Alaska is known as the biggest and prettiest state in the US. It just happened that I was lucky enough to be placed there for my exchange year by Lea Tchavdarian It's been more than a year... And I know that time flies fast for sure... I remember my first day away from my parents, first time on the plane, first day with my host family, first day at school... Everything. I would be lying if I said that it wasn't a difficult year, nevertheless it was eye opening. Alaska is known to be unique when it comes to its weather. It's labeled as the coldest state in the US. But not to me anymore.. I mean, it gets pretty cold not going to lie, but it all felt different because of the nice people there.. In that state you can find people from all around the world and the US, but not from Lebanon though. At first it felt like I was all alone in that big country. It was all unreal. However now, I miss there... It's like my second home. I remember my last day there, just like it was yesterday. It was hard leaving my second life and coming back here... I miss everything. My home, family, school, teachers, friends...
My school was humongous. I got lost 4 times on my first day.. Can you believe it? It's kind off weird to remember my first and last week.. My first week, nobody looked at my face. Well except one of my best friends and the teachers, but other than them, nobody. My last week was totally opposite. Everybody was actually crying that I was leaving so soon, that it has been a great year, that they were happy we've met and they're never going to forget me. I remember, my last period felt like it was taking forever and I couldn't wait to get out.. I had memories in every corner of South Anchorage High School. School wasn't a challenge for me, I just considered it a new experience. High School there resemble to college. Of course there's councelors and the students choose the classes they take. There's always electives too! When it comes to sports, I've tried literally everything. Cross-country skiing, throwing, jumping... It has been really fun, especially when you have to compete, race or have a game. My host family consisted of four people. The Mother, father, brother, and sister. They were really supportive, caring and welcoming. They put a roof on top of my head this whole year and they were there for me when I needed them. They also encouraged me to do a lot of stuff that I was afraid to even try. They introduced me to the American culture and helped me adjust. The funny thing was that they lived in Saudi Arabia for more than 7 years and actually visited Lebanon. They knew everything about the food, the places, and I helped them learn a little bit of Arabic and Armenian... They made me feel at home and helped me through a lot. Just like everybody knows, social life there is totally different from here. I've had a lot of friends from school, church, doing sports and relatives of the family. My two best friends were and always gonna stay the best friends anyone would ask for. Just like the family, they helped me throughout my year. There was a little annoying sentence they used to say that i'll never forget, which was "You're have an accent", but now I actually find it funny. It's true and I knew it, but I didn't want to believe it back then. Compared to Americans I do have an accent, but in my opinion I ''did not".I remember the times we spent together, how they supported me with every sport I did, when I graduated highschool, when we went to Junior Prom and left early just to drive around Anchorage, screaming and laughing. Till now I do talk with my family and friends and sometimes I wish I can live last year all over again and not change any detail that has happened. Being an Exchange student means you're also an international student. I'm proud to say that I have friends from all around the world. Palestine, Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan, Germany, Finland, Austria, Denmark, Tunisia and a lot more. As part of YES, our first three days and last five days are spent in Washington DC. Those days are never going to come back. Going to the white house, meeting the Vice President, visiting all the historical places and museums, is always fun. Also, going to 5 different states is interesting. I was happy to be able to go to Alaska, Colorado, California, Chicago and Iowa. Exchange year, is a world within a word. Just like every exchange student said and will say "it's a life in a year" . In my opinion, this year has helped me grow mature and understand how life works. It shaped me, and made me become a better and stronger person. It helped me know the values of life, by simply volunteering more than 100 hours of community service. This year gave me an example about how college life works after my senior year. I'm really excited about finishing highschool and going to college. I have a lot of projects in mind that I want to do in Lebanon, to make an impact on the lives of the people living here. In the end, I learned that us, teenagers, are the future of this world. We have to help people from all the experiences we learn from. Exchange is important and will change someone's life in a really short time. Everybody should try it. It's not easy to adjust and live life like nothing happened, but in the end it's a part of the experience that I agreed to live. It's not about learning english, it's about being independent and learning about life by experiencing different stuff. Learn to be risky and live your life like there's no tomorrow, just like I plan on doing! Peace out!
