Friendships Should Last Forever

Real friendships last forever or until one of them dies. Best friends don’t leave behind the other one. If you support your friend, he’ll support you, too, so this friendship lasts forever. But it’s hard to have a friendship forever.

Only strong friendships can last forever, not all friendships. Self-interested friendships can finish easily. It’s not impossible to last a self-interested friendship forever. Real friends don’t want anything from their friends. They give something to their friends.

Good friends can’t fall out easily. Falling out with your best friend is difficult, and painful. Nobody wants to fall out with his best friend. Friendship is the most valuable thing in the world, and you don’t want to lose your friend. So, you shouldn’t fall out with your best friend.

                                                                                               Can Kavgacı, Fen 1

Friends are an important part of our lives because we usually spend our times with them.  Friendship means  lots of things for us. Now I want to explain the meaning of friendship .

I think friendship’s f is for forgiveness. After a discussion, if the friendship is real, there should be forgiveness.  Friendship’s r is for respect. In friendships respect is very important. Everyone needs somebody to respect and trust. I is for inspiration. Friends should inspire each other to do bettter and hard. E is for encouragement. Friends should  encourage their friends to be a better person. N is for nice. Your friends  will be nice for  you. D is for  delightful. A true friendship should be delightful. S is for support. A true friend should support their friends. H is  for happines. Friends should feel happy when they are together.  I is for important because friends are very important in our lives.  And p is for positive. A true friend should make you laugh and feel positive.

But despite all these things, I really can’t say that I think friendships last forever, because I know that  people change, time changes … and forever is a long time  of course. That’s why we can’t  have friendships which always last forever.

Deniz Genç, Fen 1

      Friendships should last forever. It  is true because friendships are very important and if you have a good friendship you are very lucky. Because if you have a bad event, you need a friend, so if you have friendship you are very lucky you tell about the bad event to your friend and your friend shows a way to you.

Other advantage is if your friend is a hardworking person, you are very lucky, because if your lessons are very bad, your friend can study with you and your friend tell his experiences. So, your exam mark will get higher and this is a very good advantage.

Other advantage is you are never alone and you get never bored. You do sports with your friend, your play basketball, football and you play video games with your friend. If you forget something, your friend may remember. If you forget some homework, you can call your friend, and your friend will tell your homework. It has got a lot of good advantages, so your friendship is very beneficial for you.

Finally, friendships should last forever. This sentence is true because if you have a friendship you have many advantages. So, if you haven’t got any friends, you should try to find  some friends and if you have good friends, you should be together forever, because its very important.

 Melihcan Kayacan, Fen 1

 

So-called Armenian Genocide Event

Nowadays, every country works for its own interest. In these days,  presidential elections are approaching in France and some political parties  started to act wisely. Even though they don’t know the meaning of ‘‘genocide’’ precisely they accuse people who deny the so called Armenian genocide. The Armenian Genocide Event is an up-to-date topic and there are some several reasons for it to be accepted in the French Parliament: Armenia wanting reparations, French parties’ vote demands from Armenian citizens living in France.

There wasn’t any genocide in times of 1915 because Ottoman Empire only took some precautions like sending Armenians out of the country. During the trip, lots of Armenians were killed by Kurdish gangs but later they were punished by the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, state didn’t organize the genocide. Ottoman Empire only protected itself. Furthermore, contrary to genocide, Armenians killed lots of citizens of Ottoman Empire. Armenians accepted genocide because they want to take some pieces of land in Turkey. Also, they want to get reparations.

France designed the new law because of its own interest. Some parties are trying to take votes of Armenians which is not correct because using the history in politics isn’t fair. Furthermore, France tries to prove that they are a peaceful and democratic country and it wants to get along peacefully with other states. The new law is ‘‘A person who humiliates and disparages the genocide, will be accepted as committing a crime’’. Consequently, who denies the law is directly sent to prison about at most 1 year with the penalty of 45 thousand euros.

In conclusion, this event destroyed the freedom of speech which is included in civil rights. There wasn’t any genocide in times of 1915 in Ottoman Empire because it isn’t in the cathegory of it even though lots of Armenians were killed. This event in France shows that they are only listening to the Armenians not the people who are accused. This shows us in some countries ignorence is progressing.

