Young Writers Society

Flight 116 is Down

I once read a novel I have read called Flight 116 is Down expresses two interesting insights. A plane full of passengers goes off course due to tragic weather and soon crashes on the grounds in the back of a mansion overnight where a girl is left there while her parents are away for the week. When becoming startled after noticing the great tragedy which had just occurred she calls the rescue team for help. There are several teenagers who are on call for the first time as EMT’s and head on over to the mansion where a large rescue team shortly arrives. They find it to be rude and unexpected that they practically get ignored and left out to help out in the action by the elderly and more experienced emergency workers. As for the twelve year old girl thing do not work out for her as expected either. For one, the emergency workers and authorities rudely bombard her house and kick her out to use the house as a mini hospital base for the injured passengers. It is later on that an uninjured snobby assertive girl who does not much care for others and the wounded decides to head over to the mansion and put on her own act. When discovering her, interviewers assume that she was the girl who had called for help and is soon put on the spotlight and showered with fame. Meanwhile the girl and the several paramedics meet up on the mansions grounds and decide that they are going to help out the wounded in the manor no matter what the professionals may say. Unfortunately this novel does not end with any justice relevant to these types of overly aggressive people in society. There are two types of overly aggressive people in this world; in work; and people who are in school & families. At times for victims there is nothing that can be said or done to change these people’s bitter personalities. It is with hope that for these types of overly aggressive people, their attitudes will change over time and that the ones who are harassed and ignored would be able to show equivalent aggressiveness for themselves. Do not let yourself get pushed around, you will get no benefit! If you want to help out, let the people know. If the professionals say know and say you need to be trained but do not have the time to show you, then O.K. at least you tried.

Avoiding the Dementors

What are Dementors? From the Harry Potter books, dementors are dark ghostly floating creatures that bring cold and dread to anyone who they come near to, and can suck the life out of people if they come close enough. In this article, I am comparing these imaginary creatures to anxiety attacks, because they are almost equally as strong. There are many people in this world who suffer through anxiety attacks due to many reasons, some have their own methods of breaking out of their dreary states of depression, and others need to rely on medication. This is my story how I have suffered through a period of anxiety attacks and how later I was able to overcome them all; and they never came back again. About the age of 18, when leaving high school, I did not know what to do next and where to go; college was too much for me to handle and I did not know at the time what courses to take in other schools for something of my interest (also not knowing if I could handle them either) I was lost, not knowing where to go in life. For some days during that one year I have done volunteer work in various places but they did not last for long, for most of the time I was at home while my parents were at work. I soon had taken a series of testing for evaluation at Kessler (agency through the DVR job placement association). The results from the testing I do not remember and it doesn’t matter now. I was told that I would be good at doing office work; I was turned down on that by my job coach, saying that I cannot do the work because my typing speed was not fast enough. That was when the period of anxiety attacks had came, they came again and again at home, it’s difficult now to express what they had been like but people who suffer through anxiety attacks know what it’s like. At the time I had also grown angry at God for what He was doing like He was abandoning me. The first person to help me out of the state of anxiety attacks was Stuart, a kind hear-ted and very humorous insurance agent who I had volunteered for, for about six months. He had taught me a lot during that time (even though I discovered later that insurance was not for me) he had helped me out of the stage of anxiety attacks by inspiring me that I can do just about anything I set my mind to and not to listen to the dream killers. I then realized that God works in different ways rather than words, by sending messages to people, Stuart was the first big help that I had got. It is hard to fight anxiety attacks and is even harder to figure what to do next to bring your life back in order once you conquer them. My advice to you is figure out why you are having these negative emotions, try to think of resolutions to your problems, and if need get guidance from someone you trust. And remember, sinking into depression in and endless troubled sleep will not solve anything; you are just letting the Dementors take advantage of you. Also, God can help you fight these demons, if you believe.

Why is Reading not Popular Anymore???

There was a time that I have seen a paperback novel abandoned in the rain, its cover almost hath torn off. It was such a disgrace to see such harsh and irresponsible treatment of a book, but I just couldn’t do anything about it, I thought that the owner would come back for it (not like they deserved the book for such harsh treatment). There are times when people do not take such good care of paperback novels and other books, causing the front covers to become all bent rather than not inserting a bookmark properly and occasionally losing them or just forgetting about them. But then what is even more distressful to hear later on in the years is that bookstores are going out of business; that regular books and even reading is just not popular for that many people these days; or that people do read but everything is on computer or on electronics, or that they do not have time to read. It can be very distressful for some authors, and I wonder what would become of all these books, will all of them be stored in some warehouse and be locked up? Parents can teach their children, and teachers can teach students how to take proper care of books. I can think of ways to encourage teenagers and younger to read more. In School and college teenagers and students above are used to reading literature assigned to them that they may find boring and they think that all literature is just boring without even realizing what is out there that will bring interest to them. Also, because of overload of work, they may not have the time to read. But the good news is that there is such thing as novelettes which they can read quicker in their spare time. I believe that in schools student’s shouldn't be given that many assigned books to read so that they could have more time to read what they enjoy, also starting from elementary school students can learn about the joy of reading can explore the library on their own of what interests them. As for what may become of books in the future, I am leaving the critical thinking up to you. Think of this, the reading popularity rate starts off with children and teenagers. So the possible negative future of books may be something you can prevent! Hopefully in time all the books that we have now will not become forgotten.

