Sound of Music Central Station Antwerpen (Belgium)

I Believe

I believe in a lot of things, but one thing I believe in, is that everything happens for a reason. If it’s something bad or good it still happens for a reason no matter what.  Living overseas has helped me. I live in Malaysia and have had the opportunity to travel a lot. I've been to many places like Burma and have seen a lot of poverty there. I have seen little children that don't have the opportunity to brush their teeth and go to the dentist. I've seen children with babies on their back that are sent to beg by their moms. Although people are very poor, they are still very hardworking trying  to earn money for their family. 

On the other hand where I live I am very lucky. Compared to a lot of other children I am in heaven. I have all the things most kids want: a house, a good family, and good education. When I look at my friends, I see they are concerned but usually only focused on the environment which is also important. However, they don't think of people that have very little when they are buying the new latest thing in school. Although I really want to help other people that don't have too much money, I am at that age where I don't want to be different from my other peers . So of course I tell my mom that I have to go shopping again because no one wears the shoes I have anymore. So I have to buy new shoes AGAIN.  I see many of my friends with these styles and cool brands and they don't even realize that they are so lucky with all the things that they have, and they keep on buying new things. I compare myself to the people in my home country and see that people in Holland work so hard but they have to pay so much taxes that they can barely spend money on the things we spend money on here.

 

 

 Once when it was a cold winter and I already had boots, I  wanted 'Uggs.' I wanted them so badly because everyone in Holland had them and it was snowing and -5 degrees celsius. So I was very, very cold.  They cost nearly two hundred eighty Euros in Holland. I still wanted Uggs. So I kept whining and whining telling my mom I really wanted them. And then my mom said something I didn’t expect she would say, "Why don’t you buy them yourself, with your own money?" I didn’t have the money right then but I still wanted to look at shops to see if they had my size but they never had my size.  My mom said, "Maybe they aren’t right for you." But I wasn’t going to give up. I  started saving money, I did some chores and saved birthday money. I tried to earn as much as I could. Finally I had enough money, I looked through all the Uggs they had, and found the pair I wanted. And click, click, click I bought them. I was proud that I had saved so much money and not give up. When the Uggs arrived I thought they were more special than if my mom had given them to me. 

 

I really wanted to go on starship. Which is when you go on to America and go to space camp and do other activities you go for two weeks. It wasn’t really a trip that would help me in the future because I am usually not very interested in science or math. My parents thought it was a lot of money for a trip that I wasn’t very interested in doing in the future. So my parents decided no. I was very upset because a lot of my friends were going and I really wanted to go too. After a while I started realizing that it was good that I didn’t go and I was actually quite happy that my parents said no. For two reasons. If I would go on starship I wouldn’t have been able to do other trips like go to Jakarta with touch rugby. Because starship was so much money I wouldn’t be able to do a lot of things that I wanted to do.  I would also have to catch up on a lot of school work and I am not very good at catching up. 

It is good to believe in something for yourself can set a goal and work on it. You can see how much you have yourself and you can see that you are very lucky with what you have. It is unbelievable how we still ask for so much while other people are happy with so much less. I remember children happy playing with  a balloon and playing with bubbles seeing smiling faces. But nowadays we need so much or we won't be happy. -If the Earth would have a population of a hundred people, eighteen people of the hundred would struggle to live on one dollar per day or less. Appreciate what you have. And do your best for a better world.- Miniature Earth