Our second topic, born to be different was suggested by Yanhong who would like you to read the following articles:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/sports/2007-03/01/content_817159.htm,
http://www.bmezine.com/news/edit/A50804/artbornd.html, and
http://jonchu89.blogspot.com/2009/03/born-to-be-different.html (with this one, it probably helps to have seen the movie, but it isn't mandatory. I haven't seen it myself.)
Your job is the same as for the previous topic with the deadline set for Monday, September 21. Please, bring the word list to class that day.
Have fun,
Kinga
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15 comments:
Life is unfair to a lot of people. Somebody are born to be a "slum-dog" like Jamal in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire", while some others have rich parents like Paris Hilton; Somebody are born to be have disability while others are athletics.
It is really a great gift for those who are born to be have advantages over others. They just need to turn the gift into what they are really good at. For example, the spiderman, X-men, and the characters in the television program "Heroes" are really talented that the things they are capable of can save the earth in some way. Although they felt fearful and anxious when they first discovered their abilities, they would finally felt more than just happy to have those abilities.
On the other hand, it is extremely difficult for those how born to be ugly or have disabilities to survive. For example, the monster in the novel "Frankenstein" was a kind-hearted and gentle man who was looking for a normal existence when the scientist gave birth to him. However, the society would not accept an abnormal existence like him. The undesirable treatment the society gave him eventually turned him into a monster.
Although monsters only exist in fictions, it means to tell us that every existence deserves an equal chance to be treated. Every member in the society should respect people with disabilities, treat them equally, and help them as much as we can. For a person who are born to be different, they need to be optimistic no matter what they are dealing with. Always keep their heads up and they will earn the respect from people. There was a sentence in the third article that can inspire those who were born to be different or experiencing unfair treatment: "When life throws lemons at you, make a lemonade".
Yes, if god decided to let us "born to be different", then let it be.
We are all born to be different, which is an inevitable fact. That's why we have different appearances, characters, talents and backgrounds. People often like to compare themselves with others. When differences arise, we may find lots of unfairness existing in our lives. Then we begin to complain about these unfairness and we feel upset and depressed. But one thing we ignore is that we are always sensitive to what we are weaker than others rather than what we are better than others. When god closes a door, he opens a window. We should focus on our forty and utilize them in our life. For our shortcoming, we should avoid them. Since we are born to be different, we are unique in the world. It means that we have unique value to the world. So why don’t we face the difference objectively and stop complaining? Let’s make full use of our uniqueness and achieve success.
After reading the articles on the given website, I learned an important truth from those three people. Born to be different does not mean we should do some special things to prove that we are different from others, but just to be ourselves. Everyone is born to be different. We don’t need to learn from others or behave against our minds. The only thing we need to do is to find out the unique aspect of ourselves and show it around. The person who we think is born to be different and successful does not have any supernatural ability except Benjamin Button in the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. They are conspicuous because they have more confidence and are always ready to show off themselves. If we only focus on our appearance, we won’t gain others’ attention and respect. And if we only learn from the ones we think to be different, we cannot discover our own outstanding advantages. Born to be different depends on how confident we are about ourselves and how fully we can discover ourselves.
Every person has his or her own different figure from born. Even the twins could not have the same personality because of the education experience difference and living in different environment.
Since we are distinguishing from born, we all have our own strong point superior to others and weak point inferior to others. We don’t need to mind if we are shorter than Yao, Ming, or if we can do math as well as Paul Erdth does. Just because we have our own characteristics, it helps to develop ourselves to achieve a variety of dreams of us.
From my point of view, we could not be paid much attention to the difference that we have from born. What is worth to be cared is the hard working period that we striving for success. No matter what kind circumstance a man were born, and educated and how many big troubles a man has met before, he will have the equal right to compete with other peoples. The probability a man can win a competition is more the effort after born than the ability from born.
I believe we should be proud of ourselves. There is no one who is just like you. That's why we should respect ourselves and the ohters. However, there are few people who don't think that way. They really believe that they are superior than other people. For example rich people, congrassmen, and so on. Not only these high-class people but also normal people. Honestly, I used to give strange look to handicaped peoeple like dwarf, blind and deaf. But, after i read those article I felt shame on me. I strongly believe that we should love ourselves and respect others as well. No matter where we are from, how we look like, we are unique and special. Let's be ourselves.
