Nostalgia in the Poems by Kamaladas - 3364 Words

Kamala Surayya From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kamala Suraiyya (formerly known as Kamala Das) | Born | March 31, 1934 Punnayurkulam, Malabar District, Madras Presidency, British India | Died | May 31, 2009 (aged 75) Pune, Maharashtra, India | Pen name | Madhavikkutty | Occupation | Poet, short story writer | Nationality | Indian | Genres | Poetry, Short story | Notable award(s) | Ezhuthachchan Puraskaram, Vayalar Award, Sahitya Akademi Award, Asan World Prize, Asian Poetry Prize, Kent Award | Spouse(s) | Madhava Das | Kamala Suraiyya (b. Kamala Madhavikutty) (Malayalam à ´â€¢Ã  ´ ®Ã  ´ ²Ã  ´ ¾ à ´ ¸Ã  µ Ã  ´ °Ã  ´ ¯Ã  µ Ã  ´ ¯ / à ´ ®Ã  ´ ¾Ã  ´ §Ã  ´ µÃ  ´ ¿Ã  ´â€¢Ã  µ Ã  ´â€¢Ã  µ Ã  ´Å¸Ã  µ Ã  ´Å¸Ã  ´ ¿) (31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009) was a major Indian English poet and literateur and at the same time a leading†¦show more content†¦Her conversion was rather controversial, among social and literary circles, with The Hindu calling it part of her histrionics[7]. She said she liked being behind the protective veil of the purdah[9]. Later, she said it was not worth it to change ones religion.[10] [edit] Politics Though never politically active before, she launched a national political party, Lok Seva Party, aiming asylum to orphaned mothers and promotion of secularism. In 1984 she unsuccessfully contested in the Indian Parliament elections.[11] [edit] Personal life Kamala Das had three sons - M D Nalapat, Chinnen Das and Jayasurya Das.[12] Madhav Das Nalapat, the eldest, is married to Princess Lakshmi Bayi (daughter of M.R.Ry. Sri Chembrol Raja Raja Varma Avargal) from the Travancore Royal House.[13] He holds the UNESCO Peace Chair and Professor of geopolitics at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education. He was formerly a resident editor of the Times of India. On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune. Her body was flown to her home state of Kerala. She was buried at the Palayam Juma Masjid at Thiruvanathapuram with full state honour.[14][15] [edit] Awards and other recognitions Kamala Das has received many awards for her literary contribution, including: * Nominated and shortlisted for Nobel Prize in

Analysis Of Mcmahan s The Metaphysics Of Brain Death

McMahan s The Metaphysics of Brain Death presents a case for the distinction between the body as the organism and the mind as the person. In defining this â€Å"mind-body dualism† (sec. 0, abstract), McMahan s distinction brings forth a greater implication in the criterion for the death of a person, exploring the â€Å"dominant conception of brain death† which reasons that the loss of capacity for consciousness, caused by irreversible damage to the whole brain or brain stem, is sufficient for such a declaration as a persons ceasing to live (sec. 1, pars. 1-3). McMahan does not oppose the argument of brain death on the grounds of capacity for consciousness, but rather uses this to present that â€Å"the death of the entire brain is not equivalent to†¦show more content†¦McMahan first introduces twinning when he is making his case against person-as-organism, challenging that idea by arguing that if that were true, then it stands to reason, â€Å"if we assume t hat my organism began to exist at the time of its conception, then we must accept that I [as a person] began to exist at conception† (sec. 2, par. 2). It is here that McMahan articulates an argument that an organism might not exist until syngamy, and further that, in the case of monozygotic twinning, â€Å"since it seems arbitrary to say that one of the subsequent embryos is identical with the original zygote while the other is not, it seems reasonable to conclude that the original zygote ceases to exist when it splits and that two new embryos, and thus two new organisms, begin to exist†. From this, McMahan argues that it is inconceivable that the capacity for consciousness, a prerequisite for the existence of a person, has been reached in the case of a zygotal stage of organism life (sec. 2, par. 3). It makes rational sense to argue that at this point, McMahan has thus presented a grounds to reason for the quantitative measurement of requirement for consciousness (it w ould be no difficult to go off from this point, but that is a different problem for a different argument which could certainly be made). In any case, McMahan goes on to lay out a scenario to further separate the person from the organism, introducing the case of P and his brother. In this thought-experiment, P s

Medical Nursing Business Community Placement

