Sex Workers Are Victims

In the article “Sex Workers are Victims,” Jane Wells and John-Keith Wasson argued that by legalizing prostitution, there would be more conflicts than there were at the first place.

As a modern form of slavery, sex workers have more disadvantages than advantages and are considered. Women who work under pimps suffer from numerous amounts of problems both physically and mentally. The FBI estimated that around 85% of sex workers experience abuse while serving their customer. Less than one-tenth of 1% of them use a safe health insurance system.

In sex industries, the majority of pimps force their prostitutes to hand over their payment. Adding on, most women are in an unhealthy condition, often suffering from traumas involving beating, knifings, and rape. PTSH, a chronic pelvic disease is also a crucial problem they have today.

Even by legalizing the fastest growing “criminal” industry, Jane and John affirmed that the first thing the public should do is to recognize the harm and help these sex victims overcome their traumas.

Voluntary sex workers should not be the first priority over those who are forced to work as salves.as a modern form of slavery.

What makes a true friend? Describe one.

In this essay I would like to talk about someone who has been one of the best friends in my life. I will be referring her as Sarah (not her real name) and describe how she has inspired my life in many different ways.

I first met Sarah in 2011, two years ago. She came in the middle of our school year and my group of friends decided that we should include her as a part of our group. I thought Sarah looked like one of those girls who I would have a hard time getting along with. It seemed as if our personalities didn’t match and we wouldn’t get close because she was in another class. In the beginning, it was fine for me to not consider her one of my close friends, but as time went by, I felt as if I was “losing” a close friend of mine.

Sarah and I had a proper conversation for the first time at the beginning of seventh grade. Although the conversation wasn’t important, the two of us realized that our way of thinking was similar. Luckily, we were in the same class that year, which gave us a better chance to talk. During the first few months of seventh grade, I found out that Sarah lived about 15 minutes away from where I lived, the types of food she liked and disliked, and how she came to our school. It took us less than three months to get close, which was quite unusual because we couldn’t do so for a year in sixth grade.  Sarah and I had a chance to share facts about ourselves and stories that we would normally keep inside. We couldn’t believe how strong our friendship had grown since the previous year. We hung out after school for many weeks and developed an extremely strong friendship.

Although Sarah and I had good times, there were days when it was impossible for us to understand each other. The more you know friend, the higher the possibility of fighting with them. Sarah is the type to get angry easily and I am the type to forget things quickly. This was the main problem for the two of us because whenever we had a fight, Sarah would be extremely offended and I would quickly forget about it. The longest fight that we’ve ever had was only for a day, but Sarah and I would be intensely angry towards each other. Luckily, most fights were over with a quick apology and our friendship hadn’t changed a bit. In fact, through these fights, I had a chance to know Sarah even more than before. Through these major and minor fights with Sarah, our friendship grew even stronger.

Currently, I consider Sarah one of my closest friends. Fortunately, we are in the same class this year as well. A true friend understands you the better than anyone else and tells what is right or wrong. There may be times when you don’t understand each other, but through these fights a true friend will understand you better and know how to act the next time. It may take a while to realize who your true friends are, but eventually, you will know. I would like to thank Sarah for being my true friend and always being there no matter what!

Participating in team sports helps to develop good character

I believe that everyone will develop a good character once they participate in team sports. I experienced a major change in my life because of sports at the beginning of eighth grade. Although I don’t have a great talent in sports, joining our school’s sports club gave me a memory I will never forget.

