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Ana Carolina da Silva Lima_ Karma and Physics

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In 1687, Isaac Newton shared with the world three laws of physics that until today are used to explain everyday phenomena. Among them we have the law of action and reaction that is characterized as Newton's third law in the physical world. The law of action and reaction has as its definition the following phrase: "To every action, there is always an opposite reaction and of equal intensity: the mutual actions of two bodies on one another are always equal and directed in opposite directions." (Newton's three laws of motion), that is, the same force that is applied by a body A in a body B will be returned in the same intensity by body B to body A.

Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism uses this law to explain the phenomenon of cause and effect, where every action we take in this existence or in past existences we will have its reaction. Everything depends solely on the actions we do, that is, if we do good deeds in this life we ​​will be positively rewarded throughout life and so will the wrong actions. I believe that karma is all the reactions of our actions in a recurring way in our life, for example, when the illness in the family is something frequent.

I believe we can control everything that happens in our lives through our actions and the measurement of the consequences of our acts. I believe I can change my karma when instead of expecting something to happen, I strive to be the change because as Albert Einstein said: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." The change takes place from the inside out. In addition, our life is totally linked to the macrocosm, we are all part of a system which we do not know for sure when it is the beginning and much less when it will be its end. Finally, the human being has been doomed since its beginnings to depend on something or someone to survive. Yet for me, this thought is outdated and the only person we depend on to live and be happy is ourselves. This is what I believe.

Ana Carolina da Silva Lima

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I believe that food can change people.

I love eating, and I think that all people need to have an appropriate meal.  In a big part of my life, I rarely thought of other people, suffering with starve, and I think that people, need to be saved from at least from suffering with starve because of money or other situations.

One thing that is sad, is that if all the people on earth do not waste food, it would have food for all people in Earth. When I think about that, I remember of all of those people that are starving, and I try to not waste any piece of food that i put in my plate.

Now, always that I see someone throwing food out, I feel that that person need to be alerted of the problems of the lack of food.

There are other ways of changing people with food, like when a girl is with TPM, some of them have an immense desire to eat chocolate. That’s because on chocolates, there is some type of substances that give an feeling of pleasure, and it calms the bad feeling caused with the process .

Eating better can give you more beauty. When you eat algae, your hair can stay more pretty. Eating certain fruits can prevent diseases, like if you eat orange, it strengthens your immune system, it has the vitamin C. Eat a lot of meat and food that has protein, can also give you more muscles. Some of athletes have an rigid diet, and it can harm your body. An ballet dancer, need to drink a lot of water, and eat a lot of vitamin C.

Obviously, i our days, we don’t have so much time to think about that, and we eat an fast food. Eat fast food sometimes is okay , but if you eat everyday those types of food, it can give you, very bad health problems. A lot of girth can focus on the veins and may clog your blood vessels and can create a heart attack. Always a colorful plate is healthy , if you try to put salad meat and carbohydrates, you probably will have a good alimentation.

This is my “I believe”.

Anne Erika Kanno

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Music is more their just emotions, it save lives with metric, beat and words that speak about many things, I Believe it has power, no matter the genre. I speak this with all conviction and experience I own. In my life I grow up in a reality harch and the rap grew with me, I listen to rap since I has 8 years old practically, but just now, with 15 years, I decided to really listen to it country’s reality.

There are genres of music that speak the reality the country, Rap is dismissed, because because of it’s music about reality, Why? Because rap tell the truth naked and raw. Similarly samba, typical of Brazil, speaks about love, self esteem, true mental health of black people and ghetto:

Jorge Ben and Ferrugem speak about love and Fundo of Quintal and Original of Samba speak about reality of ghetto.

“If it were not for the samba, who knows nowadays I would be of the beast”.

Bezerra da Silva.

“They preach racial equality / I'm not at all satisfied / Look at my facial expression”.

L7nnon.

Music saves any kind of people poor, trafficker, robber and people under depression. I know many people who were saved, by music.

I believe there in power music and the day I do music talking about power of music in it’s essence, I plan to continue to study about music and learning classic music too, like Bach, Beethoven and KLJay. I want learn the essence of music, learn the notes, the feeling of the melody and to final create music remarkable.