Morals from Fun Young Adult Films

When I was on a cross country trip in the Yachad program (Jewish council for children with disabilities) me and about fifty other participants were heading to Washington capitol to speak with the congress members (or their assistants) about the Able and Team acts which were being voted to be past, declaring certain rights for those with disabilities. It was during the long bus rides two and back that we had watched three films: MR. Magoroum’s Magic Wonder Emporium, (Disney’s) Enchanted and Princess Bride. The reason I mention these films is that from each two interesting morals can be learned. These morals are what I got from the films: M.M.M.W.E – To not say to someone that you are always busy and do not have the time to spend time with them, you make the time; for a friend or a parent with a child; and confidence in oneself Princess Bride- At the beginning of the film the boy who is staying home (because he’s sick) is just playing video games, but when his grandfather comes to visit he gives him a book to read as a present and reads it to him the boy learns that reading is not all boring and is eager to listen to it all until the book is finished. But at the same time in the novel (which is the main part of the film) the girl who is a princess, is about to marry a spoiled and slightly cruel prince by force. It is at the end of her voyage when she reaches the land where the kingdom is, she with her guide and protector’s meet up and have to fight a young bandit, who does end up kidnapping the princess and runs away with her. They do get kidnapped by the prince and his nobles and the bandit get’s tortured to death, but he later get’s rescued along with the princess and together they break out of the kingdom before she is officially married. The princess learns that this young bandit who kidnapped her was truly good and was trying to prevent the worst from happening. Disney’s Enchanted- Think of the fantasy prince & princess world at the beginning where everything is happy and wonderful to be considered the world of fantasy. When the princess is tricked by the evil queen during her wedding day and is pushed down to the well to the unknown, she soon enters the world of reality as an actual actress- New York. Towards the end the princess chooses to remain in the world of reality and accepts it, stops acting like she is still in fantasy land and marries the lawyer. And for the second moral, from the subtitle song Ever-Ever After, you don’t see happy in it (like from fairy tales). Life is not fairy tell. What I think this means is that once overcoming a great challenge (such as accepting the world of reality, and defeating the evil queen) a happier stage of life continues but there are still other challenges to come. Most books, movies and books have morals in them; some are clear to understand and some are not, some you can expand your thought’s upon a message and come up with an insight.

Dream killers

Dream killers, or to say those who try to prevent you from accomplishing you’re life’s dreams come in all forms: school bullies, siblings, parents or just an acquaintance. It is hard to stand up to them and just go for what you want. Sometimes these critiques are just to be mean, sometimes they think it can’t be done, and sometimes it is because they care and they do not want to see you’re disappointment if you fail. This depends on the type of dream you have in mind; if truly it can be achieved and you are willing to put in the effort and you truly have the talent (according to what you know about others who fulfilled these dreams and the perspectives of others). Examples for these dreams are, becoming a bestselling novelist (or just an author) a song artist, a film producer, a crime fighter (in the army or a special agency). At times it pays to listen to the critiques and at times you just need to pursue your dream and ignore the dream killers to the best of your ability. In this book called The Dream Giver for Teens, the author starts off in a chapter with a story of a caterpillar that dreams of becoming a butterfly. It lives in a boring community where no one can dream of anything more than they are doing now and about everyone are dream killers! But there is one caterpillar that encourages the young one to pursue his dream, for he believes in him and tried to pursue his dream. The young character ends up leaving his community in pursuit of his dream, the challenges he faces are tough but he eventually makes it. No matter how bad things may seem, do not give in to the dream killers unless after trying your hardest the dream cannot be accomplished. If you give in, you will become the dream killer yourself!

An Adventurous Life or a Meaningful Life?

