Hello there! It's been more than 2 months since we updated our blog with new articles. Time slips away as usual but it's always happy to get back with old fellas and have a chance of meeting new friends!
It was the fourth class in this semester and our topic "history" was still hot. We've got so much to share and learn with each other.
Today, teacher Abbie led us to think of the positives and negatives of history. Here are the ideas from the class.
Positives:
History can help understand the background of people and places.
History is not just written down in books - it's real objects.
History is treasure of human beings, animals and the world.
Studying history helps enrich experience.
History helps us think of things more logically.
Negatives:
The past is over and don't dwell in the past.
Live for now and history repeats itself.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Life will find the way out.
History is not useful for my job and life.
Don't look back, look forward.
You can learn bad things from history.
As for me, life's just like what Abbie described - it's like a mirror reflects who you are, what you've done and where you've been to. We are all equal to have the chance to learn from good and bad experiences. We all get to learn from mistakes and deserve a second shot to make things better in the future. If we hold more thoughts on the positive side, we'll be able to make a better world and help people live better lives. At least help those who we love and those who love us.
After the break, we started to share 3 turning points of our lives with each other. Before we got started, Abbie provided the definitions of turning point to us and then we all got a better idea to think of our own turning points.
Turning points:
(1) a point at which something changes directions, especially a high point or a low point.
(2) the point at which a decisive change takes place.
(3) a point at which a significant change occurs.
Then we took turns to talk about our turning points. Abbie volunteered to the first to step on the stage. Her first turning point was when she applied for a foreign exchange student to South America but things turned out to be that Abbie went to Norway instead. Her second turning point was the time she learned how to play the fiddle. The third one was a low point for her when she was treated with wrong medicine and her body got really weak. But that was some special experience and she learned more and better about her body and herself.
Ching shared her turning point of quitting her job for her newborn baby. She devoted two full years of full-time mother taking care of her baby and showed us how much a mother would sacrifice for her baby and family.
Barrett talked about how he changed the way he learned English since he signed up in the CI class. The styles of learning English vary among different people and it can also be relaxing and interesting.
Justin was glad to have an opportunity to learn the design of the landscape of gardens. It's a big change to him because he's a professional pilot in the air force!
Vivian and Clay, the lovely couple, shared their mutual story about how they fell in love with each other and their lives have been changed since they committed to each other. Clay also shared two more turning points with us. One was that he learned to embrace more responsibilities after he became an elementary teacher. And the other was he realized how important his family are and has to cherish every moment with family and make every day count after he went through a surgery.
Wade was inspired by his stylist's philanthropic act of cutting hair without for those in need with no charge. He's learned that a little movement and kindness from each person would accumulate a huge mass of positive force to make the world a better place. It reminded me of a movie "Pay It Forward." We start doing one kind thing to help three people around us and those who receive help from us do the same thing to help another three people.
Lucas, Ming and Jenny shared their hard times back to their childhood. They all had to fight for their education and living. Getting educated and learning skills are the guarantee to become independent and responsible.
Jeff, Humor and Tina all talked about their teachers who encouraged them to face the challenges and not to quit and then how their lives were changed after they insisted on doing the right things. Donald reminisced the times of facing the difficulties of maintaining his education and how things were changed to the right directions after his principal came to convince his father to let Donald continue his road of learning and studying.
Hogan and Jack talked about their lives before and after retirement. They both worked really hard to support their families and kept their own plans and hobbies on hold. But retirement gave both of them another chance to think deeply of those things really matter to them. Jack also talked about the importance of health and he's really care about the food he takes in now.
Our two young new members, Anthony and Leon, brought the refreshing ideas and stories to our class. Anthony shared his trip to China and got to learn to make plans and explore new countries by himself. He also talked about being an exchange student to Germany for two months helped him set one of his life goals. Leon shared that he's figured out why he has to study hard and go to college. He wants to become a diplomat in the future and tries his best to live a happy life.
Wealth was the last
to share his turning point which was at first a low point to him but at last
turned out to be another high point in his life. It proves the proverb. When
God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window.
What a wonderful class! We all got to say something and share something valuable. I can't wait for the next class!
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