Cauan Brito Gomes

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I believe in independence from the parents at earliest age possible. For example, since the high school or earlier, depending on the safety of the country that the family lives in. A good example is Japan. Since the elementary school, children must to go to school walking in groups, but the younger children need to go accompanied with some parents, to help them. But unfortunately this is not possible to do in Brazil, because of the criminal rate and it is not our culture to give this freedom in elementary school.

I think it’s important for some schools in Brazil start this habit, but with a responsible person by the children on elementary school and to be an obligation to middle school and high school students, but must go without a responsible person. However first of all we must improve our police, because some neighborhoods are dangerous to start doing, and the legalization of the weapons possession is also important if some incident happens with the students, a person with a weapon can help them. And besides it is healthy, it helps in the friendship with other students and gives a sense of independence, but first of all we need an awareness of the parents.

When  the person gets older, it is natural to wish for more freedom so, slowly, it is healthy to the teenagers go out without the parents, like going to the cinema with friends while the parents stay in the shopping in case some emergency happens. Then slowly give to teenagers freedom to go out  with friends without the parents to the same place, but just if he show maturity. But to go out alone, if the person is 9 years old, they can go to bakery. It is good to be careful if some teenager goes alone to a party, not to drug themselves or get drunk, so the teenager must call the parents when they arrive in the event and when they leave too.

I also believe that it is very important to do a student exchange depending on financial condition of each family, if you don’t have financial condition to do it, you can try for a scholarship in a school abroal. I think it’s good to show the reality, to show that nothing is easy, in this case, the adaptation in another country, to adapt to a different environment, and also to meet other people, to see cultures, to increase your knowledge. And the teenager will have an advantage: the independence that he received since young, he will acquire more responsibility along of this experience.

A thing is important, the parents must trust their children and be rigorous, they must notice how much they are prepared for the real life, how much they will be competent to society with the responsibility that they acquired since young with independence.

Henrique Miracca Lima e Silva

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I believe that your home is more than where you live or your house. In other words, I believe that your feeling about a place or someone is what defines your real home.

Home most part of the time is not where you really live but is the place where you feel more comfortable and safe. Sometimes when we change of city or even country, the feeling about where are our home do not change together creating a discomfort and the uncertainty of if we are really in the home.

On the other hand, when you travel you might have the opportunity to meet new places and for many times a completely new local culture. In these new experiences, you can find a refugee and a new identity. When is time to back “home”, you realize that the place where did you travel is actually your true home.

In the same way, your home can also be associated with the people that are with you. Sometimes do not matter where you are but who you are with. For some people feel that are at home mean to be with the people that they love and care about.

The place where you feel most comfortable, safe, and happy is where is your real home. Whether in your hometown with your family or in a country with a quirky culture, only you will know when you are home.

I believe in that because since I was a kid I spend most part of the day at my grandmother’s house because my parents work outside. I always wondered if my home was in the house where I spend the night with my parents or if it was at my grandmother’s house where I spent most of the time/,.All in all, I consider my home the house where I spend the night because my parents spent most of the time outside I consider my home the place where I can be with them even for a short time.

Jéssica Zibini Alves

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When I was in the 6th grade, I used to pass most of my time on the internet. In school, I would be excited for the moment that I’d finally go home to turn my notebook on. I was not an anti-social boy, actually, I had three or four friends in the real world, but with the Internet, things were different. When I was online, I’d be able to play games, watch YouTube videos, “Skype Call” my virtual friends... I could entertain myself and that was my everything because I was and still am a misfit kid. While the other kids gathered themselves to spend their free time playing soccer, I was always the overweight kid that is the last option when the other kids were separating teams on the P.E classes. But online... online I was different, I was not the 1.45 meters tall and overweight kid anymore because I was able to make my video-game characters the way I wanted them to be, with no fear of judgment because on online games, people do not care about appearance at all. I was a good player, with advanced items and level, I was able to enjoy comic books and cartoons because there were communities that supported my hobbies... thanks to the internet, I was even able to create a YouTube channel in which I could express myself the way I wanted to and if anyone disliked my videos, I could call it a “hater” because “haters gonna hate” and their opinion is just not worth it at all.