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It’s been almost a year that Mesrobian High School student Lea Chavderian is in USA as an exchange student within the YES (Youth Exchange Study) program. She will soon end her study in Alaska where she was during the school year 2014-2015 and come back home. Exchange year isn't a year in your life, it's a new life in one year.
My journey started by a simple dream. However, this simple dream changed my whole life. Meeting new people, experiencing new stuff that I didn't even think about? It's crazy and chaotic, nevertheless fun and amazing. I didn't imagine myself coming to the US, but when it actually happened, it made me think of all the stuff that I could dream about and make them come true one day. On my journey, I got to visit a lot of places. Jordan, Germany, Washington, D.C., Colorado and most importantly The last frontier, Alaska. My second home being a part of it. The place where I met amazing people. My new family, my friends, my new teachers... I got the meet more than 1000 people this year including exchange students, just like me, from all around the world. The school is so much different but at the same time fun. I tried skiing, soccer, track and field, choir and I actually started learning piano. My host family treated me just like their own kids. I'm really proud of making it this far in my life. However, my journey's almost over just a couple of months left. Graduation is in less than a month. It's really cool to be treated as a senior and get to experience the American version. And trust me when I say it. It's amazing. I'm not going to lie, but it's going to be tough going back after getting used to everything in Anchorage, Alaska, leaving everybody I met behind and just go. I guess this is it, but I sure hope that this is not the end though. And Yes, I do miss Lebanon, my natural family, my family at school, my friends and everybody else and I'm excited about going back. I just wish that this year didn't go by so fast. My dream did come true in the end, and I had a really successful junior/senior exchange year. And I can't wait to come back and meet up with all my loved ones again. I want to thank Mr. Gregoire for making this happen, my teachers, especially Mrs. Eva Koressian for teaching me English, and all the ones who were a part of my life. I also want to thank my natural and host family for supporting me and all the people who were a part of my exchange year. Wish me luck on graduation! And I'll see you all very soon! Léa Tchavdarian Alaska, USA How much time do you spend judging others? I’m sure some would deny it, but we are, in reality, judgmental human beings. We judge others’ words, clothing, actions… we all do this to some extent & it depends completely on how we feel about ourselves. The happier we are the less we judge. When we judge someone, we don’t feel good about ourselves, yet we wouldn’t feel good being judged, too. So we should treat people the way we want to be treated. In order to stop judging people, first we need to check the reasons that make us judge people, second we should know what judgments do to others & finally we need to find ways to judge others. We judge others for several reasons, for instance we are insecure & when being insecure or unhappy we try to put other people down. Another reason is because we are scared or afraid of those who are different from us & may judge them just because they are unlike us. We also judge people when we are lonely & we use judgments to bond with other people. Another reason for judging people is because we want our lives to be different, so we judge the lives of others because of jealousy. After pointing out some of the reasons of judging others, we need to shed some light on what judgments do. When judging others we forget that judgments hurt other people & make us feel worse about ourselves. When we judge others we bring ourselves down as well as the person being judged. We also put negativity into the world. Judgments also encourage us to judge ourselves too. Now the best ways to stop judging are thinking before we utter our thoughts & trying to change the negative into positive. The best way to stop being a judgmental person is to stop judging ourselves & to fows on our own life & the most important thing is to remember how bad it feels being judged. In conclusion, we are all the same with different potentials & abilities, & we are responsible for our own words & actions, so whether judgmental or not, ALWAYS REMEMBER TO TREAT OTHERS JUST THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED… MIREILLE KEHEYAN TERMINALE (LH) If I say right now “I have a dream”; some would instantly ask what that dream is, many would say with a shattered soul “So did I”, and then few would respond with “others did too”. Isn’t it miraculous and astonishing how each human being is born with a special instinct, like a path of their own, specially made for them, and all they have to do is fight hard enough for it, want it bad enough? Sadly few are the ones who refuse to give up and go into a new horizon of miraculous infinity. Throughout the years we start exploring the cycle of life around us, always realizing new things, gaining new sorts of educating experience ,and based on that, we start judging our own level of mental and spiritual maturity. At some point we start seeing many sides of society, we discover how others have looked at it, we perceive roots and history