Ekin Yusuf Çam, 11-B

 

Miserable World

Hatred is a strong word to describe feelings towards something. But actually many of the features of human beings are spiteful. They have the most improved intelligent brain in the biologic world. This sounds like something to be proud of. But it is not. Because of the complex thinking of human brain, people become dangerous, more dangerous than any living creature. If that thinking have limits and cannot be changed after brainwash of the societies, people will have the most disgusting and irritating habits. Stereotyped prejudice, corrupting individuality and over ambition are the features that I really hate and want to make them disappear.

First of all, these habits are really related to each other but to start with, corruption of individual thoughts is the most effective because it gives birth to other features. Every human being is different. It is almost impossible to have exactly the same ideology with someone else. This makes all the ideologies unnecessary. Because each thought have differences and if those minds try to accept something else without judging, it will change. However, this change is wrong. Some people even try to accept an ideology, religion or political thought just because the majority has that. That makes people sheepish. For example, if an atheist person read a book about atheism and if that person lives in religious place, he or she will be attacked. Attack can be physically or mentally. We always see or experience these things. Moreover, we need to think about other ignorant countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia or India. This is happening by the force of society’s pressure. This pressure is the one which create stereotypes.

A person cannot know another person’s philosophy. Actually as we can’t read minds, any simple kind of thought, life choices or features are impossible to know before acknowledging that person. Race, religion, sexuality, age and place tell nothing about a person. You can’t know if someone is nice or evil by looking at his/her race. You can’t judge a person just because he is black. You don’t have any rights to claim a person as dangerous just because he/she is homosexual. A seventeen year old person can be more experienced about a subject than older people. Some people can feel different and don’t want to live the culture of their own countries. If you ignore all of these, stereotyped prejudices will grow. That’s why nowadays some people are trying to protect human rights. Everyone knows how bad prejudice is, but everyone makes decisions about someone without knowing that person. Sometimes, this becomes even more dangerous with the over ambition.

Sometimes, wrong thinking and ignorant ideas are harmless if they just stay in that sheepish person’s mind. But the ambition which is given by society puts these ideas into actions. If we see a woman who is beaten by the religious people just because she smokes, if we see a man who is murdered by his own father just because he is gay, if we see people rejected for a job offer because of their race; we can easily say that those idiotic thoughts are extremely dangerous for humans. Unfortunately all of these examples have really happened in Turkey and that’s why I hate these actions and thoughts of people; all of them are happening in front of us, and people do nothing about it. In fact, people “can’t” do anything about it because this ambition creates fear. And fear is the most effective feeling which makes you stand and do nothing but panic.

Consequently, these features are too common for me to ignore. Corruption of individuality is the reason of stereotypes. Stereotypes are mother of prejudice. Ignorance combines with prejudice and creates a weapon. And over ambition shoots that weapon, causing chaos. And I don’t have any power to change it just by myself. That’s why I hate them. That’s why I hate ignorance, stereotypes. That’s why I simply hate people who have taboos. And these people are ninety percent of the world.

                                                                                                                                                             Can Kahyaoğlu, Fen 2

 

It’s Annoying!

Have you ever noticed how many annoying habits people have? You always tolerate those kind of habits, it’s mostly because you have some too. Or, sometimes you should tolerate them because the person with annoying habits is someone you really care about. All you can do is to hope those people to change or you can choose to being yourself and get them out of your life, nothing more.

Most annoying person type is who acts like he knows every single thing about everything. This person’s all habits are annoying. Because this person never admits that he has made a mistake or you’re right. But mostly he is your boss, so you have no chance, you have to obey and tolerate him. Beside this, you need to satisfy his ego.

Second annoying person type is Mr. Idiot. This type’s habit is lying. When a person tells a lie and everyone understand, it is a lie, we call that person a liar. But the truth is this person is not a liar; he is an idiot. He can not even tell a lie and that’s the point. He thinks he can manage to trick everyone. Actually nobody believes him and this is why you should tolerate situation because, otherwise he would never close the topic. He continues speaking and trying to make you believe him so all you can do with it is shut your mouth up and act like you believe him.

