After having completed my third degree now, I have learned one very important lesson; the value of friendship. Yes I know it sounds über cheesy, but in all honesty I believe this to be true. As of this moment I am over qualified for most positions I apply for and yet I feel under qualified for my friends. I truly have met some of the most amazing people over the last one and a half years and I could not be happier. Having started my graduate degree in Heidelberg Germany, where I absolutely knew no one; I was terrified. However as time passed and the seasons changed, so did my relationships with the people around me.
Looking back now, I wish I would have saved more time for the group of ladies that entered my life because if I had known how I would feel today and how much I would have missed them, I am sure I would have taken a breath before it all ended. But nonetheless, no one can stop the winds of change.
From the Egyptian Princess, the German Goddesses, the Ukrainian Warrior and the American Dare Devil; I could never have imagined myself to have such an ecliptic group of friends. I have studied various subjects throughout my academic career but it truly wasnt until this time I learned the true meaning of friendship. From these five amazing women, I dont think I could have succeeded so gracefully and to them I will always be grateful. We have all had our moments in life where you think the world is crashing around you and you think nothing better will ever come, in these moments it is friends like these that will always come to your rescue and be the pillars of support. In the moments of true happiness it will be these friends that will come and celebrate with you and sing your name in praise. Those that stand beside you through the worst and the best are the ones that are worth fighting for and the ones that deserve to be apart of one another’s lives.
Of course the main objective of university is the academic achievement but what I feel that most seem to forget is the bonds and relationships that you build while one strives for success. During these times of stress and fear of the future we learn who we are as individuals, we grow into adulthood, and from this experience we try to become the best that we dare to dream. Yet to do this alone is no easy task and personally I do not recommend it, we are only human afterwards and for the most part crave a certain comfort of family and friends.
In the end I would have to say to those that pay attention, do not forget to stop and smell the roses. You never know, you may just find a friend who you could share such beauty with.
We walk along different roads hoping to find the same things. We love to live in a way that contents our hearts and that brings us closer to something we have named happiness. Some of us think they have found it and others spend their lives roaming their hearts, souls, and the world looking for something that resembles this concept of being happy. Than questions arise, have we really found what we were looking for and will we ever really know it was what we were looking for? Others might claim it is not the destination but the journey that matters, but ultimately we are still searching for this same construct of life and whether it is the journey or the destination is irrelevant.
I wonder if it is epiphany like when one discovers their happiness is genuine or realistically lasting. Temporary happiness is easy to obtain and to too continue if financial means are of no consequence, but again this isn’t happiness in the pure innocent form of which I speak of.
Defining happiness is not an easy task and has been tried for many years as well as in various fields of studies to be defined. From psychology to religion and even into the scientific study of the brain; many have attempted to dissect the concept that underlines our perception and understanding of not only the meaning of happiness but what it means to us as an individual personally.
I once wrote a paper on the idea that peace is personal and that before one can ultimately be at peace with the world they must be at peace with themselves first and then only will the world become a more content place for themselves and others around them. However this concept is not easily transferred to the concept of happiness and this fuzzy warm feeling that we all desire in our lives. Happiness isn’t a personal endeavor because it is so closely linked to all of the people around us. Our personal happiness depends on the happiness of those around us. Unfortunately this idea is true and as much as I wish I could say those around you don’t matter when speaking of individual feelings but this is simply not the case. If you are unhappy because a relationship in your life is not fulfilling, than change must be acted upon if you truly wish to be happy. Deciding which course of action to take in the change, is something of a mystery.