Question: Describe about the Medical Nursing for Business Community Placement. Answer: Part-A: Gibbs model of reflection Description In the RDNS SOUTH SITE in Dandenong, Melbourne community placement was going on. I was practicing my nursing as a wound care nurse in wound management, medication administration and monitoring of blood glucose level. I was attending a 55-year-old patient on wound exudation with surgical wound. The patient was also suffering from dementia and had limited mobility. He was battling through depression. Thoughts On knowing about his medical condition, I felt pity for his sufferings and his physical pain. I felt depressed after knowing about his conditions. The care assistants were negligent regarding the old mans condition. The documentation regarding the healing of the wound was not proper. Still, I felt confident and tried my best to help the old man and relief him from his sufferings. The outcome of the event was good. The old mans wound healed gradually and he was relieved from the pain. Evaluation The whole incident taught me to evaluate my nursing practice and my role in healing a wound of a patient. It helped me to put my basic knowledge about wounds into practice and helped patients to relieve from their physical pain. The incident was challenging as the old man was suffering from loss of memory and communication was a big barrier in managing his wound. The wound healing involves many factors like clinical knowledge, psychological and educational approaches (Baillie, 2014). The altered mood of the man he was suffering from depression and fixed mobility delayed the wound healing. There was also inability to self-care. Analysis The whole incident taught me that the old man was unfortunate and was suffering from lot of physical and mental pain. I was happy that I did my best to help the old man in every possible way. I realized that the wound management requires a lot of patience, skills and communication to deal the patients with surgical wounds (Brooker, Waugh, 2013). The professionals in wound management have to be more responsible and skilled to deal with difficult situations in their medical practice of wound healing. Conclusion Apart from the professional skills in dealing patients with surgical wound healing, there is also requirement of care planning. The old man suffering from dementia needs to be handled patiently apart from his physical pain. The psychological parameters are also important in wound healing (Gillespie et al., 2015). My care plan was successful in healing the old mans surgical wound. I would also focus on the patients measurable needs along with the proper documentation and recording of the healing process. There is also requirement of interpersonal skills in nursing as the care assistants were negligent towards the old man and there was no proper documentation of his wound healing (Huseb, O'Regan, Nestel, 2015). Action plan If I encounter this kind of situation further in my nursing career, I will analyze the psychological needs of the patient along with physical pain associated with the wound healing. I will handle the situation patiently and be strong in dealing such situations. I will control my emotions and act professionally and be prepared for the worst situations at the same time (Moon, 2013). Part-B: SDH assessment circle to assess the health of LGA Introduction The clinical placement was going on in Royal District Nursing Service SOUTH SITE in Dandenong, Melbourne. The placement was going in wound management, medication administration and monitoring of blood glucose level. The Dandenong in Melbourne is a suburb in Victoria, Australia, southeast of the central business district in Melbourne. It is situated at the foothills of ranges of Dandenong. It has 130 kilometers square area and it is a local government area in Victoria having population of 21,911 residents according to 2014 statistics. Dandenong has a diverse culture in Victoria and consist of a high level of migrants including the Albanian and Turkish communities. There are approximately 150 residents from different birthplaces. There are over residents from India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Assessment of biological and genetic factors The Dandenong have a mix population that is vibrant in nature. There is multicultural population as there are number of people from overseas. There are people from India, Afghanistan, China, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Mauritius, England, Croatia and Sudan. About 60 per cent of the population was born overseas in Greater Dandenong and about 33 per cent of the residents of Melbourne metro born overseas. In the year of 2014-2015, there were 2,439 births in Greater Dandenong. There was an increase of 707 per annum in the population of children. The total number of deaths in Greater Dandenong in the year 2014 was 1015. There were 76,180 males in Greater Dandenong and 73,338 females in the year 2014. The median age of the persons in the population is 35. The number of children is born highest among the women who received limited education with no degree qualification aged 