we never knew about, and we learn the value of our heritage. However, the ones who are truly gifted and meant for the bigger things develop a unique kind of instinct, a perspective that not all have the interest or patience to dig deep enough in hopes of further unearthing. That kind of faculty for vision is like a needle in a haystack, it is a chance to actually make a reliable and useful change in the world. My dream has always been to go back in time, in hopes of creating a much better future in which people would be making a connection with the elements of nature and godly blessings rather than cell phones and materialistic realities. My dream, if not to be a general actuality, would be to reach a transcendent harmony, within myself, a soul satisfied and convinced that it has done all it can, to bring out the best this human body could be in this momentary lifetime. My dream is to cross the limitations that human beings just like me and you decided to implement on society to narrow the human mind and have the upper control on every cell and particle that makes us who we are. I dream to discover all that my brain and heart can discover, to see farther than what my eyesight permits me to contemplate, to hear things scientists would consider physically impossible to apprehend and to feel things much deeper than my soul ever expected to feel. I dream of taking all I can and giving ten times more than all I’ve received. You can dream until your dreams are no longer remembered, go through a sort of oblivion, or you can stand up and start working for it. The choice is yours. Carla Gurunian ( ES2) What is love? Love is a very special and meaningful word to each human being. Each human being has his/her own thoughts about love guiding himself/herself to land safely and smoothly into the kingdom of Love. Without this preconceived idea of love, a person would be acting like a blind, person searching for the light with thousand of obstacles in front of him. What is Love? I know this question exists in each human being's mind, including myself. If not it is still waiting to be discovered deeply in your heart. What do I think of love? For me, I believe love is a priceless diamond, because a diamond has thousands of reflections, and each reflection represents a meaning of love. With love I can accept a person's imperfections unconditionally, and be able to transfer the way I love myself to another person whom I fancy. With love I can have the power against loneliness, sadness, and illness, and to be able to change them into my happiness. Moreover, I’ll have a key to open my heart to look at this world without a mask to show people who I really am. But on the other hand, my love cannot be a substitute for anything, which means nothing can be substituted for my love. It also means those reflections of the diamond cannot be replaced by any kind of light, because the untrue reflection will not be a real diamond, and will not be able to spread out its resplendent and meaningful beams of love to people about whom I care for. What will happen if people live without love? In my opinion, without love I may lose my ability to survive in this world. Love is a gift of God, it’s not something material, it’s the act of feeling that comes from our deep inside. Life is all about love; love is the key that can unlock everybody’s heart. Without love I can be defined as a rat living in the sewer, with no chance to see our beautiful land and with no hope to lighten up myself against the darkness. Plus, I may lose many opportunities of enjoyment both mentally and physically, when I do not know what love is. I wish the kingdom of love will dominate here and everywhere, now and forever. Hope life will never deprived of the king called “LOVE”, because love is my oxygen which I need to survive. STEPHANIE BALTAYAN TERMINALE SV I found it quite interesting to find the right subject when it came to practicing the art of writing. A little different from a pen or a paper but the idea was all the same. And then a breeze of loss between sanity and insanity caressed my mind and I found myself somewhere, torn between drowning and flying in fountains yet skies of philosophy, literature and all that gave life its essence and mystery. William Shakespeare once said: “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” It is far hard to know what all these amazing artists were experiencing when they put in words the storm in their minds and the damaged pieces of their soul, yet if we are lucky enough perhaps someday, we could feel it ourselves. Some might consider it a blessing, others a curse. Some turn it into breath-taking beauty, others into an abrasive path. Yet the thing about it is that no matter how they mirror it, the reflection of a broken man is a placid state to those who choose to see it. For the shattered pieces shine at their brightest under the moonlight when the night is at its darkest. It’s proven ,isn’t it? Decades, even centuries have passed and still the art of these human masterminds keeps on inspiring and taking over millions of wandering souls and the spirits of those who have the potential to enlighten others’ paths someday. Art is the outcome of every thought, every feeling, every cell of the body that come together, put inside an infinite moment of transcendence and sent into the universe of mystery like a flying eagle that has just discovered the sky. And I strongly believe that art is our own pair of wings