My Son's First Day in High School

          Yesterday marked another milestone for me and my son since he started his first day in High School on that day. Me and my wife were both excited and nervous as well since it was his first time to ride the public transport by himself. What made us a little bit relax though was by reminding our son to make sure that everything is prepared the night before. This included his school supplies, bag, and uniforms. 

          Knowing that it will be his first time to ride the bus by himself, we tried to orient him where then is the route of the bus and also its point of stop. Thus the day of reckoning came in yesterday as he had his first day in school. We were excited waiting for him in the afternoon. And when he came in, we eagerly asked him how then was the day for him. 

Image by Thomas G. from Pixabay

          As parents, we were also monitoring the school's update through their website and indeed, we were so elated to read those news coming from the school's staff especially from the principal letting us know the developments/ updates for all students' first day in school. At the end of the day, I was telling myself that I need to give patience for my son in his period of transition. 

The Importance of Being Happy

Guest Post:

Have you ever thought that happiness is an integral part of our life? For many people happiness is tightly connected with material things and well-being. However, there real meaning of this concept consist of spirituality.

Very seldom we pay attention to the fact that happiness is around us. You can find it in the smile of the stranger, in the rainbow, in the beauty of the nature. To be happy, you need to find inspiration in the things you do. For example,try to do something new every day. Today, you may start painting (even if you can't), tomorrow you can learn how to cook some dishes, etc. The wind of changes will inspire you and you will feel yourself confident and happy. 

Pay attention to the things that surround you and pay attention to the details. There are so many amazing events and moments! Open your heart to the world and you will see that life is an incredible thing, and you should be happy every day.

Be grateful for the things you have, and you will learn how to value every minute. Life is short, that is why it is important to be happy every minute. Do not forget to smile, because our smiles are the steps on our way to happiness and success. 

Laugh, enjoy your life and remember that our life is full of adventures and fun, and each of us has all the chances to be happy in this world. Happiness is inside you.

About the author:

Melissa Marzett is a professional writer, who is able to write on any topic. Her talent is magnificent, and she knows everything about the beauty of the word and she can show it to you. Simply visit, as Melissa works for this service: royalediting.com and check for her articles. 

                                             

Elements of a True Friendship

          As I spend this day, Friday, I come to think of the many forms of relationship that I have in my life. Then I realised that I am such a lucky person since all throughout my life, I have established friendships with different kinds of people and lucky enough then to have maintained that friendship with them. 

          How about you, can you count through your fingers the friends that you have in your life? Can you claim one friendship that would last forever? Basically, every human being is so complex that it goes beyond eternity to fully comprehend one human person. All throughout the years, our personality becomes moulded by various factors such as upbringings, genes, environment, friendships etc.. Yes, it is very true that our friends make so much impact in our life that without our knowledge, our ways of dealing with others have been influenced by them anymore. 

          How then could we establish a lasting friendship? To answer such question, we could think of numerous factors such as presence, availability, understanding and trust. In fact, there are others that we can think of yet I just would like to focus on these shared items as my most essential ones so as to maintain and sustain a long and lasting friendship. 

A short elaboration for them would be as follows:

a. presence- what makes a friendship lasts is when both friends are generous in sharing his presence with the other party. And this is true not just on rainy days but holds true on days with stormy weathers. On the other hand, this never limits as well on a mere physical presence but somehow, the presence here is the quality one meaning it is being physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually present with the other person.

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b. availability- similar to presence, availability means that in spite of our day to day obligations, duties, schedules, priorities etc., we should still be able to make ourselves available to our friends. As commonly stated, if we truly value our friendship with others, we should also learn to make ourselves available to cherish the friendship.

c. understanding- in any relationship like friendship, the trait of understanding should be developed, practiced and nurtured. Being able to completely understand the other person is rather a challenging task since we carry along with us our different idiosyncrasies and at times, some of these are challenging for others. However, when we truly consider any friend as a real friend, we subsequently are ready to accept everything on him both his positive and negative characteristics. 

d. the last but not the least on my list, the trust element- an important ingredient that goes along with the ones beforehand, trust is considered as very worthwhile since it measured the level of the established friendship. With a true friend, one can be assured that trust is present and that whatever is shared between the two friends are secured and kept hidden just between both parties. The development of trust takes a while thus the moment that it is destroyed, it is burdensome to repair it. 

Hence with all these elements, can you consider yourself now as one true friend? Lucky you are if you can and lucky your friends for having you as one true friend. 

                                               

Pursuing One's Aspiration

             Human as you are, there are various matters that allow you to pursue your aspirations in life. Indeed they are essential in your life for you then could find strength by embracing to this aspiration no matter what your situation will be.

          On the other hand, at times you could not avoid but falter in this quest for greatness. "Unwillingness easily finds an excuse"- indeed there are many out there who fail to pursue their dreams since they don't possess such traits as perseverance and determination on pursuing them. 