That was extremely good for me but at the same time, I was getting into a harmful bubble because my thought was “why should I live in this world that hurts me when my happiness is just a click away from me?” and this mindset remained the same for 2 years, in which although I was not completely disconnected from the reality I still preferred to plug myself into the technology.

Honestly, I am very glad that I was able to access the internet on hard times, it was very comforting to know that despite the exclusion upon me, I could get home and be sure that the internet would be there waiting for me but simultaneously, I was digging a deep hole below me and it was very hard to finally escape from it, but when I did, I felt great and free.

As a conclusion, I want to tell you, people, that the Internet is amazing but always remember that it is only a virtual world and that the most important thing now is to live our lives. It can be difficult to keep living in reality sometimes, but it is worth it and in the end, it is not really our wi-fi but the moments we had that count when everything ends.

Jun Sawada

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Larissa Ramos Rocha_ Travelling the World

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When I studied in another school, I had an English teacher, called Minton, who had travelled around the whole world. He had gone to French, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and also Norway and German, but he travelled not only for  Europe, but also Russia and  even Alasca. However he came back to Brazil, he continued travelling but he started telling his stories, the stories of what he had experienced in other countries, for us, his students.

His stories were about many things, about people he met, places he has been and all the cultures he has known. I think  for me ,  the most  interesting thing  was the diversity of the cultures that he knew about.  Did you Know that  you can not take pictures of the Torre Eiffel at night? It  is considered a work of art therefore if someone wants to take pictures of it at night, the person must pay for the copyrights or they will have to pay a ticket .

Did you also know that Russians don’t use the Latin alphabet? They use the Cyrilian alphabet   which has slavic origins. Because of his travels my teacher could talk about any subject, at any time and he was always telling us the many curiosities of the most diverse things, and that it was what made me more impressed.

I believe that travelling makes us acquire culture and knowledge. More than this, you acquire something that you cannot know only searching on the google or on the internet. To truly know a country you have to have contact with it citizens,  food, folklore and language. Visiting a country different than yours it is an experience that makes you change your way of seeing things and that is why it is so important to travel abroad.

The IB encourages us to become  global citizens and I believe the main part of that it is to have  true and real contact with other countries. Only  this way we can expand our consciousness of what other people experience in their day by day. So I believe travelling is the first step to becoming a global citizen.

Larissa Ramos Rocha

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I believe that the surf can change your life , because when you get in touch with sea you can see the infinite when you look at the horizon, you have the infinite to explore and feel and when you take that wave and slide through it we feel the sensation of flying standing up, and when you take the tube everything gets in slow motion.

It is not only by being able to perform maneuvers, but the feeling of standing and discovering a new ability that you would never know if you did not try surfing brings happiness to people.

A person who is deficient, physically disabled or who has suffered some kind of trauma while surfing ends up exploring more about what they are  still capable of doing even with such a problem. It can turn on a light in your heart by breaking those walls.

When I surf, I feel energized. When I have a problem, my solution is the sea, because it is the one that invokes the energy to feel at peace, to forget the problems.

So what I have to say to you is , that if you do not try, you'll never know if it's not  good if it's good for you. Nothing is impossible, it does not matter if you do not have a part of your body or if you are afraid. If you do not try, you will not find what you are looking for.

Leonardo de Donato

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I believe in the power of dreams and we can do that  everything we can do with effort. All human beings can have dreams and transform them in reality and when it happens you can realize that, you can do so much more than you actually think.

When I was a child, I had the dream to be a supermarket cashier, because a supermarket cashier keeps all the money and I thought that if I were a supermarket cashier I would be rich. It is a little bit funny, but when I was a child this dream made sense for me, today I know that if I were a supermarket cashier I would not be rich.

Today I have other dreams, like to studying abroad , traveling with a motor home to a lot of different countries and be the best version of me. These dreams are different than the dreams that I had when I was a child, my dreams grow with me and when I realize it I can mature more.

