The Magic of becoming

July 2020

THE MAGIC OF BECOMING A collection of essays on supreme moral values by Adela Mantescu - Adam and the twenty-two gems from 8F

L i c e u l Te o r e t i c I n t e r n a ț i o n a l d e I n f o r m a t i c ă B u c u r e ș t i

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Table of Contents Foreword by Matei Catuneanu The Twenty - Two Gems by Adela Mantescu – Adam Courage by David Iosef Power by Matei Catuneanu Diligence by Eva Nestor Happiness by Daria Ciobanu Humour by Nicola Dragoș Harmony by Catinca Golasiu Honesty by Maha Midani Love by Jasmina Gataiantu Sensitivity by Fatima Bulut Serenity by Debrezeni Roland Creativity by Natalis Ionescu Inner - balance by Faraz Soleymani Joy by Sara Mohamed Passion by Olteanu Mara Dignity by Sofia Luca Friendship by Bianca Sarilgan Commitment by Dan Popescu Ambition by Anuar Midani Leadership by Maria Cirlescu Kindness by Miercan Delia Comedy by Alin Preotu Originality by Horia Musat

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3 4 13 15 18 20 23 25 27 35 38 42 46 48 50 57 59 62 64 66 68 71 74 76

Foreword Communities might seem like something simple and yet, strictly divided by two strikingly different factors, need and desire. As beings with an outstanding social behavior, us humans desire people with whom we share interests and values, therefore bonding in a fundamental way. However, both external and internal need might push us towards experiences and people we might not fancy, that is just life and one of the crevasses on our way to the summit of becoming. In recent times one new factor became apparent, and that is the slight possibility where need turns into desire.

“Together we are one”, as the saying goes, was a fundamental step towards inspiring pupils to unite, putting away their differences and creating one beautiful entity known as 8F. This entity is more so a jigsaw puzzle, formed from simple yet intricate and mysterious pieces, each and every single one of them contributing to achieve perfection.

This prototype “person” has all the moral attributes it needs to inspire and teach a lesson for every human it encounters.

It can teach diligence, instructing people to take a leaf out of Eva’s book and turn over a new page in theirs. It can flatter with Jasmina’s love and Mara’s passion, creating a universe of emotion. It can balance with Catinca’s harmony and Roland’s serenity. And, most important of all, it can inspire with Maria’s leadership, Matei’s Power, Dan’s commitment and Mrs. Adela’s generous and outstanding guidance.

Follow us through the mist of the unknown, on our own separate paths to becoming ourselves.

Matei Catuneanu

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Adela Mantescu

The Twenty-Two Gems

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.�

-Aristotle

their pair of inexorable and ineffable wings.

They have fulfilled their dreams by following Ivy League universities and by choosing to embrace meaningful careers and missions, thus actively and consciously changing this world into a better one. My students are my force, my inspiration, my motivation, my best friends and the reason why I totally adore my mission.

There are myriad of jobs you can choose out there and there are a handful of missions which choose you even way before you could reason how or knew what I want to become and how I want to why. I was five years old when I intuitively and divinely write my legacy in this world, I wanted to be a teacher.

Why precisely a teacher? To elevate minds and hearts and to help my students fulfill their wildest dreams and become who they were born to become, their best versions. I am today utterly lucky to have hold thousands of souls and minds in the palms of my hands and to have uplifted their spirits and shown them

Although all of my students are, were and will forever be my favorite students, I will speak now about one of the most harmonious and serene classes that has ever entered my classroom and my heart, namely 8F. Upon finishing gymnasium, we are giving one

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contains magic”? Of course, it was you!

Continue to shine on with the adamant light of your soul, always be the sun which brings warmth among us and always bring us together, bring us “home”.

another the most impressive flowers, the flowers of our soul, words in a novel that is meant to stay proof for the memorable and magic time spent together. These astonishing children excel both at English and at the elevation of their characters and you will definitely hear more about them since they are indubitably some of the best humans who have walked on earth. We have spent magic moments together, we have learnt assiduously and with immense joy and we have inspired one another at least with twenty lessons about the most crucial treasures one can ever amass, moral values. The current book is a gift to you about the bouquet of moral values represented by these twenty-two brilliant and shining gems.

Catuneanu Matei has taught us important lessons about Power. But not about despot power, but about the power of genuine leaders like himself, the power to uplift, motivate, inspire, give people the courage to exit the comfort zone and to embark on a plethora of daring and paramount adventures. Matei might strike you as a maverick, a fierce onconformist, but do not be tricked, he is a true leader, a visionary and someone who will discover fields that others fear. He is the Elon Musk of our class, a very wise individual, utterly ambitious and courageous, ready to overcome any obstacle in order to achieve his dreams. Matei is a force of nature, highly inspirational, a champion in everything he does, with a high level of self-confidence and stamina and we cannot wait to witness the mountains he will conquer on his road of becoming an outstanding professional. Dear Matei, we can hear your assertive voice telling us “it’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves”. Continue to motivate and inspire us with your thirst to overcome any obstacles or borders and your hunger to fulfil the most daring dreams. You will always be a mountain of sheer ambition and inexorable

Bulut Fatima has taught us the important lesson of Sensitivity. She has been always there with a warm piece of advice, listening to everyone with great care and eager to help anyone in need. Kind, mild, with a warm personality, Fatima is like a ray of sun, ready to caress anyone in need and to give us the gift of an ocean of serenity. She radiates calmness, honesty and kindness and instantly washes any pain away. She is like a wisdom teacher disguised in a brunette, fair - skinned, wide eyed beautiful girl. Dear Fatima, do you still remember who brought us a rainbow motto for our class, spelling the message which has guided our steps for four years “This classroom

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when she was in the fifth grade and we were all attending a workshop in the amphitheatre.

When asked what she wanted to become, Maria answered with no hesitation that she is preparing to become the future president of our country. And what a president, I would say. Meanwhile, she has been the president of the students’ council, representing the wishes and the needs of students and voicing their opinions on a weekly basis. Maria has all the prerequisites of a good leader. She is kindhearted, highly intelligent, articulate, strong, obstinate in achieving her goals, self– confident, proactive and extremely decisive.

She knows that you are either part of the problem or part of the solutions and she always focuses on generating solutions.

Maria’s character stands as tall as her moral values and we cannot wait to vote for Maria, whatever position she is running for. Thank you, Maria, for teaching us that leaders are made of courage, stamina, love, obstinacy, wit and everlasting will to reach milestones and improve everything around us. You are and will always be our president.

courage, an unbeatable force of nature and we will always watch you and support you with deep admiration and pride that you are one of us.

Ciobanu Daria has taught us one of the most vital lessons one could learn throughout life, Happiness. She is always truly cheerful, with a wide and honest smile drawn all over her face and she manages to contaminate all of us with her innocence, happiness and orchestra of laughter. I genuinely doubt t h a t one could be miserable, gloomy or morose around her since she is as serene as a summer sky and as warm as a summer day. One cannot cease to wonder in front of Daria how could all of us attain this zenith state in which no storm and no thunder is strong enough in order to trouble you. It is probably an innate inheritance which makes Daria radiant and jubilant. She remains overjoyed when she attends classes, when she does homework, during classes or breaks, when she is tired or rested and that is the magic of who she is. Thank you, Daria, for being our happiness coach and helping us attain sheer bliss and be as happy as only children know how, happy for no apparent reason at all, happy for being alive and part of this wonderful miracle, called life.

Debrezeni Roland has taught us what Serenity really is. Whether Roland is playing volleyball, playing the guitar or singing, we could really see his artistic nature and the fact that art is our divine core and the genius Cirlescu Maria has taught us the within. With his blue eyes and wide smile, he prerequisites of Leadership. I do recall the year has managed to teach us peace of mind and

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hoping that one day soon you will compose and sing a song specially for us because we do know that you have a splendid voice to mesmerize us with. Thank you, dear Jas, for the spring blossoming in your eyes, the summer kneeling to your smile and the autumn of your soul with its unforgettable ripped gifts of kindness and inner light. Continue to shine on and to show others the key to life itself, pure and infinite love for life, for us, for the us in others because you have always known the truth: there are no others, all of us are one.

how to be free from any cloudy thought or morose feeling. Roli seems not to have the ability to be upset and this makes him a model to follow. We cannot imagine Roli being upset but all of us recall all the times when he mesmerized us with his voice, his skills of playing the guitar or his unique tune of inner peace which lingers on long after he has left the room. Thank you,Roland, for having taught us how to find the right balance between learning and our hobbies (sports & art) and for having shown us t h a t art makes our existence uplifting and that catharsis embellishes our humanity.

Golasiu Catinca has taught us a very important lesson about inner balance and Harmony. Her pristine temper warms all the ice around her and makes the most callous soul melt. That’s how harmonious she really is. We have been wondering for four years now whether you have ever lost your temper on the heavy tempests of life. We strongly believe you have not. What’s your secret?!You are as kindhearted as the fairies from our childhood stories, as serene as a rainbow, as composed as a buddhist monk and as happy as a toddler.

This is the magic formula that makes you the astonishing person you are. You bring balance and inner peace everywhere you step and your uplifting and propelling nature enables you to help others and get involved in meaningful charity work. We will never forget that your charitable project won the business competition teaching is that in any

Gataiantu Jasmina has taught us the supreme lesson of life, the key to life itself, namely Love. Jasmina is both sensitive and sensible, endowed with a noble and gentle soul and she instantly falls in love with everything that is as pure, as noble and as dignified as she is. She has taught us that the only true love is unconditional love for everything that surrounds us. We will always remember the warmth and generosity with which you have surrounded us and the ocean of kindness which you poured in our daily cups of life. Do you remember the innocent and beautiful tears in your eyes when we spoke about integrity? You might not remember, but I certainly do because integrity, beauty and love resonates with every fiber and every atom that makes you who you are. We do confess to

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maverick in the 7th grade, looking to forge a strong identity and bravely rejecting every external rule that did not suit his personality and ideas. Little did people knew that that was an essential period in his becoming, the cutting of the diamond in order for it to become the perfect gem that is today.

Everything surprises me in the most uplifting way about David, his warm personality, his mesmerizing wisdom, his adult-like maturity, his positive outlook on life, writing a book in English, my favourite book of David’s up to now from the plethora of the books that are to be written by David. Dear David, you are a leader in everything you do and your becoming is as impressive as the facets of a perfect gem.

Your power shines through from deep within, the power of your lion heart, the power of your character, the power of your strong and utterly stubborn and ambitious personality. You have all the prerequisites of the greatest undertakings and we shall always be your best supporters and allies.

sustainable and valuable business, helping people and contributing comes first. We thank you, Catinca, for teaching us that harmony is a vital ingredient to the recipe of living highly meaningful lives.

Ionescu Natalis taught us the lesson of Creativity. She is innovative, a visionary, a painter, an actress, an Artist. What would life be without art? Natalis asks us just by glancing at us. We have seen you in plays which stuck to our hearts, we have witnessed your contagious smile thousands of time and we have become your devoted public for when you reach the greatest stages of life and fulfil your most daring dreams. Of course, your best friends are artists as well and we long for the moment we could see life through the lenses of art as well, as you do. Everything seems much easier when art transforms our outlook on life and life itself becomes funnier and even more Majestic. Dear Natalis, even if you have managed to forget your books at home a myriad of times during these four years, we totally understand since the artist within shines through and lights everything around you. We cannot wait to witness your magic on greatest stages of the world and you have the promise of the loveliest and friendliest dances of applauses on our behalf.

Luca Sofia has taught us the lesson of Dignity. She is always as self-composed and as gracious as a princess. Her image, her gestures, her calmness and appealing elegance position her in a royal kinship. She never loses her temper and nobody would afford to try since she would remain the same elegant and Iosef David has taught us a paramount previous gem, totally undisturbed by any kind lesson about Courage. I do recall David as a of external circumstances. As a princess, she

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Honesty and innocence. She is utterly amiable, deferential, harmonious and honest at all times. The truth is the most beautiful story there is to tell and the only one worth the paper of life and Maha knows this very well.

There is a lot of honesty and loyalty in her friendly nature because Maha is always there with the most salutary words of advice for everyone in need. A friend in need is a friend indeed and this defines Maha perfectly. When in doubt or in search for truth, look for Maha.

She has a magnifying glass through which she will take a close look and then she will give you the righteous verdict. Thank you, Maha, for having taught us that the truth is the only version of the story we need to know.

does not waste her words in the royal court of verbal communication, saying just what is necessary or required, the essence. There is a lot of strength in her character as she is dressed in the dresses of forever elegance and majestic harmony and she has no fear of the future.

Thank you, Sofia, for teaching us that “Sofia� means not only love for wisdom, but also love for dignity and elegance.

Midani Anuar taught us the adamant lesson of Ambition. No one is better than you at geography and the plethora of geography competitions that you have won. We admire you for all the ambition and perseverance that was needed in order for you to achieve ravishing results. We also admire you for your jubilant nature. No matter what day it was, you had the knowledge that it was the most important day of our life and you had a wide, addictive smile on your face to share with us.

You have always been audacious and capable of tremendous efforts to reach your targets. At times, we wondered where does a mountain of ambition and audacity reside in such a young person, but you always gave us the right answer: the strongest essences are kept in small bottles. Thank you, Anuar, for teaching us that ambition can take you from any point to the most breathtaking destinations on the planet.

Miercan Delia has taught us Kindness. A very mild, warm and kind presence has always guided our steps. Delia is more tolerant than anyone we know. She sees the good and the light in everyone and manages to successfully ignore any trace or shade of darkness. She understands everyone around her with great ease and she has a supreme love and undeniable respect for all the people around her. She succeeds in being everyone’s friend, making no difference among people and clearly perceiving that we are all one and we ultimately strive for the same treasures, love and appreciation. Thank you, Delia, for having taught us that kindness is Midani Maha taught us the lesson of unconditional and totally effortless.

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Mohamed Sara has taught us the lesson of Joy. At this point, I do not know whether Sara has taught us the lesson of Joy or she is the embodiment of joy itself. I tend to believe that Sara is made up of joy entirely, atom by atom.

Her face radiates joy, the music she listens to expresses joy, the cartoons and films she watches are about joy and the theatre plays in which she performs are hilarious. We have laughed our hearts out when we witnessed Sara playing in our theatre play. Never had we imagined such a metamorphosis and that Sarah could turn into the most amusing characters we have ever seen. Sara, do you remember when you encouraged us to do only what sparks joy? Well, let me tell you what really sparks joy, having a jubilant person like you around. Thank you, Sara, for being not a spark, but a fireworks of joy for us and teaching us that joy hides in everything if you know where to look within.

Musat Horia has taught us an important lesson about Originality.We still remember your 5th grade PBL about one of your heroes, the Rock. It was more surprising and funnier than we have ever expected. Everything about you is original, from your jokes, your preferences, your models in life, your unique humour which at times, can turn into black, British humour as well. We do think that you have huge stock of jokes for every situation and just like a Santa of Jokes on the

Christmas Jokes Day, you pull the most hilarious jokes out of your neverending sack.

