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How I cultivate the relationships I care about

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How I cultivate the relationships I care about

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Everyday people hang out with friends to have a drink, to study and to have fun. Friendships are what oftentimes make our day worth to be lived. The video on Moodle illustrates us how friendships work and especially how to distinguish a good one from a bad one. A good friend is a person, who is trustworthy and loyal, he always cares about you and tries to defend you from hardships. on the contrary a person, who does not really care about you, is distant and may make you end up being in dangerous situations. The video also talks in a very negative light about online friendships. In my opinion that is not quite right. Obviously on the internet not everybody has good intentions, but according to my own experience it is possible to meet people that may care about you. Nowadays there are various opportunities to meet people and the web has become one.

In my case friendships play a huge role in making me happy. Those people always stick by your side, and they support you in each single thing you do. When I am with my friends, I always try to be empathic with them, also when they do something wrong, I do not judge them, I try to understand the reasons why they did that. Exams oftentimes take a great tool in each person’s mental health. During the exam period each of us is very stressed and because of this I always listen to their frustrations and try to improve their mood. Spending time with them energises me and I always feel free to talk about whatever I want, without having to worry about them gossiping behind my back.

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Can the context affect children’s and young people’s ideas of happiness? How? Why?

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Can the context affect children’s and young people’s ideas of happiness? How? Why?

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Happiness is defined to be an emotional state of mind in which you feel safe and at peace. Many literature works are dedicated to this feeling and many of those identify it with a person or a place. The context is fundamental in order to understand how this emotion is lived. In my opinion the kind of place you grow up greatly affects the way you perceive it.

During our lessons we read an article from Cordelia Sutton. The research focused on how young people and children perceive happiness. It was found that children define it especially as being with their family or friends. It is important to state that happiness in relationship is always contingent and this feeling needs to be understood within the context of each person’s life. A child who was not that lucky growing up will probably identify this emotion as having a good meal or having a place to stay. Another one, whose parents were rich for example, will consider this state of being as buying an expensive car. In the end we always have to underline that happiness is something very subjective and everyone experiences it in different ways due to several variables and one of these surely is the context.

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Everyday people meet each other and form new bonds. Thanks to globalisation, this process has become geographically wider and wider and new cultures come in contact. Communicating effectively becomes more important and everybody needs to know how to make the person they are talking with comfortable. First and foremost, it is fundamental to be polite during the conversation and respect the other’s view. In order to do so we should use a flexible thinking model. It consists of 3 steps:

1.      You always have to observe the situation carefully.

2.      Interpret it from different perspectives.

3.      Act positively.

I grew up in a very open context and since I was a kid, I have had the opportunity to meet people from different countries. During secondary school I went to Germany and lived there for 8 days with a German family. Even though I spoke German, the communication was quite difficult. Moreover, it seemed as though they could not perceive some topics in the same way I did. At first, I was quite frustrated, but then I started to adopt their perspectives, and everything became better. Thanks to this experience I have become more self-aware, and I have understood the importance of being able to respect other people’s values and views.