The last one is more than just being annoying; it also makes you feel disappointed. When you really care about somebody, you imagine that person is perfect. You want to see him like a hero sometimes. From you point of view mistakes can never fit on him so you start to ignore all his mistakes and annoying habits. But after all, once he or she disappointed you, you notice all the annoying habits that belong to him. But again instead of making this person getting out off your life, you try to change him. Because still you care about him and you still want to see him perfect. After a while, when these habits start to hurt you, your patient glass starts to fill and when you lose another person because of him, this makes the glass flow. Again only thing that you can do is give up that person but still your loss never come back.

Life is all based on acting. If you are a good actor and give the people what they want, you can have a standard life. On the other hand, if you want to be yourself, before being yourself, decide that just being yourself makes you happy, because you need to take the risk of being alone when you want to be yourself. Life’s rule is simple; if you are good in your partner’s standards, the person is your friend; if you’re not, you are alone. So sometimes we have to tolerate, but for other times, we have a chance to choose. In my opinion, being yourself is the most important and satisfying thing.

Öykü Geyik, Fen 2

Different people have different living styles and these habits can irritate one another. There are three actions that are very irritating such as throwing away other people’s belongings, not giving way to the faster car behind and talking too loud while using cell phones in public places such as inside a bus or a building.

If a car behind is faster than you, you must give way to that car because of the same reasons. Although it is not always the case, there is the possibility that the car behind may have a person inside who needs medical attention as soon as possible. If the car does not give way, that person seeking medical attention may find his/her life in danger. Or, people driving on their way to an important meeting may lose a lot of time if the car ahead doesn’t give way to them.

People who talk too loud on their cell phones in a public place are also irritating. it becomes an annoyance because these places are public and there are other people sharing the same place with you who may be disturbed with what you are doing. For instance, if a baby gets awakened by a loud voice, the mother will get annoyed. Or, someone who is reading a book may be disturbed and may lose concentration due to the loud voice.

If someone throws away another person’s belongings, it is really annoying too, because you can’t know if that thing is important to him/her and you may damage something which doesn’t belong to you. Moreover, if the person doesn’t care about what he/she did, it gets more irritating.

Each person is a part of the society; therefore we should live in peace with them. However, if these actions turn into a habit for most of the people, it really becomes unbearable. Therefore, people must be more aware of that they are not the only person living and they should be more careful  and not be selfish in society.

                                                                                                                                                             Berkin Bolerden, Fen 2

People have habits and they usually can’t change them. Because of this having not irritating habits is the best way. In this way, people can have healthier relationships with the others. People who have habits such as rudeness, lying and priggery are the most irritating ones in the world.

Firstly, rude people are very irritating. For example, if you made a mistake and somebody should warn you. At this time, if a person warns you with a rude and offensive language, you won’t communicate with him/her anymore. Warning someone is very necessary, too. Of course I don’t want a friend who always gets along well with me and never tells my faults; actually a liar.

Lying is a very irritating and obtrusive behaviour, too. Unfortunately, there are so many liars around us nowadays. For instance, some people who are poor try to show themselves like they are rich and they try to head to the others. Is not it a very irrational and unnecessary attitude? It only makes people feel pity for them.

Let’s say the most irritating feature of people: Priggery. Put the case that you are a priggish person. You try to “teach” a doctor which medicine is better to use at the treatment of influenza. Is not it silly? There is a doctor in front of you and medicine is his profession. This will be very irritating for the person who you speak with and it doesn’t profit anything except being humiliated.

To conclude, being rude, liar or priggish are not good habits in life. People who have those features will always be sentenced to become isolated in the world.

Damla İlkgelen, Fen 2

 

There are some behaviours or features which dehumanize people. These behaviours and features also breach human relations. These kind of behaviours are too much in the world but I want to focus on three of them which bothers me the most: mandacity, selfishness and pessimism.

Lying is the biggest badness. A person who is lying can do all evilish things. Moreover, mendacity destroys human realtions. People can’t share any thing, any secret with a liar. If there isn’t any trusti there is no relationship. On the other hand, there were some lies which are called “white lies”. Sometimes people need to tell a lie for a innocent reason. They may be told to make someone happy. However in my opinion telling truth is always the best.

