Learning Diary: a Change Is as Good as a Rest - Personal Statement Example

Learning Diary: a Change Is as Good as a Rest Introduction Not often we find a couple of minutes to think about how multi-faceted and diverse our life is. This could be noticed if there was an attempt to document a couple of one’s days of life and to pay attention to numerous events that pass within those days and seem not very important at the first sight. Let us try this way. May 24, 2015: A Change is as Good as a Rest. This proverb was the first thing I could think about when I finally got home after a day which was hardly possible to call tolerable. The bus would not arrive to the bus station when the classes were over, the shop had no more bread when I dropped in at, the brother did not want to leave his kindergarten and I had to make him go home for almost half an hour. It might seem that my sufferings finally ended, but electricity in my home preferred not to make me happy with its presence, so some candles that were quite cautiously bought by my father and laid in my table were of great use. This kind of the light, I call it the greenest light, was a bit unusual that day, as electricity shut down at least two months ago last time. This change was not the only one which persuaded me that day. I cannot say that I like sharp changes in something, for example, style, dressing, look, but there are things that can give a striking impulse to rapid and long-term, if not forever, positive changes in habits. Everybody is told by his or her parents that it is very bad to leave rubbish around rather than throwing it out into the appropriate places, but in fact very many people, looking very respectable and well-off, often allow themselves to throw a little piece of paper, a candy wrapper or any other micro-rubbish just from the window of their car or while cleaning the pockets of their jackets. They, maybe, think that it is not a big crime to leave just a little peace, but they definitely do not think that many people think and do the way they do – what if, say, 1000 people do the same every day. While coming back home, I was very happy to witness a young family teaching their child to avoid such destructive behavior – I really consider it to be destructive: today one throws a piece of paper, tomorrow he is quite able to leave a can with toxic waste right on the road! – in an unusual and original way. The mother pointed at people that she saw left rubbish, and the father put the digits down in his notebook, the rubbish quantity, I suppose. On the other page, there were digits, as I understood, with such actions from the side of their child, and they compared these digits and made conclusions. The father told that the boy is not the only one to be such careless in terms of rubbish leaving, and during the day they counted about two hundred such people. The boy was very surprised to imagine such a number of people making the city streets dirty, and though he objected that if he gave up such actions that would just mean minus one from the sum total, but the mother reasonably admitted that it is always necessary to think of one’s own responsibilities rather than of the others, and that providing the surrounding people with a good example is a good practice. If I had an opportunity I would award those parents with a Noble prize (I do not know in which discipline so far) and made their teaching model number one is the classes while studying sociology, ecology and other sciences related to the environment. Many think, though, that there are people who are paid for collecting the rubbish from the streets and other locations and it is not that terrible if anyone drops something occasionally – it will be removed, but this is not just a matter of being paid for your work. This is a matter of formulating a sound attitude to the place that surrounds you, the place where you live, the place where your children will start their lives – your home, and I wonder if anyone walks around his own house throwing litter in every room and thinking that mom will clean the rooms anyway. I am not a man of conservative views, but I feel it necessary to explain my fierce position against rubbish in the streets. Ten years ago, I read an article about recycling in the world, it read that the UK government tried to encourage the UK citizens recycle more of waste. I thought at once that if the government did this, then we throw too much rubbish, and the article provided me with a number that England, being the largest UK’s nation, recycled only 17% compared to the index of 60% around the world. (BBC, 2005). I cannot put up with an image that an average English street abounds in rubbish hills. Psychology has it that a repeated action leads to formulating a habit, and this case definitely is an explanation of the rubbish phenomenon: throwing the paper once, twice and not being punished leads to a habit to do so constantly. I believe it is not necessary to mention whether this habit is good or bad, the answer is obvious, but it is our task to develop positive habits. I cannot clearly imagine a good means of fighting against this habit or an appropriate punishment, but David Sedaris in his book “Let’s explore diabetes with owls” has a revolutionary one on offer: when someone throws litter, “What the government needs to do is take a sample of everyone’s DNA” (Sedaris, 2013, 222). I would personally check the DNA matches in some lab if this was adopted, and fined everyone 500 pounds per piece of whatever rubbish – dirty street=empty wallet, that would be my motto, as most people now, in our age of consumerism and accompanying money making obligation, think of other things only when they are deprived of a substantial amount of money. Again, the problem of formulating the habit concerns itself with the governmental efforts as well, but the governors of today are busy with coping the world crisis rather than spending money, which we by the way pay as taxes for clean streets as well, on some strange programs (strange from their point of view). Anyway, if the day comes when we cannot open the door of our house while going to work because there is a pile of rubbish outside, then it is time to try Pavlov’s dog method on rubbish throwers. May 27, 2015: I would not put this on. I have never paid so much attention to what people wear as I have done today. This is, probably, because I had to iron my shirt by myself – I woke up a bit later than usual, just a half an hour and mom left already. While ironing, I asked myself