25-29. This is highly influenced by the level of education and opportunities for employment. Among the 47,000 households, about 37,000 of them are families, 30% of them are couples and 46% with children, 19% with single parent and 5% other types of families (Beza, Gollings, 2014). The general health of the people of Greater Dandenong residing indigenously is considered poor or fair. The life expectancy of the indigenous people is less than the non-indigenous residents. There is prevalence of gonorrhea, syphilis, chronic renal problems, tuberculosis, diabetes and hepatitis B among the indigenous population. Child abuse, disability, suicides, school dropouts and poor health habits are also common in the residents of Greater Dandenong. There are also people reporting asthma, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, heart disease, poor dental health among the people of Greater Dandenong. The Local Government Area reported that there are 33.4% of persons being overweight in which 22% females and 44% males. The incidence of cancer is 440.3% per thousand populations in which the 398.1% are females and 481.1 males. The premature deaths in Dandenong are due to cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The common health conditions and risk factors are the lack of physical exercise, alcohol abuse, smoking and overweight conditions. The population aged 18 years and above reported that they suffer from psychological distress so they are prone to depression and suicides attempts (Gibson-Helm et al., 2014). Assessment of gender and culture There is gender inequality prevailing in Australia as there is low number of women participating in jobs, degree education, and wide gender pay gap, involvement of women in media and also high rates of domestic violence. Among the various factors contributing to the violence in women, alcohol is the most significant factor in domestic violence. Psychological illnesses, depression and financial problems are the factors contributing to the increase in violence against women. Childhood abuse is another factor that is not so significant but still a contributing factor to violence against women. Cultural and language disparities also make women vulnerable to violence. The non-Aboriginal Australian women are at high risk to violence because of colonization impacts and that leads to lack of support from support groups. As there is cultural diversity seen in the community of Greater Dandenong, there are various languages spoken by people. The Greater Dandenong has the highest level of cultur al diversity among all the Local Government Areas of Melbourne, Victoria. There is about 55% of born non-English speaking residents and 64.5% of people speaking language other than English at home (Ratnayake, 2016). There are other languages that are spoken widely includes Vietnamese, Greek, Khmer, Chinese, Punjabi and Sinhalese. About one out of seven has limited fluency over English language that is 14%, 50% of women and 30% of women. In Dandenong, Albanian and Dari are the most frequent languages. As there is cultural diversity, there are special needs and services of the residents in the community. The people are diverse in age, gender, color, race, and marital status, physical and political beliefs. There are needs to support the diversity, appropriate needs of the cultural families, disparity in languages and citizenship. The asylum and refugee seeking services, aboriginal community needs, language assistance and translation, citizenship, racism issues, the diversity trends and supporting groups to help the residents with diversity problems. The Bunurong clans form a boundary with the Mayone Bullak and Ngaruk William (Russo et al., 2015). The spiritual needs of these people were dedication to different seasons supporting the sustainability of the natural resources. After years of observation by the Bururong people, they predicted their seasonal resources availability by making certain changes in the plant and animal growth and behavior. There are also scarred trees that are highly valued present on private and public lands. The spiritual needs are addressed by the Councils to help them preserve their cultural and spiritual heritage and help them to meet their needs in the present and preserving for the future. The Baptist Church In Dandenong serves the spiritual needs and expand his services by offering meals to the people, organizing community hub, childcare center, counseling rooms for the people suffering from depression and employment opportunities for people. Assessing the physical environment The Greater Dandenong Environmental Group takes care of the environment and creates awareness among the people about the environmental issues. They are responsible for ensuring clean water and air to the people of Greater Dandenong. The schools and local reserves in collaboration with the