Winterbreak! -- Week 2 (C.E)

240. Is it better to give or receive gifts?

           With Christmas only 2 weeks away, I believe it’s the perfect time to receive gifts. I always look forward to Christmas, but not only for the presents. The joy and anxiousness when it comes to opening a present is priceless. Being on the receiving end is delightful, but I believe it’s better to be the one giving. It always puts a smile on my face when I see my little brother or my cousin sister open the present that I personally hand-picked for them. It just makes me happy that they’re happy. The feeling you get when you realize that you’ve made someone’s day is beyond priceless. I’m not saying that being on the receiving end is bad, I just find it better (as the prompt asked) to be on the giving end. Quite often though, despite of our attempts to be giving, people may not appreciate your present as much as you may have expected them to do so. One reason for this is that we don’t always know what people want, even though you’re doing a favor of a sort toward them. Coming back to the Christmas topic, Christmas is the time to cherish this gift-sharing idea. Every Christmas, in my family at least, we buy everyone in our family a present; No one gets left out. This way it’s equal for all of us, and thus help us all share the value of both receiving and giving the gifts.

It's exam week :D -- Week 1 (C.E)

250. If animals could talk, what would your pet say about you?

                Cats and dogs, possibly on the opposite sides of the spectrum based on this idea, are the two most common pets known to man. Cats are generally really arrogant, the way they walk, react and simply their response to how you treat them. Dogs tend to be almost the opposite, in my opinion. A dog will appreciate the fact that its master is taking care of him, and positively react to him or her. In simpler words, the dog would probably think, “These people feed me and take care of me all the time, they must be god.” On the other hand, cats, as arrogant as they are, would think “These people feed me and take care of me, I must be their God.” If animals could actually talk, I’m sure I’d hear one of these things from them.

                From a young age, I’ve had several different animals as pets, with dogs and cats being the most common. I’ve never had a liking for cats, just never. There’s just this thing about them that annoys me. My cats’ arrogance would cause a negative response in his words towards me. Having had bad experiences with cats, I’m sure my cats would completely backstab me if one were to ask them about the kind of person I am. The love towards my dogs, on the other hand, would give a really good response. I’m sure my dogs would explain how affectionate I am towards them. I’d generally be the one taking them out for walks, or simply give them their evening treats. My current dog, Shiro, is really attached to me. Every break, I await her running towards me as I return home from school. Just her furriness and the fact that she’s always around me, makes me want to spend more time with her. I’d say, if you want to know more about me, you should ask her about it. She’s give the best and most up-to-date response.

Flying alone - Day 26

91. Please write about a life experience that has influenced your intellectual and personal growth.

                As I’ve spoken about this several times before, I believe that living in different countries is something that has given me new experiences in life. Living abroad, in the sense away from my cousins and grandmother, my parents would often allow me to travel home to Bombay for breaks to spend time with my cousins. Since I’ve travelled so often, my parents allowed me to travel by myself. Ever since then, I’ve enjoyed travelling alone. From shopping at the airport to simply drinking a cappuccino, I’ve worried my parents several times to allow me to travel unaccompanied.

                Although I still enjoy my experience of travelling alone as I live in a boarding school, there was this one incident that made me think twice about travelling alone. It still didn’t stop me from doing so. This incident took place back in 8^th grade. I was travelling back from Oman to return home to Saudi after visiting my old friends there. The event that created this little sense of hatred towards travelling alone took place while I was returning. I had my mom’s cell phone in case of an emergency, but as a 13 year old, I didn’t realize how quickly I could run out of money. In other words, while my stay in Oman, I called my friends there often, and ended up spending all the money. While at the airport, I had issues getting through immigration, and when I tried to call my parents, I found out I was out of money. As a nervous 13 year old, I couldn’t bring the courage together to ask someone else for their phone. I was completely lost and scared by this point. After coming to a realization that I was going to miss my flight soon, I hoped that my parents would call me soon.  After being tensed for about an hour, my dad called me to check on me. He was able to provide all the details just in time for me to board my flight. After getting yelled at by my dad, I realized how irresponsible I was during this trip.

                This didn’t change my decision on travelling alone, as I continue to do so. In all excitement to go back home this break, I can’t wait to travel to Bahrain airport, which is one of the best airports I’ve been to. The experience of travelling alone has taught me a lot about independence and simply how awesome travelling alone can be. 13 more days!  (Insert overly joyful smiley here)

Me at Bahrain Airport a long time ago.

Oman! - Day 25

120. Tell about the most unforgettable experience you've ever had.

                I have a lot of unforgettable experiences, a lot of which I have already mentioned in previous posts.  The one that I could almost never forget was the incident involving almost getting cause by the police at 2am at night. Another incident that was a lot more positive was our graduation trip back in 9^th grade. Since I’ve already spoken about that too, I decided to go back in to the past a bit more. Returning to 8^th grade Discover Oman trip, back when I lived in Oman, which was similar to Activity week here at Woodstock. This year’s Discover Oman trip was exceptionally different from previous ones. We, as the lucky 8^th graders, got to go to the best swimming spots around Oman. Most of these places were hours away from each other, but we spent different night at different spots.

