Grammar is important in every language. Therefore, we’re having Khmer grammar lessons in this class. In this lesson, a grammar topic is assigned to a student. The students needed to research their topic and present it to the class. I was researching and presenting about conjunction. In general, I think that this project is really fun and it includes a lot of communication. But it needs a lot of efforts and participation. Below is my slide presentation.
Memorable Exploration (Outdoor Leadership)
Every person’s life always changes even though a piece of beautiful memories came into them, a memory that will remain in their heart for the rest of their life. All of those memories will affect how they think and live in the future but also their decisions. Outdoor Leadership exploration is one of the most memorable moments that changed me from who I was to who I am now and allowed me to do things that I’ve never had a chance to do before.
From when I was born until now, I live in a world where I spend most of the day studying complicated things and rarely have a chance to relax and to enjoy a normal life in nature. I live in a world where animals seem really scary because I’ve rarely had a chance to know how it feels to live with them or to understand them; I always avoid animals whenever I see them even though they are small insects.
However, in this exploration, I’ve touched a grasshopper and let it stay on my hand for the first time in my life. At first, I was really afraid but then all my nerves went away because I realized that it won’t hurt me.
Not only touching the grasshopper, but I’ve also touched an elephant for the first time too. Right now, I feel like I am getting closer with animals and understand them better than before. But the thing that I know for sure about myself is that even if I’m afraid of animals, I still don’t want to hurt or kill them because they also have a life they want to live too.
Additionally, this is my first time learning about first aid which is the thing that I always wanted to learn but never had a chance to. I learned lots of different things from this lesson, like CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation), vital signs, how to treat a patient and more. While learning about first aid, I realized that it is not for fun or to fulfill what you wanted to do but to know how to save a person’s life when they need your help or when you are in an emergency situation.
Besides all of the things above, I got to build a bivouac, got to get dirty, got to roast marshmallows, got to write a journal about nature, got to build a fire and many more. Before and during these activities, I thought that they were easy, we can just do it without preparing anything. However, I noticed that I actually learned how to do all of these things without realizing that I was learning them. If I compared who I am now to who I was, I wouldn’t know how to roast marshmallows if I didn’t see my teachers and friends do it, I wouldn’t want to get dirty if I wouldn’t try to, I would just write something in the book not a journal about nature if my teacher didn’t explain to me. Therefore, I now know that sometimes things can be learned easily without realizing because it is an activity that is related to life, not lessons that we learn in school and also because it is a more beautiful memory than a lecture.
At the beginning of this exploration, my teacher asked what does outdoor leadership mean to me? My answer was how to survive in nature or in forests and how to live on your own. However, if I was to answer it again after this exploration, I would say that to me, outdoor leadership is more than just surviving in nature. It is about understanding and caring about everything around you, environments, people and animals, about how you interact with nature, which is what the world gives you as a gift and you need to take care and protect it and enjoy living with it. It’s not only about living on your own, but also about helping other people as a team and as a family.
To help keep and protect the natural spaces in Cambodia, it needs to start from us, Cambodians who live in this country. There are a lot of ways you can help protect the natural places, such as stop throwing trash everywhere, plant more trees than you cut down, spread information about beautiful natural places so that more people will know and help protect the area and more. To share and spread information about protecting natural places, we should hold a workshop about the topic in school. Also, we should pass the information to our family or relatives. Additionally, we should start taking action by cleaning up the area, so that other people would see and follow our actions.
Where I’m From
Literacy class is always fascinating to learn because there are lots of different interesting things. This round we’re learning about identity and one of the projects that we’ve done is a poem. In this project, we’re creating our own poem by using the “Where I’m From” poem structure. Then, we created a video or audio about the poem and post it in the Flipgrid. Below, is the video that I’ve made and the poem that I’ve written.
I am from pillow from blanket and wall lamp. I am from the uncrowded home but warmth and sweet.
I am from the dry patch.
The red gooseberry tree whose long gone limbs shade the place.
I’m from curly hair dad but straight hair mom, from Panha and Chetra, my little brothers. I’m from night owl and time-poor family but from merrymaking.
