Beauty standards shouldn’t matter (By Eleni)

I was quite young at the time, around 8 or 9. I was sitting at our living room with my family and we were all watching a popular talent show that was on. We used to watch it together every week, it had become a kind of tradition of ours. 

As we were mindlessly watching one night, a person came on the stage for whom my immediate thoughts were: “He is so ugly”. He was a person of color and, in retrospect, it is obvious he had some kind of disability. This shocked me, as that was never something I’d been taught nor heard from my parents and yet, it was a mindset that was ingrained in my mind from such a young age. 

This instance pushed me to think more about the reason I thought the way I did, and over the years, I’ve come to realize just how harmful the beauty standards pushed by society that are internalized by young girls like myself are. I saw that person as “ugly” because they looked nothing like the people I was used to seeing on tv. I perceived them as “different” because they lacked representation in media.

It was a small moment in my life but one that I believe had a great impact on me. It played a great role in shaping the person I am today and is something I still think about when I catch myself thinking negatively of a person because of their physical appearance.

    Everybody deserves a second chance (By Chris)

    It was a Saturday morning different from all the rest. On that particular Saturday, John was going to play the most important match of his career. A number of coaches and football scouts from the biggest football clubs in his country would watch him play.  

    John was fully prepared; he had slept for nine hours and he was feeling completely relaxed. Not only had he already had a fully-nutritious breakfast, which would provide him with the energy and stamina he would need for the game, but he had also prepared his uniform and football shoes way in advance to be well-equipped for the big event. He was excited to have scored three goals while practicing with his teammates the previous day. He had even been praised by his coach and that certainly boosted his morale and self-confidence. He was mostly determined to make his best appearance ever!

    Eventually, the time had come for the match to begin, but, as soon as he had seen all the coaches sitting on the stands, Giannis totally froze; he was so stressed that he could not perform his best in the match. Despite the encouragement offered to him by his teammates, he failed to prove his talent and convince the scouts of his future potential. When the referee blew his whistle to signify the end of the match, Giannis returned to the locker rooms really devastated and utterly disappointed. During the following few days, he was not really himself and that was the reason why his parents decided to discuss matters with their son. 

    Thanks to their discussion, John realized that nothing was lost yet and that he could prove his real value as a top player in the future. The only thing that he had to do was to keep up the hard work and never lose faith in his life dream to become a pro one day.

A mysterious man in our back yard (By Danai)

It was a typical rainy Monday night when my sister and I were seating near the fireplace, drinking hot chocolate because it was winter and we were cold. Suddenly, we hear a noise from the kitchen so we decide to go and check. Surprisingly, we realized there was nothing there and that it might have been from the houses nearby.  After that we wanted to watch our favorite TV show while we were waiting for our parents to come home from their doctor’s appointment. We were talking and watching the show while we’ve heard the same noise from the kitchen. 

My sister got anxious and she was telling me to call mum because it might be a thief trying to get into our house but because I wasn’t afraid and I was thinking that it was just in our imagination I decided to go look again. When I was looking at the kitchen window I saw a man standing in our back yard. I didn’t tell my sister what I saw because I didn’t want to panic her as I knew it would only make the situation worse. I told her that nothing was there but to lock the house just to feel safe. I locked all the doors and windows, put down the curtains and went to the bathroom so my sister would not notice and called my mom. Luckily she was nearby and we didn’t have to wait any longer by ourselves, I also called the police and described them what was happening and why I felt threatened by the man outside our house.  

At the end we were all okay and the strange man never showed up again but the moral of the story was that we should never ignore strange situations and act like everything is fine because it might not be and to always day and night lock our house so we can protect our self’s from unwanted visitors.

The Kindhearted Villager (By Thanasis)

Once a gentleman was traveling in a train. He felt thirsty and got off at a station in search of water. No sooner had he reached the water tap than the engine whistled and started. He ran back but missed the train. It was getting darker and he decided to spend the night at the station. The next morning he enquired about the next train. He came to know that the next train was on the other day. So, he decided to find a place for a day's stay. He went to the nearby lodges to ask for a room but found none. It was getting darker and he could not find a room.

At last, he reached a small hut. He asked the owner of the hut whether he could stay in his house for a day. The owner readily agreed. That day the owner served him food and gave him a room to stay. But did not ask nor expected anything in return. 

At night when it did strike seven in the clock, the gentleman heard a knock at the door. The villager opened the door. The gentleman saw that a man dressed in gaudy and rich clothes entered the hut and demanded the owner to pay his debts.The gentleman came to know that the villager was in need of money. The next morning, he slipped a packet in the drawer of the room and left. 

When the villager came to know about the packet, he saw that there was a note addressed to him, it read "You helped me but did not expect anything from me. Yesterday I heard the conversation between you and the stranger and came to know that you were in need of money. This is what you need". 

Ronnie’s restaurant (By John)

One sunny summer day, as Ronnie was staring at his empty restaurant which has belonged to his family for 3 generations now with a miserable expression on his face and trying to figure out what he was doing wrong, the owner of the Vietnamese restaurant across the street who was closing his store for the day noticed him. After the man was done locking his store up, he decided to cross the street and approach and talk to Ronnie. 

 The man approached Ronnie and said “Hey Mr. Ronnie, why the sad face?. Ronnie knew the man since he had been seeing him from his restaurant every day for the last 2 months but was heavily surprised that he knew his name since he didn’t remember having ever introduced himself to him. He took a surprised face and replied ‘’Umm, have we talked before? Forgive me but I can’t recall your name”. The man laughed. ‘’No, we have never talked before, I just assumed this was your name because of the sign outside”. It was then that Ronnie remembered that the restaurant was named ‘’Ronnie’s’’ after his grandfather. At that moment Ronnie started to laugh nervously in embarrassment and the man continued laughing in amusement. After a short while when both of them had calmed down, Ronnie said ‘’ Excuse my absent-mindedness, there’s just a lot going through my head right now and I have been a little out of touch with the outside world lately”. ‘’It’s Tam by the way, nice to meet you” said the man and shaked Ronnie’s hand. ‘’Nice to meet you too Tam” said Ronnie as they were shaking hands the 2 men sat down together and talked over some beers.