Selfishness is the second characteristic feature that irritates me. Egocentric people beleive that they are the center of the world. They don’t mind what the others think or feel. They believe that everbody should like, understand and admire them, although they were never try  to do anything about empathy. So selfishness brings them loneliness.

Pessimism is another characteristic feature which makes people’s life hard. Pessimistic people don’t have enough energy to get over the troubles. Furthermore these kind of people influence the people around them. They can’t see the beauty of the world. In my opinion pessimism makes life harder and complicated. Pessimism is a kind of unluckiness but people can try to change their pessimistic view.

As a conclusion mandacity, selfishness and pessimism are features that make me irritated. I believe that human beings can change their behaviours and features If they want. Perhaps it’s impossible to be a perfect person. But at least it is possible to be an honest, thoughtful and optimistic person. So that life becomes easier and happier.

Damla Türkay, Fen 2

 

Vietnam War

Since the beginning of humankind, people or countries were having trouble with each other. These trouble may sometimes cause a war. For example, Vietnam was a colony of France at first, but after the Vietnam War, it became a communist republic. There are several causes of Vietnam War.

To begin with, as a capitalist country, America didn’t want communism to expand since they are two opposite regimes. Moreover, according to the domino theory of President Eisenhower, neighbouring countries can be affected from each other. So, if they all had the same regime, it might have been a danger for the USA.  In terms of the USA’s efforts to prevent the expansion of communism, Vietnam wanted to be an independent communist republic. Thus, these are the causes of Vietnam War.

As a result of these, Vietnam had gained its independence and a communist republic was formed. Besides, it became clear that the idea of the USA being unbeatable was wrong. Moreover, the USA totally lost much money since they had also paid approximately 75-80% of France’s military service.

To summarize, Vietnam War was the independence war of Vietnam which was against the USA and France. However,  the USA tried to prevent the expansion of communism, they couldn’t reach their aim and communism spread.

Işık ERATLI, 11-B

 

Life After Space

A space mission may last from one week to twenty-four weeks but what happens when the crew returns to earth? Within a few hours, they are transported from a weightless environment to normal gravity atmosphere. Instead of living where everything tends to float, they come back to a planet where every moment is an effort. Re-adapting to Earth’s gravity is hard as their muscles have been weakened and the heart has to work harder to pump blood.

Some astronauts who return from space may faint. They also have trouble standing up, walking and turning corners. Moreover, some cosmonauts reported that they are sometimes shocked to see a cup or another object crash on the floor when they let go in mid-air Although it is exciting to fly and live in space, side-effects of the journey may be permanent.

 

 Anıl Karamahmutoğlu, 9-C

 

Reflections on Dead Poets Society

I think the students at Welton decided to create a Dead Poets Society because they wanted to break away from conformity as they didn’t wanted to use their opinions and they wanted to see things from their viewpoints.

 Neil always listened to his father’s wishes and advice, but he didn’t have to do it because his father restricted him and he didn’t do anything to realize his opinions so they couldn’t understand each other and this relationship affected Neil badly.

I would like to attend Welton because there is an interesting teacher who uses different methods to teach the lesson and at the same time there are many interesting lessons with him.

If I were a student at Welton, I think I would say to my parents :”Mr. Keating is a little crazy, but I think his viewpoint is so different from others and he is intelligent.  He wants to create new opinions by himself.  I love him because of his personality.”

Mr. Keating was an admirable person because he understood students and he told his lessons with different methods, he wanted them to create their own opinions and he wanted them to be free and support their opinions freely.

I think teachers always show true ways to us and teachers want us to create our own ways, they want us to be free.  They are so important in one’s life from my point of view.

I think Mr. Keating wanted to say :”you must do something for yourself, you mustn’t do something for the other people.  First, you must think about yourself and believe in yourself.  If you learn this, you can understand the idea of education.”

Senem Nur Özker / Prep A

The students at Welton decided to create a Dead Poets Society.  What Mr. Keating said and how he looked at the world made them curious and then they created Dead Poets Society.

Neil’s father couldn’t live the life that he wanted or couldn’t believe in Carpe Diem because he was just living someone else’s life.  He made his son to live without himself too.  He stopped him. It made him an invisible slave inside a boy.  Understanding how the world works and acting according to it is not the right behavior.  Neil fought for what he believed and he died for what he wanted to be.