I’m from the stop play with and the chatter when teachers away but rules stickler.
I’m from discrete eating family.
I’m from Siem Reap but Kandal mom and Battambang dad and from ideal eggs.
From restless dad, discharge for the family. All of the memories that I have with my family within my heart, will remain there for the rest of my life.
Guess a Number Game – Python
Python, Java, and JavaScript are different types of programming languages. For this round of technology and multimedia class, I’ve learned about python which is really fun and astonishing. To be honest, I didn’t like coding before because I’ve never tried using programming languages. However, after studying about python, my feeling change and I really enjoy doing different activities with this programming language. Booleans, comparisons, indentation, if statement, for loop and wild loop are some of the python’s lessons that I’ve learned so far. One of the activities that I’ve done is creating a game where users have three tries to guess a number between 1 to 10 that the computer created. If they guess correctly within three tries, they win. However, if the answers are wrong, they will lose. Below is the code that I used to write the game.
Argumentative Essay
There are many different types of essays including descriptive, definition, persuasive, argumentative and more. The type of essay that I learned this round, is an argumentative essay. In this lesson, we get to create our own essay that argues about any topics that we passionate about. Before writing our own essay, we have learned different things like a thesis statement, choosing evidence, quote sandwich, etc. The topic that I chose to write about is “Cosmetic Surgery Should be Banned for Teenagers”. We’ve been spending this whole round researching and writing about the topic. We’ve also been doing peer review and conferencing with our facilitator to check what should we improve before our final draft. At first, I didn’t like writing. However, after this lesson, I hope to learn more kinds of essays.
Cosmetic Surgery Should be Banned for Teenagers
Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought that I would look better if not because my eyes are too small or my nose is too big? Have you ever felt that I would make more friends and feel more comfortable if I appear better than this, or even I want to look like that celebrity? Well, if yes have you ever wanted to change your appearance and which way do you choose to change it? When we’re talking about changing appearance, the first way that comes up is cosmetic surgery. However, does cosmetic surgery appropriate for everyone of all ages? Surely, it is not but why is there an increasing amount of teens getting cosmetic surgery? Well, this is a true story. A 15 years old girl, Renata, has had cosmetic surgery due to bullying. Before people would call her, a girl with a big nose and she didn’t feel good with it. She has been homeschooled for two years and rarely goes outside because of bullying. Therefore, Renata has convinced the solution to that, is a smaller nose which is getting cosmetic surgery. However, her mother could not effort for it, so they applied for the Little Baby Face Foundation, which gives a free surgery to low-income children with facial birth effect and they got picked. Renata got rhinoplasty and chin implant to balance her face. After having these surgeries, she decided to go back to a normal school’s schedule. Now, let’s think this way. You didn’t go to school because people bullied about your appearance. Then you got cosmetic surgery to improve your look and expected that people would stop bullying you because of it. However, what if people stop bullying you about your appearance before, but they started to say that you’re plastic? What if they bully you about having cosmetic surgery? How would you feel of having people bully you about having cosmetic surgery instead of your appearance? Not only this reason that connects to the fact that you shouldn’t have cosmetic surgery while you’re a teenager. But also, it contains other complications that teenagers should avoid getting them. Despite the fact that cosmetic surgery improves people’s beauty and increases people’s confidence, cosmetic surgery should be banned for teenagers due to health problems, complications after recovery, and financial implications.