My parents always tell me the importance to have dreams, because dreams are a kind of map for our lives, for example if you have a dream to study in another country, you will study hard, search for good  universities and save money to make your dream a reality. It is a kind of map that you need to create and it is your choice to follow it or not. If you do not have a dream, you do not have a map to follow and arrive in the destination. People that do not have a dream and do not know what is the purpose of your life is a people that only exist and are easily influenced by other people, because when you do not know where you want to go, the journey is not important, you can take any road .

The point is we need to have a lot of dreams and big dreams to have a lot of ways and options to follow make these dreams come true.

Dreams are more powerful than we think. With effort and determination, we can do whatever we want to do. This is my belief.

Letícia Tiemy Moritani

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Photography. I think most people really enjoy to taking photos of something that they like, that they think is cool, or maybe of themselves. For me, I like taking photos because I feel very comfortable doing it. It is a time to just relax and appreciate a landscape, just to take time or really reflect about life or a situation that you think was important to really understand.

It started with my brother, who works with filming and editing photos and videos, but more videos. My family, especially my mom and brothers, always used to take a lot of photos of moments, as memories of the family or a really special moment of their lives, more especially my older brother, who is now 31 years old. He lived in Pittsburgh, USA, and he came to Brazil, because of his family, and projects that he had, and still have to do here. He always are taking photos of everything, and I still don’t know why, even though he tells me that it is for memories, but I think there is something more.

So, what I’m trying to say is that all my family likes recording, and with me, it is not different. I believe that photos cannot only show how your weekend is, for example. I think photos can portray a whole situation, even if it’s a bad or good situation, and it really can. One of the most expressive forms of the human is the photography, we really like to register things and see things, and is a way to feel equal in some ways to someone. That’s the big power of photography, showing emotions, feelings, actions, moments and more. That what I believe in. I take photos of landscapes, when I think they’re beautiful, and I take photo of people, when I want to share a moment of them or a feeling, that I think is very beautiful and reveals a lot of him/her.

Lucas Colombo Ferreira

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In 2017, I met the best person in my life. It was very confusing because she was in 7th grade because she had a problem with the system of Colegio Soka, but after she went to my class. My first impression of her was that she was boring, but after we became close friends and I think it’s because is balanced, we understand ourselves, as if we have the same thoughts, she is stressed, realistic but still lovely, I am relaxed, have crazy ideas and lovely too. An example of that is when she is stressed and angry, I help her relax.

I started 2018 thinking that Julia would just stay here this year, so I needed to enjoy because I know that this feeling would end. The place that we would make most memories was in the year trip, but she wasn’t able to go because her mother did not have the money, but I enjoyed it even if she wasn’t  there. It was good but it would be better with her, I really felt bad, but at the same time, it was good because I made memories with our friends. After this, I heard that she was going to live in Atibaia, and I felt bad again, I was really thinking that my life was over, because I needed her, like one part of me left. In the beginning, it was difficult, but I saw that my life wasn’t over. I just don’t see her every[day at school, if I want to speak with her I use my cellphone and talk with her, obviously, that's not the same, but it's fine.

I came to the conclusion that if you really love a person, you will have contact with her. But if you think that it will be impossible or that you don’t love her enough to overcome a distance, you won't have contact with her. And if you do not worry, because it's always okay in the end, it may not work, but everything will be fine.

University of Hong Kong and Cornell University, USA conducted a survey of 63 couples with a mean age of 21 years, of whom half were related to distance (Those who maintained a distance relationship were separated from their peers for 17 months on average). To keep a journal about interactions with your partners. They took into account various media, from face-to-face conversations (in the case of those who did not relate the distance) to the telephone, video chat, mobile messages, the Internet and e-mail.

They came to the conclusion that for more than a week, participants reported how the conversations with their partners were. The results showed that, as expected, couples who interacted with distance interacted less frequently per day. However, these contacts were more significant.

That is, people in distance relationships tend to reveal more about themselves in every conversation, and also to idealize the reaction of their partners to such revelations. They also spent more time in each interaction. All this helps explain why the accounts in the diaries of those in a geographically distant relationship demonstrated greater satisfaction and more intimacy with each other.

