NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

1.      Pursue my happiness no matter what.

2.      Try new things, especially if I am afraid of them.

3.      Keep supporting the singers that have helped me this year.

4.      Open up more.

5.      Forgive and let go.

6.      Come clean.

7.      Stop lying so much.

8.      Enjoy every little minute and stop letting things for another day.

9.      Stop worrying about the what ifs.

10.  Be brave.

Xmas

     I have always had conflicted feelings towards Christmas, I hate it as much as I love it. I love spending time with my family, being on holidays, the Christmas spirit, the lights…it’s amazing going out at night and being surrounded by Christmas lights and children running and laughing. However, Christmas has this kind of sad aura for me, maybe it’s because it means another year is coming, in other words, it represents the passing of time. Perhaps, it’s that, even if I like the tradition of giving and receiving gifts, I have grown to dislike the greed and the fights because someone’s gift is better or bigger than someone else’s.

     I have reached the conclusion that I don’t care that much about gifts in Christmas, I love those ones that come from the heart. I mean, if someone gives me something because they want to see my face light up with a smile due to the fact that I’m holding in my hands a book that I’m dying to read or a CD that I can’t wait to listen, then I totally get it and support it; nevertheless, if someone gives me a present because it’s Christmas, so it’s mandatory, then they can keep their gift. I guess Christmas’ exchange of presents lost its magic the moment I discovered Santa Claus didn’t exist. When people ask me what I want for Christmas I answer with a bare nothing, because if I need something or I want something I’m going to buy it myself or ask my mom for it, I feel stupid asking for a flash drive or a memory card as presents. I don’t want to ask for something because I’m going to think about how much it costs, if it’s available here and other stuff that I don’t want to think about when I’m having a break from studying. If someone wants to give me something I’m gonna thank them, but hell, I don’t wanna thank anyone for buying me something that I thought of just to stop them from asking me again what I wanted, because then I feel like I’m thanking someone for their money. But of course I end up putting a smile on and pretending that I care, every year it’s the same, so I find it quite understandable me being sick of it. I love, conversely, giving presents, because I’m still not old enough to be expected to give them, so I can have fun and give my godparents something that I know they’re going to enjoy. That’s the difference I guess, having to give gifts or wanting to give them.

     Since I can remember, I’ve always been sad before Christmas Eve’s dinner or before NYE’s one and lately I didn’t even like when we were trying to sing some Christmas carols. I think my uncles and aunts have lost their Christmas spirit and think of our gatherings these days as any other family gathering. It breaks me to realize that I see part of my family more in Christmas than in the rest of the year, we live 20 minutes away, what on hell is preventing us from visiting each other more often?

     I thought this year was going to be the worst of them all, but for now, it has been the complete opposite. Maybe it’s due of my low expectative for it or that I am focus on other things, but I really am enjoying these days. I shouldn’t, but I have reached such a level of apathy that I don’t mind if my world is changing faster than a dog barks when you step on its tail so long as I can listen to music and get lost in my imagination. Weird, huh?

     But yes, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Opinion essay

     Nowadays, there are countries where citizens are arguing about death penalty. In some places, such as Spain, France and Australia, this penalty is illegal. However, there are others, for example the United States of America, Egypt or China, where it is a reality that many criminals suffer. Contrary to the opinion of the majority of the people, I believe that death penalty is a crime in itself.
 
     This punishment is said to be necessary or fair due to many reasons. It is agued that, since the inmate has killed somebody, the right thing to do is kill them too. Furthermore, rapers, kidnappers and murderers may attempt to repeat their crime, so the only way to ensure the safety of those who surround us is to get rid of the problem, in other words, to kill the criminals.

     As I see it, we are going back to the Hammurabi Code, which encourages us to "take an eye for an eye". When we put into practice death penalty, we are playing to be God. Who are we to take someone's life? We punish those who kill, and nevertheless, we become killers in the process. Life imprisonment is enough punishment for them, in this way, they are not able to commit a crime again and we avoid taking their lives.

     In short, when somebody is murdered as a punishment, we are deciding that person has no right to live, because of that one action. We have other options to punish criminals that are not lethal, so we should use them, instead of letting death penalty be legal.

Problem/Solution essay

     Nowadays, with the new technologies and social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr, it is possible to offend people without facing the music. Hate is sent, not only anonimously, but openly. This is due to the fact that, while threatening people's lives and making fun of terrorism is punished, sending hate to others is not. Many people are victims of this, especially  celebreties, since they are judged by everybody around the world. This issue's outcome is that a lot of famous people stop interacting with fans through social media or delete their accounts in these social networks. Clearly, this is not something we should feel proud about.

     One of the many solutions that come to my mind is deleting the account of those people who offend others deliberately. Nevertheless, it is too easy to create another profile in these kind of webs, therefore, it would not be effective. Another possibility is to impose fines, for instance, if someone sends a tweet that is hateful or spiteful, they are fined with 25€; if they do it again, then they have to pay 75€; if they do not stop and carry on tweeting this type of messages, 200€ have to be paid; and so on.

    In a nutshell, it is a difficult task trying to stop the hate that can be found in these networks. However, with these solutions or similar ones, we can make it more difficult for people to send hate to normal people or well-known ones, because this is a pretty important problem that affects millions of citizens every hour, every day.

Outline

I.   Introduction: Fifth Harmony should have won the Artist on the Rise award in the EMAs last Sunday, because they deserved it, the group that won isn't on the rise and Harmonizers are the best fans ever.

II. Fifth Harmony deserved the award

      1. They're more and more famous every day

      2. They played a song in the pre-show

III. 5 Second of Summer is not an artist on the rise

      1. They're already famous

      2. They were nominated for other categories

IV. Harmonizers (Fifth Harmony's fans) are the best fans when it comes to voting

      1. They're really well organised

      2. They didn't sleep the night before the ceremony just to vote

V.  Conclusion: 5 Seconds of Summer didn't deserve to win, since Fifth Harmony is the definition of artist on the rise.