Beliefs tie into dreams. If you believe in freedom of information, naturally you'll hack into MIT's archive of essays and leak it to online forums for tech nerds. But do we even believe in anything nowadays? "You'll get a good job if you do well in the DSE and go to university." We are patiently biding our time until we are S6, when we will begin preparing for DSE. But for what? Is there any purpose behind our actions? We need to rediscover what is important to us, because I don't want to just survive. I want to live.

A great example would be the teenagers today. As they just went through puberty, it would cause a huge shift in their mindsets. Their ways of speaking and thinking may be influenced by their peers, and even worse, affect both their physical and mental well-being. Most problems that are faced by today’s teenagers are problems related to academics or relationships between friends and family. A belief can help teenagers find their own reason to be happy and give them a chance to love themselves.

As we get older, we face more and more difficulties and hard decisions. Life at school and at home is more complicated. We start to have more arguments, or feel less connected with friends or family. Teenagers may start to get confused about what to say or do, when faced with these difficulties. In this confusing time, a concrete belief we can rely on when uncertain can be very helpful.

Other than expressing our own beliefs, reading about how others use their beliefs to solve problems can also help us learn how to face problems. It can also help those who are still searching for their core belief.

Therefore, expressing our beliefs is still important today.

I think that after the COVID-19 pandemic, the ways people communicate with others have changed a lot. During the pandemic, people were mainly stuck at home for quarantine and were not able to contact their family and friends without a phone. Teenagers, like us, feel very lonely without seeing and hanging out with friends in real life. Over time, teenagers will feel lonely and aimless in life as we do not know when the pandemic will truly end. Therefore, having a belief among teenagers is very important to allow them to have something to hold on and believe in.

The same fact also applies to everyone, where people might feel that they are drifting and sailing away. Beliefs or believes can act as a “string” to hold them in place and prevent them from floating too far away. It can also act as a source of light, where following the light, leads you to good results and future.

I also think belief or believes is and are a symbol of an ”energy drink“ for most people to allow them feel energized and motivated at the same time and can act as an escape from the busy and boring daily lives and schedules of most of the people like us.

Therefore, I think beliefs and believes are still relevant today as they can act as an escape from the busy and boring daily lives of people. It can also act as a source of light to guide people who think their lives are getting more and more aimless after the COVID 19 pandemic.

As a teenager, we face quiet a lot of uncertainties and fears like social pressure, academic stress and mental health, etc.most of my time, academic stress and mental health affect my well-being the most, i have high standard to achieve high grades this leads to anxiety and bad mental health for example, sleep issue.

We can read “this i believe essays” to solve problems that the writer is also facing since writing this kind of essays needs to have own personal experiences. we can learn how to manage with those essays. therefore, “this is believe essays” are still relevant today.

Sometimes in life, we may think that we're not good enough and we are constantly comparing ourselves to other people around us. This comparison often leads to a lack of confidence and self-doubt.

However, I think that these types of essays can encourage us to reflect on how valuable and talented we actually are. People share their beliefs and problems in these essays, and through reading these, we can take inspiration from how people solve their problems, just like what Edward R. Murrow said, as it includes personal experiences in one’s life.

By writing these essays, we can reflect and discover our beliefs at the same time. When writing, we can reflect on our own memories and experiences we faced in the past which can make us realise our worth.

Therefore, “This I Believe Essays” can still be relevant today as it helps us reflect on our own experiences in the past and most importantly, discover our beliefs.

I have fears just like others. I am scared of letting my parents down if I don't do well in school. It is also hard for me to talk to strangers and make friends. I am worried about not fitting in. Nowadays, advanced technology has made these concerns even worse. Social media makes it easy to compare ourselves to others. This can make us feel like we are not good enough or afraid of missing out on fun stuff. 

"This I Believe Essays" can be really helpful for teenagers. When we read about what other people believe in, we can feel better and get some good advice. It also helps us think about our own beliefs. If you believe in how great you are, you don’t need to compare yourself to anyone.

This is very relevant to students in Hong Kong today. We receive a lot of different opinions and a lot of pressure. However, these different beliefs can be like a guide for us.

When we feel stressed about schoolwork or when we have a sense of lost, they can first calm themselves down and think about the stories of people who faced their fears and doubts and then still keep going. For example, we can think about Helen Keller. Her story can teach students that being disabled or having problems doesn't mean you can't have a fruitful life.

It is easy to follow to what other people’s thought. However, by learning from other people's opinions and thoughts, we can handle the some academic challenges and school situations better.

These essays are helpful for inner growth because it can encourage individuals to express their core values and beliefs, fostering a better understanding of themselves. I believe that a belief someone holds dearly can reflect their character and personality.