World most popular cosmetic surgeries, breast augmentation, and liposuction might be the weirdest and the riskiest surgeries among all the cosmetic procedures. On the report of Mayo Clinic, breast augmentation requires the surgeon to make a single cut in one of these three places (in the crease under your breast, under your arm and around your nipple) and insert an implant (saline or silicone) into the pocket of your breast where the surgeon has separated the breast tissue from the muscles and connective tissue of your chest. This kind of surgery is performed to increase the size of your breast. Along with that, the compulsory need for the most common liposuction, tumescent lipoplasty, is to inject a sterile solution into the area that’s being treated, so that it becomes swell and stiffen. Then the surgeon will make a small cut into your skin and insert a cannula under your skin to suction fat and fluids from your body. This surgery, liposuction, is performed for weight loss. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), there were 8, 435 breast implants and 3, 889 liposuctions performed on adolescents between the age of 13 to 19 in 2017. However, have you ever considered the risks of these two procedures? In fact, Dr. Diana Zuckerman, the president of the National Center for Health Research in Washington D.C, has written that “Liposuction which is one of the cosmetic surgeries has taken serious risks such as infection, damage to skin, nerves, vital organ, fat or blood clots (that can travel to lung which can lead to death). Besides liposuction, one of these serious complications such as infection, hematomas, seromas, capsular contracture, loss of nipple sensation, and hypertrophic scarring always happen in the first three years for women or girls who get breast augmentation.” This shows that cosmetic surgery is not only bad for adult’s health, but teen’s health is also affected by these procedures. Furthermore, the important thing to consider about the breast augmentation is that most of the breast implants last for seven to twelve years. This means that females who get breast augmentation require to get another surgery in the future to replace the ruptured implants or to remove the implants. In addition to that, every surgery contains risks such as anesthesia, infection, swelling and bruising, scarring, etc. Therefore women who get breast augmentation will face these same risks overtime because of surgery. Additionally, magnetic resonance image (MRI) which uses a magnetic field and radio wave to create a detailed body’s image of your organ and structures, is also required for women after three years of breast augmentation and every two years after that to check if the implant is ruptured. Because every surgery contains risks, other cosmetic procedures such as rhinoplasty, otoplasty, blepharoplasty and more are also bad for health. In fact, rhinoplasty, a surgery where you reshape your nose, can make your nose difficult to breathe, permanent numbness in and around your nose and etc. Along with that, otoplasty, a surgery where you enhance the appearance of your ears, can cause scarring, changes skin sensation, problems with stitches and etc. Likewise, blepharoplasty, a surgery where you correct your eyelids, can cause infection, makes your eyes difficult to close, skin discoloration and etc. This shows that cosmetic surgery can cause many bad conditions for your health, especially teenagers since their bodies are still maturing. Therefore adolescents shouldn’t be allowed to get cosmetic surgery in this state. In other words, cosmetic surgery should be banned for them.
So, what will happen after teens receive these cosmetic procedures? While some people are satisfied with their appearance after the surgery, there are also people who dissatisfied with their looks due to the mistakes and the result of the procedure or due to the Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). According to CBS News, Heidi Montag, the American star has called all of her surgeries a mistake. She also said that people have fewer scars from car accidents than she has on her body. This shows that even though cosmetic surgery improves people’s beauty, some people aren’t satisfied with the results. Along with that, people with body dysmorphic disorder, a mental disorder which you feel ashamed or anxious about flaws or perceives defects in your appearance while others think that it is minor or not observable, often aren’t fully satisfied with the result of the surgery is even though, it is a success. For example, there’s a girl who has BDD and people think that she is slim but she herself think that she’s too fat. So, she decided to get liposuction and it came out successfully that she lost some weights. However, she still thinks that it’s not enough that she still wanted to lose more weights. As a result, people with body dysmorphic disorder will never be satisfied with the outcome of their surgeries. In addition, after people with BDD have cosmetic surgery at one part of their body, they started to create a new desire for other parts of their body and it continues on and on. Due to that, people with BDD ended up receiving multiples surgeries. For instance, Michael Jackson, the king of pop is also one of the people who have body dysmorphic disorder. He got multiple surgeries such as whittling down the nose, lightened skin, chin implant, lip augmentation and more. To add on, receiving various cosmetic procedures can cause people’s appearance to look abnormal. For example, a person with body dysmorphic disorder, Rodrigo Alves. Rodrigo Alves has had over 50 cosmetic procedures. For that reason, he got the nickname of “Human Ken Doll” which make sense because he is now looking like a doll. On account of body dysmorphic disorder complications and the dissatisfied with the result of the procedures, cosmetic surgery is not a good way to improve appearance for teens, since they’re too young to face all of these procedures’ problem. This confirms the fact that cosmetic surgery should not be allowed for teens.