Whatever you decide to do later on, we know now that nobody will be able to imitate you and the fibers of your uniqueness. There is only one Horia Musat out there. Thank you, Horia, for having taught us that no one is us and that is our power.

Nestor Eva has taught us the lesson of Diligence. Eva strikes us me as one of the most assiduous, industrious and earnest people I have ever met. I sincerely think that there is no piece of homework she has ever skipped because she is committed to excellence and excellence is the aftermath of a consistent army of excellent behaviors and routines. Her diligence stems from gymnastics as well where she excelled because this is who Eva chooses to be, an example of perfection. Whether is gymnastics, academic work or friendship, Eva takes it equally seriously and turns it into masterpieces. Thank you, Eva, for having taught that no effort is too great for us and that whatever we choose to do, we should do it to the best of our abilities.

Nicola Dragos has taught us many surprising things about Humour. An obstinate, leadership-keen, brazen and highly intelligent individual, Dragos finds a lot of comfort in an array of pranks, jokes and a comedy he puts in stage instantly anywhere he

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is. All he needs is a public which lends him his “ears� and most precious resource, time.

Dragos is one of the funniest people we know and he manages to bring a smile on our faces even in the gloomiest days. Does he exaggerate at times with his never ending parade of jokes?

Of course he does, that’s what all great comedians do. Thank you, Dragos, for having taught us that the highest forms of intelligence always generates the greatest jokes and that life without humour would as dull as a staid individual.

Olteanu Mara had taught us the essence of Passion. She is such a gifted singer that you cannot stop wondering how many angels are hiding in her divine, heavenly voice. When Mara sings, time stops, everything freezes.

There are a handful of people who have the ability to stop time but Mara is one of them.

Her passion for music is incommensurable and insurmountable. In her songs we can read her courage, love, ambition, and unbeatable force. Since Matei is a force of nature of the stage of life, Mara is a force of nature in any singing competition. Thank you, Mara, for your ability of uplifting our spirits with the impressive force of your voice and personality.

You are not a story about passion, you are passion telling us her story.

diligence, Dan is the embodiment of commitment and we should all become his students and take notes about what success is made of: 1% talent and 99% hard work. Dan gives everything he has and he is in all his great undertakings. He is a keen and avid perfectionist, committed to school, friends, family and his passions. Life is like riding a bike for him but he trains really hard for all the biking tricks and for all the rocky and bumping mountain biking. Whatever you assign to Dan, you have the certainty that it will be done very close to perfection and with the greatest attention to detail. Thank you, Dan, for having aught us to embark on the commitment boat which will take us to our wildest dreams and most challenging objectives.

Preotu Alin has taught us a lot about Comedy. Although, we already had two comedians in the class, represented by Dragos and Horia, Alin decided that we need the magic number of three and he joined the comic parade. Alin is hilarious effortlessly, naturally, he does not try, he does not think his jokes through, he is not committed to his career of being funny and he is not diligent in preparing his comic acts because there is nothing to prepare. Alin is amusing through his unique sense of humour, his creativity, his Popescu Dan taught us what Commitment presence and his bright mind. I manages to really is. If Eva is the embodiment of preserve his addictive smile even in morose

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times and this is something which makes him truly unique. Thank you, Alin, for teaching us that life reaches its best not with a pinch of salt, but with a pinch of intelligent humour.

Sarilgan Bianca has taught us the value of Friendship. Bianca is highly intelligent, sensitive and sensible at the same time, wise, kind-hearted, loyal and altruistic. She has all the prerequisites of someone’s best friend.She is taciturn and introvert at times but that is just until she reads you as if you are an open book and she decides whether you are worthy of her trust or not. Once Bianca has decided that you are trustworthy and a good mirror of the values she holds dear, you have won the greatest gift, the gift of her friendship and loyalty in good times and bad times, ups and downs, zeniths and nadirs. Thank you, Bianca, for having chosen to be our friend and teaching us that friendship is the best umbrella there is in any tempest of life.

Soleymani Faraz taught us the lesson Selfreliance and Inner balance. Faraz has always impressed me by being modest but utterly intelligent and ambitious, serene but extremely fierce in attaining his objectives, kind - hearted in the front of the jokes signed

by Dragos, tolerant but extremely perfectionist with the people he chooses to be his friends, gentle but extremely powerful, humble but a true leader who leads by the power of his own

example. If we were to choose a king, we would definitely choose you, Faraz, because you represent all the light that shines within us. You are a sun which has made all our days better and through your inner balance and self-reliance, you have managed to empower and inspire all your peers. Thank you, Faraz, for having taught us that true leadership is a matter of kindness, generosity, inner balance, self-reliance and LIGHT, a lot of internal light. As you leave gymnasium and you head towards other great undertakings and the fulfilment of all your dreams, I want you to know, my dearest PRECIOUS GEMS, that I am grateful and privileged to have taught you and to have learnt a myriad of valuable lessons from you, that I am proud that you are not only children of RARE INTELLECT, but also, utterly SPECTACULAR HUMANS who will move mountains and achieve astonishing objectives, and that you were, are and will always be my perfect children.

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Adela Mantescu - Adam

Courage

David Iosef Some time ago, I read a book about a man to whom a river spoke. A book containing a touching and wonderful story about a spiritually lost man who was ready to throw his life away, but thanks to one simple word did not. The word spoken to him was human.Everybody knows what a human is, but in this man’s opinion, this now newborn who has accidentally reached nirvana, a human is not just an ephemeral life-filled being. In his eyes, a human is both a stone and a rabbit, both a criminal and a saint, God himself and the Devil at the same time.

He views the past and the future both as present and all things as one beautiful unitary being. The key to one’s peace is a simple one to find, although the one who seeks anything without giving any importance to the rest might as well not look for it at all.

Some time ago, I heard a story about a boy who has mistakenly reached nirvana in a similar manner. A story about a lost child, a kid that has given up all hope and any sort of interest in this world. And so, craving to escape this miserable state, he began walking.

But it was no normal walk, instead, it was a spiritual walk on the Inka trail.

Walking alone with his head in the clouds, the kilometers were lessening and the lovely water droplets were hitting the Peruvian foggy jungle and something bizarre also was happening.

With his every step, the air shifting weight on his suffering chest was slowly fading, forming a path for his soul to escape‌ This was the start of it all, the start to a beautiful, peaceful, full of happiness life. And so his soul fearfully left his slowly trembling body, sort of

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searching around and watching his pitiful body sadly walk. The world had a weird new feeling added to it’s large sea of affection. It was the same sense of unity felt by the almost dead man. He afterward saw the way that every single particle gravitated back to one extremely heavy energy point. He saw how everything was one and felt the link between everything and everyone and afterward returning to his human body, but now what was different from the past was that he was overwhelmed by peace and happiness.

I also like to think that I have inspired some fellow classmates. And even if I didn’t, I’d fancy sharing the hidden message that I have been sending to all of the people that I have met in my life.

It’s the same with qualities. Everybody has more or less of everything, leading to the creation of one unitary being, one imperfect yet perfect being.

But why would I have been so selfish as to think this? It’s because of my idea regarding the meaning of life. My opinion concerning life is that life is meant to be lived and that’s it. It’s a river leading you to the colossal ocean. A boat trip meant to be experienced.

From my perspective life is as meaningless as it gets, it’s just a trip which you just have to experience a journey without any goal, one filled with aggressive mean waves and pleasant calm small waves. It’s an imperfect yet perfect mixture of waves. I want to tell to any of the people that read my chapter and relate to my opinion the following line: Do whatever your heart desires.

My, or more specifically, the boy’s most prominent quality is courage. But does this really mean anything? Once somebody reaches this state it’s natural for courage to make it’s appearance since fear and sadness are no more and even describing it as one is inappropriate since it has so much to do with everything else… The appropriate word for this weird mixture of childish emotions and qualities being love.

I used to have a very simple opinion. It goes something like this: Why would one care about others’ opinions when they are happy with their achievement. Why would I care about anybody else when only my opinion matters?

And so the boy continued to live his life writing about the beauty of life whilst enjoying it and holding the physical form of love in his arms as the rain was falling down in march.

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David Iosef

Power

Matei Catuneanu

Emotions, beliefs, thoughts and opinions seem to remain the single thing which tells us apart from robots, giving us a certain edge over all other living creatures. We have a mind of our own and the ability to express ourselves in such an explicit manner so that change would occur. However as people come in all shapes and sizes so does one’s mind and the way they perceive emotion, some seeing it a blessing of life and some as nothing more than a burden standing in the way of a pristine and simple existence. Yet, one stands above the rest, one emotion which makes you feel like you are on the top of the world, the feeling which paints a smile on the coldest of faces, power. Now, the dilemma itself is the meaning of power and what does it symbolise.

Firstly,to discover what power really is, one

needs firstly to discover all of these words’ true meanings, four in this case, each one of them having roots in the most important realms of human existence. In this day and age society, we came to value the body over the mind, a heavy emphasis being put on the way you look, how tall you are and how strong you are.

So, the first and most common meaning of power is the association with the word “strength”, therefore being by far the most prominent physical attribute. Hypothetically speaking, you, the reader, are in a park enjoying your book, when you see a fragile looking boy being aggressively approached by a tall muscular man which challenges him to a fight. The boy accepts and proceeds to punch the tall man with no success, the man punching him right in the nose, ergo breaking

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it. The only logical assumption to be made is powers are boundless. Yet, the meaning of that the man was more powerful, fact proven power in this case is quite unclear, it being present in nearly everything, ability.Tricky by his punch. and abstract as it is, the obvious link between However not taking into account our society’s ability and power is undeniable since they are desire for strength and overall obsession with so symbiotically linked, one can’t exist physicality, one other important factor when without the other, their coexistence being it comes to the way we think and perceive mandatory for a healthy mind. people is their mechanism of thinking, some being very evaluative and thinking everything The next meaning of this word can be found thoroughly and mathematically, while others in the way we shaped society itself, moreover might leave the thinking aside and try living democracy. See, democracy is based on the in the moment, instead letting their heart premise that someone will only be elected by guide them to the right path. Either way, the free vote of all people in a community. Still, word “power” is sewn into the sole fabric the question of whom to choose still stands , which composes one’s way of being and and that is the key to what we are searching personality, as the American president, for. People want to choose someone who Abraham Lincoln put it “Nearly all men can inspires them, which makes great points and stand adversity, but if you want to test a which can lead them to a brighter future by eliminating already existing problems and man’s character, give him power.” radicalism. Not withstanding the importance Picture yourself as an investor in a conference which the look and the actions of the room full of sales agents marketing their candidate hold, the most powerful and products. One of them slowly approaches you important feature has to be the way they and starts presenting his product, pointing out mend words. Words are the key in everything, how it is miles above the competition and how they can build, they can destroy and more you would be lucky to be the possessor of a importantly they can inspire. People whose share of their company. What do you do? Sign words had a lot of power and meaning are still the contract, being somewhat seduced by the household names like Malcolm X, Martin sweet words of the salesman or question him, Luther King and Friedrich Nietzsche. Each unsure of the future of his company? Well, you one of them inspiring people with their cause. have the power of investing, the power not to As the great aforementioned philosopher do it, the power of questioning him, your Friedrich Nietzsche said “All I need is a sheet

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of paper and something to write with, and subject that has to be addressed is trauma provoked by those dark times which can take then I can turn the world upside down”. a toll on the happiest person, turning their life One wonderful example is Barack Obama’s upside down and opening their mind up to election speeches, the passion which he had for things they deemed unimaginable. Power in speaking and for his cause was simply this case symbolises a person’s will to resist bewildering, convincing a lot of Americans those spur of the moment important and very that he was the right choice. The way he self deprecating reasons. spoke, his tonality, the way he moved his hands simply added up to him being the One question still stands above the rest. What perfect candidate. It was unlikely for him to is power? “The measure of a man is what he win but the power of his words was nothing does with power.” said Plato acknowledging short of unseen, power standing for meaning, this word’s true meaning, the consequences it depth and inspiration, which he clearly may have, the sheer destruction which may result from its abuse. Power is paramount to possessed and expressed every time. our existence, molding plain puppets of clay Now, the last meaning of power resides in into everything from tyrants to activists. Power basic human existence. Not one person can does not have a meaning. It can be everything live a life without hardship and pain, even or nothing. Everyone has their unique take on though the degree and amount may very well it. It all depends on you. It’s my turn to ask a vary from human to human, a painless question. What is power to you? existence would not even be granted for someone with a godly statute. One gruesome

Matei Catuneanu

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Diligence

Eva Nestor The definition of diligence is careful and persistent work or effort towards achieving your goals. Although nowadays it is considered by some “cool” not to learn, I have kept my best feature “diligence” in the palms of my hands and protected it with all my MIGHT, the same as all my classmates have kept theirs.

I have been part of this class for four years now. In this time, I have acquired lots of new attributes from each one of my colleagues, each lesson depicting a different colour on my life’s cloth. The most vibrant colour for me has always been blue. It might be the fact that our school uniform is blue and that school is often associated with hard work or it could have a figurative sense for the endless sea of information that diligence helps you gain.

Diligence always comes along with a hard as rock determination, an unbeatable one as others may say. Let’s imagine for a second that what we believe is hard in our lives represents climbing Mount EVEREST. The cold and the waste of energy can only be beaten with outstanding diligence and inexorable determination, subjects my class is an expert in.

If I had to describe my class, I would say that we are the most hardworking when our reputation, 8F, is threatened and we immediately start helping each other as a real closeand united family. Because this is what we have been in four years of gymnasium, a happy and cheerful family, with ups and downs like every family, but most importantly, a family built on love,respect, and unity.

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One day, in my sleep, I pictured myself on the biggest and nicest field. There were lots and lots of beautiful flowers. I was only allowed to choose one, the one that I liked. In the far distance, I saw a small shy rose with its petals towards the sun, trying to catch some rays that the bigger flowers never missed. It immediately appealed to me so I took it and headed through a passage. At the end of the passage, there was someone that told me “no matter what you do, don’t forget: her name is Diligence and she will always be a part of you.” Then I woke up. Little did I know at that time that a tiny rose called diligence will guide all my steps and help and support my growth in gymnastics, school and life in general. That rose is still carried in my soul and it gives me the strength to break any boundary, to climb every mountain, to surpass every obstacle and drink its droplets of sweet success.

Somehow, life is always one step before us.

Examples of diligence are found in every corner of Earth. Let’s look at the seas: the waves represent the bad, unhappy situations through which one goes and the boats represent our passion and strengths, as the saying goes “water in the boat is the ruin of the boat, but water under the boat is its support”. The cosmic space also has one good example: spaceships,things people only dreamed of in the past, are the only things

able to surpass the ozone layer. How do you think that people managed to build them?

Well, they were defined by diligence and a high sense of curiosity which helped them surpass all the limits imposed by our brains.

If I were to picture diligence as a person I think that it would embody a grandpa whose favourite thing is building the nicest toys in the universe for his grandchildren. The recipe for a perfect present is three quarters of diligence sprinkled with the utmost love.

Diligence harmoniously combines with all the other attributes, it is found in every person.