local council plant indigenous plants and also monitor the bird life and environmental support groups to provide knowledge about the different environmental risks to the people. There are themes reported by the State of Environment Report 2014-2015 in Greater Dandenong. The Government is providing greater protection for the remnant native vegetation and implementation of plans to manage the bush lands, residential and green wedges (King et al., 2016). The integrated water management to implement the water cycle as the draught conditions is prevailing in the area. Water irrigation, alternate use of other sources of water such as storm water and rainwater and increasing the cost of drinking water to r educe the dependency on drinking water are the measures for council use. For the communitys water use, the City of Greater Dandenong has taken steps to create awareness among the residents about issues regarding water and ways to reduce the use of drinking water. The way to improve the water quality is to use the storm water linking to drainage water network. The three bin system is currently employed for waste management; general waste bin, garden waste bin and large recycling (Bishop, Thoms Mason, 2015). Assessing the social environment The people of Greater Dandenong are obese, overweight and are addicted to smoking and alcohol. The Dandenong Community Health Center in collaboration with organizations and communities promote healthy lifestyle and wellbeing to reduce the health risks and prevent illness. There are three different types of housing in Greater Dandenong with 70% of people residing as detached households, 22% flats type and 7% semi detached type (Randolph Tice, 2013). There are applications of differential residential zones to identify and change the residential developments in Greater Dandenong. The Greater Dandenong Planning Scheme looks after the residential planning according to the local policies, zones and provisions for specific land use. The Residential Growth Zone enables the growth of new housing and diversity. The General Residential Zone respects the existing neighborhood with growth for moderate housing and its diversity (Rahman at al., 2013). The Community Engagement Strategy enables the groups of different communities to support the indigenous groups, special programs to support the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Assessing child health and development There is a mortality rate of 6.0 including 600 residents dying in Greater Dandenong. There were around 75,158 births according to the Maternal and Child Health in 2012 that showed an increase of 5,000 in the last five years (Bohensky et al., 2015). The Maternal and Child Health nurse gives visit to the children for the initial consultation. The Integrated Health Promotion Plan works for the priorities of womens reproductive health in identifying the barriers in the achievement of reproductive health for women and providing them responsive information and related services associated with their reproductive health. It is aimed at improving the reproductive empowerment for women by introducing the strategies like informed consents; advocacy and education, focusing on the reproductive rights of the women. It also promotes gender equality, improving the literacy in women regarding reproductive health and access to information for the linguistically and culturally different women regarding reproductive health. Children were also identified for assistance in disability and depression. The immunization is appreciating in Greater Dandenong for the wellbeing and health of children from many diseases. The Monash Health is providing integrated hospital and community based services to focus on health improvement in the community. The Greater Dandenong Council provides a free and confidential service called Maternal and Child health (MCH) for the families having children from age of birth to school (Renzaho, Oldroyd, 2014). This service is also accessible to the parents who come and settle in Greater Dandenong. There are also local services and hospitals for the families and their children. There are programs for pregnant women supporting, educating and providing linkages. The linkage services provide women engagement in services, additional support from the community based programs, and care for the women while collaborating with services for maternal and child health services. There are ongoing child care with long day, occasional, family day care and vacation care. These kinds of care services provide education or care for children based on all day or part time. These services en courage the children to be creative and stimulated while they interact with their friends. They are also encouraged to early learning tailored meeting the needs and care for every child. The neonatal child care is provided by the medical staffs and midwives