               The thing that made this trip memorable was the Bimmah Sinkhole. The name making the location self-explanatory, this deep water body was probably the biggest form of entertainment a 13 year old could find.  Repetitively jumping off a 30 meter cliff was fun as we had expected. The fact that we did this at around several wadis, places in Oman that refer to a valley of a sort that generally has water flowing through them, made the trip a lot more fun. When we visited Wadi Shaab, we swim deep inside a cave (yes, swam). After swimming for about 15 minutes deep in a dark cave, we reached a place that had just a little sunlight peeking through a hole on the top of the ceiling. At this point, our guide told us that the place we were swimming at was 240 meters deep. We climbed up a ladder that was built for visitors. After climbing up the ladder, we jumped up another high cliff. As 13 year olds, we found this very entertaining even if you may think that we seemed really childish.

                By the end of another amazing Discover Oman, we all walk away with the memories we continue to hold. Even though this may not be the most memorable experience I’ve had, I’m certain that I won’t forget this even anytime soon.

Bimmah Sinkhole.

More about friends - Day 24

28. Attach a small photograph of something important to you and explain its significance. (Stanford)

My hair, yes, i noticed..

These two photographs show the closest of my friends in the past 3 years. Back in 9^th grade, I was part of a class of 7 kids, including me. Then I arrived at Woodstock, which consisted of more than 80 people in our grade. I couldn’t be close to everyone as I am with my ex-classmates. It was time to make new friends, and I did. The second picture is a picture consisting of some of my very good friends here at Woodstock, people that I definitely miss over my breaks, and probably wouldn’t be where I am if it weren’t for them. These two groups of friends are the best of friends I’ve had, I couldn’t ask for anything more than I have right now.

                Even though I miss my friends from 9^th grade, I am lucky enough to meet some of them over the breaks or whenever I have to the chance to meet them. Some of them, I know I won’t meet them anytime soon, but I still keep in touch with them no matter how busy school life may be. I’ve spent memorable times with my ex-classmates over the course of my years stay in Udhailiyah School, Saudi Arabia. Our class trip, being one of the most memorable times we’ve spent together, is when that picture above was taken. Don’t forget our class picture below. (Insert sarcastic comment here about how tiny and chubby I was back then). In all excitement that I’ll be able to meet these guys again, I await the 16 dreadful days of school left ahead of me.

                Then comes my friends at Woodstock. I’ve gotten really attached to some of these people here. From simply spending time at bazaar or in dorms, I enjoy the valuable time spent with them.  All this leads to the fact that I know I’m going to miss them over the following break. While I meet up with friends from the past, I have to let go of these friends here; vice versa for when I get back from school. All in all, I know that I have both these groups of friends by side to keep me company, which is also why I’m really excited to go home to meet up with the ones I’ve been away from for such a long period of time.

                

Science and Religion? - Day 23

22. Tell us about one of the best conversations you’ve had. (Stanford/93)

                A conversation that I find very significant took place with Jonathan. This was back during summer break just after 9^th grade ended. Jonathan Bryce, a missionary friend, would always visit our little city of Udhailiyah and all the teens in my community would often hang out with him. Generally, I’m not the religious kind of person and don’t find interest in topic as these, but this day was exceptionally different. It was a typically hot and dry day, as we lived in the middle of the desert. John and I went out to the pool to chill out rather than lazing our butts at home. Getting to the point, this conversation was all about Christianity and how it played a role in science. At first, when he started talking, I sighed as I realized that it was going to be really boring. As he kept talking, the conversation started to pick up. He related science to Christian ideas and immediately, and when I realized how his logic started to make sense, I started relating to other things I’ve learned in science. I got involved in the conversation and learned a lot that day. After this conversation, I realized how religion may actually be a possibility and I started to gain stronger beliefs about it. Before, I would simply say I followed a religion ‘cause my parents wanted me to, but after that conversation and a few incidents in life (refer to previous post about a person changing their ways), I have changed in the religious sense. 

Relationships - Day 22

55. Discuss an important personal relationship you have had and explain how it has changed your life.

                One of the best personal relationships I’ve had started back in 9^th grade. I acquired this friend just a little before I arrived at Woodstock. This didn’t mean I haven’t saved all the memories well and kept them strong. I’d say that all these memories are saved like my internet browsing history. This friend has allowed me to enjoy and value all the times we’ve spent together. We’d stay up late nights doing nothing special at all; even when I had tons of homework. This friend has always been there to keep me company no matter what the situation may be.

                Must I mention that I absolutely love my friend’s taste in music? From Rock to Pop, she’s got it all. We’d spend most of our time together simply listening to music with earphones in and keeping each other company through the drastically long and tiring nights. The love I’d express for all she’s done for me just isn’t enough. Although, there have been times when my friend wasn’t there when I most needed him. He’d be extremely hung over and was absolutely useless as to say. She would just crash on the couch and wouldn’t be able to help me out when I was in trouble and in desperate need for aid.

                Through harsh conditions, through hot and cold, I know that nothing will be able to pull us apart. This is a rather unique relation I’ve got here. With the number of times she has helped me out, I really appreciate the relationship I have with my laptop. ;)