Defining a Term:

Stress

Stress is the emotional and physical strain caused by our response to pressure from the outside world. It is almost impossible to live without some stresses. Fist, stress comes from family's life. For example, you and your spouse both work full time while you are raising your family. At the same time, your parents are retired, in ill health, and are dependent on your help with shopping and running errands. Second, stress comes from finance. You are a single person living alone, and your salary is not rising as fast as the rate of inflation. It is getting harder each month to pay the bills. Next, stress comes from work. The expectations and competitions at your workplace are becoming fierce. You find yourself coming in early, staying late and taking on more work than you can handle. Finally, stress comes from college. The stress of too much writing for assignments, for example, may give you a headache. You can lose sleep if you worry about an upcoming final examination. Stress is the result of real world pressures that one cannot avoid.

Journal:

Shocked by violence

Recently, I watched a video on the Internet. There were several male teenagers beating up another boy. The fight was secretly shot by a person who lived a nearby building. The fierceness of bullies, helplessness of the boy, and the flintiness of girl shocked me.

The bullies beat that poor boy so cruelly. In the video frame, several boys were talking to the boy. A bully in the white T-shirt came from one side where the boys were standing. He walked up to the boy and pushed him. Another bully in blue T-short started to beat-up the miserable boy. He slapped the boy’s face and continuous punched him in the body. When the bully in the blue T-short got tired, the bully in the white T-short walked up to the poor boy again. He swept his leg over the boy as if he was a Kung fu movie star. The boys who did not participate in the fight pushed the victim from one side to the other.

The helpless boy could barely shield himself from the blows. While the bullies beat him up, he just covered himself with his arms. When the bully in the blue T-short gave him a heavy kick in the stomach, he stooped over painfully and tried to protect his abdomen. Finally, he fell to the ground.

A girl, who back was to the camera, watched the fight. She did nothing to stop the violence; instead, she held her cell phone camera and took pictures. Even though I could not see her face, I was sure she was gloating. I was shocked by the violent behavior of these teenagers.

My Favorite Sweater

I was doing my Christmas shopping at Wal-Mart when I realized that I had lost my favorite sweater. I went to the Service Desk to recover my sweater from the Lost and Found department. I told the clerk behind the counter that I must have misplaced my sweater somewhere in the store. The clerk asked me to describe my sweater and to tell her where I might have left it. I told her it is a beautiful, green, V-neck, cardigan with dark brown buttons and two pockets. It is soft, warm and fluffy. It probably jingles a lot from all the coins that were in the pockets. I might have left it in Ladies wear when I was looking at those sweet new thong bathing suits. On the other hand, I could have left it in the Footwear department when I trying on some pink pumps. I love the Footwear; it smells like new shoes. The clerk held up my sweater at arms reach and said, “All I have that comes close to your description is this ratty looking turquoise sweater that smells like vomit and has two pennies in its pocket. Is this your sweater?” I said, “Yes! That is my sweater! Oh, did I forgot to mention that my baby spit-up all over it this morning?”

Response Paragraph:

Violent Video

Not every child knows to discriminate between the real and virtual world. John Leo's "When life imitates video” shows a truth that we have to face. Violent videos do affect young people's behavior especially unstable young men. For example, violent video games make young players produce a desire to defeat their opponents. When these young players play competitive games, they blast the other players with a loud noise, and they use various intensity and duration for the blast. In addition, violent video games let some unsteady, young players learn how to be aggressing towards others. Because the video game is interactive and very engrossing, it requires the player to identify with the aggressor, so it will elicit some young player’s aggressive behavior. For instance, a young player will assume his enemies in the game, and then they cruelly kill them with bombs, guns, or knifes. Once they encounter somebody’s provocative actions in the real world, they will really kill people as they kill virtual figures in the game. Finally, children who play violent video games behave more aggressively. According to this reading and TV news, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold enjoyed playing violent video games, and they speculated that these games played a role in their violent acts at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado in April of 1999.  Harris and Klebold, in that massacre, shot their innocent classmates. As a result, I believe that playing violent video games indeed affect young people in a negative way.

Response Summary:

Escape From Calcutta

In Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's memoirs “From The Bats”, Divakaruni describes her mother’s struggle to get from domestic violence. As Divakaruni is growing up, she starts to notice that her mother always cries. The sobs of her mother often wake her. One morning, Divakaruni notices a dark purple blotch on mother’s face. She asks what it is, but her mother does not say anything. She only tells her to not wake her father. Divakaruni’s father works very hard to support his family. Diviakaruni barely sees him. She only hears him shouting, dropping, and breaking things. She is terrified of him. When Divakaruni's mother gets more dark blotches on her face, she decides to take her daughter and leave her husband. They quickly pack their clothes into two bags and are careful not to make any noise. If Divakaruni’s father wakes up, they would probably not be able to leave the house. Divakaruni is very lucky to get a seat next to the window. Everything Divakaruni sees is new to her. Her mother had grown up in the countryside, so she tells Divakaruni all about the flowers. After a while, Divakaruni's mother tells her that they are going to visit her grandfather, who lives in a village. She speaks hesitantly when she says they might be staying with grandfather for a while. Then she asks Divakaruni if she would miss her father. Even though Divakaruni does not understand the true meaning of what her mother is asking, she says definitely “NO!” Her mind is already at the village: the place where she and her mother will live in peace with her grandfather, the buffalo, and the bamboo forest.