You could ask: “How are we so different then?” The answer is: We all contain diligence in our cup of life, but if and how we decide to use it makes all the difference. I for one, know this: there is no great undertaking, no huge achievement, no massive success, no mountain conquering in the absence of diligence. After all, genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work. Therefore, remember your calling and your childhood dreams and give them wings with the help of this supreme treasure that you own deep within: diligence.

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Happiness

Daria Ciobanu As all of my friends know, and now you know, I am a horse rider in the discipline of show jumping and this is my supreme passion and my sheer happiness… I once learned from an extraordinary friend that: “Life is like a show jumping course. You face various obstacles. Some of them you cannot be jumped over from the first time, sometimes you fall, hurt yourself, but you get up try again”. You might say that it is not always easy to just get up and try again, but I did that and now I will share with you the secret of moving on, of living your life to the fullest, and maybe the most important, the secret of becoming the person who you always wanted to be. This “magical” secret that I made you curious about is quite simple and it is called HAPPINESS. I think that happiness is what brings the best out of people and by being happy, we are ourselves and as the quote I

wrote above, in life you always have to face various obstacles which are sometimes big or small, but you always have to surpass them to become wiser and more mature. Remaining happy and positive has helped me get through all the problems I faced in my life so far.

About happiness, you cannot decide that you are going to be happy today and expect things to be like that, you have to do things that make you feel happy and most importantly, to try to spend at least parts of your day with people that make you feel safe, loved, and powerful. I had the luck to be part of a class that made me feel like that, made me laugh, taught me a myriad of things and made me blithe. Spending 5 days per week with my classmates was utterly valuable because at the end of the day and week, I feel more knowledgeable and happier.

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Most of my classmates think that it is impossible for me to be sad and I think that this is the main reason why my essay is named “Happiness”, but they actually do not see me sad because whenever I am around them I am happy. Their bad jokes cheer me up just by making me realize that there is someone on this planet that makes worse jokes than me and I have to confess that I can be sad too and I can grief, especially when watching my favourite TV show namely “Originals”, and I think that sadness and pain are crucial in life because if we do not experience the worse, how will we know what happiness and love are and this is probably not the most important result of experiencing bad feelings, but how we learn to surpass the obstacles that challenge us throughout our lives. It is crucial to spend our days and lives with people that do not allow us to be sad, those around whom we are unable to cry and to think about misfortunes, those who brighten our days as all of my colleagues brightened mine for four years in a row.

perception, our friends’ perception, but we must build our own and this is probably the moment when we truly discover our true selves. And you might wonder why perception is introduced in a chapter about happiness, which is a feeling… Well, I have to say that our perception changes everything, including our feelings. Let’s take an example: you wake up this morning and the first thing you see is perceived as being something sad and meaningless, maybe it annoys you. What do you think you will feel like further in the morning and maybe the whole day? Well, I suppose that you will be sad and you will feel like everything annoys you and this will lead you to having a hollow day, lacking of any happiness building moments. But what about instead of perceiving the first thing in the morning as being something bad, you perceive it as being something happy, good, maybe you remember that you once read an article that claimed that if you see that the first thing in the morning, it will bring you good luck. Now, I think that your day will be perfect, you will admire the sun, be happy lining in everything that surrounds you and this is where perception interferes with our lives. Our perception of things and surroundings changes our feelings, our memories and the course of our day.

It is not in my nature to be happy, or that is what I think… because I do not believe we are born to have a certain perpetual feeling or perception, but that we can choose how we want to feel from the moment we wake up and give our best to feel like that all day long … Sometimes, our perception of things that I was not in this class from the 5th grade, but surround us is influenced by our parents’ I was there in the 6th, the 7th and the 8th.

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Something that my classmates do not know is my first impression of them and of this class.

When I first came in, I thought that this class was perfect, it had the most beautiful kids, the best teachers and the tutor that was always there for us.I believe that on our own we are the most imperfect individuals in the world, but together, united as we want to be, we create the perfect, imperfect class and community…

mission.

I could not be more happy and grateful for meeting you and for spending three years with you, you brightened my worst days, you made me laugh when I was about to cry and you helped me discover my true personality. I have been wondering for years before writing this essay why everyone asked me how do I manage to so happy…, and I didn’t know what to answer either so I used to say“ I do My experience with you: my colleagues, my not know. I’m just happy”, but after writing friends and my second family was like this beautiful piece, I realized that I was climbing a mountain. The first year you happy because you were around me. climbed without me, but I was luckily dropped by a private airplane in the second year and We have been through a lot together and that that’s the moment we began our journey… On is maybe why we are the most united class our way to the top we had to choose the path from the school, because even if we usually act we would follow and I honestly believe that like lonely, independent wolves, whenever a we had chosen the wrong path too many times threat or struggle comes, we always act like a to count, but somehow still managed to get to pack to surpass it, coming in each others’ the top. Our goal was to complete this journey rescue. You brought happiness into my life and with smiles on our faces, to be happy and at I made you happy every day by radiating it peace with each other and I think we did a back, I have succeeded in becoming more great job. What I have not mention is that knowledgeable with every second spent with with every path we chose, we had to face you and we succeeded together in climbing another challenge and with the decisions we that daunting and agonizingly high mountain made, the challenge became easier or harder. and, at the end of the day, we are the perfect And as I mentioned above, we chose the imperfect class which will bring happiness to wrong path, we made wrong decisions, but each other forever and a day. whenever it was needed, we stayed united and surpassed any problem and difficulty, Daria Ciobanu accomplishing our goals and finishing our

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Humour

Nicola Dragos

Humour is taught to be the quality of being amusing or funny, but is it really just that?

One may think humour resumes to people feeling good around you, and I do not totally agree to that. So far, over my short life, I was told plenty of times that my greatest quality was humour, but I never really completely understood that. Certainly what others told me had something to do with the fact that I made them laugh, but I was sure there was something more to this attribute rather than making people laugh.

I only got to understand that two summers ago, while in one of the most challenging camps I have been to. This was not the usual teenage camp, where you go to unwind and just relax. Everyone that took part in it definitely agrees with me. We had to hike

three mountains in just 5 days, and trust me it is way harder psychically than physically.

What I mean is that not being integrated in the group made it over ten times harder for you to complete any of the tasks given. In this camp, there were no instructors or mentors, there were only the organizers that were part of the group, therefore it was equally hard for most of us. The good part was that the group was great. We made jokes and covered lots of land quickly, we even had a day to spare at the middle of the program so we bought some meat and made a huge grill, but the hard part was yet to come. We still had two more mountains to conquer, out of which one had a huge decline with chains and the other one had a 5-hour part on the ridge where it is always very foggy. After the decline we set the camp and the next morning just did not feel

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right, everyone was exceedingly and unexpectedly quiet. I really was not so tired and I think half of the others were not as well but a deathly silence was lingering in the air.

The daunting and agonizing problem was that the morale of the camp participants was down. So while hiking, I remembered that I actually have been there with my parents a month before the camp so I just said it out loud and to my surprise everyone started laughing and all of a sudden the whole group started moving faster and I just continued talking to them. Every 15 minutes, I would say jokes, good or bad, they did not seem to care. When we got to the last part, namely the ridge, the jokes were already getting old and the wind was blowing so hard that I felt my face burn at the same time as my fingers were freezing. So I started grabbing their hands one by one while acting highly energetic and helping them walk to the front, pushing their spirits and their morale. Everyone laughed and actually the situation got better and better until we finally got to the peak, then we started the decline on the other side and all of them asked me: Were you here as well? Did you run to that far away cliff too? So on so forth. After that truly challenging experience the whole group remembered me as ‘the little motor’ and started appreciating me a lot more. What was the most interesting, for me at least, is that before we started the last hike

I told them how hard would the ridge be and it helped them a lot to prepare mentally but in the end I still got to be remembered for being funny boy who managed to lift their spirits and fuel their engines and courage.

And it was then that I realised that humour is not the quality of being amusing at all, but actually a higher virtue. More than that, I discovered that it is of moral excellence to help an entire group of people and get them closer and stronger. The downside is that you have to learn to temper it and even if you try to cheer someone up, that person might not be want to hear anything from you at all. If you think about it the closer and closer, being amusing derives from your emotional intelligence and the capacity of understanding one’s emotions and the others’ and being able to change the negative, gloomy and cloudy feelings. I really felt accomplished because I finally got the answer I was looking for: ’Humour is empathy but covered with a very thin and opaque cloth’ and it is up to one’s will and determination to take that cloth away and discover this wonderful and rewarding skill.

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Nicola Dragos

Harmony

Catinca Golasiu

As the journalists of the famous magazine “The Guardian” said “What’s most appealing to me is how all of these moving parts work seamlessly together to create a feeling of harmony” which is basically a great definition of this amazing feeling also known as harmony. I would like to begin by saying that I am extremely thankful because I was given the opportunity to write about such a wonderful subject.First and foremost, I feel the need to specify the fact that in my opinion having the feeling of harmony in everything you do is the key to an ideal life. Not only that a perfectly balanced life gives you happiness, but it also makes you a wiser individual.

perfectly timing each and every activity you have to do only helps by giving you more time to relax or develop one of your talents.

It is well known that the smarter you are, the more you will achieve in life. Harmony also applies in the way you perceive things. By not over exaggerating when something bad happens you can keep your mental health in place in order to be able to deal with other problems way easier. Visualizing the possibilities of solving an issue before you actually do it might lead you into making the right decision.

Looking back at everything that happened in Taking in consideration all the knowledge you these four years I have got a lot of things to get only by visualizing your priorities and say, but in this chapter I will only talk about following them, it is easy to understand that this virtue namely “harmony”.

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Harmony, from my point of view, is the perfect balance of everything that we decide to do. This “journey� started from the beginning of the gymnasium. In the first hour that I had with Miss Adela I could not understand a word she said. I evolved day by day, hour by hour, but not only in learning English. In the fifth grade I was taciturn, but in the long run I became self confident. This confidence helps me not to be afraid to express my point of view or exhibit the projects that I have worked so hard for on. This is how I started to paint more, which made me further develop my creativity.

to live your life in harmony is a goal to be achieved, no matter how hard you need to work to attain supreme inner balance and blissful peace of mind. To live a life in harmony means to have genuinely lived and to have found the meaning of life.

I am sure that probably if in these four wonderful years, I had been in another class, none of these would have happened. And this is why I would like to thank you all dear professors and classmates for the very important role that you played in my development, and not only mine but ours, even though you may have not realised it yet.

In all these years, we grew up together like a family. Even though we were all different, we managed to live in harmony. And this is, from my point of view, a very important life lesson that we all learned. These lessons consist of the fact that harmony is not only a personal quality, but more likely one that shows up in a group of people as well. Harmony is the fruit of loving and caring about one and other and

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Catinca Golasiu

Honesty

Maha Midani

Since I have known myself, I was taught to be honest, my parents, my teachers and unexpectedly my friends, whom I am thankful to now, have told me that honesty is the best solution to everything, the key to success.

When you are honest, people automatically manifest more respect towards you. I have grown up with honesty as a core value my whole life, and I encourage everyone I know to be honest every day. Some people may think that being honest is just about not lying or about telling the truth and they are partially right but they are missing something important, being honest is also about being real with yourself. I have been thinking of few ways in which honesty can help you succeed in some situations in which you might be in, for instance:

Honesty at school: From my experience, students are usually stressed and the best solution to stress and not understanding is being honest with your teacher for them to understand you and help you. There is nothing wrong with asking for help and never hesitate on this subject, always have the courage to ask because asking for help shows that you are human. I remember myself and my colleagues asking for help and also unrelated questions in the English class which shows our honesty; and our wonderful, caring teacher, Miss Adela, always answered our questions with much more generosity than we could have ever imagined. I will never forget these magnificent and uplifting moments that I used to live during gymnasium with my friends and our teachers. Also, if you are working on a group

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project and you have been doing all of the work or none, be honest with your group members about tell them how you feel. Being honest in your career can help you be successful because it will allow you to understand your own limits and also acknowledge your flaws in a positive and constructive manner. I also remember how me and my colleagues in the gymnasium years would work on some projects together and we would always be honest with each other and would say what is on our mind without any doubt.

Honesty in friendships: You really need to be honest with your friends about how they make you feel otherwise how can they know? If I start jogging in the realms of my memory, I would say honesty was the best method for me to become friends with my colleagues; I was honest with them, about what kinds of people they were and also how they made me feel.

front of you to know how you feel and what you think is by telling them the truth. No one is a mind-reader; you have to express your feelings for someone else to understand them and help you cope with any situation.

Honesty in life: Aside from everything I have mentioned, we need to be honest in our daily lives. Most importantly, we need to be honest with ourselves. It might seem like it is hard to be dishonest with yourself because you know your own thoughts but the reality is that it is easy to push away negative thoughts to spare ourselves the pain of facing them. You need to be honest with yourself about how you feel and how much you can handle, whether it is in school, work, relationships, life, etc. Once you figure that out, it will be much easier to communicate with other people about it in an honest way; plus, people admire honesty so that helps as well. Honesty is an admirable quality and it brings ina lot of respect and kindness from others. For example, in my situation, if someone is being honest with me and their opinion or answer is not something I like, I would still be thankful because they were honest all the time. As long as you are being honest, I will still respect you and also accept it because firstly, you are honest all the time and secondly, you are not afraid to express your feelings and thoughts to me.

Honesty in relationships: Everybody needs to be honest in their relationship but sadly people are frequently dishonest or hide their feelings which is not good at all. The best way to have long, good and healthy relationships which everyone needs to have by the way, is to be honest, not just with your partner but also with everybody around you. When you are hurt or sad or angry or excited, be honest. The only way for your partner or the person in I now realize what honesty really is and

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understand what I have read some time ago; It all makes sense; I remember it all started with this claim “You cannot cheat and be an honest man”; A man who is truly honest to himself and others, a man with a pure mind, no matter what kind of trick you try to play on him, no matter what excuses you try to build up in front of his eyes, he will be able to see right through it because it is not a part of his world and not a part of his honest reality; A reality that does not take for granted, a reality without wishful thinking in the sense of putting his or her trust in another one’s arms, a reality that knows its own strength and its own validity which does not depend on someone else’s yes or no. We all are humans, and we can live happily when we are together and not in solitude but that doesn’t mean that we depend on someone else’s opinion and give over your power over your life to someone else rather than you. Always remember, remember me saying that you are a leader, every human being is a leader, we are the leader of ourselves, of our own fate and somebody truly honest like me, knows true life and only he/she can enjoy honest love and therefore no one can save you but you. Live an honest life, a proud life, a life of a tiger; You can cheat everyone else around you, your parents, your teacher, your boss but in the end you only cheat yourself but you are the fool and this is why I tell you, live an honest life, a proud life,

a life of a tiger. A tiger always takes responsibilities for each and every action of his and also has an unheard of bravery and a strong way of carrying themselves; it will never experience shame because it leaves honestly; the tiger is always a tiger even when it does not know he is being watched, but how do you behave when somebody’s watching? Are you truly honest to the idea of yourself that you keep in heart and mind when you are under peer pressure? Or with your family or friends?

Or when no one is watching?