Welton is not the type of school I would want to attend because being under so much pressure and just studying all the time can’t be what schools teach you.  Teaching is not making students know what the book knows; teaching is not what teachers read to us.  Teaching is what they say to us with their own voices and with their own words.  In such schools, there aren’t any teachers; there are just lots of readers, but the students aren’t blind, why do they need someone to read them?  This is the reason why I don’t want to be in such a school.  I don’t want to be a reader and I don’t want people to make me a reader.

Mr.  Keating is a teacher.  He is brave, clever and original, he is also a believer.  He teaches.  We can’t be similar to him because he is different, because he talks in his own language.  He is not a reader, he is a teacher.

We can’t see people like Mr. Keating in our lives, actually we see them rarely, why?  Because we don’t know where to look at, who to listen to.  When we can understand a person who answers these questions, he/she will be unique in this gray world.

I don’t know how to define the importance of a teacher, but it is like a dry area with lots of people around, someone finds some water, but that person doesn’t drink it, he/she gives it to plants.  It can make a sprout grow and turn it into a plant.  A person who can have his / her own behaviors, can help the others too.  Not everyone can give it to a plant, but some people can.

John Keating said: “I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself.”  What can knowing everything bring to us?  Knowledge, being an intellectual or being a professor.  Can it even bring these to us?  We can be intellectuals or we can know everything that was taught to us, but being an individual is something different.  Education of an individual is not that simple.  We  can act like a robot, but we can’t act like an individual.  Being that individual needs some things:  your own words, voice etc.  These are what make us an individual and when we become an individual we can graduate from our schools.

Aytolun Cansu Ece Gür / Prep A

When John Keating came to Welton, students understood that they were bored of this school’s system.  They wanted to change their lives and make them extraordinary like Mr. Keating taught them to do.  They learned that Mr. Keating and his friends had created Dead Poets Society, so they wanted to try to create a new one.

Some parents want to plan their children’s life without ever asking them.  Neil’s father is one of them.  Neil is clever and respectful.  However, he is not happy about his life.  He never objects his father’s wants and this makes him depressed. He says, “For the first time in my whole life, I know what I wanna do!  And for the first time, I’m gonna do it!  Whether my father wants me to or not!  Carpe diem!” and this is first opposition to his father and it is also his first effort to make his life extraordinary.

Boarding schools like Welton accept only male or female students.  I find this boring.  Schools like Welton don’t care about students’ dreams, feelings and thoughts.  They want to keep them in the system and teach them in an ordinary way.  I prefer to attend schools where I can express myself freely and make my life extraordinary like Mr. Keating says in the movie.

If I was attending Welton, and Mr. Keating was my teacher, I would describe him to my parents like this:  Last week, I met a poetry teacher who is a very sophisticated person.  His name is Mr. Keating.  He is a very understanding teacher.  He has different thoughts, he teaches necessary things.  On the first day we met  him, we went in front of the pictures of old students.  Then he said important things which we had to know.  He always teaches incredible things to me.

There are some teachers who are incredible and Mr. Keating is one of them.  He is an admirable person to me because he can change students’ minds for amazing things.  Students want to go everywhere with Mr. Keating, so he is an effective person, teacher.

In my opinion, teachers are like our compass because they always think what is best for us.  They always teach us the right thoughts and behaviors because they want us to be great people.  They always try to do the right things, so everyone must give importance to teachers, they are our angels.

I think education must teach us how to think to choose our own way and follow our own way, so education must improve our ideas.  Actually, education teaches us to live on our own.

Burcu Zeynep Konuk / Prep A

 

Barclays Premier League (2010/11)

Manchester United won their 12th Premier League title and 19th overall. A new record of 1,063 goals scored was set in a 38-fixture season. OnSaturday 5th February 2011a record 41 goals were scored in one day, in only eight matches. Premier League grounds were 92.2% full and the season’s attendance was 13.4m. Premier League turnover stands at £1.202bn, with more than £165m distributed outside of the League in solidarity, good causes and grassroots funding.

 

What is Friendship?