After watching the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2014 version) it is a bit disappointing to see no moral at the end; or is there a moral? There is a typical man who has a boring life and boring job and has a bad case of day dreaming an adventurous life (which constantly gets him in trouble). But when he is on the search for a mysterious photographer he begins his adventure traveling in the wilderness of Greenland and the Himalaya Mountains, his day dreaming habit begins to decrease. Not everyone can travel and explore the world for adventure (it cost a great deal of money, and in reality it can also be boring). I believe that the moral is not to live a life of adventure, but the answer to a boring life is to try to find a life of meaning. There are five ways of how you can make life meaningful. A. Finding ways how you can make your religion meaningful (if you have one) B. Entertainment C. Relationships- love and friendship D. Your work life (finding work that means something to you (or if not work then doing something on the side that does) E. You’re life’s mission (finding what you most believe in and sharing this knowledge with the world (can be political action, writing books, articles or songs, or other helpful work). There is a lot of boring repetition in life and yes it is hard, but it’s just part of life. To develop a meaningful life it will take much thought, effort and patience, but when the times do come it will be worth it. If you think about it, work repetition has a reason. Just as the sun, electricity and computers run constantly, so it is the same with humans, the work is important to keep going. The only good difference is that humans can take breaks.

What can be Learned from the Movie, Percy Jackson and the Olympians- the Lightning Thief

There are many movies, novels, and songs that share different morals to the world, while there are others that are just ways of entertainment. There is this one action adventure and comedy film which involves Greek Mythology that shares five morals called Percy Jackson (& the Olympians- the Lightning Thief. From this film it teaches: A. Loyalty and friendship. B. Bravery and confidence in oneself, C. Sacrifice for someone D. A moral against atrocious behavior against someone who becomes an enemy of Percy Jackson (unknown until towards the end) and a scene in relevance to relationships with God. You can find out about the plot of this film by reading the book (by Rick Roridon) or watching the film. Percy’s mother (who is an average human) had made a great sacrifice when raising him. She knows that he is partly not like the rest and has gifted powers from Poseidon. The demons who secretly prowl the earth can smell his scent and harm him because of this reason; so she lives with a mean smelly poker playing man in an apartment for the time being so that the man’s scent will affect Percy and his predators will drift away from him. The son of a (Greek mythical) god Hermes, Luke who had been taken in to Camp Half Blood as an orphan had stolen Zeus’s Lightning Bolt and had hidden it in Percy’s special shield which he gives to Percy before departing with his friends on the quest to blame him as thief (somehow he had managed to swipe the Bolt with using his father’s magical flying shoes.) Luke was very angry at the gods, especially his father for abandoning him so he had wanted them to start a war. Zeus and Poseidon were brothers and were the most powerful; this meant that putting the blame on Poseidon’s son, Zeus would destroy Percy and Poseidon. Later on in the book series Luke dedicates his body to be taken by the remains of the evil soul- Chromos- the lead Titan, and from him, he and the other demons and Titans would destroy the gods and Mount Olympus. It is after Percy discovers the truth, fights back Luke on top of the Empire State Building and goes up with his two friends to Mount Olympus to return the Lightning Bolt, that he departs from his father with bitter thoughts. His father get’s off his thrown, shrinks down to human size in his mortal form that Percy tells him why he is so angry at him, that he had been abandoned by him all these years. His father replies to him that he could not be there in person for him and for others down on earth, but he does watch over him (and them), listens to him and provides for him. At times of great distress and struggles in people’s lives it is hard to believe in God and they can feel abandoned by Him, but He tries to connect with people by the ways He can.

Life’s Test’s

Life’s challenges/or tests (if you prefer calling them tests) can be a bit rough, and sometimes very, very rough. So why are people placed with them? From the way I was taught and from reading insights in Jewish philosophy books, it is God who chooses to place people with such challenges. Some of these challenges/ troubles are punishments for those who have done wrong, some can be warning calls, and others are just ways to see how strong people could be during tragedies, if those people He is testing would ever break down. I assume that one test is not enough and sometimes He sends a series of tests until He sees that a person was able to overcome all these challenges. There is a popular teenage book series called the Series of Unfortunate Events, throughout this series, in each book two orphans and a toddler face many disastrous and harsh emotional struggles with wealthy people who oppress them when adopting them, later trying to innocently kill them so that they can inherit their parent’s fortune who have passed away in a huge fire. If you think about it, in each book the author write up the story/ chapter and places the characters with great challenges, testing them if they can be clever enough to overcome such challenges and if they’d ever break down. There are three songs (sung by young adults) that I have listened to (uncertain of others) that express life’s challenges and even distressful situations in life, The Climb, and Keep Your Eyes Open and Keep Holding on.

From the movie (and book) The Hunger Games, people are oppressed by a newly formed government, there is little food to survive on for them and great amount of food and wealth for the people living in the Capital- Panem, ruling over all of them. Not only that but every year a young citizen chosen from each of the poor Districts is forced to enter The Hunger Games Arena where they would need to fight one another until one remains living, a way of entertainment for these spoiled people. From this movie, the songs, books and Jewish philosophy books, I think it is all trying to send a similar message. Though times are difficult, cruel, and it seems that all hopes for peace and freedom are gone, don’t give up and break down. Keep your eyes open and try to fight back and overcome these obstacles!