Let’s think of us as passengers on the same ship, a ship with an unknown harbor because nobody knows what will happen in the end and we all experience the same fear; We don’t know what is going to happen to us in the end but there is something inside and around of us that can guide us, some mysterious power that can take us on a beautiful journey through storms, sunshine and rain; Something that we all have inside, something that we cannot see but only feel, something that tells us what is wrong or what is right and lastly b u t not least, something that can teach us to be honest with others and more with ourselves.

The fooled one always knows that something is wrong and always feels it deep inside but he is too afraid to open his mind to look life straight in the eye and say “Hey! I am the captain of this ship and I can see the storm right in front of me. So I decide to change

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course, I decide to sail in another direction so the storm can never harm me in any way”; This means being honest with yourself and being open eyed on the inside, listening to your gut and accepting your own strength and responsibilities; Do not lie to yourself, do not sugarcoat something you do not like so you are able to swallow it; Be honest with yourself and then you will be able to feel the right things for yourself, the right people for yourself, the right circumstances for yourself because every time you help someone, you help yourself and every time you hurt someone, you hurt yourself so always think twice about what your life will be; Is it going to be your life or someone else’s and you will feel that you are the wrong skin every moment of your life unable to escape the house of cards you built up around yourself and for which you blame others and anyone beside yourself; And yes, everyone you meet in your life helped you build that up but in the end there is only one architect, you, yourself; but just as a house of cards can be destroyed in a blink of an eye so rid yourself of that situation in life where you don’t want to be in by just creating a new selfawareness towards life where you take responsibilities for every action and decision you make and accept that you are the author of this story and within doing so you will become truly honest.

ashamed of your feelings because they guide you, they lead you and they show the way. If you feel something in life you don’t like then just change your feeling and your life will change also; this is what means to be truly honest with yourself, accepting the power and using it only with good intentions and without harming and hurting others. I remember a very important person of mine which said that every judgement you have made in your life, you will experience it in your life at some point so do not judge because life is like a boomerang and everything you throw out inform of thoughts, feelings and actions, will come back sometime; maybe immediately or later or after many moons have passed but be certain that in one way or another it will come back. So be grateful for every new day that unfolds for you to become someone better, come closer to that ideal person you would like to be when nothing and no one can harm you, no events can unsettle you, when no one dares to approach you for your wholeness, for the true life inside of you, then you will have mastered imperfection and it is all mastered from inside or from your mind or from your feelings or thoughts.

I recommend everybody to take some time every day and shy away from technology, to let go off your smartphone for some minutes so you can recollect everything from that day, Never be afraid of expressing yourself, be not your emotions and your thoughts, look inward

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and smile and knowing that only you are the leader and therefore setting the sails of your ship in the right direction, in the direction that you want to sail; the other day, getting back to your course and suddenly the weight on your shoulders will have dropped, your steps will be graceful, your mood will be relaxed and joyful because you will remember again, you will remember you honesty, you will remember your responsibilities and that everything lies in your mind. So everyday takes some time, like 15 minutes maximum or maybe less because these are matters of seconds, to recollect and set our feelings again and to listen to that voice, that voice of yours saying “You did it! Good job”.

Before ending, I would like to say something about everyone; I will never forget what I learned from each and every one of you; Thank you, Miss Adela, not just for having taught us English but also helping us understand how to become the best versions of ourselves; Thank you for being the guiding light and for inspiring not just me but all of my colleagues to do well in everything; Thank you for not letting us down no matter the situation; The extra patience you demonstrated to us during lessons which has helped us stay focused and obtain excellent grades; You deserve all the appreciation and respect in the world; I will never forget you and I want you not to forget me as well.

Thank you, Fatima, for always being here whenever I needed and for being kind, caring and generous with all of us and also letting me know more about sensitivity; Thank you, Matei, for always being here whenever I needed and also for letting me know what power really is, the power of uplifting and motivation and also the calm you have no matter the situation; You have been a great friend, thank you. Thank you, Daria, for letting me realize what happiness is about and for motivating me to be happy every day; Your laughters during any moment, whether serious moments or not, have always made me smile; Also I will never forget the camp in Disneyland where we used to stay together.

Thank you, Maria, for letting me know what leadership truly is about and also for being kind and caring; All the moments that we used to spend together, Disneyland and other camps as well, were brilliant and I miss them so much; I will not forget the fact that you wanted to become the president of Russia which is pretty interesting and also not forgetting the “unicorn power” of course, how could we forget? Thank you ,Roland, actually Roli for letting me know that someone actually has the ability of not being upset and can also count so many passions for example playing volleyball, playing basketball, playing the guitar, singing etc.; Thank you, Jasmine, for making me think twice and realize what

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this claim really stands for “don’t judge a book by its cover”; I remember in the 5th grade when we used to stay together; I would say that you are generous, kind, caring. Thank you, Catinca, for letting me know that I can trust you and also letting me know more about harmony; You are kind-hearted, caring and talented; Your paintings are beautiful and always give me a good feeling; The Japanese cherry blossom that you painted for me it is wonderful, thank you for this and also for being a great friend. Thank you, Natalis, for letting me know more about creativity and also about humor; I remember your drawings from the past years and honestly you should not stop drawing because it is not fair for those beautiful drawings to be ignored; your jokes no matter the situation always made me and some of my colleagues passionately smile.

Thank you, David, better said Phylax for letting me know that I can trust you no matter what, for always being here whenever I needed and for letting me know and realize more about you, about courage and also about inspiration; You are smart, kind, brave and ambitious ;I find it really fulfilling and interesting to write a book at your age, namely “Red Asteroid” which I read and I would like to say that it is amazing and astonishing; The poems you wrote are something way more inspirational than I ever thought you would write; To be honest they were breathtaking

and astounding for me; Also thank you for being a great friend of mine. Thank you, Sofia, better said Sofi for always being here when I needed and also for letting me know more about dignity; Your calmness during any moment has caught my attention; I remember us in the 5th grade when we used to attend the Cambridge course and also when we used to spend much more time together rather than now but that didn’t change what you mean to me; Thank you for being a great friend.

Thank you, Anuar, for letting me realize how lucky I am to have a cousin like you and also for letting me know more about ambition; The time spent together since childhood and also being in the same classes since kindergarten, nursery will never be forgotten by me; Your laughters have always put a smile on my face and the time when we used to play on Xbox, on PlayStation were amazing and also playing Minecraft and Halo 4, which I really miss right now; I would like to congratulate you for winning the geography competitions which is amazing; Thank you for being a great cousin and a great friend. Thank you, Delia, for your kindness during the past years; You are kind, caring, tolerant and you always see the positive parts in people and try to avoid the negative along with the respect you offer others no matter what. Thank you, Sara, for letting me know more about joy; The time spent together, especially in Disneyland, will

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never be forgotten by me; The fact that me and Maria had to look for you in that big hotel in Paris, getting into a “fight” with older pals to whom I refer, Lucas and another boy, got us all three into some vivid and adventurous moments; Thank you, Horia, better said “Horică” for letting me know more about originality; The way you act is original, your laughter is original, your jokes are original and I will not forget the moments spent when you made me and my friends laugh, during classes, trips in the bus; Thank you for being a great friend. Thank you, Eva, for letting me know more about diligence; You are an earnest person but at the same time a fun one; Your joy during any situation whether bad or good, brings a smile on the faces of all the people around you; I still remember when we were at your house with Daria as well, working on a project and suddenly we came up with a random song which I will always remember. Thank you, Dragos, better said “Drăgoșel” for making these years more fun for me and my colleagues; you are fun to be around and you always cheered me up, no matter the situation; You are “the life of the party” and at the same time, you are also clever; Thank you for being a great friend. Thank you, Mara, for letting me know that I can trust you, for being here whenever I needed and for letting me know more about passion; your passion for music

has caught our attention because you have a wonderful, great and enjoyable voice for a 14 years old girl and if you do not give up, you will reach your goal and that is, your fantastic music will be available for everyone in every corner of this planet; I am sure that you will fulfill your dream and become that someone you want to be; I have so many memories with you, all are special but the ones which first come to my mind, are the ones from the camps and the ones in which we could not stop laughing. I would like you to know that you were the first friend who I ever trusted the most and I hope this will never change; I am so grateful and happy that we are friends and I hope we will still keep in touch like today, after the gymnasium is over; You are a true friend and a person I feel comfortable with when talking and hope this will not end; I will miss you so much in high school, you and my colleagues as well; Thank you for being a great friend of mine. Thank you, Dan, for letting me know more about what commitment is; you are talented along being keen and committed not just in school, but also in your passions like riding the BMX; To be honest, I was also a fan of riding a BMX but then I decided to stop because of how perilous it is; I remember your PBL presentation of BMX which was super nice and pleasant, congrats!

Thank you, Alin, for letting me know more about comedy; I find you a hilarious person

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through the sense of humor that resides in you; I still remember the 5th grade when you used to participate with Bianca in a “competition” where you were awesome; Thank you, Bianca, better said “Bia” for letting me realize more about the subject called friendship; You are a kind-hearted, caring, generous person and a good friend to have; The best adjective to depict you is warm-hearted; I still remember the moments spent in camps in the 5th ,6th and 7th grade when we used to stay up till morning with you and other friends; Thank you, Faraz, for letting me know more about self-reliance and inner balance; You are kind, ambitious and also fierce in attaining your goals; From you I have learned that true leadership is a matter of generosity.

I will be missing all of you and I hope we will still keep in touch and reunite from time to time like a big and loving family. We are and we will always be the 22 gems from 8F and we shall always meet to celebrate the massive success, life lessons and breakthroughs which are waiting for us. Love all of you and everything you have taught me.

Maha Midani

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Love

Jasmina Gataiantu

Since the first day I met my classmates I knew we would blend in and make a perfect team. Today I decided to tell my story about this spectacular 4 years that made me evolve and find my true self. That is why I am starting my essay by thanking every single one of you that helped me become what I am today: Love.

People think of love as a concept, they feel they are obliged to love, but deep in their hearts they know the truth. That is what I tried helping my classmates discover all these years.

Everybody thinks of me and creates different opinions based on the way I look and on the way they see me on the hallways and that is because I am not the type of person that lets everybody enter her life and personal space.

You may ask me why… well since I started

school, even though I was a sociable person, I always knew how to stand by and watch and that helped me a lot. My classmates always wonder how I manage to be so energetic and always positive and the deep secret is to learn how to protect yourself from bad influences and to discover the power of self-love.

Self-love was always the greatest gift I received from my mom. I always teach people to appreciate themselves more than anything in the world because, as Ram Doss said: ‘your problem is… you’re too busy holding onto your unworthiness’. These golden words made me realize that, in order to be capable of loving someone you first need to love yourself. Love is a simple word describing one’s feelings but sometimes it can get really complicated, that is why everybody must be precautious. Love is

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found in everything; in people, in nature, in always encouraged us with funny quotes and activities and that makes it impossible to live wise words of advice and that is why I owe her without. a BIG thank you.

Since the day I was born my mom taught me a really important lesson: the lesson of love; she took care of me, she was always by my side and that is where I learned to be lovable from.

This may be an asset but sometimes it might be difficult to handle your emotions and may get betrayed.

When I started getting along with my colleagues, I also had the chance to know them better; knowing them made my see myself through an endless mirror because staying and spending time with them made me borrow and learn the positive things they were doing, somehow, we all adopted a mesmerizing mix among the great personalities we all have.

Another miracle that appeared in my life was my teacher from which I also learned an important lesson. My English teacher who decided to write a book together with our beautiful class. She made us discover ourselves in a very special way. Her classes were not only about grammar and tedious vocabularies but also about important morals she learned throughout her life. From books to unique quotes like the one and only: ‘Genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work’~ Albert Einstein that had a great impact upon all of us. She

In this magical journey that made 4 years of my life magical and unique I experienced a lot of wonderful adventures and beautiful moments. My class had the luck to have the greatest form tutor who always took care of us and our happiness. We had the opportunity to visit so many beautiful places together to create everlasting memories. I remember our first camp; the place I became friends with some of the most important people in my life.

Catinca, Maria and Sophia are the ones who helped me discover what was the best in myself. I stood up for them when they needed, helped them, made them learn from their mistakes. We know that we are always here for one another and that is the most important thing. Beautiful moments like these ones do not only take place in school.

My ongoing life is better than it has ever been.

To conclude, I reckon that the meaning of life is love and that everyone searching for happiness outside, should stop the illusory quest and search within. To love life, the people around you, nature, the whole world, you need to start with self - love. I dare you to discover your glorious imperfections and to celebrate them, to discover your vulnerabilities and to hug them, your weaknesses and to

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comfort them. Bundles of light and the shadows is who we are and in the absence of shadows, we would shine so brightly upon others and upon the world. Love everything that makes you who you are, with your perfect imperfections as well and with the key of LOVE open the door to a meaningful existence.

Jasmina Gataiantu

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Sensitivity

Fatma Zeynep Bulut

Sensitivity. What’s sensitivity? What do people think of this word? The last question is actually hilarious because when you tell someone that they are sensitive, the majority of people will think that this is an insult.

When they think of sensitivity, they think of weakness, which is NOT true. And for the first question, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, sensitivity is the ability to understand what other people need, and be helpful and kind to them. I just told this to myself and it warmed my heart, I felt like I was in paradise or like something soft touched me. Hearing this definition is so pleasing.

Alright, back to sensitivity. Now, I hope that this definition made you think twice of what sensitivity truly is. The thing that I really do not understand is ‘why do people think that being sensitive is a sign of weakness?’. Oh, I

know, it’s because people think that being cold-hearted is “cool”, which is clearly not.

But wait, there are more definitions. Let’s see if one of these would give me an answer to my question. Sensitivity is: ‘the quality of being easily upset by the things people say or do, or causing people to be upset, embarrassed, or angry’, ‘the fact of a situation, subject, etc. needing to be dealt with carefully in order to avoid upsetting people’, ‘the tendency to become upset about things’, ‘the quality of being easily influenced, changed, or damaged, especially by a physical activity or effect’, ‘an awareness and understanding, especially of other people’s feelings and needs’. Am I the only one who does not understand this? This is so frustrating. I did a lot of research on the word in order to find a solution, but I guess I just wasted my time. Maybe people thought

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that being sensitive is a disadvantage. we think, the way we heal, the way we love, Honestly, it’s a superpower … the way we support, the way we connect, all of this allows us to go through this base.

Now, where does sensitivity come from? Why are we sensitive? A research made by Doctor Why are we sensitive? This question doesn’t Elaine Aron in 1996 said that 15-20% of the matter anymore, but this special ability is not population is born with a more sensitive something we can refuse to acknowledge or nervous system. So, it is kind of a superpower terminate. We all are non-identical, even if we after all. And for all those people who were are the same kind of species. We are born with born with it, this is a huge relief. You were gifts and abilities that not all of us have. This born with it and you cannot just turn it off. is the reason why we need to learn to love The question is why were we born more ourselves for who we are and also support sensitive than others?High sensitivity means others. This is way, you can truly realize your an ability to notice danger. It also means an dreams and have an accomplished life. ability to mediate conflict and create peace.