Friendship is one soul that develops in two separate bodies. It requires reliability and modesty.  It develops within time. Supporting each other is really important because a person might feel lonely, helpless and may need someone. However, friendship mustn’t be based on benefits. Otherwise, it cannot be called ‘friendship.’ You should respect your friend and you shouldn’t use him/her for your own purposes. Also, you should never put his/her thoughts aside. Empathy mustn’t be neglected. It all brings trust and loyalty. However, if you realize your is lying once with bad intentions, you cannot trust him/her like you used to and friendship can’t go further than playing as friendships.

 

Uğur Yıldızlı, Fen 2

In my opinion, a real friend must be reliable, humble, generous and funny. But today, you can’t meet people who you can call ‘my best friend’  or real friend since facebook has been a part of our lives. Even though facebook has many benefits, it cuts out friendships because people can now meet who they want which is not a type of friendship that I support. Moreover, facebook is growing rapidly; therefore, real friends are going to be less. Also, how could you know your friend you only met on facebook is trustworthy. As a result, true friendship means, sharing important moments with real people, in real life situations, you can trust and support each other in difficult conditions.

 

Can Koçkan, Fen 2

 

Thoughts On A New School Year

 

My heart was beating so fast while I was climbing the stairs. It was my first day at high school and I couldn’t stop myself from thinking what it is going to be like. I had passed prep exam so I had concerns. The main three things I was thinking about were the difficulty of lessons, foreign languages and friendship.

 By the time I graduated from Primary School everyone started to tell me about how hard high school is and how much I need to work. In fact, they were right about everything. I had only four important lessons back then, but now that number became nine. In addition lots of lessons are in English. Even though I had the ability to pass the prep exam nobody had ever told me about math’, physics’ or geometry’s terminology. There are two simple things to do for being successful at 9^th grade. First, you need to study regularly. Next, you should have flashcards for unknown words. Like that I had no problem at lessons but English and French.

As a result of having normal lessons in English, our school is strict about foreign languages; especially English. We can’t even talk Turkish in classes even though we have both native and both Turkish teachers. English lessons are challenging. Exams are hard in order to determine our levels, but with the help of the exams and class work, like speaking, writing, and listening , you can’t believe how much your English will improve. Our school ensures that every student will graduate with a high level of English and another second foreign language.

After being with same friends for eight years I almost forgot how to make new friends. I have close friends who I have a tight relationship with. This is the reason why I think I don’t need any friends, but I was just living in my dream world. I should’ve have friends. That’s why I try to communicate with everyone and examine people’s behaviour. I also admit that it is not easy to get along with me. Friendship was a huge issue for me at the beginning of school but it isn’t now.

As a freshman, the first day of my high school life was a horror movie. I’m over it now. I’ve become successful in my lessons, my English have developed and I’m getting on well with lots of people. It is very important to adapt secondary school in every way and I think I achieved it. 

Hilal Bıçakçı, 9-D

  

 

 

Fun, scary, worry and nerve-racking equals the first day of high school.  New friends new teachers and a new place called school.  However this school is different because it is high school. I can see that some students think that the first day of school is easy because there is no work and no homework but some of them think that it is so scary and they feel sorry for themselves. They think that they can’t find any friends. On the other hand some students behave like a child and think that they are still in primary school. These students are not mature enough to be in high school.

Firstly, I agree with the students who think that the first day is easy.  There is no homework, no responsibility and no exam stress.  You are relaxed and the things that you should do are finding friends, learning school rules end meeting your new teachers. Are they hard? For me, no. especially if you are a social person it will be easier.

 If we look at the other people who think it is a scary, nerve-racking and disgusting.  Furthermore they can think they won’t have friends.  These fears are unnecessary.  During my school life I haven’t seen a person who has no friends. Everyone has an entourage.

 Finally the last types of students are what we call children. They cannot grow up. If we look at their appearance we can understand that they are teenagers. However when they start to talk or behave we cannot think that we are in high school. When the teacher says ‘OK.  It’s enough.  Now it’s time for the lesson.’  They should be quiet but they don’t understand or they don’t want to understand.

Consequently, there are many types of people in school.  Some of them are relaxed, some of them are really nervous and they have difficulties in finding friends or they think like this and the other type of children who cannot grow up and be spoiled.  They laugh at everything, all the time.  They don’t care about school and their lives.  You can see every type of student but you should learn to live with them. 

Ceren Akgül, 9-B