Student Opinion

How Good Is Your Sense of Direction?

Trinasia Harper

My sense of direction honestly is not the best. I frequently rely on google maps to guide me to the places I need to be. I often joke about how bad my sense of direction is by calling myself geographically challenged however If I really think about it, I rarely get lost. I can usually get by, by following street signs but google maps helps me out a lot. If I am going somewhere I’ve never been before then I try to go along with someone who’s been there before. Once I’m shown how to get there depending on whether I was paying as close attention or not I am usually able to get back to that place. Since I’m afraid to get lost I tend to stick to the paths that I know well.

            Getting to and from a place I’ve never been to is sometimes very challenging. I have personally never read a map but I’m pretty sure I would not be able to understand it. Taking directions from someone is not easily processed by me. It takes multiple times of hearing the directions for me to slightly understand where to go and how to get there. So overall I am not great with directions, receiving them or giving them.

Student Opinion The New York Times

Sicong wu

The article I chose is How good is you direction? In fact, My sense of direction is not good and not bad. I used to live in a small village when I was a kid. There was no smart phone and road indicator at that time, so the way I tried to find the way back home was remembering the landmark on my way home. For instance, my parents told me that there was a school in front of our village’s entrance. I tried to connect that school with my home, so when I saw that school, I knew I was close to my home. Remembering the landmark assists me cultivate some direction sense in some way. This method helps me do not get lost in most of time.

However, with the development of smart phone, our life become more convenient than before. I become rely on the smart phone map. This is easy a than remembering somewhere that helps me find the way. What I need to do is typing the name of the street on the phone, and the smart phone will tell you the direction. I can find my destination if I follow the instruction. In the other side, this convenient life style also weaken my sense of direction because it makes me do not want to remember the landmark on the street.

In my opinion, having a good sense of direction is still necessary for us. Even though the smart phone will tell us where the place is, but what if the phone is no battery or there is no signal in that area? This kind of situation is hard to predict, so it is still important for us to remember the landmark and cultivate some direction sense.

Student Opinion, NY Times

Shakhrizoda Sadriddinova

“What Role Does Religion Play in Your Life?”

As a Muslim, religion plays an important role in my life. I come from a family of Muslims and my parents are religious. To be honest, until the age of 17, I did not take religion seriously because I was raised around a variety of people, such as in school, with friends, and so on, of which only one or two were Muslims. Back in high school, I had this assignment that required me to read a story that was somehow related to Islam. Since then, I’ve been trying to educate myself about my religion and have asked my parents to teach me more about it. Today, it enables me to develop deeper and more meaningful relationships with those around me, as well as to find the right balance between material life and spirituality.

According to Dr. Horwitz’s research, religious belief and religious involvement help working-class teenagers achieve academic success. That is something I am also familiar with because it has actually helped me with my studies. It may sound strange, but whatever I pray for is always answered. For instance, us Muslims always start everything with “Bismillah” (In the name of God) which we will put our trust in God. I am grateful for this and will continue to pray each and every day. Some people claim to be Muslims, but I’ve never seen them do what they’re supposed to do. For me, if I call myself a Muslim, I must follow the beliefs and laws stated in the Holy Book Quran.

How Important Is Mindfulness to Your Daily Life?

Julia Menendez

At the beginning of the pandemic, for the first time in my life, I started feeling a constant sense of being overwhelmed and anxious, much like the rest of the world. I turned to long walks with my siblings and playing with my new puppy, but that only helped so much. On social media one day, I saw someone preaching how beneficial meditating has become in their life and challenged others to try it out. I downloaded an app and started small with three to five minute meditations every day and sometimes at night to fall asleep and it made the world of difference to me.

Beyond meditation, I’ve started to implement mindfulness in my life as well to “stop and smell the roses” so they say. I’ve started to take my time in doing things rather than rushing through. I realized that I was moving so fast through life that I would have a hard time remembering certain events or just everyday. Discovering different techniques to help with these over the past two years has really been my saving grace with my sanity.

Should Parents Give Children More Responsibility at Younger Ages?

Skyy Woodroffe

The Netflix show “Old Enough!” is about children ages 2-5 in japan going outside by themselves to do some errands like grocery shopping, going to a local farm, or walking to their grandparent’s house. The author writes that an American version of the show “wouldn’t fly”, and I agree because America is less safer than Japan. Approximately 2,300 children go missing everyday in the U.S. according to justgreatlawyers.com, so I can understand why it wouldn’t be a good to have a show like this in America. There are a lot more dangerous people out here that will harm children if they are seen alone. Kidnappings do happen in Japan, it’s just that a lot more children are kidnapped in the U.S. every year. The article also mentioned that in Japan, it’s safer for kids to cross the street by themselves because the drivers always drive slow in the neighborhoods (mostly because the neighborhoods has small blocks and a lot of intersections). In the U.S, it’s less safer for a child to cross the street by themselves because there are some drivers who speed through neighborhoods and end up hitting pedestrians. That’s why there are speed bumps and signs saying that children play here in some neighborhoods so there will be less accidents.

The writer says she hopes that the Netflix show “Old Enough!” will lead American parents to “consider the possibility that our cultural norms need a reset, or at least a rethink.” I think that some American parents can be overprotective but I don’t think they are being over protective in this case. It wouldn’t be smart to let a 2-5 year old in America run errands by themselves because it isn’t as safe here. I think that the parents start to become over protective if they won’t allow a teenager to gain more responsibility, but I think it makes sense for them to not give a child those types of responsibilities and be protective over them in America. I haven’t seen the show “Old Enough!” yet but I would like to watch it now that I’ve read about it. It would be interesting to watch because I never seen a tv show like this in America.