Maybe everyone has fatal demerits since we were born. Some were born ugly, some were born with physical disability and some have extremely bad temper. Most of us only focus on our weakness and blame God for unfairness. But the fact is already there. Nothing can help except accepting your existing weakness. Only when we can understand no one was born perfect and forgive ourselves, we can understand and forgive others.
When we are born to be different, don’t curse fates but have a positive attitude. God has a purpose in everything. Don't feel we are suffering when we are facing adversities. God has a wonderful plan for us. He wants to change us in a better person in the so-called bad situations.
Bearing a grateful heart is the key to defeat our depression. If we can focus on what we already have and our advantages beyond others, everything in our life may be totally different from what we think they were before.
God cares about us so that he makes us born to be different. Take the gift God prepared for us and enjoy our life!
Everyone was born different. Even siblings who grew up with same parents have different characteristics. People were born physically different by genetic reason and all the experiences people go through build up the emotional characteristics of them. Even people were born different, people share the same main themes with others. Peace and love. There are many different religion, heritage, culture and people around the world. They are the result of accumulation of different characteristic of people. Though the world is diverse, how the world works peacefully is being able to love others. People should not force others to believe or do something in their own way because every individual has different soul and belief. I think people should show more respect to each other by accepting the difference among people. If they do, no more fight and war will happen in this world again.
Indeed, each person born to be different. Some people are born with a dwarfism like the girl in second articles, while others are born with a slender figure. Some people work hard but still couldn’t get good grades, while others can show their best performances in class easily. In this way, many people desire to be someone that he/she admired. For example, a dwarf may dream to have a same stature with Yao Ming.
Actually, it is the differences between people that build our colorful world today. It is impossible for two people born plain same even twins. We should hold a belief that we are unique and we don’t need to become anybody. Because each person has his/her own advantages, which aspects that other people may admire at. For instance, Yao Ming is good at playing basketball, but he has a poor skill on music. So we need to inspire ourselves and always be confident to everything we faced.
At the same time, we should respect to the people who was born with disability, just like that modified girl with an eyebrow ring and three tattoos. The reason she modifies herself is to endure the stares from other people when she walked down the street. She just wants to act as a normal person and have a normal life. Imaging many people stop and stare at you without any regard for decency and decorum on the street, what would you feel?
In a word, it is lucky for us to have a healthy and normal life. But there are still lots of people in the world who do not as lucky as you are. People are born to be different. Just be yourself and respect to others.
The title “Born to be different” reflects what the humans are, what “we” are. Every human is different from each other. I think each person is born to do something special in this world but the hard is to figure out what it is. In every family, the children have some similar characteristics but, also, they have special ones that make a child unique. However, people that have different characteristics than the society, like disabilities, are alienated from it. For example, in the case of Yao Ming, when he was a child, his classmates saw him as something strange. Also, in the case of the girl with tattoos, people on the streets stop and stare her without any regard for decency and decorum. These examples show that people need to grow more because everyone must be treated with respect. There is a saying “treat your neighbor as yourself”. It means that if you want to be respected you have to respect the others. I’m a catholic man, I believe in God, and God created man in His own image so God exist in every person that is why everyone has to respect each other.
We do not have the choice to choose our inborn environment or physical conditions that we would be in thus making every single of us different from each other.
Everyone of us has a different personality, thinkings and beliefs. We either have them when we were borned or they are shaped through experiences. It is because of this difference among humans that has made this world a more colourful and exciting place to be in.Imagine if you have a bunch of friends who are the same in every aspect of life. Life would be dull and bored.
Altough some differences are thought to be too cruel or unfair, there are always two sides of a story. Michael Jackson who enjoyed enormous wealth and fame maybe not be as happy as me.Definitly, I am not as rich and famous as him.Therefore, when there is a good thing, there is definitly a bad one.However, there are always two things that are fair in this world.Firstly, everyone has twenty four hours each day, no one is exceptional so make the best of this few hours a day. Last but least, no humans can live forever.We all have to leave this world naked, why be so calculating of what people have and you do not.
In conclusion, we should try utilize our differences to create an exciting and fulfilling life for ourselves.