So it is something that helps humanity a lot. What I learned from myself these years, as a We all have reflexes and a common one is the highly sensitive person, is that I can’t control startle reflex: when an infant is startled by a other people’s feelings and that I shouldn’t change myself for someone else’s liking or let sudden movement. others control my decisions. I also don’t A theory is that very early on in our respond for other’s feelings. For example, if you development, our integration of this reflex was are sad, it is not my problem. I feel like a big interrupted. So we still startle easily. There is problem for sensitive people is that they are another contributor to sensitivity. Its name is afraid of looking selfish if they take care of ‘trauma’. Some experiences of trauma put our themselves, it isn’t, but it is a major issue if nervous system into a heightened state of you don’t care about others. That is just preservation and self-protection. We are all narcissism. Another issue is that sensitive born differently so that means that our people don’t really talk to others about how nervous systems are different and that all of they feel. I know I had this problem and one the above lays out a base of who we are and day my mum came to me and asked me if I who we have the ability to be. The different had the feeling that I was trapped inside my episodes in our lives affect the base by making body, and I couldn’t do anything. In my mind, it grow. Everything we do is different. The way I was like ‘How did she know?’. When I feel

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guilty about something, I always get a lump in my throat and it really hurts and makes me cry. This is a lesson for me to stop being mean and to always tell someone how I feel.

Furthermore, most sensitive people don’t really trust themselves. They need to because they underestimate themselves, they truly know more than what they think they know.

All you need to do is think that life has its ups and downs and the important thing is to always look at the bright side of the situation.

Sensitivity has two sides, you think about other’s needs and you can be seen as naive these days, where the world is becoming more and more egocentric. Or, by this power of sensitivity, to realize if the people around you are as fair as you and sensible when you need them, to read the characters of people at work or at school and friends in order to see if they are true. At the same time, it’s hard to control and manage your emotions according to the situation, environment or people you meet.

The sensitive person has the advantage that there is a tiny probability of them becoming egoistic. Therefore, sensitivity cannot be a negative trait. It helps others if not physically, then intellectually and psychologically.

Sensitive people don’t make problems, but erase them, this way, making the universe a better place, keeping it in perfect balance.

Attentive to others needs, they can focus in tense situations. These kinds of people help

others by shopping for older ones. The medical staff helps us get better and saves people’s lives. Being sensitive is also a form of being brave and courageous, courage in the battle with life because you possess this ability to feel. This is why you can become brave on approaching people in need, sick people and help them and even save their lives. By working together and forgetting about the egocentric side of everyone of us, we will succeed on uniting our forces to get through hardships.

I believe that everyone owns a level of sensitivity because God created the human being like this, even if some of us possess a smaller level and the rest a bigger level or depending on the person. Some people try to hide this characteristic, but I think that at some point, this sensitive side of them cannot be controlled anymore and it comes to light.

Artists create masterpieces, mostly when they suffer, again from sensitivity and reveal their emotions to the whole world by songs or other forms of art. And some of us, that have this sensitive side of them more pronounced, can understand the creation more in depth. In essence, God created us all the same, but maybe some of us became more sensitive or less sensitive through the life and environment we were brought up.

All these three years, from when I moved into

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this class, I did not interact enough with my colleagues, just with a few of them, the ones that I am really getting along with. Maybe because of the fact that I am a little picky with people when I choose my friends. My close friends from this class told me that they had learnt from me how to be more direct and how to tell others what they feel. I don’t know if I managed to apply this method every time, but, nevertheless, I am delighted that my close friends from this class, unveiled this thing for me, maybe I wasn’t even aware of this trait of mine.

In conclusion, sensitivity makes us better and more tolerant among us, even if we grew up in different environments, with different nations, races, religions, etc., at some point, everyone has their sensitive side and this unites us and we grow stronger together every day. If everyone used this trait of sensitivity, the world would be a better place and there would not be so many disasters. By taking action from being egoistic, more and more conflicts

and imbalances appear and it is a disadvantage for everyone of us. I want to be optimistic and I think that these isolation days that we live have to be moments of thinking, from which to realize what we had done wrong until now, not to repeat the same mistakes over and over again and to not waste our chance to life. Maybe it is exactly this quarantine which manages to make us SENSITIVE to how lucky and blessed we are to wake up every day, to be caressed by the rays of sun, to be loved by our friends and family and to live. Sensitivity is not a matter of vulnerability, is a matter of strength, power because it is derived from love and empathy.

Own your sensitivity and draw on the canvass of your life with colourful shades of love, joy and empathy. You might just wake up in front of the most beautiful painting you have ever seen!

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Fatma Zeynep Bulut

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Serenity

Roland Debrezeni

We live in a world where everything is moving fast, almost chaotically as if we were in a carousel that is rotating at an increasing speed. In such a world, how can we get out of the carousel for a while, but look at it from the outside and move away from it?

What I think serenity means is the perfect balance between body, mind and spirit, the place where we manage to relax and completely detach ourselves from the madness of the outer world, to create the perfect harmony between our inner self and the surrounding world.

Mankind has evolved over time, whether material or spiritual, all is well, as long as a balance can be maintained between the two existential sides. But this is a wish, because it is impossible to do it. The problem occurs when there is an imbalance. After the year

2000, we witnessed such an imbalance, the collapse and the beginning of re-balancing the balance between the two elements.

Thus, in the first years of the new millennium the world went crazy, the material side becoming a priority in everyone’s life and the world almost completely ignored the spiritual side. They all coveted to have as much as possible, the most valuable things in measure of money, being important only the sheath, not the contents. Everything went uphill, until 2008 when this soap bubble broke and the economic crisis came. It represented the maximum imbalance of the balance in favor of the material.

Since that time, people have reoriented themselves to the spiritual side, trying to find the lost balance in spirituality. In this rebalancing of the balance process there was

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another moment for choosing the right path, a crossroad - the year 2012, when everyone was talking about the Apocalypse, but what people did not understand is that it was not a physical apocalypse of the Planet, but one at the individual level, for that where people failed to re-evaluate their lives and bring or at least start the necessary corrections, they were lost on a personal level. Thus, it was the year with the most divorces, breakups of partnerships, personal cracks, only those who reoriented themselves to spirituality were able to move on and evolve, the others, are still broken and looking for their way.

as many aware people are there.Of course, in essence, serenity means the same thing, but the way each of us perceives it and especially the methods by which we reach it are so very different.

For some of us serenity means the state of meditation, which we can reach through various yoga methods, controlled breathing and so on, for others it means contemplating a picture or a sunrise on the seashore, when the rhythmicity of the sound of the waves hitting the shore creates a mantra that induces the trance state, others reach Nirvana during a Metallica concert on a torrential rain, which can be a spiritual experience, the respective music being an exorcism ritual, and the torrential rain representing the washing and cleaning of all the sins and negative energies accumulated in everyday life. If the long-haired man in front of you whips you up with his wet strands we are already talking about flogging.

In the period following 2008, more and more global information about spirituality appeared, people began to seek more and more ways to balance themselves, and the word serenity acquired a different value for each of us. On a personal level, each of us has understood that we need a method in our life that will make us eliminate all the daily stress, detach ourselves from the outside world and find peace and inner peace, so that we Many people find serenity in the total can be in balance with ourselves, with those transposition obtained while listening to Vivaldi’s Seasons or Chopin’s Sonatas. Also, around us and with the entire Universe. by reading a book we can reach the state of The methods by which we can achieve a state serenity, because we manage to detach of serenity abound, because we are billions of ourselves from the real world and translate people on this planet, each one of us being so ourselves into the imaginary world of the read unique and different from others, hence the book. concept of serenity having as many meanings

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I believe that these methods differ not only from one individual to another, but also according to geographical position, cultural and religious influence, race and historical moment in which we are located. Asian people have always been more inclined to the spiritual side to the detriment of the material side, hence more experience, tradition and methods of achieving serenity. Ever since, this part of the world has developed more the spirit than the body, often neglecting the physical aspect, but achieving great performances in terms of detaching the spirit from the body, meditation, reaching the Nirvana state.

In the western world, the so-called “civilized world�, ignoring for years the spiritual development led to a crisis both at the individual level and as a society, and the peak has now been reached, when the entire world faces a crisis of unimaginable proportions.

Recent days have put mankind into a new situation, unprecedented in the modern history, global pandemic, making us rethink our values and self-isolation either alone or with family is a unique situation that will give us time for introspection.

This period of self-isolation puts us in a tight situation, which will require methods of balancing the psychic, being very important to achieve the state of serenity, in order to overcome the crisis. Once we overcome this

period, the whole world will change, nothing will be as it was before, because we hopefully realized that in a moment everything can come to an end, that we really do not control our own lives and an outer event or element can disturb our merry existence at any given moment.

History taught us that when there were declines at the level of society as important as it happened in the last period of time, usually a war was started which managed to resume the whole social situation, but this time the deity chose another way to make us aware of the importance each one of us have, and also how important is to be balanced, to find ourselves, to restore real world values, to rediscover our HUMANITY, which has been lost lately.

I believe that this time of isolation is an extraordinary chance to self-evaluate, to look for the best methods to achieve the state of serenity, to be able to calibrate and balance, to rediscover the simple things that can create moments of happiness, to worry about the fate of others not just ours and especially to appreciate what we have.

Thinking about the state of serenity, I realized that, yet another aspect that begs questions about this state, is that if in order to achieve it, we must involve faith. Many consider it

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impossible to reach the state of serenity without faith, some even say that meditation and prayer are or create the state of serenity.

I, personally, believe that we must make a distinction between faith and religion, between divinity that exists in all and everything and the image of divinity reflected in the Messiah of each religion. Sure, uttering a prayer induces serenity, but I do not think it is necessary to put a tie between the two.

Divinity exists whether we are religious believers, because that “divine essence”, which is found in everything and in all beings and things cannot be challenged by anyone, no matter how we see it each one of us. Religion is a form created by people for divinity, with social rules that impose certain restrictions, with a central figure - a Messiah, around which the entire scaffold of the respective religion is built, with representations that implement it at the human level, with institutions and buildings for these activities.

People may or may not be believers in a religion, but regardless of one’s opinion, the attainment of the state of serenity, is not conditioned by faith, of course, but by something else, respectively, by RITUAL. Regardless of what the state of serenity means to each individual, it can only be achieved by following a Ritual that will make us detach ourselves from the everyday, in order to get to

find that peace of mind that makes us reach the state of serenity.

It is interesting that we do not realize how important RITUAL is in our daily life, but even more so in achieving the state of serenity.

Another question that has arisen for me regarding the state of serenity is whether it can be reached only individually or collectively, and if the presence and number of others can influence this state?

Sure, usually, people reach the state of serenity individually, isolating themselves from others, but since I mentioned the Ritual, as an essential element for reaching serenity, then I think that it can be achieved in a group. In these circumstances, the existence of a greater number of people working together to reach this state, amplifies all the experiences and energies involved, the intensity of the moment being much greater.

The man is the greatest wonder of this world, regardless of skin color, faith, but at the same time it is the world’s greatest enigma, and in order to have an existence full of happiness and achievements on all levels, the man must be, first of all, a balanced being, and this balance can only exist by finding individual methods of achieving the state of serenity.

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Roland Debrezeni

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Creativity

Natalis Ionescu

Since I was little, I have loved to paint. I remember the first time I painted; I was at my grandparent’s house. I was three. My grandmother’s passion was painting. Our house is filled with her paintings. Back to my story, I was watching tv and since I got bored, I went looking for my grandmother and I found her in the art room.

There were paintings all over that room, I was fascinated by them. I said that I wanted to try painting. She went to get the supplies. When she got back, I put my hands in the acrylic paint and put them directly on her dress. That was my first true authentic painting.

My parents realised that I was attracted to art so they decided to let me experience every part of it. When I was six I started painting classes

and I observed that I had a great interest in fashion and discovered at that time that fashion was one of my most ardent passions. I loved drawing women and clothes so much that my parents even bought me a sewing machine.

As I grew older and I took up other great artistic undertakings . For instance, at the age of nine, I went to an acting camp. I immediately felt like I should develop that side of me so in the fifth grade I started acting classes and by the end of the year I have already played in a few plays. I recall loving the sound of people laughing at what I was saying. In the sixth grade I had my first monologue, it was brilliant. I felt as if I was born for the stage and that I could pour every word and every feeling in the minds and souls

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of my public. Their spirits would dance to the rhythm of my voice and I would uplift and cheer them up. What a wonderful experience acting is!

then producing. Creativity involves being playful and allowing your imagination to run wild and free. Creativity is courage but most often than not, creativity is pure GENIUS.

In the sixth grade I participated in my first fashion contest. I had to create a dress out of recyclable materials. Although it was high school content, the organizers authorized my participation. There were eighty beautiful dresses. I remember my hands shaking due to the people who were looking and admiring my creation. A creation comes to life with the help of the beauty from the eyes of the beholder, no matter how talented the creator is. Or at least, that was what I thought at that moment. The greatest satisfaction was when they called my name and I took the third prize. I was overjoyed and I will never forget that magic moment and the seed of the dream that it planted in me, the dream of becoming a fashion designer one day.

Certainly, I do believe that I am a creative person, but I do not think that I was born like that. I assume that during my growing up, I developed this part of me thanks to my wonderful parents as well as my friends and I could not be more grateful.

In the end, I will leave you with some food for thought. Think out of the box, throw all the stereotypes and lists to be checked. Be yourself, find your calling. Allow the artist within yourself to manifest and embellish your life.

Yes, that is right. There is an artist in everyone, one that can give you infinite solutions to all your problems, one that sees the light in every dark cloud, one that can twist your lives with the touch of a magic brush. Give a voice to that artist within and I took you through my artistic journey but allow him to bring beauty, colour, serenity and now in eighth grade things are quite different meaning on the canvasses of your lives. since I am currently focusing on my National Examination Exam. From my perspective, Creativity is the act of turning innovative and Natalis Ionescu highly imaginative ideas into reality.

Creativity is the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections and to generate solutions.

Creativity involves two processes: thinking,

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Inner Balance

Faraz Soleymani

To my mind, inner balance is the equivalent of achieving a perfect equilibrium of frustration and overjoy. Inner balance should be exactly like an inner voice which tells you that you need to keep your calm and it gives you reasons to do it. It is the most rational voice you will ever hear.

Inner - balance is one of the only things keeping society going, because if you really think about it there are some people that control the world, inner balance is the only thing that doesn’t allow them to use their full power.The lack of rationality of the human mind could lead to chaos and that chaos could lead up to many more things no one could think of.

case, people of a high rank in society could harm millions of “normal” people in just seconds because their peace of mind is not really there and that allows them to do anything they want if there are not people with healthy mindsets around them and that brings us to another discussion:”How could I achieve this appealing and soothing mindset of inner balance?” Well, I have grown up with a lots of friends ever since I was baby and we used to mock one another from time to time and I am happy to say that almost all of my friends back in the day achieved this so called inner balance because we learn from an early age to be sociable, friendly, amiable, kind and not to lend a ear to any insults, negative comments, clouds or heavy storms of life.

