Time: Should we manage it or just let it pass?

Time? Does anyone know what the value of time is? The real question is, does anyone even know that time has a value?

I would say that it does. But in order to appreciate or valorize it; you sometimes have to fill it in with tasks to do. And when you’re about to lose time, the only way to save it is to plan.

As Golda Meir once said “I must govern the clock, not be governed by it”.

And as many of us might know, we’re facing this school year a prodigious problem considered to be: bad time management, or I may even say, no management at all.

Chemistry homework, math exam, english vocab test, physics research… Almost every week we get this amount of work. This may not seem a lot, however the main problem we’re facing isn’t the amount, it’s the time. “How and when am I going to do all that?” Is a daily question that I ask myself. The only solution that I came up with is that I bought a purple agenda where I would plan my work according to the time I have. Sometimes I manage to multitask, some other time I would have to concentrate on one task at a time though, in both cases I manage to plan my work. I’m personally not so much of an organized person, my locker is a mess as well as my desk’s drawers at home, and however when it comes to organizing my time, I manage to do that. Planning and writing down in an agenda is seriously the only way for me to avoid being governed by time. For me, planning is the main key to success.

I’m not saying that we should always keep our minds busy in order to valorize time; on the contrary, sometimes we need to watch time as it passes while enjoying that. We all go on Facebook to “socialize”, on YouTube to watch some funny videos or on sidereel to watch a couple of episodes of a particular TV show. Whatever you do no matter how much time it takes you, as long as it brings a big smile on your face, it is not a waste of time. Although it’s you enjoying passing your time. But be careful, a lot of time passing isn’t that good either, because once you miss it and it flies off, you’re not going to be able to catch it again.

A Nightmare of knowledge

Hours of work, sleepless nights, stressful days, horrifying nightmares, mind blocks, back hurts as well as eyes pop out. Well, I’m a little bit exaggerating but unfortunately this was somehow my situation until the16^th of February. On this particular day, all of those feelings faded away, however were replaced by a new one: relief. This was the day in which we had to submit our personal projects. The only thing I thought about this moment, is that I really need a back massage. You want to know what a personal project is? Well, other than the fact that we have tons of work, there was the part where we had to do researches, interviews, read books and a lot more. This is exactly what the personal project is all about, working on a subject you choose for 8 months; mine was writing an essay on the mechanism of dreams. Before choosing this topic, I would always think that it’s a shame that after 15 years of sleep every night, I don’t know how I actually dream. Therefore, when I was asked to pick a subject, the only idea that struck my mind was “the process of dreams”. I did researches, met doctors, read books and even decided that I would study psychology later on. Thus, I was able to write a 7000 words essay anticipating the mechanism of dreams from 3 different points of view: psychology, science and religion. As I was working on my project, I had this weird feeling, I was excited and curious to work on it, however at the same time I felt exhausted by how much work this demanded. When I was done, I was really proud of what I did; I felt that I actually learned something. I bet that there are hundreds or even thousands of people that have no idea how dreams occur however never think of looking for answers. But  what I'm sure of right now, is that I'm not one of them anymore.

The Qualities Of A Good Friend

Throughout our lives we pass by several friendships, since kindergarten until the days in which we’ll be sitting on a chair doing nothing but knitting sweaters for our grandchildren. Some of them might last and some might just not, yet in both cases we learn and we get to know the qualities of a good friend as well as the potentials of a durable friendship. Since it takes years building a friendship however seconds destroying it, each one of us had come to realize that there are some qualities that should be found in a friend.

As Arnold H. Glasow said, “A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down” from this quote, an important quality of a good friend gets illustrated and that is being supportive. A friend should never get in your way of achieving your goals and going after your dreams, although he should be there, supporting you in every step you make. In my point of view, it’s harder for a person to walk on his own, he should have a friend on his side that helps him face his problems and confront life’s difficulties. A good friend should be also honest; he shouldn’t always be saying yes in order to please you, on the contrary, he should disapprove what he considers as being wrong. In addition, he needs to be trustworthy, a person you can trust with all your secrets whether they’re worthy or not, a person in whom you have confidence enough to the extent that you’re ready to tell them EVERYTHING.

A friend is someone who knows when you’re down without you even saying a word, a person who’s ready to sacrifice everything just to please you, to make a fool out of himself and eat a spoon full of Wasabi in order to just see a smile on your face, someone who’s going to be there when things get tough, a friend is that person who can look you in the eyes when nobody can’t. A good friend will always be there “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” - Oprah Winfrey.  

The Constitution

The rules for a government, fundamental principles and the rights of the citizens all written down in a legal document called a written constitution. This formal document is supposed to be the rules by which a state is being controlled and the rules settled in order to manage and rule a nation. It is as well the rights protecting the citizens in any political situation.

The first constitution ever recognized was the constitution written in the spring of 1638, three Connecticut towns (Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield) worked on choosing representatives and succeeded holding a general court at Hartford. Later on, at the opening session, Thomas Hooker, expounded a powerful sermon and speech in order to confirm that the “foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people.”  Consequently, the three towns’ freemen adopted the constitution, which was the first of all time that later on created a government.