Our British school has a competitive sports team called FOBISIA, which stands for “Federation of British International Schools In Asia.” Many such teams get to host a sports week at their school. Different sports events are held such as girls and boys basketball, boys and girls soccer, and individual matches. Since many students would like to join their school’s FOBISIA team, they go through weeks, or even months of training in order to make the team. In my case, the Under 15 FOBISIA girls and boys team started their tryouts the second week of school. We had about two full months until the team had to go to Hong Kong, since they were the hosts of the FOBISIA U-15 games this year, and about one month for the teams to get elected. As usual, I didn’t want to try out because I never had a talent with sports and didn’t have the confidence to improve. Our school took sports extremely seriously and trying out for the team felt as if I would slow down their training. However, friends encouraged me, saying that giving it a try wouldn’t be that bad since it would be our last FOBISIA and we would be graduating the British School this year and moving on to the High School division. After days of thinking, I decided that trying out for our team would give me a chance to test my sports ability.

As I had expected, the first week of training/trying out wasn’t easy. Participating in team sports such as basketball and soccer, there were times when I disappointed myself due to the feeling of letting the whole team down. Although everyone on our team was encouraging me, there was always the thought of giving up. However, thanks to everyone who told me that I was doing great, the thought always vanished after a few days. We also had a chance to test ourselves in individual events, including swimming, athletics, and running. One activity I found absolutely difficult was the cooper run that required running constantly for 20 minutes. I only ran about six laps the first time, being very slow compared to others. By this point, I was determined to improve and tried my best whenever we trained.

After a few weeks, our team list came out and as expected, I wasn’t on the official team. However, surprisingly, I was placed as a reserve! This meant that one still trained with the official team in case someone had to be replaced or got injured before the week of FOBISIA. I was happy with my result because it gave me a chance to train for another month and get in even better shape. The excitement of looking forward to the next few FOBISIA training sessions was tremendous because this meant that I was having fun in sports.

By the end of FOBISIA training, I was quite surprised with my progress, both mentally and physically. After a few weeks of doing the cooper run, I was able to accomplish 15 laps around the field in 25 minutes, much better than before! Not only did trying out for this team help me improve in sports, but also find confidence in myself. From now and on, there will be a higher possibility for me to tryout for other things I usually didn’t do. Through this experience, I learned the mindset of never giving up, leading a group, encouraging others, and trying one’s best. I will never forget FOBISIA because it helped me in a variety of ways which will help me all my life.

What Makes a Good Leader In Terms of Projects?

There are many different types of leaders in this world, some being good and others bad. However, all leaders have one thing in common—making sure the whole group is cooperating well as a whole. There are many things you need in order to become a good leader.

I believe that the first requirement is understanding the ability of each member in their group to determine who is doing what. For example, a team that makes its strongest member do work requiring more energy will be more efficient than one that makes its weakest member do an equal amount of work. One way the leader can know his group’s abilities is by getting to know every member. Although you supervise a team, you occasionally don’t know the members as well as you thought. By studying them, you may better understand their strengths and weaknesses, which will lead to a much more powerful group. This helps you guide the group and let them get to know each other. A good leader tries to even out the workload after discussing it with everyone in a fair and unbiased way.

A good leader also needs to make sure everyone is on task. This is essential when it comes to long term projects because it is difficult to catch up with what others have done for weeks or perhaps months. The leader should always be aware of the task and make sure everyone is doing the correct thing. I think a bad leader does most of the project alone and ignores teammates’ opinions. If they do most of the work, it is unfair to them and their group members. A good leader should not only make sure that everyone is on task, but also be patient if someone hasn’t done the right thing. There may be members who intentionally don’t do their job, but that is different from someone who has tried their best but not accomplished as much as they had wanted. In this case, a good leader will confront the group and try to reach a reasonable solution. On the other hand, a bad leader will scold the teammates for not doing the proper jobs and make up for the mistake by finishing the task themselves.

I have been through many projects in my school. Most of the grades were fair, but there were times I thought that I deserved a higher grade compared to what I got. There were times I had to be the leader of the group and others when I had to follow. Being a leader wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Long term projects had many ups and downs. Since everyone thought differently, it was difficult to combine all their ideas and divide the workload evenly. However, we definitely always needed a good leader in order to finish something on time!

Is it always essential to tell the truth, or are there circumstances in which it is better to lie?