Orlando Hiroshi Melo Gushi

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Paulo Vinicius de Araujo Feitosa_How Games Can Change People

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At the beginning of the story of the games, they were really simple, and they were just to have fun. Nowadays, we have games that are just for fun too, but famous games make more than you can imagine. They are more than just entertainment, they tell stories, make a new type of work, many people have won much money with the games, and they teach people how to be better, or a how to live with suffering and take it out this suffering of your life.

Since I was born, I have a strong relationship with technology, most of the people my age have the same relation, but when I first experienced games, I saw a new world, that even alone, I could be happy and things could be better. Games are a new type of art, that cannot be expressed any way, like the painting, the sculpture, reading, photograph, music, dancing, theater.

I think that I play more games that do other activities with other people, I always see the game like a good thing, that does not hurt anyone, or be bad, because I just have fun, even when I do not understand most of the story (when I started playing games), I simply pushed the buttons, especially the fighting games, and even doing this, I had a lot of fun.

I changed my opinion after more than 8 years of playing video games. Before I just had fun, but now I think of  what the game can do, what story, graphics, and the type of game it will be, and I believe that games can show you all of the feelings, even the most deepest inside of you, can make you meet more people, make friends, among other feelings.

Even though I have more experience with games made by big corporations, the indie games are what call more attention, because the creator can just think of anything and transform in a game,  a thing more of your private life, or when he saw when he is eating a hot dog. It is a simple thing, but even being simple, they can show you the world of this game, what every character think, or do, can be more complicated to think this, or just it is in your face showing all the things in the game. It is a new format of making games, that it is not controlled by big corporations with big businessman, and passing by tests of what will be sale more, or to make more money, their indie games do not do this, the indie creators do their job the way they want, making their games more personal, or more complicated, this is what I believe.

Paulo Vinícius Araujo Feitosa

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I can say that what I believe most deeply and sincerely is world peace. World peace refers to peaceful coexistence among peoples. It is considered one of the main goals of humanity, but is generally seen as a utopian ideal (something of the imagination). This is a brief definition of world peace, the majority of the population sees this as something unattainable but I believe.

Perhaps I believe in world peace for the sake of living in a family that practices ideas for peace and for having an education that makes you become a global citizen, that would exactly be to fight for world peace or I am trained to do the peace in the world, so I believe that if I fight for this, I will be able to get more people to join me in this way to seek peace.

I believe and hope that I can make it come true because I have a person who inspires me and I take a phrase from her that is very important to me: "I want to say something to you. Even if someone tells you to: run away, give up! You must answer him; never! Live joyfully and correctly every day, always. ", This phrase gives me courage to conquer what I believe, so I do not give up on the idea that world peace will one day be reached.

Sophia Lustosa de Carvalho Rodrigues

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When I was about 11 years old I started to be interested in survivalism,which a lifestyle that made you be prepared for any natural disaster ,and accident caused by humans;I started to follow a channel on YT about it, and one day I was browsing around the site and I came across a video that talked about the insects as food.Three years later a friend of mine recommended me a documentary also about food awareness, and how we treated their production. Since that I often reflected a lot on these two videos and I've started to get more interested in the subject.And the possibles solution, and is this what I am about to tell about to read/listen.

Currently we come across several negative news about the health related to the planet the, melting the polar caps. And the media points large number of vehicles that emit Co2 as the main cause of this phenomenon the; when in fact, a greater cause is still the production of meat.

For this reason I believe that the food of the future will be insects, because it will be a more efficient and sustainable way of feeding a large amount of people spending few resources, spending little space, and still having the possibility to create their own cultivation of insects inside your home; and undoubtedly the great difference is that the vast majority of insects are omnivores, that is, they do not feed on meat.Currently one of the most polluting industry is the food, great part being in the production of meat (red and white) and derivatives, causing global warming.

The most efficient way that is not to debar people from consuming meat; "culture of consuming meat" is implanted and also because nutritionally speaking, the category of food that provides the most protein per kilo consumed is considered meat.But the insect meat is also a good protein source for humans.