It is still relevant today, because many people can share their own experiences through social media, blogs and podcasts, their beliefs can inspire others with different backgrounds and cultures so they can read from other's perspective, everyone can learn from one another.

The high expectations from parents often make teenagers feel stressful as they fear they might disappoint their parents. Also, the pressure to perform well during exams is very high, ss they might fear it might ruin other opportunities like different collenge entrance exams in the future. The advancement of technologies especially AI makes teenagers insecure as they will rely on it.

The social media makes teenagers compare themselves, sometimes they might bully others online, this can make teenagers feel anxious and isolated.

Mental health is also an important issue. Even though the awareness of mental health is increasing, I feel like there are still many teenagers feel scared to seek help as they think they might be ‘misunderstood’ and many teenagers just preten to be happy while they struggle with depression.

I think it is related to us today as it can help people to find a meaning in their life and make them have a sense of belonging within the community.

Murrow’s speaking technique is also useful in our writing, his speech teaches us how to make the points more persuasive and effective.you can also try to put yourself in the audience’s perspective,try to understand what they want to hear and what they want to gain from this speech/passage.

1.stresses from the family

-parents often compare their own children with other children, or even with their siblings. Through the comparison of differences between their children and other children, they always bring up a conclusion is that their children are not as intelligent as other children. Especially in Asia, Asian parents always have high level of expectation on their children in all aspects(they have to get high academic marks, follow a lot of etiquette and join a lot of interest classes to develop their talents). If their children couldn’t fulfil what they expect, they would scold their children hard(even their children may have already tried hard). With the misunderstanding and high level of expectation, teenagers gain a lot of mental stresses from their families .

2.stresses from school

-studying is never a easy work. There are a lot of subjects, homework and tests at school, for teenagers that are required to have high quality of works from their families would always work overnight to catch up and revise different subjects, which have given a lot of both mental and physical damages to the teenagers.

3.stresses from self

-puberty is a stage that full of a lot of concerns and self doubt. Teenagers would easily compare themselves to other teenagers, thinking that why they are not as beautiful, smart as other teenagers, but the fact is that everyone has different strengths and should not compare one another. And they would try their best to fight over other teenagers,but after they fight over those, they would just find other targets to fight over, this would be a bad cycle. In that bad cycle, their own thoughts would bring a hard mental and physical stresses to them.

Relationship between “This I Believe” essays and TODAY:

1.bring the sense of hope

-in life, stresses are all around. With those stresses, some people may try to overcome them, but some may lose hope through the process of overcoming the stresses

-the essays could bring hope through the others’ past experiences. Show us that there is still hope in the world, what we are experiencing are only a little part of the people in WWII’s life. Even them facing tough times could keep strong and keep their beliefs, we should also keep being hopeful to our life

2.build up a correct values in life

-not everyone having a clear future and value. A lot of them may be confused in life.The essays could lead us to the right track in life, keep us optimistic when facing the future

We all have different values and beliefs, which is not a bad thing because that is what makes us all special and irreplaceable. It is not needed to force ourselves to have the same beliefs as people around us, or force others to have the same beliefs as us.

However, it is important for people nowadays to have honesty and integrity because they make us have moral courage to do the right thing and make decisions that are correct. They also let us know the consequences of our actions and ensure peace and order in the society. Therefore, our society will be peaceful if we have integrity and honesty.

A lot of people are insecure about themselves in the modern world. They often try to change their beliefs and values to fit in with others. After reading this essay, I understood that it is not always necessary to go with the flow. Values can’t be “right” or “wrong”, we all have different angles to see things.

It allows people to communicate and express their opinions freely through writing, which can be therapeutic for many people in modern society who struggle with things like socializing or academics. By writing “This I Believe” essays, people can talk about what they truly believe, and it helps solidify their thoughts. Our beliefs shape who we are, and by writing these essays, we strengthen our beliefs and personalities, which helps us understand ourselves better.

Besides writing these essays, I also think reading “This I Believe” essays is important. As a teenager, I’m always stressed out, and little things often affect how I see the world. Reading these essays made me realize that I’ve been thinking negatively more often than I thought. Learning about other people’s mistakes and beliefs has changed how I see myself and the world around me.

Whether it’s through writing or reading, “This I Believe” essays help us figure out what we believe and remind us of our worth, even when we’re struggling. They build confidence by helping us reflect on happy memories or past mistakes. Beliefs shape who we are. Therefore, “This I Believe” essays are still relevant today.

I believe Edwards personal stories can help students not feel alone in their struggles. His messages encourages students to speak up for themselves and fight for justice. It can also help students struggling with mental health issues speak up and share their own thoughts openly.