I believe that the truth is one of the most happy but painful things in life. There are truths we like to know and some we tend to avoid. Once a fact is known to be true, I find it difficult to change. However, you can make it sound false by lying, which comes in handy when you want to protect yourself or avoid certain circumstances. This may lead you to more trouble at the end. It is essential to lie depending on the situation, but the deeper the lie gets, the higher the truth exposed.

Interestingly, we learn to lie without being taught. For example, if a young child eats a cookie his mother didn’t want him to eat until dinner, he will lie that he didn’t eat it because he wants to stay away from trouble and eat another cookie after dinner. Although his parents did not teach him to lie, he learned that it was the only way to stay safe. Though lying is clearly not essential in this case, sometimes it is. Consider a national athlete and his family. This athlete has been practicing for years in order to go to the Olympics. Unfortunately, his mother passes away right on the day he competes. His family doesn’t want to contact the athlete because they all know that he has been waiting for this day. Instead, they lie to the athlete that everything is okay, which in this case, is the right thing to do. Although you can’t resurrect someone from the dead, it is better for the athlete to know about his mother’s death after the competition. The truth eventually comes out, but the timing is essential for him.

It is not always right for you to lie. For example, at a crime scene, you have to tell the truth no matter how much it hurts. If you have witnessed a crime and the police ask you to recall the situation, the best thing to do is to tell the truth in order to help them find the criminal. However, if you found out that the criminal was one of your family members, it would be hard to tell the truth because it would not only cause problems finding the criminal, but make you feel psychologically unstable. Once you have lied to the police, you will force yourself to keep lying in order to prove that the previous lie is a true statement. There will be no end and the lying will become worse until you won’t even remember what you lied about. This won’t be safe for you as well if they find out what you have been doing. The circumstances might get worse so that it would have been better off telling the truth in the first place. One lie has led to another, causing more problems than telling the truth. This stirs up more trouble for everyone, including yourself.

Reasons whether to lie or not will vary, but the truth eventually comes out. I believe that it is essential to lie if there are more advantages, but there are certain situations when you have to tell the truth no matter what. A temporary lie may be exceptional, but lies rarely last forever. It is a matter of time before the lie reveals itself.

Your school has decided (to change the dress code, to stop assigning homework on the weekend, to end summer vacations and go to year-round schooling, etc.). Write a letter to persuade the school board to make the change or to keep the policy.

Your school has decided (to change the dress code, to stop assigning homework on the weekend, to end summer vacations and go to year-round schooling, etc.). Write a letter to persuade the school board to make the change or to keep the policy.

*MADE UP*

Dear Headmaster Stones,

Greetings. I am currently a parent at Lincoln Middle School. Very recently, I heard that our school will stop having a uniform code. Unfortunately, I have to disagree with this for various reasons. By the end of this letter, I hope you will understand why we need uniforms and reconsider your decision.

Lincoln Middle School is widely known for its polite and intelligent students. We proudly placed third among the best educated private schools. Most alumni at our school have found a stable job and are now doing what they want to do. Although students get about four hours of homework daily, I believe that this is for their own future. All 350 students at your school are able to concentrate well because the school limits the use of computers. However, if our school becomes uniform-free, what may first seem an advantage won’t last long.

Middle school is the most important point in life in terms of understanding yourself and what you will do in the future. We need education it in order to understand how the world works and how to improve it. If the school decides not to have uniforms, we may become distracted from our studies. With a dress code, you don’t have to worry about what you will be wearing every day. All students know what they will be wearing to school every day, making it easier for them in the morning. They won’t be concerned about the new trend or wonder if their friends will like they’re wearing. On the other hand, without uniforms, all students will have to keep the latest fashion in mind, perhaps going shopping every other week to keep up to date. This will surely be time-consuming and unhelpful to their studies. Being teenagers, more and more students will focus on clothes instead of work, not helping them at all in high school or their future.