          Meanwhile examples of life's aspirations could take in a form of money, love, knowledge, popularity etc. Reaching them varies from one person to the other. One important factor then is to identify and acknowledge whatever aspiration you have in your life.  You should never stop from exerting effort in pursuing your goals in life. Times may change and everyday weather will turn from cold into hot but your eyes should constantly be focused on your dreams. 

imagecredit:

Here then are some ways that can help you to attain your aspirations in life.

1. Learn to identify the goal/aspiration/dream that you want to pursue in life;

2. Strive hard to slowly attain this aspiration;  

3. While on the process of attainment, learn to stand up every time you fall down;

4. When feeling tired and exhausted, be humble to go back from the very beginning that you  established your dream/aspiration;

5. Appreciate the presence of others in your life, they are present in your life so as to give you support and a shoulder to lean on;

6. Finally, express your gratitude to whoever it is that give you strength to persevere in life in spite of all its odds.

          Behold all those who dream dreams, no matter how big or small they are. Success will be yours soon or later.



                                         

My Source of Happiness

          What really is happiness? This is a very relative matter in the sense that what could be your source of being happy may not be true for the other person. Somehow it is but essential for us to be aware of those things that can make and give us true meaning of happiness. 

To give us further insight on what happiness is, let us share these thoughts:

"Psychologist Martin Seligman asserts that happiness is not solely derived from external, momentary pleasures,^[11] and provides the acronym PERMA to summarize Positive Psychology's correlational findings: humans seem happiest when they have

1. Pleasure (tasty food, warm baths, etc.),
2. Engagement (or flow, the absorption of an enjoyed yet challenging activity),
3. Relationships (social ties have turned out to be extremely reliable indicator of happiness),
4. Meaning (a perceived quest or belonging to something bigger), and
5. Accomplishments (having realized tangible goals)."- from Wikipedia- the free encyclopedia

          From the above thoughts, it is obvious that happiness differs from one stage of being to the other. I know of some people who are happy by just being alone with themselves. They don't want to be interfered in their activities which for them are the ones that give them source of meaning in life.

imagecredit: http://www.toasto.com/free-photos/nature-and-scenic/sky-and-clouds/approaching-storm-clouds/

          There are also people who are happy with their titles like being managers, CEOs, COO, and the like. That when others devoid  them of any recognition and admiration of these titles, it seems their days are incomplete and they feel that they are not worthy. In some cases, what is worst is when they tend to vent their ire on others as if they already lose their sense of being human persons merely due to subordinates not addressing them with their titles. Sometimes, the real cause of this feeling of being unhappy is the sense of insecurity of oneself. 

          On the other hand, others are made happy by their achievements and the accolades that go with them. Moreover there are those who find happiness by being with their loved ones and no matter what their state of life is, they are still happy being with their significant others.

          Hence, in the midst of these various realities, it is important for us to recognize what are those things that make us real happy and how could we also radiate the same happiness to others. No matter what adversities we have in life, there would always be reasons for us to stay happy and be optimistic.

 
                                       

Life is Such a Great Gift

          It's Sunday and another week will soon start. If I look back on my previous week, indeed I could say that life is so good to a great degree due to everyday blessings we receive. The grace of our life is the greatest one and somehow it also entails from us a challenge to sustain, maintain, and improve it to the best of our capacity.

          Aside from that, we also receive the gift of friendship with other people whom we daily encounter in our home, workplace, surroundings, community etc.. These people allow us to appreciate more life's wonderment. Somehow, there are others whom could never become our close buddies or friends maybe caused by differences in life's views, cultures, beliefs and many more. At times, others might endow us troubles or stresses but we should learn to humble ourselves before them then focus our energy on what is good and positive instead of complaining about it.

imagecredit: Jozh Tuballa

          Everyday we also receive the gift of good health that allows us to proceed with our day to day endeavours and responsibilities towards our families, communities, workplaces etc. At the same time, we are also asked to take care of it by maintaining positive lifestyle and daily exercises then keeping away from vices especially drugs, alcohol and other negative activities that may result to destruction of life.

          Thus, let us also keep our life is a straight path and hopefully it will lead us someday to its fulfilment no matter where and how that could be attained.

                              

Dream Dreams.....

While on board on somewhat a floating cottage made of bamboo.....floating at the middle of the ocean....alone.....I was lying peacefully on the floor....with just a handful of food selection with me such as bread. salad made of vegetables which I am not really fond of, bottle of water, baked noodles placed on a plastic container, a bag of rice......on a small table beside me lies a diary, and a pendant .....as I stare aimlessly on the blue sky above me, I say to 

                                   

                                              imagecredit: Michael Lane for openphoto.net

myself, " How wonderful this world could be......so immense...limitless" .....after a while, I soon realise that I am left alone and at the middle of an ocean....yet deep inside, there is that feeling of serenity, of completeness (though I would never be a complete or should I say a perfect human being...nobody is).....I try to jot down on my diary what I observe on the surroundings....finally, I take a long and steady glance on my pendant with pictures of my two other precious gifts in life: that of my wife Yanyan and my little boy Kurt Kristoff.......as the day starts to come to an end..soon darkness will arrive......