Let us take for example a war. In that specific To conclude, I think we could all agree that

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inner-balance is one of, if not the most important virtue, which anyone could achieve because it is not something innate, it is a skill that you build pain after pain, from situation to situation, learning from all the lessons that life has to offer us. One word of advice that I would give you is to remain faithful to your set of beliefs and values, no matter what other people say or do. You have one fortress to protect, the beauty of your own mind. You will have reached a genuine inner - balance when nothing external can trouble the ocean of your mind, when you switch from reacting to observing and acting accordingly, when you can change the question “Why is this happening to me?” into “What is this situation trying to teach me?”. Monitor your thoughts carefully and instead of complaining, get your power back and act, your mind nurtures an infinite of solutions to any problem if you manage to remain calm, observing and wise in the middle of a storm.

Achieving inner balance turns you into the captain of your ship, the leader of your detinity and it gives you the means to turn your life into a masterpiece, an unique and inspirational work of art.

Faraz Soleymani

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Joy

Sara Mohamed

During 4 years of gymnasium, I have managed to find a plethora of passions that bring me an immense joy. Drawing, acting, watching Japanese cartoons, writing and listening to Korean pop songs is what brings sheer happiness to my joyful and jubilant soul.

Joy is really different to everyone. Individual joy is as unique as someone’s fingerprint or DNA and therefore in order to build joy in your life, you need to know get to know yourself, to navigate to all the harbours of your soul and mind and search for your truth, for whom you are and what you really want in life. Can we be misled into believing that joy means success, fame, appearance, how others perceive us, our possessions? Of course, we can. Especially, if we are prone to being easily influenced by others, by superficial labels, by society’s countless to do lists, by

what others want us to become. Since writing is one of my passions, in this essay I am going to tell you a story about two twin brothers, one introvert who followed his passions and always listened to the voice of his soul and intuition and never cared about ephemeral things like fame and possessions and one extrovert, who build his life on fame, success, possessions, appearance, truly believing that was genuine bliss. Which one do you think reached the climax of supreme joy? The introvert who used to be ignored by fame or the extrovert who was always wrapped in fame and attention? Why am I telling you this story? In order to convince you that there is no unique recipe for individual joy. We do not find joy, we build it. We build it by getting to know every atom, feeling and thought which makes us the unique human beings that we

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are. We meet our joy to the extent to which we have met ourselves. The story I am about to tell you is just a trigger that should make you dig deeper within your soul and find your true, unique selves. Find who you are and release joy because joy is you essence, is what you were made of and what you have forgotten.

unload all the boxes and move them in the designated rooms. The entirety of the weekend was consumed by unpacking, cleaning and having dinner with some of the neighbors.

Once the weekend ended the 2 boys, who are also twins, had to face their new high school and get used to it as fast as possible because they had moved in a new school in the middle And this is how my story starts. The of the term. neighbours in Normandy Avenue waited for the new neighbours. Word spread around that As the teen boys struggled with the new the new family was a pretty wealthy one and environment, Noah was also trying to get his they came from the city that never sleeps, Las business of furniture started in Los Angeles, Vegas. As the truck came into view, a pretty not to mention that Ichika was looking for a young couple got down with two teenage boys pastry shop that would hire her but while she next to them. All the nearby residents looked was job hunting, she could not stop thinking from inside their homes to catch a glance of about her 2 sons and what they are doing. the new family, some residents were in awe as they saw how nicely put together the family Surprisingly Asher was already the talk of Stuyvesant High School, every girl wanted to was. get to know him more and maybe even form a Noah was the first one to enter the house, his relationship but that was not shocking wife Ichika following close behind him, the considering Asher’s good looks. He had a welllovers were very happy with their house, built figure also he was very tall for his age of thinking it was a brilliant investment for the 17, about 182, but that’s to be expected entire household. because in middle school he played basketball and above being tall, he also had the most Soon after Asher and Felix entered, Felix was perfect tan skin, grey eyes in which you could star struck as how big and cozy their new get lost if you stared to much at them, neatly living space looked but Asher wasn’t very arranged black hair that framed his face impressed, the entire time he wore a poker nicely and one single mole near his eye which face. After getting a good look at the house, brought a sense of playfulness to his face. No the entire family member went outside to wonder why every girl wanted to befriend him

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and every guy wanted to be like him.

happen as Asher instructed Felix to stay next to him. He obeyed not wanting his brother to On the other hand, Felix was not as noticed throw a tantrum on the first day of them by the others, the only time he had interaction transferred here. with the other students was when the girls tried to question him about his brother or After class Felix was invited by his brother to when he bumped into seniors which would have lunch with his group of friends but one often shoot him a glare. Instead of trying to thing was for sure and that was that Felix reason with them, Felix would go in every didn’t know what would happen. While Ash break between the courses outside to enjoy the was making conversation with his new school fresh air while he read his favorite book which buddies, his brother was reading and he was is “The Language of Flowers”. As he sat deep in thoughts as he did not notice some of underneath the tree, you could make out his the girls creeping behind him with a bucket of features which were extremely different from cold water until the sound of water dripping his brother, Felix might not be the tallest but of Felix’s head made itself known. For the first he still was 176 which put him in the shadow couple of seconds nobody said anything, it was of his brother, besides that the windy breeze a deadly silence, Felix still trying to process made his fluffy chestnut brown hair dance, what had happened then realization struck his grey eyes sparkling in the light of the sun him, those girls were the ones who sat next to as he read the book and you could see the them in the classroom. The first one to speak concentrated expression on his fair skin. was none other than the principle who came Unlike his brother, Felix had freckles on his rushing to see what had happened and as his face, mostly on the cheeks and nose. vision was filled with shock, he called Felix and the girl students to his office to discuss the As the bell rang, Felix came back to earth situation. The tension in the office was dense, after being in a trance of reading and he got so dense that you could cut it with a knife and up and rushed to his next class which was as the discussion went on the three girls with his brother Asher. He didn’t look forward started crying, saying that they did nothing to this at all, knowing how his brother usually and that it was all Felix’s fault for staying in was in class. As he entered the room he class next to his brother. spotted his brother being surrounded by other students and with a bit of luck Felix wished to The principle did not fall for that as he go unnoticed by his brother which did not suspended the girls for 5 days and nothing

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happened to Felix. His brother Asher was waiting outside of the office being worried for his brother but also for those girls. As much as he hates to admit it but he does not want anything to happen to those girls, yes they might have gone a little over the top with the water and yes they might be a little more insane than other students but you can’t hide the fact that Asher was using them to boost his popularity. Felix is the first one to step out and he just looks a little shocked as the 3 other students trail behind him with their heads down while crying, Ash pushes Felix aside and looks at the students who bow down their heads in shame. He glances at them one more time before nodding in disagreement and walking away to their last class.

The principle told Felix that he could go home if he wants, that way he could clean up, he did not take the offer but instead he asked the headmaster if he could stay outside. To which he agreed, so now Felix was walking slowly outside because nobody was rushing him, strolling until he got to his calm place which was underneath the tree. He loved the cooling shades that the tree branches offered him as he sat down and read about flowers, just sitting there made him forget about the event and that his brother did not ask him if he was good but now he did not care as he just enjoyed his book and this peaceful moment. His peaceful silence did not last long as the bell rang

signaling the end of the school day, students came rushing out of the doors being happy that the day was finally over. Felix got up from his spot not wanting to wait for his brother and headed home where he could finally wear dry clothes that were not completely drenched in water.

Felix stopped on his track, thinking that he was too rude to his brother because he had not waited for him so instead of going home, Felix sat down on the edge of the sidewalk and waited for Asher. One hour passed, two hour passed and it started to get colder but Ash still did not show up and Felix did not have his phone with him. At the 3 hour mark, he gave up, he was cold, drenched and also hungry because he could not enjoy his lunch.

As he entered the house he heard footsteps’ rushing downstairs and the first to greet him was his worried mother and soon his father appeared also with a look of concern. Felix explained to them what had happened, leaving out the parts with his brother and his parents seemed understanding of the situation.

Soon after the conversation with the family members he was still wondering where Asher was and as soon as that popped in his mind, Ash came down to greet his twin and ask him what happened that he had come home late.

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Felix explained how he tried to wait for him but it did not exactly work as planned and so he excused himself that way he could change, take a warm shower and get cozy while reading until he fell asleep and that was exactly what happened.

The next day Noah drives them to school and to make sure that Asher and Felix ate, Ichika made for both of them a Japanese lunch because that was what she was most familiar with. As the school day went on, the brothers mostly ignored each other as each of them did what he pleased, the only moment that you could spot them being together was at lunch time but even than Asher just had conversation with his mates as Felix read his book an ate.

The next couple of days went the same but when the weekend came, that was a complete turn over. Asher went out with some of his pals and Felix stayed inside the house but this time he was inspired to make flower bouquets and his wave of inspiration made him go behind the house to their garden and plant flowers so that he can make even more flower arrangements.

While he kept himself busy with the flowers, Felix did not realize how fast time had gone and as he looked at the clock, he saw that he had been doing flower arrangements for six

hours and it was almost 4 in the morning and his brother was still not home and that worried Felix a little but soon his brother came home and Felix became relaxed.

Years went by for the extrovert Ash and for the introvert Felix. As their school life ended, Asher did not waste time and left home, left his parents and most importantly left his brother. His mother Ichika did not think much of it, she saw it as a wonderful opportunity for her son to become independent in the city of New York as her other son, Felix remained in California. Ash looked up to his father and so he went to Columbia University with the dream to become a CEO one day.

Felix being more creative and loving flowers, he looked up to his sweet mother and he got accepted in the Academy of Art. Along the years the twins did not change much, Asher continued to be popular and a good student and strongly believed that the secret to happiness is to become successful and to have a beautiful family. That was exactly what he did, after 4 years he graduated from university with good marks, he took a loan from the back and started his own business, a business of beauty products suited for all skin types. At first his business was rocky, he went from door to door giving out samples but soon enough he started having profit and more and more young adults got curious about this

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young CEO Asher Reyes. He became a sensation in the Big Apple and slowly people from other states became interested in him as well and like that, his business bloomed. With this new handsome CEO in town, a lot of girls tried to get his attention, but a lot ended up with broken hearts. Nevertheless, one in particular caught his attention, her name was Candy and she was a well-known model for her astounding looks. Unfortunately, neither of them were attracted to one’s personality but to one’s money and looks, but Asher had in mind that if he married her, he would finally find joy in life.

As for the other twin, Felix did not have any major changing, maybe just the fact that he started talking a little more to people than but while attending the university one new student started to talk to him. She had just moved from Osaka to San Francisco with her parents and she had asked the pale boy for help in getting to know the university better.

A connection was felt by the two and some might call it friendship and others might call it love but the both knew they had a tight bond and as 4 years past, Felix built up his courage to confess his feelings to Sumire and she happily returned them back. The new established couple was preparing for creating their own flower decoration shop because of their love for flowers that they both shared.

And just like that a new flower shop was

created, it was a small shop titled “The unlikely florists” in the middle of San Francisco. As small as it was, the lovers had a loyal customer base and they were in charge of the floral decorations at most of the citizen’s events. Felix felt truly joyful for once, he felt like he belonged, he felt safe, he felt at peace with himself. Felix felt satisfied with himself and happy about his life and becoming.

A few years later Ichika called her sons to come back home with their wives so she can warmly welcome them in the family. Felix was the first one to get home and talk to his mother about Sumire, his wife. Ichika took a liking into his sons’ Japanese girl, she felt happy that her son picked such a pure hearted soul. Just as Ichika was ready to embarrass Felix with baby pictures, Asher came strolling in with his wife Candy. Ichika didn’t feel comfortable around her but still smiled warmly to the two; Ash hugged his mother as Candy ignored her.

Felix got up from the couch and saw his brother, something he had not seen for years and so emotions overtook the pale boy and he ran to his brother and cried while canting sorry. Asher told him to go together upstairs to sort things out. Ash snapped out of his thought and comforted his brother, and soon they managed to forgive each other.

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Felix talked about how happy he was with his life, that he felt satisfied and that he loved Sumire to the moon and back. Asher when hearing about the monotone life of his brother, spoke with the most pure and genuine smile ever and as Asher spoke about his life and his wife, he felt empty, lost like a little child that cannot find his mother. He felt nothing special talking about his gold digger wife and that was when realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

profound, wise, keen, mature, real, happy, joyful, in love with the little things which are actually the great things in life. I am blithe to say that 8F always chooses essence instead of appearance, light instead of ephemeral glitter, perennial VALUE instead of temporary success, genuine and authentic inner joy instead of artificial jubilance.

When Felix left, Asher was left alone in his sea of thoughts which drowned him and his mind and he felt the need to realize it. He allowed bitter tears to flood his cheeks and uttered “Dear introvert and lonely brother, you’ve beaten me at the game of life, you have found true joy as I only found temporary joy, chasing the ephemeral things in life like fame and appearance.�

It is always up to us whether we are Ash or Felix, introverts or extroverts, whether we are chasing dreams or possessions and titles, whether we create a genuine framework of joy for ourselves or an artificial one. There are introverts and extroverts in 8F, but what unites us is that everyone has done their work and found out what their identity, calling and dreams are. We have learnt innumerable lessons from one other and I am elated to say that none of us is Ash and all of us are Felix,

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Sara Mohamed

Passion

Mara Olteanu As I lift my head up and open my mouth, my voice escalates with every tune that comes out.

When I am stressed, nothing helps me more than singing. My passion for singing comes from deep within my soul, mind and heart.

When I sing, I sing with all of me, putting everything I can into it. I have always had a great passion for singing, ever since I was young. Recently, my mom told me that I started to sing since I was a few months old, even though I didn’t know how to speak correctly. This is what music means to me: PURE PASSION.

because singing is life.

At first, I used to sing at home, then at the celebrations for parents and when I started gymnasium I participated in multiple competitions in art week and English week.

Music is a river, an overflowing conduit through which I am a passenger, a navigator, a creator. Music is a captured auditory landscape, a picture that tells a story, a momentary faltering voice that betrays its true emotions. Music is a journey. The only global language, for communication that spans When I sing, I feel relaxed and I am sure that, continents. though singing, I can cross barriers and I can Music is the heart and soul of my life. In fact, communicate without the language being a I live the majority of my life surrounded by it hindrance. I have also felt a unique sensibility and I am always on the lookout for new towards what happens to my surroundings, things. All the songs I choose to listen reflect

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what I am feeling. When I listen to music, I like to see how it all fits together. I love to understand the melody and listen to the tone of voice for many different emotions because this helps me to understand the message that is being conveyed to us through the song. I live in a world filled with colorful hopes and dreams. I dream to climb the ladder of fame, but I realize that living simply is my happiness while doing my very best to achieve my dreams no matter how high or low they are.

Whenever I hear someone who sings and has a beautiful voice I get emotional. I think this is because when I hear a person that truly puts their all into a song and really feels the song, it makes me feel what they are feeling and puts me in their shoes.

My passion for music will always be inside my heart, soul and mind. I love singing more than anything in the world and I am going to keep singing and doing my best in everything that I do. I wish that my colleagues from 8F would be mesmerized by my albums one day and I would like them to know that my self confidence, the belief in my talent and the magic of my becoming is due to all of them because all of them managed to add a piece to the puzzle of this wonderful adventure called life.