The thought that every human being is distinctively inimitable from one another is just overwhelming, come to realize that there are seven billion unique individuals, each one wholly different from one another, from looking at the physical aspects, appearance and physique to mental aspects, personality, attitude, behavior and characteristics. Each and everyone bear certain exclusive combination of the different aspects that I mention previously, which is what makes each individual unique. It is rather a common believe that personality is innate. However, according to a research done by the psychology department, it clearly shows that the one major factor that shapes an individual to what they are is predominantly from the influence from the environment. When I say environment I mean family background, experiences, encounters, and geographic location. Obviously environment isn’t the only factor that shapes an individual. Yet, despite the differences a universal respect is essentially important. We have to learn to put aside our differences and most prominently use our differences to the full extent and in a positive way.
I always believe everyone is unique. It’s impossible to find two people who are exactly the same. Even though identical twins may have the same appearance, there ought to be some differences between them, maybe their characters or in other aspects, so literally everyone is born to be different. A lot of people think life is unfair because there are people who born with certain advantage and in a better condition, but think of it this way; you have strengths and talents which other people don’t have. Everyone has his own value so we do not need to compare ourselves with others all the time. We should not be very proud of the things which we can do better than others but we should not be little ourselves either. God grant everyone the serenity to accept the things we cannot change; courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. It is reality that everyone will lead a different life, some may have what they want without putting much effort while some have to work a lot harder to achieve what they want. But whether life is unequal or unfair, it only depends on how you look at it.
I have one true love……Something was going on earlier but officially it has started in 2008. Since that time it never went away, no matter what was happening. The feeling go stronger with time…It has never let me down, never made me sad, never disappointed me. This love has brought me many memories, has learnt me a lot, has given me an experience I wouldn’t get any other way….Always makes me smile and gives me power for living. Give me butterflies constantly even though so many years have passed since it started. My love for travelling…
People come and people go… People don’t see the great value of the human itself. They are too busy by following their careers, getting money, cars, or just concentrating too much on themselves. They have less and less time for others.
They don’t want to wait for important things. They just prefer to have things ‘ here and now’. Losing a lot by this kind of attitude. A lot of people don’t respect words…They say a lot of bullshit. They say things just to cover the moment. And then…then the reality is very different that their words. I got used to that. I don’t expect much from myself. That’s better. Words might have magical meaning but so many of us forgot it, keep saying that words are just words. No. They are not just words…They are words.
Thant’s why I stick to my love. And I know that if no real ‘human love’ comes there will be the time when I will hit the road…somewhere very far ( I have destinations in my head already) to help those who have time for other human, who don’t have much if it comes to materialistic things but the very often have much more in their hearts and minds than those ones around me now.And I will just go. Will have nothing to lose. Nothing to keep me in here or anywhere else. And I could get a lot. Something priceless.
Cause to have my own four walls is not the determinant of happiness for me.
I totally agree with the saying that there wasn’t, isn’t and will not be somebody who is like you. This saying makes everybody different. After reading those articles, I noticed that they were talking about people with disabilities and some extreme cases. However, Life is a test for every human being. You shouldn’t be a dwarf or be extremely tall to be distinguishable or to have difficulties and problems. On one hand, I believe that what you do and achieve during your lifetime is what makes you different. After all, how were Einstein, Shakespeare and Da Vinci remembered over history? On the other hand, I understand that there are some cases where people are just born to be different. Savants are the best example of how people are born, not to be but rather different, because they have somehow different brain structure and other characteristics that are details of their case.
Imagine you woke up from the bed, went outside your room, and your mom and dad are standing in front of you. ONE CHANGE: They look just like you. You panic. You run out of your house. Every pedestrian on the street looks just like you. NIGHTMARE! Isn't it? That is why every person doesn't look the same or is not born with the looks of a movie-star. We all have different looks and different abilities. It is unfortunate that some look very different from the average person. But, what I would to suggest to such a person who is either dwarf or is extremely tall or is different in physical shape from an average person's shape is to try to find something which s/he can do easily when compared to a normal person.
In the first suggested reading passage, Yao Zhiyuan and Yao Ming joined the national basketball team, thereby converting their unfortunateness to fortunateness. I believe that they are an inspiration to others like them. Just like the Yao couple, I think a dwarf person can try to do something like join the movies, and take up a role of a dwarf person in some movies. Even if a differently-born person doesn't wish to do something that is related to them being different, one can always try to pursue his/her interest like the person from the second suggested reading passage. The person in the second suggested reading passage got tattoos and body-piercing, and did whatever her heart desired. She didn't let her disability prove hinderance to her wishes and desires.
Hence, a differently-born person must either try to do something different to supplement his/her uniqueness, or try not to let his/her physical difference prove a hinderance to the fulfillment of their wishes.
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