allowing us to fly above fields of new perspective where we start discovering the heat of the frozen and the cold wind that has become one with the raging fire. Nevertheless, going into another universe through the gates above is not the only course or direction that art leads us to. Sometimes instead of flying, we drown. And that small rush of adrenaline gives us that flashback of our entire life of which some people speak. But in the artist’s case, it’s far more than his ephemeral life. He goes back to the roots and essence of life itself. He goes into philosophy, literature, the past and all that had been discovered and profoundly wondered about ,and goes as deep as the fountains in which he realizes that he has come to enjoy sustaining the water’s pressure. In many cases, artists are considered out of the ordinary, or accused of having a knotty mind which proves to be there just to nourish the mind of the audience .and that way proves the belief that says: “Out of the worst comes the best at its best.” No matter what kind of art we practice, it is the most valuable thing we have; not owning it temporarily, but cherishing it within ourselves and struggling for its sake, not letting anyone take it away from us. It takes all we have and most importantly reflects all we are. Carla Gurunian 11th Grade January 20, 2015 Each person is different in his way of thinking, way of treating and accepting others, and way of looking at himself. Some are full of love and devoted to helping people, while there are others who are full of pride, ego, jealousy, and hate. In all cases, fulfilling your dreams begins with OPTIMISM. When you believe that you can do something, then eventually you are going to do it. What is the influence of your self-image (the way you see yourself) on reality? First, let me tell you the difference between successful and unsuccessful people. Unsuccessful people have dreams and ambitions, but they say "I cannot do that!", so they stop; or they say "I do not have the capability that others have", so they stop. Successful people say "I cannot do that", but instead of stopping, they say "Well, my job is to go LEARN how to do that". They take their current limitation and put it on their agenda as a thing to figure out, a thing to make happen. Exactly as the universe is infinite, we have a huge power hidden inside of us. I believe that every person can be a genius. We all have talents and the gift of intelligence. What differs is how much each of us works (how much he uses that power), and how much serious we are. Also, if we look at everything without fear, we are more likely to succeed. For example, many students end up failing because of their phobia of official exams. Every successful work begins and ends with self-confidence, but this latter differs from pride, which can sometimes destroy us and make us disappointed if we fail. We must see every failure as an experience, and learn from it. "I did not fail, I just found 10000 ways that will not work", said Thomas Edison. That is why we should never give up. Failing is human, and every mistake is a lesson. Where is the good taste of your success if you have never failed? All the scientists who discovered new things and changed the world succeeded only after trying lots of times. As a conclusion, I can say that a wise person knows how to be "himself", and knows the techniques of success that I previously mentioned. Be FREE, but in a smart way. Remember that you are special and unique, and God created you in his image and likeness. Be comfortable with yourself, and do not listen to the judgments of your classmates or coworkers, especially if they are willing to diminish your self-esteem. Einstein Albert said "I am thankful to all those who said NO to me. It's because of them I did it myself." Joseph Chadarevian Bacc. II What we think of ourselves is far more important than what others may think of us. Let's face it; our self-image influences our self-esteem and we may end up by being either confident and happy with our image or doubtful and miserable about everything in us. Eventually, that would leave a great impact in our lives. One of the most important steps in creating a good self-image is to start loving oneself. Yes, nobody's perfect and being perfect is boring! Making mistakes is a part of our journey and we must learn from it. Imperfections and flaws make us beautiful. So, why do we need to hate ourselves? Remember, our attitude and behavior reflect what we really think of us. If we don't appreciate ourselves, who will? Next, everyone should try to improve himself or herself everyday. We may be not so good at something or even fail in it, but what we do after our failure is what shows the real us. The key to success is not to give up, but try harder. Thus, we should do all the best to remind our inner strength not to underestimate our abilities but nurture our wings to fly higher and higher. We tend to think that others are better than us or that they have more than we do, or that they're richer, smarter, luckier... These are just excuses we give while trying to hide the real problem within us; the problem is in the way we look at life and at ourselves. I once read a quote which says: "You have to be yourself, yes, but try being the best version of yourself." Are we the best version of ourselves? Any Kasparian Bacc II |
ՄԵՆՔՄեսրոպեան Վարժարանի Աշակերտներ Արխիւ
April 2015
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