Also, we should continue to have school uniforms to prevent discrimination. With over 300 people in your middle school, economic status and fashion taste will vary greatly among students. Of course, those from a wealthier family will have no problems getting new clothes every weekend, but having no uniforms might become a worry to those from a lower economic class. Discrimination will occur when a group of students doesn’t approve of a particular student’s fashion and this will eventually expand. In a school known for its friendly environment, I would hate seeing students forming cliques because of their fashion status. School is meant for education and learning how to interact with others — not for discrimination.

Your wrong decisions will harm to the students at Lincoln Middle School.

Thank you for your time; I hope you reconsider.

Sincerely,

Amanda Madison

Hidden

One of the best novels I have read this year is Hidden by Helen Frost.  Not only does this novel contain a unique story, but also two different points of view, one structured like a poem, with fewer words and involving more thought, and the other written with detailed descriptions. Although Hidden is less than three hundred pages, Helen Frost did well in terms of keeping the reader focused on the main story. If this book was longer, I would have been easily bored.

The two main characters, Wren Abbott and Darra Manson, first meet in a rare way. The first chapter begins with eight-year old Wren waiting for her mother in the car and suddenly getting kidnapped by a stranger. At this point, the readers don’t know if the stranger is trying to steal the car, kidnap Wren, or both. Either way, it is revealed that she is taken to the garage of a stranger, who has a wife and child. As she overhears numerous conversations among them, Wren figures out that the stranger doesn’t know of her existence in the car and the wife strongly disagrees with him stealing cars. It is never told why the husband had stolen her mother’s car, but we know that taking Wren with him was accidental. As she tries to escape, she discovers that the daugher of this stranger, Darra Manson, is a similar age. She even has a feeling that Darra knows that she’s hiding somewhere. Remarkably, we figure out that Wren is right in the fourth chapter, written from Darra’s point of view.

Darra Manson had always loved her father although he would always ignore and hit her. She felt that the relationship between her parents was worsening by the day. As an innocent eight-year old girl, she didn’t understand why the same cars her father brought home would appear on the news. As she finds out that Wren is in the garage hiding somewhere, she decides to help her escape without her parents or Wren finding out. She does this by acting as if she’s giving food to her cat, but is actually feeding Wren. Even though she was young, Darra felt that whatever her father was doing was wrong. She was secretly helping the girl stuck in the garage mainly because she if she told someone about it, her father might get arrested. Things seem to go well until Wren finds a way to escape. The minute Darra finds out, the police take her father away and things get worse. Her mother divorces her father and takes Darra elsewhere.

There are two time periods in this novel. The first one is the week of the “kidnap” of Wren Abbott and the second takes place six years later at a summer camp. This would be extremely surprising and difficult for the two, but they try their best to hide from each other. However, just before the camp ends, Wren and Darra both believe that it’s time to talk about the incident after years of silence. It comes out that Wren had never told the police where Darra was because she knew that would ruin Darra’s life. The police had instead found the house and arrested Darra’s father. She had always hated Wren because she thought the police had been able to find her father because Wren had told them. The author never specifically explains why Darra’s father had stolen the car, but the readers realize that isn’t the main point of the story.

Reading Hidden, I had a chance to think if there is anyone in my life who I might have misunderstood. The two were courageous and mature in different ways. As the victim, Wren was brave to bring up the incident that happened to her eight years ago because it surely must have been a heavy subject. She must have had a therapist after the accident in order to make her trauma disappear. On the other hand, Darra was brave enough to talk about the subject and listen to everything Wren said because they were talking about her father. We all know that her father had done something wrong, but it would have been hard for Darra to face the fact that one of the most important people in her life was a criminal. It was fortunate that the two were able to dispel misunderstandings at the camp. Life must be much easier for both of them since their worst memory was now gone. Although I haven’t experienced anything as terrible as Wren did, it would be great to talk to someone I have misunderstood.