Through various social understandings and emotional stability, happiness should be a relatively simple concept to understand and adapt into our lives. Yet through my own personal experiences, this is a difficult task and has become a challenge with many obstacles. Perhaps I am alone in this feeling and maybe I’m not, but from my life I see people that think they are happy or project a happiness. However it seems that a genuinely happy person is a rare diamond in the rough. Maybe we are all like diamonds. We aren’t very rare or unique anymore, not with over 6 billion people on the planet yet we prelude to the idea that we are. We create a false sense of originality just as the world still believes that diamonds are a rare gem. When really we are all just coal under pressure and sometimes we come out clearer than others. We also define ourselves to a standard of ourselves against those around us, just as we compare the clarity of diamonds against one another. The shape, the cut, and the placement are all of importance when deciding which diamond to purchase and as we look to the people we choose to spend our time with do these same attributes come into play. We are just as picky as the diamonds we spend our money on as we are in the love and the friendship we decide to let into our lives. Have we really degraded our lives into a series of standards and requirements to define what we see as happiness? Has truth become nothing more than a check list of criteria that we see as a necessity to achieve what we define happiness as? Regardless if our definition of being happy is the same or completely different.
No. We must remember that just because there is a negative connotation around diamonds does not mean they were always like this. Diamonds are strong, resilient, and have a sense of purpose in our lives. Our need for them is as strong as our need to defend ourselves and our individuality. When we get to the point of defense that is so strong, our happiness will come from the personal satisfaction of knowing that we have defined ourselves as an individual and I believe from this idea does happiness come through. If we define, defend, and persevere with clarity and strength our diamond like personalities will reflect the light that exists inside all of us and mirror the true level of happiness that we really hold. Any point beyond this concept is than up to the individual. No one else can tell another anything more, because this concept is a very personal endeavor and can only be achieved with in.
Those that know me, know how much I love coffee. I like everything about it; from the actual plant, to the roasting process, the production process, the marketing aspects and the selling concepts. There are many issues with coffee and the coffee farmers. It has been one of those products, at least up untill recently, that most people did not even think to consider where it came from. We have always had coffee but the ethical awarenss has only been recently on our radar. Today we have the Fair Trade and Green Revolution taking place that has brought awareness to the evils of the coffee market. We are still far from curing the ills of the developed worlds greed for cheap products but I feel confident in saying that in the coffee world there is a certain level of awareness and understanding for being ethically and socially responsible.
At my university I worked with a friend and we established a Nespresso Machine in our school. We worked out the cost, usage and profits. I was more focused on the actual coffee but it was a great way to implement a love of mine into my school studies and to practice my management abilities.
I am also an advocator of the Starbucks rewards card. I cannot even begin to tell you how much money a person can save just by using the card. For example, I like to drink drip coffee and with the Starbucks reward card I never have to pay for refills. I get free espresso shots, various free drink specials, discounts, and if I gain a few more points I will even get a personalized card (this is mainly for my own customer satisfaction but regardless people always say Starbucks is too expensive but really you just have to know the company). I also stress Starbucks because they are one of the major players in being fair trade certified, corporately and socially responsible. As a concious consumer this means a lot to me. The projects they have implemented all over the world not only helps their marketing plan but also the people that benefit from these programs.
In school I am constantly doing projects on coffee. Fair trade certifications, marketing strategies, corporate responsibility, and investment opporunities. I was even considering applying to coffee companies, but I fear that if I work for a coffee company my love for coffee will diminish and this is one relationship that I do not want to jeopardize.
As a closing remark. Please be aware of where your products come from. It is important to know who, how and what went into getting you the products you buy. We should be more concious and awake to what we consume.
There always comes a point in time when we take a moment to reflect who we once were and who we have become. Over my holiday break I decided to re read some of the books that had influenced me as a young adult and see if what once effected me in a certain way would have a different effect today. This brought me back to Fitzgerald and the wonderful stories that he brought to life through his words. Although I had forgotten that “Tender is the Night” could be considered a romantic novel, it did not feel right to just abandon the story just because of this. (I have a small tendency to avoid anything romantic because I am not sure if I believe that love really exists and to romanticize it as Hollywood does seems a bit ridiculous to me)
As much as I love the writing style of Fitzgerald and the way he brings to life the feeling of his time, I felt slightly disappointed in the ending of this specific book. Everything from the beginning to the middle was excellent. Filled with traveling stories, new and different people, love and romance of course. Yet when it came to the end and Dick Diver lost hope in himself, I also felt as if I was losing hope. The relationship he has with his wife and with his mistress were interesting and strange, but when they also began to fail and it seemed as if everything was falling apart I seriously began to wonder if this is how Fitzgerald felt about his own life. Perhaps I get to involved in the books or movies I read and watch, but I really wish the book had ended in a way that could have given the hope back. Was he ever truly happy and if not did he eventually find it? There is a part of me that needs to know the answer to this question, because if Dick Diver cannot find happiness, who is to say anyone can? (I do not mean for this to sound depressing or cynical in any way, just as a question of observation and understanding)
I want to believe that everyone can find happiness and be truly happy. Even though “Tender is the Night” is just one story by one author, I felt let down by the simple fact that we do not even get to experience Dick Diver ever being completely happy. For some reason this idea makes me anxious. In a time when things were so much simpler, why could the people who had the most could not find the one thing we all want and strive for?