why I was going to put namely this shirt, namely of blue colour, and these thoughts led me to further speculations on the clothes and the way the people dress. “There is power dressing, and there is status dressing. Power dressing is about work; status dressing is about a more subtle wielding of position, wealth and influence”. (Cartner-Morley, 2013). So obvious and so informative. I recalled these words when I compared the way the people in my university were dressed: the deans and the director, all in expensive suits, with ties, glittering shoes, silk shirts, perfectly kept of course – I would be surprised to see them dressed in any other clothes, for how else they can demonstrate their power, and the students – those from well-off families, preparing to become top- or at least managers, directors, departments heads, chiefs and other rulers, were similar to the above mentioned power demonstrators, whereas the other ones preferred casual style (which is debatable to be used or not in the universities at all) and just comfortable clothes. I do not support intentional demonstration of superiority, nor do I this by myself, but subordination is a key component of the process of education, and I must agree that employees of education are to dress up classically and maintain the hierarchy by means of clothes as well. There is, of course, an explanation from any rule, and I managed to found one for this rule. Nelson Mandela, though the first words we recall hearing his name is freedom fighting, establishes a fashion of Madiba shirts. It may seem strange that the head of the state does not wear classical suit-tie-shirt-jacket, but the fact is that with South Africa’s freedom obtaining, this freedom has been in everything related to this country, even the way its president has dressed. “Brightly coloured, vividly patterned and long, the shirts were worn by Mandela with simple slacks and, often, a couple of pens in his pocket. They came in many guises – patterns include a fish design, flowers and birds…” (Cochrane, 2013). If this is an image of a president, then I am a king of the universe – my black-yellow sweater has a dragon print, there are four stripes, two on each of the sleeves, with the logos of my favourite music bands, and I prefer sneakers to shoes, I thought this when reading this in a bus going to my usual classes. Though I never put this sweater on for studies, I like it very much and wear it in other cases, that is, I wear it for 60% of the time. I felt necessary to recall some things from history regarding clothes, and rediscovered many interesting facts. As it is known, initially clothes were used for purely practical purposes: to provide heat to the wearer and to protect him or her from external harmful influence. Then, with development of metallurgy and human’s obtaining the skill of metal melting, first armour occurred, and though it is not clothes in the usual sense of this word, it is used the same way as the clothes – armour vests were, and are still, put on just like a T-shirt. Later on, with designing art emergence, clothes became the item of displaying the others the status, the power, financial well-being: the clothes of the kings and feudal landowners were luxurious and made according to the up-to-date technologies of that time, whereas the peasants and ordinary citizens wore cheap and practical linen jackets, trousers and other items. Another important moment of clothes evolution was emergence of uniforms, that is, clothes for representatives of different occupations, designed for distinguishing those people and their easy finding when needed, for example, we see a man in police uniform and we know that he is the one we would contact in case of danger or law violation or other matters within his competence. Today the clothes similarly combine all their features received in the process of development, and the abundance of jackets, T-shirts, shirts, skirts and all the other known items and an extremely wide range of prices allows for reaching any goal a wearer wants to reach, no matter if he is aimed at his striking look for the purpose of a successful interview passing or just going to the countryside for a picnic together with the family. Fashion also imposes some clothes on us pointing that this or that thing is good now, later on this will be other thing, but I do not strive for being the most fashionable person, and I often think that there is no sense in splashing out for the clothes which half a year later will be considered as the one worn by dinosaurs millions years ago. It may sound habitually and usually that women are the first to follow this nebulous definition of the clothes suitability or unsuitability, but believe me, there are now many men trying to get that space-age Gucci or any other branded jacket even at cost of a substantial part of their salary – again, I don’t mind anyone trying to look good and make good impression on the surrounding people, but this is quite possible to be done just the way my neighbor does – he just keeps his clothes, both working and domestic, clean and neat, and when I see him, as well as I have done today, I always ask him whether he has recently bought a new item of clothes. It may seem unbelievable, but today I also managed to find proof of my theory: in the supermarket that I visited for a couple of minutes to replenish my store of coffee I witnessed a man telling off his wife loudly, even a guardian had to take part in this event to finally stop it. The man was appealing to her feeling of common sense and stressed that the money they earn should be spent for house repair rather than those beautiful couple of gloves with a famous brand logo on them with which she wanted to win the fashion competition at her office. Consumerism is a bad thing, I thought, because they both were dressed good and left the supermarket by car, not very luxurious though, and the man seemed to have the same thought and was tired of hearing “I have nothing to put on”. I believe that it would be difficult for me to understand that complaint as well, and I am preparing for the future scandals with my future wife. May 30, 2015: Press ESC to escape. The following words will be written by the father of the diary author, first of all, because I have taken it into my hands occasionally, when it has fallen from my son’s bookshelf, and because, as the chapter title says, this fellow has managed to escape from my moral admonitions. The most thing we, parents, hate is when our children, parts of us whom we have