Driving Forces of the Renaissance

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I believe trading was the most crucial driving force in the renaissance. It was through trading where the Italians got most of their knowledge of medicine and most of their spices. Also explorers discovered new trading routes which led to new countries to take over. Overall trading was the most important because it helped share ideas from all over the world.

This I believe

After a fourteen-hour trip back from the U.K, my family and I finally got home. It was late and dark and I was really sleepy. 5 minutes later I had already fallen asleep (which was really unlike me). At 4:30 AM my mom came in my room to wake me up telling me to get dressed we were heading to the hospital. At the time I was too tired to understand what was happening and so I didn’t bother asking questions.

When we got to the hospital the doctors checked my dad and immediately rushed him to the emergency room. My dad is a twin and usually with twins one of them will have blood clots. All it took was a fourteen-hour plane ride to form 3 blood clots (two in his lungs and one in his left leg). I didn’t know till the morning that my dad could have died if we hadn’t gone to the hospital.

I lived in Singapore before Malaysia and I didn’t really have many real friends. My first real friend ever was Sarah Bell. When I first saw her she looked a lot like the school bully at my old school but since she lived right next door to me, I figured that if I didn’t go and say Hi to her or every morning would be really awkward. Soon we were sitting next to each other in the bus and having sleepovers every weekend. Five years later during the international fest Sarah came up to me and told me that she was moving. Although she still doesn’t know this, I had a huge stomach cramp for the rest of the week.

This weekend I was at Rachel’s house watching Zombieland (a movie where America gets taken over by zombies). One of the main characters was a really tough man whose son had been eaten by a zombie. Although he was really tough he had a soft spot for Twinkie’s (a soft cream-filled pastry which his son always loved). Since America had been taken over by zombies no one was there to make Twinkie’s. Every time he got to a stop he would search for Twinkie’s then he would savour them. This is why all this relates to my belief. Always savour the little things. Before you know it they could be gone, this I believe.

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Should We Stand Up For Others?

What are the consequences of ' just accepting the situation in which you find yourself [so] everything will be so much easier'? (Boyne 53)Bruno's father to Bruno.

Hitler got into power through lies, the main lie being “the Jews are the reason we lost the Great War”. Obviously that was not true. People were too scared to face Hitler with him having the military and the government on his side. They thought that if you went against him you would get killed immediately, which would most likely happen to you. Hitler also lied about what was happening to the Jews. He didn’t tell people that they were going to be starved and tortured and forced into labor. He only told the Germans that they were going to be killed and that Germany would become a perfect, blonde and blue-eyed nation.

There were various people (like the people of Le Chambon, a small town in France) who would protect the Jews and take care of the so that they would live a normal life where they weren’t hated by people. There were also some brave people who would break into the concentration camps and release some of the Jewish people. Other groups such as the White Rose Movement would publicly go against the Nazi’s and hand out flyers and protest against Hitler and the genocide.

Just accepting the situation does not make things easier because is watching people die better than dying yourself? If I had a Jewish friend at that time in Germany I wouldn’t let them die because the rest of the country says they are animals. Killing innocent humans because they are different doesn’t make you and more human and just accepting the situation doesn’t help because it doesn’t help you to have people who are almost exactly the same as you. Personally I wouldn’t let myself accept the situation whether it’s a live or death situation.

Steve McCurry was born in Philadelphia in the year 1950. His work deals with the art of photography and most of his most famous pictures are about war children and poverty. He is well known for his masterpiece “Afghan Girl”. The photo was placed in with the top 100 photos in the world and was on the cover of the national geographic magazine.

The “Afghan Girl” was definitely the most famous and eye-catching photo but it wasn’t the only good one. The photo I chose really stood out for me because when I first saw it I felt a wave of happiness. That was because after seeing all the pictures of depression, I’ve realized this is one of the few Steve McCurry where all the people are smiling.

The main setting is in a small room with one door/window. You can tell that there is only one door/window because light is coming from one direction only. The walls are covered in plastic which states that the family can’t afford to buy a house that keeps the rain out.

In the center of the photo are two people in a white hammock. The smallest one seems to be about 3~4 years old and the other one seems to be his father. Even though they live in such a small and run-down house, they are still so happy.

The older man also makes the child look small and delicate because of the way the child is curled up in a ball and how the adult seems laid back and spread out along the hammock. This makes me wonder why most of us don’t appreciate what we have.

Over all, I think when McCurry took this picture his intention might have been to show people that no matter what situation you are in (unless you have to make a choice of life and death) you should always be able to find happiness.

The "Complimenting" people

If I were there when they were complimenting everyone I would have probably just smiled and thought "Okay...?" but after I saw their video I thought it was really nice of them to just stand there and take the time complementing others. It makes others HAPPY!!!!

I wouldn't just say that America is in a bad mood because there is so much depression in the world today and everyday but at the same time there are happy things going on. When there's war there's war there's always someone trying to end it.

Every one needs to smile once in a while and these people are trying to make that happen.

I chose the picture on the right because the "complementing people were just trying to tell people to be happy.

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The Name Story

Anya. Short, simple and strange. Why strange you may ask? Well, have you ever heard a name that means something when is spelt backwards and has a whole different meaning when its forward. If you haven’t, now you have. My name means mirror when it’s backwards. My name forwards means grace and favor (Russian) and “The Inexhaustible” (Sanskrit). I agree with favor but grace… not so much and inexhaustible, don’t ask, I didn’t choose my name’s meaning.

The Russian version is almost the opposite of the Sanskrit version. Inexhaustible is basically hyper right? If anyone speaks Sanskrit it’s the yogis (or very, very religious people). Well I am not a yogi because they are very patient and graceful and I might never be graceful.

Back to the opposites. Grace isn’t the opposite of hyper because it is clumsy but aren’t people who are hyper end up clumsy too. I sometimes feel like there is an omen to my name. I haven’t actually thought that before but now I am starting too. A very strange omen. Not a bad one like grace is a good meaning but not even an excellent omen like inexhaustible leads to hyper which a lead to clumsy then that too leads to forgetfulness. I am pretty forgetful but I hope soon the grace’s magic will start to work.

I feel my name is a leaf blending into an exotic rain forest. A spy falling into a crowd. Even a grain of sand on a sandbar in the middle of the ocean. It is a name that you won’t hear everyday unless you are me or my sister etc., but it is still weird because a lot of people have un-common names and they all say that they have been teased about their name. Nearly everyone I know has been teased about that and I’m not any different. I have been called onion and that doesn’t even rhyme with Anya. I have to admit I love my name because it is everything I am (apart from grace) and for my whole life I haven’t taken the time to appreciate the name and the fact that it is short and it’s simple yet unique resembles me in a positive way. I am my name and that’s just the way like it.

" Not all those who wander are lost"

I picked this quote because I found it in the book I was reading and I thought it was really good because it is a journey quote that doesn’t have the word journey in it. Most of the quotes that you might find will have the word journey and that makes it less magical. This quote is kind of like the way I think of a journey it is not really when you are determined to do something. That is more of a quest. A journey is more like if you were out exploring.

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