Topic choices for Blog #5.

1.   Tell me about your attitude towards the little stories that David asked us to read. Which one do you consider to be the best? Did any story change your way of thinking? Did any of them seem to be unclear, incomprehensible for you?

2.    What is the meaning of our life? What seems for you to be the most important thing you should achieve until the death? Explain why. To tell the truth, these philosophical questions often come to my mind, and it will be interesting for me to read your points of view.  
 
3.   As I attend a biology course, I’d like to know what other people think about the material that I learn. Do you believe that chimpanzees are our relatives? Mention some facts that make you think so. Does Darwin’s theory of evolution contradict the religion?

4. My favorite holiday.

You will, undoubtedly, consider me to be too banal or egoistic when you hear that my favorite holiday is the birthday. However, not my own birthday is the day which I am crazy about. Most of all, I adore celebrating my relatives and close friends’ dates of birth.

For me, these holidays seem to be much more significant than the other ones because on these days some time ago the people whom I can’t imagine my life without came into the world. These dates make me understand how deeply grateful I should be to God for their presence in my destiny. I believe my close friends and relatives’ birthdays to be a great chance to thank these amazing people for their care and support, sympathy and understanding, help and happiness which they fill my existence with. Of course, I do my best to make these days memorable for them and remind these heroes of the occasion about how much I love them.

I certainly have a great variety of interesting stories connected with my relatives and close friends’ birthdays. However, being unable to share all of them with you, I would like to tell you about two pleasant events that happened last year.

Last summer one of my close friends, whose name is Nastya, was celebrating her 18^th birthday. This date is believed to be something special for everyone in my country, and, therefore, two girls and I decided to make a surprise. We got together at 7 o’clock in the morning and wrote “Happy Birthday, Darling!”  on the asphalt just under Nastya’s windows. Then we decorated the entrance and staircase of her house with balloons and hearts made of paper. At 9 o’clock Nastya went out of her flat and we strewed her with confetti. Another cute event happened during my best friend’s birthday. When the clock stroke 12, I phoned her and said to come out of her home. Holding a big red balloon in my arms, I was waiting for her near her house’s entrance. When she appeared, I told her to think of the most cherished dream she had. After that I gave her a balloon and said to let it go into the air. During the next minutes we were staying silent and watching the small red spot disappearing into the night sky.

All in all, my relatives and close friends’ birthdays are the most special holidays for me, and on these days I always try to give a piece of my heart and soul to the people I love.

(Roman Reshetnev’s topic)

3. A dangerous habit.

To say the truth, I have had a deep understanding of the uselessness and health hazards of smoking since my childhood. Even though I have never tried smoking and for me the stupidity of having this habit seems obvious, I would like to devote my post to this theme because some of my acquaintances and even close friends still have a weakness for cigarettes.

Smokers are the people which I am unable to understand. I wonder what advantages they see in their habit because my imagination can’t think of any worthwhile benefit. I have heard that some teenagers smoke because they want to enter the world of adults as soon as it’s possible. However, to be called a grown-up you should show your maturity in much more serious situations and actions.

Anyway, in this blog I want to pay more attention to the hazards of smoking cigarettes.  It is not a secret that this dangerous habit causes different types of cancer (lung, throat, mouth, etc.), chronic bronchitis, heart diseases and increased risk of cataracts. Moreover, smoking is hazardous for women because it can lead to pregnancy problems and unhealthy children. In addition, the cigarette smoke harms non-smokers who inhale it. These innocent people called “passive smokers” suffer from the same health problems as smokers do. By the way, some days ago I read that a smoker loses about 11 minutes of his/her life with every new cigarette!

As you can see, all the evidence leads to the conclusion that every smoker should get all his/her strength together and quit smoking because shortening your life is not the best habit to find.

2.My lovely school.

Last week three of my group-mates posted three blog topics each.  I want to thank them for their amazing creativity because every theme that they thought up really captured my imagination. However, there was one topic which inspired me most of all. It is connected with my lovely school, where I spent 11 unforgettable years of my life, and with my former classmates and teachers, who, undoubtedly, became my second family.

To start with, I want to say a few words about my school as a whole. It is situated in a rather quiet place not far away from my home. To say the truth, my school is a typical comprehensive school which can boast of neither excellent quality of its education nor breathtaking appearance of its small building. However, the image of this unremarkable, a little bit ramshackle building is something that will be carefully kept in my heart forever.

The second thing I would like to mention is the subject preferences that I had when I was a pupil. It may sound unbelievable, but almost every subject interested me from time to time. However, mathematics, physics, Russian and English languages were the disciplines which I was continually crazy about.

Now I want to pay attention to the most important school memories, the ones that are connected with the heart and soul of my school - my classmates and teachers. My former classmates are the people, thanks to whom my school life was full of funny moments, happiness, mutual support and trust. Of course, my relationships were not perfect with some of my peers, but several close friends which I found in my class are real treasure. I also deeply grateful to some of my teachers which always helped me, never lost faith in me and cared about me as if I had been their own child.

In conclusion, I’d like to note that my school really became my second home, and I’ll never forget its outstanding contribution to my whole life. My lovely school, I miss you so much!