been caring about during all their (and our) lives, those we have imparted the best we have had and could, do not listen to our words and consider us to be old-fashioned when advising them on some issues. This is extremely hard to realize and accept, and it is twice harder to do it when you are two hundred per cent right. The story I want to tell you now begins with a domestic dispute which are more than usual for an ordinary family. My son told me about his friend who had passed a car driving exam and had already driven his father’s car. We have a family car in a garage and, naturally, as the son has no driving license yet, I do not let him drive the car, though he is waiting for the license done and issued to him. You may already have guessed the conflict matter, and I will just tell the story. Robert came home very excited and with his eyes sparkling. When I asked him about this high spirit, he described the car of his classmate’s father, a new Ford, I did not remember the model unfortunately, and the driving experience of James, the classmate. He was driving at night, it was Sunday, and the speed he could reach was 120 miles per hour, a very high speed for an inexperienced 23-year-old fellow who already considers himself to be a driver, I thought, though he neither took any damage nor the police chased him, which seemed also rather strange for me: when I was taught to drive a car, police officers and patrols used to be very vigilant. Eventually, more than logically, all the class came to know about this night voyage of a very self-confident fellow, and he was in the limelight that day surrounded by the girls subconsciously desiring to accompany him while his second drive (if any was supposed to happen). James was shining and definitely content with such attention from the side of the class, especially from its female part, and hardly thought that this was an object of the boys’ envy. I was surprised about the mores of modern youth (plus one point to evidence my being old-fashioned) and anticipated Robert’s intention to repeat the “heroic deed” of the classmate using our family car. If I was a really bad father and did not care about the child, as everyone of us hears rather often and as I did that day, I would give him the keys from the car and sat him into it by myself ordering him to drive at the speed of not less than 140 miles per hour on the left side of the road. The son did not appreciate my efforts to be a good father, and as I rejected to grant him with the car keys, he bounced angrily and did not come back home, two days passed already. I should admit that my son has never been an easy child, he is used to take what he wants and satisfy his desires as soon as possible, though it is now not that sharp as it has been back in his childhood. The words told by us to each other are too familiar to everyone to give them here, as well as the consequences and conclusions everyone will make after this case. There is also an opinion that it is ok to let the son drive a car for an hour in the evening provided that he will not drive too fast. I believe those people should be imprisoned, both for intention to break the law and promoting such ideas in the minds of the young people. I came to know that Robert tried to persuade his above mentioned classmate to take another journey while waiting for Robert’s license done, and that Robert wanted to drive the car, but James was wise enough as not to let him do so, I really owe this fellow. I feel necessity to support my position with a portion of statistics, information and other food for thought in case you want your child to stay safe and well and not to be tempted to use your car as a means of satisfaction of his or her momentary desire. “In domestic routines the car is a gendered (sic) artefact [artifact]; women often take responsibility for the upkeep of the home, while men shoulder the responsibility of the family car.” (Garvey, 2001, 135). I instantly recalled this book when the son ran out the house. I, of course, worry about the car of my family, both because the money was invested into it, not only my money, and because this is our alternative for a bus or a train when we decide to visit our parents and the son’s grandparents. But the thing I was concerned about that moment was, evidently, the son’s health and life. The statistics has it that the number of fatalities of car occupants in 2013 made 785, and though this number is much lower than, say, ten years ago I would not be pleased to have my son within that fearful digit (www.gov.uk, 2014). “Every morning when we wake we confront a familiar world Considering the day ahead we mark off that which might be pleasurable from that which will produce anxiety, irritation, boredom or depression” (Cohen, Taylor, 1992, 31). I go for sleep today with the thought that my son will come back home after a successful escape and realize that I want him to make right and reasonable decisions, and the next day will give us all an opportunity to escape from bitter experience of conflicts within the family. Conclusion Having documented three days from my everyday life and learning (and having one documented for me), it is visible how diverse our life is, and how seldom we do find it so. The studies and the material we learn reflect on our days, and I had an opportunity to observe a new method of changing the habit, to feel myself as a clothes critic and to commit a successful attempt of escape, and the experience I gained makes me think and base my decisions on reasonability, as my decisions and desires can influence the others’ lives due to the life’s complexity and multi-facetedness. References BBC, 2005. Recycling Around the World. [Online] (updated 25 Jun. 2005). Available at: [Accessed 30 Mar. 2015]. Cartner-Morley, J., 2013. How to Dress: Jackets. [Online] (updated 13 Dec. 2013). Available at: [Accessed 30 Mar. 2015]. Cochrane, L., 2013. Farewell to Nelson Mandela’s Madiba Shirts. [Online] (updated 16 Dec. 2013). Available at: . [Accessed 30 Mar. 2015]. Cohen, S., Taylor, L., 1992. Escape Attempts: The Theory and Practice of Resistance to Everyday Life. London: Routledge, 31. Garvey, P., 2001. Driving, Drinking and Daring in Norway. In Car-Cultures, ed. Daniel Miller, 135. Sedaris, D., 2013. Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls, London: Abacus, 222. The UK Government, 2014. Number of fatalities resulting from road accidents in Great Britain CSV table. [Online] (updated 29 Sep. 2014). Available at: [Accessed 30 Mar. 2015]. Read More