of Monash Health for babies born in less than 37 weeks of gestation and underweight at the time off birth. Assessing education and literacy The literacy rate is one in seven (14%) of the residents having limited English literacy. It is 70% among the aged group of 65 to 74 (Correa-Velez et al., 2016). The women has limited literacy as compared to men among the older Australians and men having less literacy when compared to women in the younger age groups. When limited English literacy is compared to people having English as the second language, it is four times prevalent. The paid employment group is having lowest English literacy and higher in people who are unemployed. It is highest among the people who are not in the labor force having men with limited English literacy when compared to females (de Heer et al., 2016). The young people of Greater Dandenong experience less favorable development of early school, leave school, less attended university and are disengaged from the employment, education and be unemployed in their life. The Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) measures the development of pupils in school across Australia during their first year. The physical, emotional, social, cognitive and communication, general knowledge is the five domains of development in a child that is assessed by AEDC in Greater Dandenong. The proportion of non-participation of prep school pupils is highest that is 12.1% in Greater Dandenong. According to 2011 census, the early school leaving children before the completion of 11 years was 13% aged 20-24 in Greater Dandenong comprising of mostly young adults of Afghanistan and Burma. 16% of the Greater Dandenong people aged 20-24 were youth disengaged in neither having employment nor educated being the second in the youth disengagement in Melbourne. There are around eight Neighborhood Houses and Learning Centers aimed at providing the caring and safe environment for people belonging to different age groups, backgrounds, culture, interest and abilities to come together as one to participate in different programs and activities that encourage mixing of different cultures and lifelong learning abilities in the community people. Assessing employment and financial status The status of unemployment is high among the people of Greater Dandenong especially in local refugees and the occupation is mainly focused on laboring as the local occupation, trading and process work. In March 2015, the unemployment levels have reached to 12.3% that is twice the number of metropolitan and being the highest in Victoria. It is about 22% in Greater Dandenong having more than 54,000 residents in paid employed and manufacturing industry being the most common form of employment (Baum, Mitchell Flanagan, 2013). The unemployed group experience the high levels of stress, depression and anxiety according to the 2014 Stress and Wellbeing statistics in Australia. This arising depression has a damaging impact on their physical and mental wellbeing. The income levels of males are about 58% higher than females in a week and this disparity is seen in the working age group (Renzaho, Oldroyd, 2014). The earnings also differed depending upon the birth places that are Australians ear n more than the residents from Burma and Iraq. The workers are young engaged in full or part time occupations as labors, trainee or working at structured learning program. There is 17% of injuries and 21% off hospitalization due to occupational hazards. There are occupational health and safety acts for the workers protecting them from occupational risks and hazards. Under the act, they have health and safety representatives and policies assessing them and providing them information regarding the occupational risks. Assessing social support networks There is community and disability support groups like aged care services, community legal services, senior clubs, community support grants program, disability services, settlement services, community response grants program, social groups and programs, special needs and disability support groups encouraged to develop respectful relationships, promote gender equity support the migrants and refugees, youth issues and improving the childrens physical and mental health (Best Savic, 2014). Assessing health services and resources The Dandenong hospital provides the acute services in general medicine, surgical, rehabilitation, aged services, intensive and cardiac care unit and children services with orthopedic and rehabilitation services (Kibbey et al., 2013). There are primary health care services for acute post care, community rehabilitation, primary care, alcohol and drug abuse, occupational therapy, pharmacy and labor wards with operating theatres and diagnostic laboratories. There are Greater Dandenong Community Health services for the individuals to ensure health services, wellbeing