Currently there are several stereotypes about the intake of insects, mainly because of their appearance, but gradually I believe that this prejudice will be overcome, because whenever something is "new it", faces difficulties until it becomes a normal thing, from something about our day-by-day routine just like we are wont to eat meat.

William Oyakawa Zanon

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Quality Education: Helping our development as global citizens

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Quality Education: Helping our development as global citizens

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Education will always be the best strategy for us to grow as human beings. It helps us to develop many skills, such as: critical thinking, self-questioning and learning from mistakes. Through education, people are capable of amplifying their vision of the world, and to reach places they would never imagine it was possible to before. To illustrate how we develop these skills, at school we have history as a content, where we can see mistakes made in past events, reflect about, and learn how to not commit them again.

Differently from a non quality education, the quality education is capable of changing not only our minds, but our hearts too. Malala once said “I truly believe the only way we can create peace is through not only educating our minds, but our hearts and our souls”, quality education is the only one with the capability of educate the heart and the soul, therefore, creating peace is a task resulting from an educational and intentional work, capable of promoting respect for diversity and human beings, appreciating then, life’s dignity. As global citizens, our duty is to spread this education.

To have global citizenship is to be part actively of the world, furthermore, this citizenship allows you to change the world in the most positive way, to make friends in different countries and to learn about various cultures respecting its differences.

At Soka School, we are submitted to this global citizenship within IB. My belief is that through the quality education we receive in it, soka students are going to make a real and extreme difference in the world.

Maria Eduarda Rodrigues Frutuoso

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When I  was little, and even now, I see the ocean and think “ wow, there must be many creatures here”, creatures never discovered, I was going to swim, and I was imagining a creature with many eyes around my feet ready for pull me to the deep sea, but I liked this, and I thought it was cool. And since then, I think about creatures, or animals not discovered on the seabed, “How are they?”, “How deep are they in?”, “ What do they eat?”, things like that are strange to others.

The highest diving record happened in 1960, when a Swiss, Jacques Piccard, and an American North, Donald Walsh, got up to 10,911 meters deep in the Mariana Trench. They would have stayed longer, maybe gone to the bottom, since the pit is 11,500 meters deep, but for a technical problem they only managed to stay for 20 minutes, using the bathyscaphe made to withstand 1000 times the water pressure. But even with this event, we know less than 10 percent about the oceans, and it is estimated that there are more than 10 million aquatic animals species but only 250 thousand species cataloged.

So  why don’t  people think about more animals? And what if more species are discovered? And if other animals of other species appear and are cable to change the world with research? Just look at the ocean and it’s immensity, I believe that it is possible for these animals to exist, and that they can have our research on disease cures or the like progress.

I find it a very strange case that in our current society, research is being turned more to research outside our home, Earth, than in it. The amount of money NASA will spend on it’s new project, would be the same amount spent to hone submarines and find out more about the hidden secrets of most of our planet, the oceans, since they consist of 71 percent of the Earth.

So I believe in undiscovered seabed creatures, how it is possible, and the possibles advances to medicine, and other things they may bring. I believe in a better society for the future, investing in science on Earth and not on others planets. The secrets about oceans can be the most beautiful things. This is my “This I believe” about creatures of the ocean.

Beatriz Badaró Finco

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Believing in oneself is something that everyone should do, because the act of trusting oneself is very powerful. I believe in self-confidence and it’s  power. But how can this power change people’s life?

On my first day of school i was overthinking very nervous. I am usually a very insecure person and I end up thinking a lot about my actions. But as it was a new school and a new year, I decided to be a more confident and less worried. In the first week of school I had to introduce myself to the whole class and do other presentations, that jerked me and help me do the presentations more confidently, not caring  too much for my mistakes because I believed that I was able to do it. After the first presentation I saw that it was not as bad as I thought and that people did not judge me. People are often afraid of results and do not believe in themselves, making mistakes because of insecurity and fear.

Because of this episode in my life I believe that self-confidence changes people’s lives, making them happier and more disposed to new experiences, out of their comfort zone. Self-confidence for many is a very difficult thing because the human being is susceptible to being pessimistic and insecure but if the person has that willpower to change, they will gradually change.