Mara Olteanu

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Dignity

Sofia Luca Dignity represents a serious and admirable look or a way of behaving. It may also be the quality or state of being worthy, honored, or esteemed which is mostly found at people with serious social reputation,for example a legal title of nobility or honor, a high rank office position.

Treating other people with dignity means treating them the way we’d like to be treated ourselves. Dignity is one of the most important things to the human spirit. It means being valued and respected for what you are, what you believe in, and how you live your life.

In our day-to-day lives we often encounter However, dignity is a state which should be circumstances in which we should behave found in everybody, everyone has the right to with dignity, acknowledging other people’s behave with dignity regardless of their social safety or rights. status or job. This can be resumed by living in a way in which you do not betray your A very recent event which had a very big principles or compromise with something. For impact on all the world and which required instance, one should resign from a job where people behaving with dignity in order to you are not treated well or should break up ensure that them and those around them with someone who does not make you feel remain healthy and safe, was this virus, named Coronavirus, because of which secure. everybody suffered in some way or another. An

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action that everybody was able to do and that showed dignity was social distancing and staying home, thus providing them and also everyone else around them with protection. If all the people had behaved with dignity from the beginning, caring about others as well, the situation would not have evolved that dramatically.

really enjoy. The horse is also a royal animal which was used and it is being used even nowadays by the nobility and the royal court, even the most important kings and queens used to use this animal for transport. Riding a horse gives people a feeling of dignity. To sum up, I want to inspire you in treating this animal with respect in order for him to continue to represent a model of dignity and The relationship between the student and the beauty. professor should also be based on dignity and GRACE. A teacher can behave with dignity At my school, there is a charity campaign for by delivering information to the student, Christmas in which students donate ensuring his or her self-reliance and everything that can be useful for the encouraging them in fulfilling their dreams unprivileged children. After we collect enough and passions, helping the child become a donations, some students volunteer to go to better person. When I say the dignity of the villages to share the gifts. I took part every students, I refer to letting them express their year in this campaign and I had the best opinions and beliefs, not suffocating their feeling seeing the joy on the children’s faces. ambitions or humiliating them.

However, it is of paramount importance to know how to offer a gift in order for the person To me, the horse is the supreme symbol of who receives it to not feel humiliated or to dignity that can teach us humans a lot of cause a feeling of lack of dignity. Thus, the things. Throughout history, this special and individual shouldn’t feel like you have offered unique animal was one which has proven a something out of mercy, but from your wish of lot of dignity and loyalty by being human’s delivering joy and happiness to that person. If best friend, following him through life and a gift causes a bad emotion, the good deed death in a myriad of cruel wars. As life that you probably wanted to do, will have the modernizes, the horse has lost his crucial exact opposite effect which leads to the loss of attributions, but it is still very helpful for dignity on both sides. All in all, dignity refers people in agriculture. In addition, a very to the state of knowing how to offer, but also interesting and challenging sport has evolved how to receive. around this animal which I often practice and

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Dignity should also be present in love. The ability of expressing feelings and emotions is a very important quality that has a really great connection with dignity. A relationship can succeed only if both humans involved are dignified. Nevertheless, if someone takes part in a toxic or in a relationship where they do not feel secure, a gesture which shows dignity can be breaking up or doing your best to repair it while keeping your self - reliance and knowing your self-worth.

I would like to put emphasis on the fact that dignity is a form of education. Along my 4 years of gymnasium I was able to learn a lot about this word, being compelled to deal with some obstacles which occurred as great lessons for me and amplified my character.

As well, observing my colleagues handling their problems had taught me a lot too. I had and still have a very keen admiration for the

ones who have managed to keep their self worth intact while dealing with inconveniences. Still, I have witnessed moments when things had been handled with lack of dignity which had evoked me an uncomfortable feeling, but even those ones helped me grow into the person I am right now.

Lastly, I tried to draw attention to this wonderful and very special concept that has a great impact on human spirit. I wanted to show that a world of dignity does not mean a harsh world where only the wealthy ones have the right to be dignified, but a world with altruistic and noble people that feel good by spreading happiness, a peaceful world, a PERFECT WORLD which we could build if we elevate the quantum of dignity which is buried deep in our spirits.

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Sofia Luca

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Friendship

Bianca Sarilgan

Friendship is one of the greatest bonds anyone can ever wish for. Lucky are those who have friends they can trust. Friendship is a devoted relationship between two individuals. They both feel immense care and love for each other.

Usually, a friendship is shared by two people who have similar interests and feelings. You meet many people along the journey of life but only some stay with you forever. Those are your real friends who stay by your side through thick and thin. Friendship is the most beautiful gift you can offer to anyone. It is one which stays with a person forever.

A person is acquainted with many persons in their life. However, the closest ones become our friends. You may have a large friend circle in school, but you know you can only count on one or two people with whom you share true

friendship and those are your true, authentic, genuine friends.

There are essentially two types of friends, one is good friends, the other are true friends or best friends. They’re the ones with whom we have a special bond of love and affection. In other words, having a true friend makes our lives easier and full of happiness.

Most importantly, true friendship stands for a relationship free of any judgments. In a true friendship, a person can be themselves completely, without any trace of fear of being judged. It makes you feel loved and accepted.

This kind of freedom is what every human strives for in their lives. In short, true friendship is what gives us reason to stay strong and balanced in life. Having a loving

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family and all is a blessing but I feel that you Similarly, friendship also teaches you a lot also need true friendship about loyalty. It helps us become loyal and receive loyalty in return. There is no greater to be completely happy. Some people are not feeling in the world than having a friend who lucky enough to have families but they have is loyal to you. friends who are like their family.

Moreover, friendship makes us stronger. It Friendship is important in life because it tests us and helps us grow. For instance, we teaches us a great deal about life. We learn so see how we fight with our friends yet come many lessons from friendship which we will back together after setting our differences not find anywhere else. You learn to love aside. This is what makes us strong and someone other than your family. You learn teaches us patience and tolerance. how to be yourself in front of others.You learn Therefore, there is no doubt that best friends how to be strong and vulnerable at the same help us in the stormy and sunny weather of time, how to give and how to take, how to life. True friends are like the best assets of our share the good times and the bad times, the life because they share our sorrows, sooth our ups and downs, the nadirs and the zeniths. pain and make us happy in the unhappiest of Friendship never leaves us in bad times. You times. Friends are mirrors in which we see learn how to understand people and trust ourselves, embrace ourselves and elevate our others. Your real friends will always motivate spirits in our quest to find the meaning of life you and cheer for you. They will take you on and to fulfill our destinies. the right path and save you from any perilous abyss.

Bianca Sarilgan

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Commitment

Dan Popescu

Picture what this world would look like a year from now without the commitment of our doctors, medical assistants, police force and army. Our population would decrease immensely, causing great pain to families, the labour force would fall, the hospitals and care units would collapse and last but not least, paranoia, depression and anxiety would install upon us.

new virus Covid19 outbreak and every day hundreds and even thousands of people are tested positive for it. This virus attacks all ages but mostly the elderly and those with other diseases. It spreads much easier than a normal flu and attacks the lungs leading from a 100% healthy lung to a 70% working one.

Unfortunately there is not a cure for it and doctors struggle every day to come up with a

Great news! This is not the case. Today I will present to you the story of a powerful and persevering woman called Anastasia. She is a doctor working in the emergency department in a hospital located in Bucharest, Romania.

Although she has a large family to take care of (3 kids, a husband and two elderly living under the same roof) she goes to the hospital every morning at 6 o’clock to help those in need.

treatment for the sick. Anastasia is one of those people. She is 40 years old and has 14 years of experience in the field. She finds herself in a continuous state of alert and gives each of her patients her best. She is cautious, brave, committed and always with a smile on her face, always trying to inspire hope in others.

I specifically remember the 25th of March, the day when everything went south at the The world is now struggling because of the Queen Mary’s hospital-where Anastasia

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worked. That day there were announced over 100 cases from which 20 were severe.

Although the probability of getting infected was high, she didn’t care like other doctors who quit and wanted to help the ones who needed her support.This my friends is a short story of what real commitment is. If you want to do something, like your passion, you do it no matter how hard it is. My name is Dan and I will tell you what I did: I am overall a good student, but sometimes I do not get the good marks that I desire and I get upset. The teachers are really good and give me a chance to get more marks to get my average marks up, thus that motivates me to study harder and get better and better marks and achieve academic success.

I am an 8th grade student and I also have an exam at the end of the year for which I have to prepare thoroughly. At the beginning of the year I didn’t take this exam as seriously as my mother wanted to, hence in the winter break I got banned from playing computer games until I obtained a promising result in the mock exams. Every day I solved 2 to 3 math tests and it wasn’t fun not being allowed to play, not even for a half an hour a day. I have to admit that I am a little obsessed with these computer games. I wanted to play so badly that this need to play made me study harder and harder and to grow more and more ambitious each day.

Another very nice example of being committed was at one of my friend Alin. It was his birthday and some of our colleagues came to his house to throw a party. Almost all of us brought a device to play computer games on so that we could play together. We all played this game called Fortnite, but Roland did not have any solo wins. And Alin, who is an extremely good player, got his controller and started playing for Roli. He did his best and ended up winning for Roland which boosted Roland’s confidence and started to give birth to the thought that he could really become good at games as well.

I hope my essay inspires you to be committed and to do whatever makes you supremely happy. No matter what your goal is, no matter how unattainable it might seem at the beginning, shoot for the stars, stay focused, work hard and persevere. Failure is nothing but learning a lesson which takes you closer to your dreams as long as you remain committed to what you want to achieve. After-all, believe me when I tell you that obstacles are what you see only when you take your eyes off your objectives. Stay focused and committed, work harder than anyone you know and success is going to light your way through your life journey.

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Dan Popescu

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Ambition

Anuar Midani

The question we ask isn’t ‘is there a magic formula for ambition?’ but ‘can you learn how to be ambitious?’ Wanting to learn how to fuel your ambition for the best life you can create for yourself and how to nurture the individual ambitions within this life means you will be opening yourself up to all sorts of possibilities. Your willingness to learn shows an understanding that things will happen stage by stage, step by step. Provided you accept that learning is a process that requires effort and patience and the results are incremental, you won’t be disappointed.

According to the dictionary, ambition means somehow a strong wish to achieve something.

But what exactly is ambition in life? At first, the meaning of ambition may be fairly difficult for you to comprehend. Still, everything will be clear after you will have learnt all the lessons that life has to offer.

The “ambition” word origin goes down to Ancient Rome. Candidates for public office had to spend a lot of their time convincing voters to elect them. The root of the Latin word was “ambire” that meant “to go around.” Later it transformed to “ambitio,” with the meaning “the desire for power or honor.”In late Middle Ages, the “ambitio” came into English and French as “ambition.”

When did you recall your ambitions last time?

Right, when you applied for the job. But wait!

That’s not the only time! University applicants stress their ambitions when writing an admission essay. Ambition is a will, it is enthusiasm and a strong desire which burns like a flame inside you. It is important to include ambition and all the traits which help you THRIVE, in the potentially winning application essays. In fact, we can say that an admission paper is an ambition essay but a bit broader.

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Almost everyone dreams of something while growing up. We all have ambitions when we are little, which change as we grow up.

Ambitions lead us to definite aims in life.

Furthermore, they help us focus on our goals no matter the cost. Ambitions drive us to do better in life and to better ourselves.

Ambitions differ from one person to another but at the end of the day, ambitions are those lighthouses which help our ships not to get lost on their way to our house, on the way to our essence and life purpose. You know how the ocean gets bumpy and the waves become aggressive at times threatening your direction and potentially leaving you shipwrecked?!

Well, your dreams and ambitions are always your rescue boats because they fuel you with perseverance and the will to stand up stronger after each storm.

ambitions and dreams. Your ambitions and dreams are yours to protect from society, systems, other people and even yourself when what you want becomes covered in a thick blanket of fog.

The ambition of any person’s life usually depends on their choices and interests. I aspire to be a great piano man. I have always had the knack for playing from an early age. My parents always encouraged me to pursue my passion. Like most of the parents, they never discouraged me because it is not the most sought after career. Subsequently, I truly wish to become a good piano man. I do not want the fame of being a pianist; rather I want the acclaim of being a good musical guy. As my parents motivated me to pursue my dream, they enrolled me in piano classes. It helped me grow a lot as a dancer and also enhance my Nevertheless, one common thing usually skills. found nowadays is that over time, people switch their ambition to something else than I believe in the power of piano, and how it what they wished to become when they were conveys the message without words. Playing little and they forsake their childhood dreams. the piano is the language of the soul, and it We have many people in the medical field makes me feel alive when I indulge in it. In who wanted to be dancers. Similarly, some of conclusion, the word “ambition� is a magic the greatest politicians wanted to be artists. So word that guides us through life like a we see how easily one gives up on their dreams lighthouse which helps our boats of childhood and ambition to adapt to society and honestly dreams remain afloat in the bumpy and at speaking, forsaking one dream is like stealing times hectic oceans of life. your chance to live the life of your dreams.

Anuar Midani Nobody should ever trade their childhood

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Leadership

Maria Cirlescu

The term leadership is widely used in everyday life but what it really means is truly understood only by a few. Wikipedia says that Leadership is both a research area and a practical skill, encompassing the ability of an individual or organization to “lead” or guide other individuals, teams or entire organizations. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints, contrasting Eastern and Western approaches to leadership, and also (within the West) United States versus European approaches. U.S. academic environments define leadership as “a process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”.Does this

really mean leadership? In my opinion, this term can mean something different for each person, so let me tell you what it means to me and how the term leadership came into my life.

It all started on the first day of school in the 5th grade. I was a shy child who neither had many friends, nor did she try to communicate with other children. But at the first hour with our form tutor, she explained that we have to choose a president to represent the class. I was too scared to run for president because I thought I would not get votes and I admit I really regretted it a lot. Time passed and slowly I managed to make new friends and I

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said to myself that next year, I will also apply for the position of class president. However, what made me the most courageous was that during the spring break I went with the school in Paris at Disney-Land and the teacher grouped us into several groups and we went wherever we wanted. The fact that the people in my group followed my directions and trusted me, gave me a good feeling, planting the thought in my mind that I can really lead some people and take care of their needs and that was my first interaction with leadership.

I have to admit that I made a lot of mistakes, but everyone makes mistakes, plus I learned from them and they helped me a lot to make the difference between good and bad, considering that mistakes are an important thing in leadership and they help us grow and evolve as human beings.

Leadership has had a great impact on my life, just the feeling that some people trust me is wonderful, this has helped me to get closer to my colleagues. I would like to thank them for helping me to become who I am, although sometimes we do not see eye to eye, we still The 6th class came and I was a candidate for have the best and the strongest connection. the president of the class. However, I came out vice president but that did not discourage me. Also the people who helped me develop and I was really blissful. The fact that I went to find myself were my teachers. They always the council and that I could express my class supported me and believed in me. To be problems was a thing that helped me a lot in honest, initially I did not want to listen to public speaking. I liked the feeling I had them and I always thought to myself that they because I knew that I am the child who are not right, but now I owe them thanks for believing in me and not giving up on me. represents our class.

