Set of Essays on Social Topics - Essay Example

My First Property It is often said that people do not realize how much their lives and personalities have changed until an event or occurrence takesplace that suddenly brings that realization about in a person. For me, it was looking back on the past year of my life that helped me come to the realization that I am not the same person I was a year before. In my mind, it seems like I matured overnight because I came into ownership of my first property. Everything started a year ago when my parents informed that they were transferring the certificate of ownership for our house from their name to mine. They decided to do that because, since I was entering college already, they felt that I needed to take on more responsibilities in life in order to help me prepare for the time when I would be living my life without their protection and support. Although they paid for all the expenses that were entailed in the transfer of ownership, I was left to handle all of the documentation and foot work entailed in making the transfer a reality. It was something that I gladly did because an opportunity to own a property this way does not present itself before many people. In completing the paperwork for the transfer, I learned a lot about dealing with various types of people in the government service and what steps I needed to take in order to get things done fast and done right. I learned about the bureaucracy in ways that no school in the world will be able to teach me. It took me more than a year to complete the transfer process. During that year I became an adult who knew not only how to handle my college requirements, but the demands of a real adult life as well. I have my parents and the experience of working for my first property to thank for that. The Best Advice I Ever Received When I became a teenager, my parents decided that the time had come for me to receive my first credit card. It was a big deal to me because I had visions of an unlimited expense account that my parents would pay for. Finally, I would be able to keep up with my friends when we went out, the latest gadgets were finally within my reach. While I was animatedly telling my grandfather about the credit card experience I was planning to have, I could tell from his face that he did not approve of what I was saying. Then he told me “You dont need what you cant afford.” I smiled at him and assured him that I definitely needed the tablet PC that I had been dreaming about for the longest time. But after having charged the gadget to my credit card, it turned out that my grandfather was actually telling the truth. After I had bought the tablet PC, I then had to subscribe to an unlimited data 3G internet service in order to be able to use the gadget remotely. The subscription cost more than half my allowance and my parents clearly indicated that they were not going to pay for the internet subscription nor the gadget that I had purchased. Instead, they took away my credit card and started deducting the payments for the item from my allowance, lets not even get started on the payment for the internet fees. They told me that they expected me to act responsibly with the use of the card but I had just proven that I was too young to actually own one. In the end, the lesson my grandfather was trying to teach me before all this started turned out to be true. I really did not need the gadget that I could not afford. The Effects of Modern Technology on a Typical Family It is said that the modern day family is more involved in each others lives more than ever thanks to various modern gadgets meant to keep us always connected to one another. All methods of communication within the 4 walls called home has been reduced to a tweet, status update, or IM sent to family members who are within the same area anyway. The tablet PC and cellphones have managed to create a disconnected family environment even when the family members are sitting all together in the same room. I noticed that my own family has fallen prey to the effects of modern technology as well. It is not uncommon for my parents to send me an SMS message during school dismissal time just to ask me where I am going next and what time I would be home. Or, to have my mom send me a tweet with the hashtag mealtime to let me know that the food was ready and I needed to get off the computer where I was immersed in a virtual world with my friends. Having a wired family is not exactly a fun thing to have. I will admit that the experience was fun at first. Even though we were all in the same room, we were each doing our own thing. I would be reading a book on my tablet, my mom would be texting with her friends, my dad would be in Skype conference with business associates, and my siblings would be challenging each other to various games on the X-Box Kinect. We would all only look up from whatever screen we were staring at when they would do a victory dance that distracted us from our gadgets. These gadgets have made it easier to ignore our family members while still pretending to have a direct and involved relationship with each other. These “communication tools” have a highly negative and destructive effect on families instead. My Favorite Place Being an only child can really be a sad experience for anybody. I did not have anybody to play with so my companion throughout the day was mostly the cartoons and other child friendly shows on tv. I basically developed a loner personality because I was an only child. I learned how to keep myself company and entertain myself without having to bother my mother. So when I learned about the magical place known as the public library, I felt like I had found the perfect second home for myself. Every weekend, my mom would take me down to the library and leave me there for a few hours while she completed her shift as a waitress at a nearby restaurant. The librarian was a kind old lady who helped me pick out books to read and taught me how to use the Dewey Decimal System to find some other books. How I enjoyed my time alone in the library. Every book took me on a new adventure to far flung places and distant cultures that I knew nothing about. I was a voracious reader who had finally found a place that encouraged my love of reading. I enjoyed being in the library so much that I often went straight there after school and stayed until I knew that my mother would already be home. By being in the library, I never felt alone. I always had the company of the great authors, and the pictures of other places in the world to keep me company. So, it is easy to understand why the library became my favorite place to spend time at when I nothing else to do or anywhere else to be. Cooking my First Meal I was only a teenager of fifteen when my mother told me that she needed to work an extra job because her current job wasnt paying her enough to cover all of our monthly expenses. Having said that, she wanted me to know that I would now be in charge of cooking my own dinner because she would already be working nights as a an adult education teacher at our local high school. I protested, I did not know anything about cooking. How was I going to survive? I begged her to leave me money for food delivery instead but she refused. She said “Use the internet, I am sure there are some food recipes there that you can cook. That thing should be useful for something more than just status updates.” And use the internet I did on my first night alone at home. I still remember the meal I cooked. It was a simply stir fried vermicelli recipe. I sauteed pork slivers, sausage slices, onions and garlic that I had personally chopped up, or rather butchered, into submission. Then I added some soy sauce and let everything boil for a while. I then added the vermicelli noodles and half a pitcher of water to soften the noodles. Remembering to taste the broth every so often to make sure that the taste that I was looking for was there. I adjusted the recipe as needed and within an hour, I had my first ever dinner set on the TV tray in the living area. My mom got to taste some of the food that I had cooked when she got home. She complimented my cooking so much that she is now asking me to consider going to culinary school instead of a regular college when the time comes. She is convinced that I can be the next Guy Fieri on the Food Network. Maybe I will... Read More