Egypt today is facing a political dilemma; whether to slow down the presidential elections in order to write a new constitution or to rush off to the elections. In my point of view, I think that it’s much better to write a constitution so that we can insure that the upcoming president doesn’t turn the constitution into his personal “book” in order to satisfy his own properties.    

New Year's Resolutions

“Spend more time with family and friends… Loose 10 pounds in 2 weeks… Learn a new language… Organize my time… Appreciate what I have… Work more in school…  Less depression, more joy…” Those were actually my “every new year’s resolutions”, promises that I made to myself in the beginning of every year, however never worked on achieving them. 


I consider New year’s eve to be the day when most of us are going to give up their New year’s resolutions, a week after they were made. The day when people waste about 15 minutes, writing down a “wish list” where they mention their aims and desires, thinking that they’re going to achieve them the upcoming year. Well they don’t, they just forget about them. I know that some of you might attack my point of view, but I honestly don’t know a single person that had put in mind his resolutions for more than a month. Therefore, why bother doing them in the first place?


 That’s why, this year I decided not to waste anymore paper on those insignificant lists of mine. What I did on New Year’s Eve is that I just assumed about everything I’ve done last year, and I thought to myself “Wow I broke a lot of promises and I can’t even remember achieving any of the innumerable goals from my resolution list”. Therefore, I decided to forget about the lists and to start thinking of a way to achieve my goals throughout the whole year. The only idea I had is to make a commitment to myself where I shall do the following: To always be happy and have a smile on my face, no matter how much pain or melancholy I’m feeling because being happy is going to lead me to do what I really love. As well as to stop stressing over the smallest things because no matter what, nothing’s really worth it.  And finally, to start loving myself more, when I’ll be able to love myself, I’ll be able to love people around me and start helping them with the purest heart. 

When the clock was passing by 12, I wasn’t counting down the seconds or screaming with excitement, however I was on my knees, praying for God and asking him for a happy and joyful year with my beloved family as well as supplicating him that the commitment I did doesn’t fade after a few weeks, but remains as a living commitment occupying a big part of my life. 

Reflection: Globalization

Through the whole article, the writer discusses an important topic and that is Globalization. It is a “system” that has been going on for centuries all over the world and increasing day after day. With the different societies getting closer, the contacts between countries upsurge and the cooperation in trading products, reserves or merchandises had amplified.

This organization like any other possesses it’s own advantages as well as disadvantages. To start with, the benefits of the globalization: It helps enlightening connections between different countries since they cooperate through many different things other than economics, for instance, culture, politics, trade and even biology (they trade organisms, such as animals). On top of that, most importantly, developed countries can help those who are in need. To sum up, thanks to globalization, a lot of countries are relating through sharing several resources as well as a lot of countries start developing. On the other side, globalization has a main disadvantage and that is slavery or we may call it, trading humans. Starting from the 1600’s, this system has been, not only trading natural resources, sciences and technology but trading as well human beings. The fact that they’re exchanging animals, we can consider it as a disadvantage too because it causes the mortality of many species.

Therefore, we can say that globalization has it pros as well as it cons, and it’s the reader’s choice to decide whether he’s with or against globalization. Personally, I think that it’s a procedure that can lead us to many good things such as helping underdeveloped countries and creating good relations between nations. That can even lead us to world peace! Furthermore, I don’t really think that it can impede the countries’ growth, the only thing it might do that is related to the development, is to help countries that are in need to become more and more industrialized. 

One city, two different worlds

This winter break wasn’t like any other; it was sort of unique in a strange way. A week before the holidays, I expected that we weren’t traveling anywhere since my uncle passed away and no one was in the mood or even had the idea of traveling. Although, I decided to accept what’s happening and enjoy my vacation while spending it in Cairo.

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a one horse open sleigh

Jingle bells, jingle bells…

Listening to Christmas carols while sitting next to the tree, talking and laughing, eating dinner together, unwrapping gifts and taking some photos to memorize those delightful moments. That’s exactly how I spent my Christmas Eve, I joined my friend’s family and we celebrated it with laughs, smiles and chats. The atmosphere was tremendously cozy as well as pleasant; I personally enjoyed every minute of it.

A few days later, my uncle came back from Canada and was really missing the Egyptian food. Therefore, he took us to Al Sayeda Zeinab at night, we walked in the streets, as it was my first time there, I saw a different Cairo. While walking, we stopped for a few minutes to eat “Kabab w Kofta”. I wasn’t expecting the food to be good at all, however, it turned out to be honestly, the best I’ve ever tasted. People were friendly and simple, they were all the same, there was no difference between them, and the best thing about this place was that complexity didn’t exist there.

Furthermore, I realized that living in Cairo is exactly like living in two completely different worlds; the thing that’s great about this is that you get the opportunity to choose whenever you want to get a break from our sophisticated area and visit for a few hours a simple, humble and friendly world. I recognized as well that vacations ISN’T about traveling and visiting new countries although, it’s about having the chance of spending time with the ones you love.