Despite the risks and problems of cosmetic surgery, the cost of cosmetic procedures is impressively high. According to ASPS, the total money that was spent in 2017 for cosmetic surgery was around 16 billion dollars. However, who is actually paying for all of these surgeries? As a matter of fact, Mila Araujo, the director of Personal Insurance for Ogilvy Insurance, has written that “The insurance company doesn’t pay for the surgery in cosmetic reasons but it does pay for the surgery in reconstructive reasons”. In other words, the insurance company doesn’t pay for surgery like breast augmentation, liposuction, eyelid surgery or any other surgeries that are only for appearance improvements. To add on, teenagers might not be able to afford for cosmetic surgery like breast augmentation which is not a one-time cost surgery, that requires several procedures that cost over thousands of dollars. In fact, breast augmentation requires MRI in the first three years and every two years after that, which usually cost more than $2000 per time. On the other hand, lots of cosmetic surgical procedures cost thousands of dollars, while cosmetic minimally-invasive procedures cost hundreds of dollars. As a result, getting cosmetic surgery as a teenager could cause financial life problems. Therefore teens shouldn’t be allowed to get them.
To sum up, getting cosmetic surgery as a teenager can cause many problems such as complications relating to health, complications after recovery and financial institution. Therefore, cosmetic surgery shouldn’t be allowed for teens. Now, go back to the mirror and look at yourself, look at all the things that you don’t like, think about them positively and tell yourself that you are beautiful just the way you are. Be who I am is more important than risking my life with cosmetic surgery. If you happen to think of getting cosmetic surgery, try to keep it for later when you become an adult so it wouldn’t affect you much as a teen and over time you might change your mind from getting them.
Works Cited
- “2017 Plastic Surgery Statistics Report.” American Society of Plastic Surgeon, 2017, www.plasticsurgery.org/documents/News/Statistics/2017/plastic-surgery-statistics-full-report-2017.pdf.
- Araujo, Mila. “What Plastic Surgery Procedures Are Covered by Health Insurance?” The Balance Small Business, The Balance, 2017, www.thebalance.com/plastic-surgery-costs-and-what-insurance-may-cover-2645384.
- “Blepharoplasty.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 28 Mar. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/blepharoplasty/about/pac-20385174.
- “Body Dysmorphic Disorder.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 28 Apr. 2016, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/body-dysmorphic-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20353938.
- “Breast Augmentation.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 10 Aug. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/breast-augmentation/about/pac-20393178.
- BuzzNewsNow, director. Bullied Teens Getting Free Plastic Surgery. YouTube, YouTube, 6 Jan. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFAcgWOH2Mg.
- CBS News. “Celebrity Plastic Surgery Disasters?” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 17 Sept. 2012, www.cbsnews.com/pictures/celebrity-plastic-surgery-disasters/5/.
- Diana, Zuckerman. “Facts About Breast Implants.” Our Bodies Ourselves, 2016, www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book-excerpts/health-article/facts-about-breast-implants/.
- Diana, Zuckerman. “Teens and Cosmetic Surgery.” Our Bodies Ourselves, 2016, www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book-excerpts/health-article/teens-cosmetic-surgery/.
- “Liposuction.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 17 May 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/liposuction/about/pac-20384586.
- “Otoplasty.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 14 Aug. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/otoplasty/about/pac-20394822.
- “Rhinoplasty.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 17 Nov. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/rhinoplasty/about/pac-20384532.
- “The Harrowing Life of the ‘Human Ken Doll’.” NewsComAu, 24 Aug. 2018, www.news.com.au/lifestyle/beauty/cosmetic-surgery/human-ken-doll-rodrigo-alves-grew-breasts-as-a-teen-and-was-bullied-for-years-before-883k-surgery/news-story/83290fe19c97b35917ec6c9ff1550249.
- Whitlock, Jennifer. “For Patients: Understanding the Risks of Having Surgery.” Verywell Health, Verywellhealth, 2018, www.verywellhealth.com/understanding-the-risks-involved-when-having-surgery-3156959.