of most diverse and vulnerable communities and assessing them for health risk factors (Yelland et al., 2015). The Council supports the wide range of projects supporting the refugees, celebrating cultural diversity week, Dandenong film festivals and refugee week to welcome and support the emerging diverse culture of Greater Dandenong. The Disability services aimed to address the issues of exclusion and disadvantage experienced by the disabled persons. It works to create awareness among the community, plan to address the issues and projects to respond to their needs and concerns. Assessing health practices and coping The health and wellbeing planning aims to improve the health and promote wellbeing of the residents of Greater Dandenong working in collaboration with government bodies, local communities and agency services (Meadows et al., 2015). The affordable and healthy opportunities like employing physical exercise and recreational activities among the residents of all backgrounds, abilities, coupled with cycling and walking. There are family and youth services to support and manage the families who live, study or work in Greater Dandenong (Advocat, Russell Mathews, 2016). They focus on family intervention and provide counseling to youths and the families focusing on the connections with the child. Conclusion The residents of Greater Dandenong follow a sedentary lifestyle after assessing the health and mental statistics. The health outcomes of the people are poor or fair. They are mostly overweight and suffer from obesity. The main causes of mortality are cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, alcohol consumption, mental disability, unemployment, occupational hazards and lack of balanced diet. The most identified priorities that are needed to be assessed to promote health in the community are the creating awareness among the people regarding the health lifestyle, ill effects of sedentary lifestyle, alcohol abuse; unemployment related depression and stress, lack of physical exercise and balanced diet are the major health concerns among the community people. While focusing on these health concerns of the Greater Dandenong residents, the health and wellbeing would be promoted. References Advocat, J., Russell, G., Mathews, M. (2016). Building links between town and gown: an innovative organisation in south-eastern Melbourne. Australian journal of primary health, 22(2), 71-76. Baillie, L. (2014). Developing practical nursing skills. CRC Press. Baum, S., Mitchell, W., Flanagan, M. (2013). Employment Vulnerability in Australian Suburbs. Red alert suburbs: An employment vulnerability index for Australia's major urban regions. In 14th Path to Full Employment Conference 19th National Conference on Unemployment (pp. 1-31). Centre for Full Employment and Equity, The University of Newcastle. Best, D., Savic, M. (2014). 18 Substance abuse and offending. Working Within the Forensic Paradigm: Cross-discipline Approaches for Policy and Practice, 22, 259. Beza, B., Gollings, J. (2014). Revitalising central Dandenong: Partnerships and approaches. Landscape Architecture Australia, (141), 28. Bishop, H., Thoms, A., Mason, W. (2015). Engaging communities in climate change adaptation. Climate Change Adaptation for Health and Social Services, 227. Bohensky, E. L., Carter, L., Meharg, S., Butler, J. R. A., McEachern, S., Hajkowicz, S. (2015). Australia-Indonesia Centre Megatrends: Health. Report prepared for the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Monash University. Brooker, C., Waugh, A. (2013). Foundations of nursing practice: Fundamentals of holistic care. Elsevier Health Sciences. Correa-Velez, I., Gifford, S. M., McMichael, C., Sampson, R. (2016). Predictors of Secondary School Completion Among Refugee Youth 8 to 9 Years After Resettlement in Melbourne, Australia. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 1-15. de Heer, N., Due, C., Riggs, D. W., Augoustinos, M. (2016). It will be hard because I will have to learn lots of English: experiences of education for children newly arrived in Australia. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 29(3), 297-319. Gibson-Helm, M., Teede, H., Block, A., Knight, M., East, C., Wallace, E. M., Boyle, J. (2014). Maternal health and pregnancy outcomes among women of refugee background from African countries: a retrospective, observational study in Australia. BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 14(1), 1. Gillespie, B. M., Chaboyer, W., St John, W., Morley, N., Nieuwenhoven, P. (2015). Health professionals decision?making in wound management: a grounded theory. Journal of advanced nursing, 71(6), 1238-1248. Huseb, S. E., O'Regan, S., Nestel, D. (2015). Reflective practice and its role in simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 11(8), 368-375. Kibbey, K. J., Speight, J., Wong, J. L. A., Smith, L. A., Teede, H. J. (2013). Diabetes