like to put more effort in school and do my tasks daily not just the last day, stop procrastinating and sleep more.

NATURE could be the solution

Recently Ecotherapy has become a really popular theme. It is said that it could be a solution for mental illness but, what is it about?

This consist in going for walks in natural areas such as forests, beaches, mountains etc. After that it ensures that you will feel more relaxed, happy or even fulfilled.

On the one hand I do believe this is true because it is proved that just the fact of going outside and bask in the sun for a short period of time (I mean like 10 minutes approx) can make you feel better.
 I also think it is positive because It makes you appreciate nature so it might help some people to be more respectful with the environment.

 On the other hand I also think this could be mistaken. Even though this is great for punctual feelings, saying that it could cure mental illness its too much. Alike other "Alternative medicines" that promise heal every kind of deseases this may not have the same effect for everybody.
This could help to a person that is feeling stressed in their daly life or somebody who is just sad but if we are talking about people who suffer real mental illness such as depression, schizophrenia or anxiety only medicine and professionals could really help.

To sum up I think it is a good idea to relax and enjoy nature.