Till then, I woke up and realised, "I've got a dream..."

         Whew..what indeed a splendid dream that I recently have. Well, all I can say in that dream is that it involves significant things and persons in my awakened life. Of course, it will take  me a long time to share with you the significance and impact of those dream elements. 

          In summing up, I would say that our dreams allow us to befriend further our inner "self" hence we need to listen and be attentive to them. In a single day, it is said that every one experiences not just once, twice, or thrice but multiple dreams yet due to our pre-occupations and priorities, we neglect to spend time to look at them and their impact on our waking life. However, if we start to mind them, we will gradually discover little by little their individual relevance to our life. 

                                     imagecredit:Sarah Klockars-Clauser for openphoto.net

          Just to cite one example with that dream above, the pendant with those pictures of my special possessions means to me as a reminder and a symbolism of their concrete presence in my life. That day by day, they make me more positive and determined in life. And no matter how things become so complicated in certain occasions, nonetheless with their inspirations, I will always be ready and willing to move one step at a time. 

           Accordingly, treasure every dream that comes to you for it reveals an essential part of you- continue therefore to dream dreams.

                                          

Goal in Working: Is It Earning or Satisfaction?

          People go to work not only because they want to earn income but somehow, they also seek  job satisfaction. Working the whole day is such a boring thing yet it could be the contrary when somebody treats the workplace as a second home. Henceforth, certain factors must be considered in order to stay long and sustain any whole day at work. A couple of these are the harmonious relationship between workers and employers as well as sufficient salary depending on one's contributions.

        Relationship is a fundamental factor that a workplace must have. Otherwise regardless of how high a salary can an employee is receiving but without the understanding and cooperation of everything, the job then is unfulfilling. There's no one who can be successful on his/her job without the cooperation of everybody. 

imagecredit: Jozh Tuballa

          Being an essential contributor in a company, an employee is entitled to receive enough salary. It is one thing that motivates him/her to work harder and to look forward from the company. In effect, everyone is happy and satisfied since he/she can provide for his/her needs.

co-writer: Myra Jugan



                                                  

What Type of A Player Are You?

         When you're being a sports enthusiast, you would know that on each one of us, there stays a kind of player when you are into a game. No matter what your recreational activity is, from ball sports to cards and even to online games, one question that you ought to ask yourself is "Are you aware of your own dynamics when you are playing?" 

Just to point out certain types of player that you can be, you can either be one or more of the following:

1. passionate player

2. impulsive player

3. vindictive player

4. easy go lucky player

5. team player

1. Passionate player- you are into into the game...you put your heart in every game you play. You are willing to go one step farther from what others are doing....as they say, exerting extra mile. Moreover, you know the in and out of the game. You try and search for ways to improve your skills. You don't just stop while the practice is over, instead you go for extra effort to harness your skills. In spite of all the difficulties and challenges, you are always willing to proceed with your game. 

2. Impulsive player-there are two types of impulsive compulsive player as discussed by one study. These two are proactive and reactive- "Proactive cognitive control involves keeping information active in short-term memory for use in later judgments, a kind of task preparation. Reactive control is more of a just-in-time type of decision resolution." Dr. Craig Anderson- director of Center for the Study of Violence. Just try to check with yourself if you can identify yourself on any of these two dynamics. Impulsive player means that you play by your impulses disregarding on the process the consequences of such action. 

3. Vindictive player- are you the kind of player who goes for retaliation everytime you are hit whether it is physically or psychologically? If yes then you are this kind of player. Retaliation is the name of your game. As such, you will easily lose your focus on the game. For others, every sport comprises both the elements of winning and losing yet for this type of player, what is essential is to get even with somebody who causes him pain, intentionally or unintentionally. 

imagecredit:ID 35355557 © Lee Serenethos

4. Easy- go- lucky player- if you are this kind of player, then you are that kind of participant who seems to not really care if he wins or loses the game. What solely counts for him is that he enjoys the game. Fortunately for him, he is not after any reward or return after the match. 

5. Team player- with this last type, you stand by the team. It goes well that everything that you do is for the team. Consequently you disregard any personal desire and put the team's goal as forefront. Everytime that your team engages in a match against an opposing team, you always give your best. Notwithstanding the odds at hand, you always seek for what is the best for the team. For you, team first before your personal satisfaction. 

          In such a way that if you can identify yourself in any of these types (for sure there are other unmentioned ones there), that can be a positive point for you but if not, it would be best if you will discover what's your type. By knowing your type, you will learn to understand your own impulses and aggressions thus having enough control over them.