But in the 7th grade everything changed, I Leadership has come to represent a large part became the 7th grade president, we had to go of my life, it has helped me grow and make to the principal to talk about the students’ friends, it is a wonderful thing and I believe activities and problems which again helped that everyone should have a part of it in his me a lot with public speaking. I want to say life, even if you need a few things to become a that my colleagues also helped me a lot good leader such as: confidence, honesty, because if they had not voted for me, I would happiness and hard work, you have to accept not have been introduced to this, which helped that you were wrong and learn the valuable lessons of your mistakes. Even though you are me develop to great extents.

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the leader, you will always have things to learn from your colleagues or friends, you should not be arrogant, you always have to search for new things to learn and self improvement. I think there is a leader inside everyone, you just have to find out who you and believe in yourself. Leadership is not about being the toughest or the bravest, leadership is about caring the most, it is a matter of empathy. A good leader is the one who sets the example and who rules based on his worthiness, values, integrity and love.

There is no aura of fear around a good leader, a true leader is followed because he is admired for what he believes in, for his action. Do not be as shy as I used to be. Find your voice and assume being a leader, be a force of love and generate change wherever you go.

Maria Cirlescu

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Kindness

Delia Miercan

These years were really beautiful, because from everyone I learnt something. These dearest memories with my colleagues and my teachers made me what I am today and I know that the memories will be kept forever in the bottom of my heart. Recently I have realized that at school I feel at home much more than at my home and that I will miss everything very much. Maybe now you wonder why I said that. Well, in short I can say these words: “ a teacher for a day is a mother/father for life� the same goes to my colleagues but they would be sisters and brothers. I care about them as my own family because we were always together and help each other.

also with Eva but I did not know her very well. Even though I was shy, I would always do my best to help my colleagues and share everything with them and be nice to everyone.

After a few months, I was already friends with everyone, or that is what I like to believe.

I do not have a lot of friends, so I do not really know how to make one. For me is like the most difficult task. Anyway, Eva is one of the first friends of mine. She was very friendly and she still is and a bit childish but she taught me to spend my last moments of childhood with innocence just like a kid and to be sincere, sometimes I am acting like a child indeed. She amazed me because she is very straightforward In first year, when I did not know anyone very and she is not afraid of making mistakes, well, I was very shy. But I was lucky because unlike me. I am having troubles with that. I I was in the class with Mara and Alin, and do not understand why I became like that.

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When I was a little, I was really friendly and I could make friends very easily and I was braver than now. I was also very straightforward. If there is something that never changed, that would be my honesty and kindness. Anyway, she always gets good marks, even now. I have good marks as well. I could say that I am pretty smart and almost everything I do something I do it in a logical way. She is also funny, because she almost forgets many things, even I started to forget a lot of things without knowing why. But I have no problem with that. I accept people with great ease. I do not care what their defects are, if they are good people, then I act like these do not exist, as if they are perfect just the way they are because all of us are perfect in our own imperfections. Instead I like to be surrounded by my classmates and it is enough to make me the happiest girl.

I also have friends whom I started to hang out at the dawn of gymnasium and I feel sorry for that. I believe that this is my only regret. Not spending enough time with everyone. Natalis is one of them. She was and still is a little rebellious and she is very talented at drawing and she would like to become a designer. I also wanted to become a designer or architect, but now I do not even know what I want to be.

When it comes to this topic I change my mind very often. I just do not know what is the right thing for me.

Mara, another friend, was always amazing because she is very friendly and her voice is the voice of an angel. After the first contest she was already popular because of her voice and she is never gives up on her talent. Even if she loses a competition, she still wants to continue singing so she inspired me to never give up on my talent and when I have time, I draw. Sometimes I draw even in the middle of lesson without realizing. I daydream quite often, especially when I am tired or bored.

Anyway, there are other colleagues who always make sure to see us happy and laughing. One of my favorite subjects is the Romanian hour because Anuar always makes us laugh and I believe that I am not the only one who eagerly waits for that hour to come.

Now I am determined to try to change myself, because I always wanted to be funny, to make people laugh no matter what. I think that it is the purpose of my existence. To make people happy because whenever they are sad, I am sad too.

I am rarely pessimistic because I prefer to think in a positive way, therefore if I am sad I have the ability to become very happy extremely fast. I also laugh if something is funny but when it comes to laugh at someone else’s mistake, first I think how would I feel if I was in his or her skin.

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A lot of girls in my class, even boys, like to be in a center of attention and they always manage to do that. Even I like and I believe that this is a normal thing, because everyone wants to believe that is loved and that the others know that that person exists. Even I sometimes speak to much because of that, so I believe that this is one of my defaults.

Sometimes I really wish I could be as quiet as Dan who almost never speaks. He is very very quiet, dutiful and attentive.

I like to have different friends, with different ideas, because you never know what you can learn from them. It may sound strange but even though I am shy I trust strangers very easily when I believe that they mean no harm to me, just like the first time I meet Daria.

Eva told me that she was her friend so even though at first I was shy, I immediately became friends with her. I am very loyal to my friends.

To conclude, I always think about others and then about me. I just feel that this is the definition of kindness. Because to be human means to love and express it by your kindness.

I want to be a good person forever and an example for others and to follow. Being kind is my determination and I like to believe that it is also the purpose of my existence.

Everyone can be kind to the people who are kind to them but genuine kindness is when you are kind to everyone, no matter their behaviour, background, character. You are never kind to people because they deserve it, you are kind to them no matter what and who knows, maybe on your kindness journey, you manage to soften many cruel hearts and sweeten many bitter tears. I encourage you to be kind to everyone you meet because you do not know their story. Make kindness your legacy and live a life full of meaning!

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Delia Miercan

THE MAGIC OF

B E C O M I NG

Comedy

Alin Preotu To write a story about comedy, I must first define it to fully understand the exact meaning of this simple word but still so important in our lives. Comedy consists of the professional entertainment through jokes and sketches, intended to make an audience laugh.

Nevertheless, I have learnt that comedy is not only a form of art but a form of science too.I am saying that because in order to be a good comedian you need to be utterly smart and knowledgeable.

During gymnasium, I have learnt a myriad of things and I can say that I went through some funny adventures and in this creation, I shall present one of them.The day started like a normal one. Luckily for me in that specific

day me and my class were going to go on a camp. So I packed my things and my parents drove me to the bus. There I met my friends.

The whole bus was full of the laughters and cheers of some of my best gymnasium friends.

After one hour of waiting for everybody, our geography teacher told us that it was time to go. The entire drive was 6 hours long but it did not matter a lot to us because we are teenagers and time flew listening to some good music and making funny jokes along the way.

As I am one of the comedians of the class, I had to pull a rabbit out of my hat and say all the jokes I have ever heard, triggering the enthusiasm and merry attitude of all of my colleagues. I felt as if I was on a stage, doing my stand up comedy act and I have to admit that I am quite comfortable and extremely

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happy whenever I make others feel good and After the trip we went back to the hotel where laugh their hearts out. we once again played football.In the last day we went in a park where we found a fancy When we finally arrived, I was surprised restaurant to indulge into delicious cuisine. I because that place was huge. We went to see ordered some pizza, my favourite Italian dish. the rooms. But it did not last long and all the After some minutes of waiting, I got my boys went on the football field. We all had Italian pizza. But unfortunately it was not wide smiles drawn on our faces because the one that I had ordered so I decided to tell football is and will continue to be one of the the waitress about her “daunting and funniest spare activities for us since it fosters agonizing” mistake. The waitress insisted that our team spirit, competitiveness, courage, she would not change my pizza so I resorted to stamina, initiative and ambition. Do you a last minute solution: covering all the think I won or do you reckon that the only mushrooms in a bath of tomato sauce in order field I master is the comedy one? I will leave not to feel the taste of mushrooms which I that mystery to stroll in your heads for a while passionately detest. I was right, I did not feel ... a thing except for the prominent taste of After we played football, I went to change into tomato sauce and everybody at the table some new clothes.Then I went on a short walk started a hysterical laughter at my ingenious with my friend Anuar. Shortly after the walk, solution. I am sure my colleagues will always we met Matei and Mr. Dinu (our geography remember that every taste you abhor in life teacher) and we played some pool. After that, can be actually covered with a touch that you me and Anuar went back to our rooms. Skip adore and life can be beautiful, blissful and to the next day, when we went on a trip on a blithe even in the most unpleasant or peculiar boat. I started making funny jokes so the trip moments. Just allow some comedy to sweeten would be much funnier because after all, at every “bitter pill” along the way. the end of the day, people do not remember what you said but how you made them feel.

Alin Preotu

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Originality

Horai Musat

I believe “originality” is a really important word, just the sound of this word makes you think about something great. Nowadays, originality is very rare, for example, even though we see a lot of different articles talking about the same topic on different sites, that does not mean they are the same, it is almost impossible for all of them to be the same because there can only be some limited approaches to the main topic. From my point of view, originality is extremely unique and underestimated by most people, originality is a mixture of creativity and wits and the one who possesses such an asset, is truly blessed.

I recall being in 5th-grade, I was a hardworking child, doing all my homework and projects, especially my PBL project at English.

I was really nervous while doing my special

project. I tried combining the information I inserted with some funny jokes so that my project was not completely tedious. The topic was “My favorite actor” who was Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He is an extremely funny actor and he acts really seriously towards his work. Among his films, the best of them, in my opinion, are San Andreas, Baywatch, Jumanji, and Hercules. Dwayne Johnson was an immense inspiration to me due to the fact that he has a hilarious personality. I first saw Dwayne Johnson wrestling. When I was younger, I loved watching WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was, from my point of view, the best of the best. He had funny lines like “Do you smell what The Rock is cooking” and his signature moves were “The People’s Elbow”

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and “The Rock Bottom”.

When I was in the 4th grade, I had a stand up comedy show with some of my friends in front of all the class and the parents. We all said 3 jokes each and, as expected, everyone laughed. We prepared them by ourselves and happily, they were different. That’s when my desire to make people laugh started. I had a book that contained a lot of jokes and when I say a lot, I mean 90 pages material of jokes and I learnt all of them in order to spread some cheer and happiness everywhere I went.

Since then, I have had some jokes with me for any kind of “emergency” but now, I can just improvise if I want to tell a joke. I believe comedy is mandatory in everyone’s life because of the joy a good joke can provide. I do not believe it is only about jokes though, you do not have to memorize every book of jokes ever made, you just have to think about something that makes no sense when you say it like “What’s green, has six legs and if it jumps on you from a tree, it kills you? a pool table”. It absolutely makes no sense, but, it is hilarious, that is the easiest type of joke there can be because everyone thinks about stuff that can sound really idiotic but only a small amount of people talk about it.

passion for computers began when I was around seven years old, my brother used to play with his friends, so I began playing too. I was pretty good at it even though I knew I was a long way until I can be close to the best at what I was doing. I started playing shooter games and MOBA. The first game that really had an impact on me was League Of Legends. I played that game for approximately seven or six years. The idea of the game attracted me, you are a champion and you fight against other champions to destroy the enemy’s core. There are over 140 champions now which you can choose from. The first champion I chose was Darius, he is the king of Noxus, an evil city that fights against all of the other nations. He was really fun to play but when Jhin released a few years later, he was the only champion I played, mostly because of the fact that I had a lot in common with him, like the passion for music.

My passion for music began when I was 9 years old. My mother had signed me up at piano lessons. The first four weeks were really fun, but I did not see myself progressing mostly because of my piano teacher who talked with me about what I wanted to talk about instead of really doing a serious lesson. I loved those lessons at the time, but they were not I really love spending time on my computer, extremely productive. I still learned about mostly playing different games but I don’t piano there, do not get me wrong, but my mind just sitting in front of it and coding. My mind was mostly focusing on the other passion

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I talked about. After four weeks, my piano teacher left the musical school, so I stopped going there. After some weeks, my mother found a great lady that was willing to teach me the ways of the piano. I was still in the fourth grade. I currently have almost five years since I started piano with her and I have learned many different things, not only how to play the piano, she gave me new words that I did not know the meaning of and explained them to me so I could enlarge my vocabulary and I sincerely thank her for that.

outside and played football for as long as the kids would stay, because my parents could not come right away to get me since they had to work, I did not mind at all. Usually, they came to get me half an hour after the after school program so I had more than enough time to play football. I loved playing football with my friends and I am glad I started playing football. This went on until the 7th grade when the after school program was canceled. In the seventh grade, my classmate friend Dan and Roland went to the school’s basketball practice so I decided to go along with them. The experience was amazing since I spent time running around and exercising.

The basketball practice really helped me build strong arms so I was really happy the practice paid off. The third strong passion for sports came in 7th grade too. My classmate friend Dragos went to volleyball practice for a really long time and my other classmate friend David decided to go with him as well around the 8th grade. I really liked playing volleyball at the P.E. class, so I joined my friends. I went to the club for around 3 months I think and I made a lot of new friends too. Sadly, the real reason why I left is that I just did not have enough time for school and volleyball too so my mom stopped me from going. It was a wake-up call, however, I missed going to the club and I will never forget my experience.

My passion for sports is an interesting one.

When I was in elementary school, almost half of the boys in the class went to football practice, so I joined as well. Surprisingly, I was one of the best and the best part was I spent more time with my classmates. I went to some contests with my fellow friends and had a great time. I vividly remember the contests but I can tell you for certain, that I dribbled many players from the enemy team in a corner and the crowd went insane, that was fun.

Unfortunately, I stopped going to football practice but I had a nice time. The football passion came again in the fifth grade. I went to the school’s after school program, so I made a lot of new friends from every grade, even 8th grade, which was really important to me. I was once again, really good at football, I guess that one-year training really helped me. Every day, after I finished the after school, I went My class was extremely nice and I wish all of

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them well, I have many good memories and I will never forget all of them. We went on a lot of different trips together and we had tons of fun in all of them. Our form tutor was the best one from the school so we got along with her extremely well even though sometimes we were a bit stubborn.

specialist, I really want to still practice sports when I am older or at least go to the gym and have a good diet. I would really love to learn speaking Russian when I grow older and other languages. I want to talk Russian because I really like the way it sounds and I like learning other people’s language so that I can My plans for the future are to become an I.T. interact with them in a language environment specialist. I really enjoy coding, hence I believe I was not born in.

I will enjoy this job. I am really looking In conclusion, since I was born, I tried to forward to finishing my studies and doing the enjoy all of the things I was given, but my thing that has always crossed my mind, flaw was that I did not show my affection working with computers and actually being towards all of the people that made me happy productive and helping someone by doing this. and inspired me. I would like to thank Mrs. The hard part is that Romanian people are Mantescu - Adam Adela for making all of known for their I.T. skills thus I am going to this happen and supporting us until the very have some real competition, but on the bright end. I do not know what the future has in side, competition is good after all, it store for us, but I am certain that I will live maintains people active and prosperous. my life to the fullest and continue to bring Without any form of competition, most people smiles on the faces of all the people I meet will not do anything and just be lazy, ergo, I along the way. am elated. Besides becoming an I.T.

Horia Musat

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