care provision: barriers, enablers and service needs of young adults with type 1 diabetes from a region of social disadvantage. Diabetic medicine, 30(7), 878-884. King, S., Ayre, M., Simpson, G., Lusher, D., Hopkins, J. (2016). Sustainable regional development through networks. Meadows, G. N., Enticott, J. C., Inder, B., Russell, G. M., Gurr, R. (2015). Better access to mental health care and the failure of the Medicare principle of universality. Med J Aust, 202(4), 190-194. Moon, J. A. (2013). Reflection in learning and professional development: Theory and practice. Routledge. Rahman, A., Harding, A., Tanton, R., Liu, S. (2013). Simulating the characteristics of populations at the small area level: New validation techniques for a spatial microsimulation model in Australia. Computational Statistics Data Analysis, 57(1), 149-165. Randolph, B., Tice, A. (2013). Who lives in higher density housing? A study of spatially discontinuous housing sub-markets in Sydney and Melbourne. Urban Studies, 0042098013477701. Ratnayake, R. (2016). Association Between Fear of Crime Gender, Student Nationality, and Physical Features. Environment and Behavior, 0013916516644875. Renzaho, A. M., Oldroyd, J. C. (2014). Closing the gap in maternal and child health: a qualitative study examining health needs of migrant mothers in Dandenong, Victoria, Australia Renzaho, A. M., Oldroyd, J. C. (2014). Closing the gap in maternal and child health: a qualitative study examining health needs of migrant mothers in Dandenong, Victoria, Australia. Maternal and child health journal, 18(6), 1391-1402. Russo, A., Lewis, B., Joyce, A., Crockett, B., Luchters, S. (2015). A qualitative exploration of the emotional wellbeing and support needs of new mothers from Afghanistan living in Melbourne, Australia. BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 15(1), 1. Yelland, J., Riggs, E., Szwarc, J., Casey, S., Dawson, W., Vanpraag, D., ... Petschel, P. (2015). Bridging the Gap: using an interrupted time series design to evaluate systems reform addressing refugee maternal and child health inequalities. Implementation Science, 10(1), 1.

Weird Kid free essay sample

I was the weird kid in my misfit group of friends. Sure, everyone was different but I still felt like an outcast. For a while it was tolerable, but towards the middle of my junior year, I realized some very important things about myself and about the people around me. Even though I called them friends, they werent treating me the way friends should. And I was gay. I told them, thinking they would still support me. Boy, was I wrong! Things were okay at first. But steadily they just got worse. I dont know what they thought about me. It doesnt really matter though. It was how they treated me that almost ruined my life. I was cyber bullied. I didnt feel safe anywhere I went. It was the worst thing Ive ever gone through. But, I went through it. And I made it. While this was happening, it was nearing the end of my junior year. We will write a custom essay sample on Weird Kid or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Instead of giving us a final exam, my A.P History teacher assigned us projects. But instead of giving specific criteria to fulfill, it was up to us. We were told to come up with a project that we were passionate about, something that would take the summer to complete. At first, I was completely stumped on what to do. Later, though, I thought of the It Gets Better videos Id watched over and over. I thought of all the people I knew from a blogging site who’d gone through remarkably painful things. I wanted to learn their stories. And I wanted to share my own experience with people. I knew Id have to work really hard. But I wanted to make a difference. I had to show there was hope to people whod just begun to go through what Id survived. I decided to call it You Know My Face, Not My Story because of the instances where Id been bullied for things people didnt understand about me. About ten people ended up contributing. Their stories ranged from LGBT problems to sexual abuse, to f amily issues, and to self-harm. They were inspiring to not only me, but to a sister of a friend of mine as well. She had attempted suicide twice and was admitted to a local hospital in the psychiatric ward. When I went to visit her, I brought a copy of the project with me. I thought, This is what its for. This is why I did this. If it helps even one person, it is so worth it. And a few days later, she was discharged from the hospital. She still struggles. But Ill never forget her telling me that it helped her. After that day, I swore to myself that I wouldnt stop trying to make this project grow. I want to help people. Teenagers, especially, need to know there is hope and that they arent alone. I know I needed that. Its now my turn to share what Ive learned and spread the hope.