Since I have been studying in Germany, I have had the opportunity to meet so many people from different cultures so I decided that it is time to learn a new language. After learning German and a little Spanish I wanted to pick a language that I would not have the opportunity to study back in the States. I was fortunate enough that a great oppportunity presented it self to me through a close friend of mine who is originally from Egypt has taken the time to teach me Arabic. Even though I know that I will not be able to really grasp the language well without moving to an Arabic country, I find the idea exciting.
Starting on the basics of Arabic phrases and simple grammer, I have noticed that being able to write Arabic is much easier than being able to speak and understand a conversation. I knew that starting this endeavor would be no simple task, but I am realizing I have picked a language that is much more difficult than originally expected.
There are several websites that I have found very helpful. The first one is yamli, a website where you can write Arabic without an Arabic keyboard and it is amazing. Learning to write Arabic is already a challange but on top of it trying to figure out each variation of a character is a whole other story. The second website I found to be very useful is a simple basic Arabic phrase site, where they give you the prounciation and the word in the Arabic alphabet. Of course there are many other websites that provide free introductory lessons in Arabic but what I have found most useful is being able to hear my friend talk to her family and friends in Arabic.
I never thought that I would ever have the opportunity to learn a language as Arabic and I feel so appreciative that I live in a city that is culturally diverse enough that I do have the resources to achieve this goal.
أحب اللغة ال عربية
In our society the word peace has found a home among political, economic, and social institutions. Where we are constantly attempting to create peaceful nations, mediate different groups of people, find common ground, and ultimately bring compromise to what was once opposition. Yet something that many people forget is that peace starts from within. We must first find inner peace before we attempt to instill it others and the world around us.
How can we be taken seriously if we are preaching what we are not acting out ourselves? The 14th Dalai Lama once said, “Peace starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us. When our community is in a state of peace, it can share peace with neighboring communities, and so on. When we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.”
All humans have the natural ability to love and show compassion. However through society and social standards we find ourselves conforming to different types of discrimination and stereotyping. Whether it is because of the color of ones skin, their sexual orientation, gender, religion, nationality, or sex we have found every way of hurting our neighbors. The real question is why? For centuries humanity has been at war with its self. Do we not think its time to step away from this adolescence? Through dialogue and learning to understand ourselves we can learn to understand one another. Being able to openly discuss the problems and issues we all face is the first step in trying to find a new definition for peace and what it means to be a peaceful person, nation, religion, etc.
Faith in Humanity needs to be restored on a global scale. Yes the small moments are always important, but the big picture should also not be neglected. I give props to the European Union for achieving peace for so long and obtaining the Nobel Peace Prize, but I have to ask: Is this not mainly because of the economic integration of the EU economies and not because peace was the main objective? Opening up the EU boarders was initially done to increase trade and development, now people can claim it keeps us peaceful but in my opinion its only because of the “Golden Arch Theory”. Which states that one nation will not go to war with another nation whose economies are tightly intertwined. How fair is it to say the the EU is acting in peaceful means simply because they do not want to damage their economy?
Organizations like the EU are shaping the way we define peace, but I feel we are to willing to accept these new definitions without first reevaluating what it will mean for the future. Should we follow our hearts or our wallets?
Just a thought.