Self-confidence is something that does not change overnight , a feeling that needs to be worked out in steps, especially if the person is insecure, working slowly on their self-esteem. As I have said above, after I have started believing in myself, I begin a more confident person but nothing work if the person wants to change it, you need to have willpower, patience. You need to have willpower because without this you never can change, being in the same status. You need to have the patience because the self-confidence isn’t a thing that change the night to day. I work gradually on my self-confidence and self-esteem. And that is why i believe that self-confidence can change people’s lives and i hope that they try to change them lifes.

Camila Kaori Morita

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Henrique Miracca Lima e Silva_Independence

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I believe in energy.

I believe in the energy that places can bring us, but especially in the energy of people, and this is very powerful.

For some time I have had the feeling that people can influence each other and other places as well. For example, if you are on a happy day and you meet a person who is going through a bad situation or who is stressed (among other things), the simple fact that you have contact with this person can completely transform your day and even your week because it is as if you were influenced with their energy.

Science proves it. According to several studies conducted by different groups of researchers, we are affected by the energy of our surroundings and we have the power to transfer good or bad energy to others. It concluded that everything that interacts with the environment has a charge of energy that can be transferred from one body to another just because they are close. So when a person has a very good energy, she can influence everything else, just as a person with a very bad energy can affect others around in a negative way.

An example of this is when I try to help someone who is going through a difficult situation. Helping this person ends up being tiresome and drains all my energy. But if on the next day I meet my best friends, for example, who are people who animate me and make me very happy, their energy infects me and compensate  all the energy that I lost.

I think that I learned this mainly from my religion, Buddhism. One of the things it talks about is that there are three types of people: the ones you want around, the ones that make no difference; and the ones you do not want around, and tell us strive to be the person that others want around, and I've always related this very much to the issue of our energy to other people. Another point that is also spoken in Buddhism is that a person's state of life can influence the environment, which also relates to energy.

For me, energy has an immense power and can make an incredible difference on someone's day and many times, when I was very bad, it was the energy of the people I love who encouraged me and made me feel better. And because of that, that is what I believe in.

Luísa Ferreira Monteiro

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Nicolle Yukie Ogata Ariga_Friendship and Family

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Even though it is not the easiest thing in the world, and even if it is not from day to night, the change of the human being is possible, mainly if there are family and friends’ help. And I believe in this - in a power of influence that the family and friendships have in a person’s change.

When I was in Kindergarten and Elementary School, I was the worst person in the world, with bad thoughts and attitudes. I always wanted to give orders to other people, and that everything was my way, as I wanted. Me and my friends were very young, then, because of this, there were always people around me - people who liked me and also people who did not like me - something that has always made my ego grow.

As I said, there were people that did not like me and, even spoke ill about me behind my back - a fact that I only discovered years later. But, at the same time, there were friends who really were by my side, one of them I have as my friend by my side until today.

I believe that, at that time, he also believed in the human change, that is precisely why he stayed by my side. Not just him, but also my family helped me a lot in my change. They always supported and encouraged me, stayed by my side, even knowing they had put a very complicated person in the world.

Middle School arrived for us, and, today, I realize that I was changing and becoming, little by little, a better person, but that was not clear to me, then, I just starting realize everything that happened and was happening at the end of Middle School, and the biggest part of this journey happened because of the influence, help and confidence of my true friendships and my family.

The end of the Middle School and the beginning of High School arrived for me, and it was time for me to realize all this change, how I was a toxic person to the world and how much I became a better person. It also was time for me analyze how and when I really became another person.

In the end of my continuous daily reflection, the conclusion - that most of my change only happened because of the influence of my friendships - always comes in my thoughts.

The two phases of my life were good for me - they taught me a lot and made me realize that without my family and friends, I would not be who I am today. But probably when I tell others how I was, there are a few who believe or even think that I am only false nowadays.

And is in this that I believe - the power that a friendship and family can have in our lives and in their changes.

Nicolle Yukie Ogata Ariga