Malala received the Tipperary Peace Prize and it seems the whole world has gone Malala crazy in the last few months. The young girl is all over the news and social media sites – but who is she? And what does she do? Here’s what you need to know about her.
Malala Yousafzai is a 16-year-old women’s rights and education activist from Pakistan. She gained fame last October when she was shot in the head at point-blank range by the Taliban for speaking out against the strict Pakistani women’s laws. She began speaking out back in 2008, televised saying the controversial line: “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?”. She then became a blogger for BBC Urdu when a reporter for the BBC gave her the opportunity to write about life under the Taliban. As she became more well-known, Malala began to receive death threats. Her assassination attempt led to the media worldwide covering her case and promoting her cause.
Malala’s blog for BBC Urdu had been anonymous for years but when her identity was revealed, she was in danger. She was one of the few girls in her school that turned up for class every day, despite the dangers involved with the strict Taliban regime against women in education.
Malala recently addressed the UN's Youth Assembly, watch here:
They had blown up several girls schools and from January 2009, they banned all girls from attending. Malala did not allow this to stand in her way and remained in school. The ban was later lifted. Malala was on her way home from school on the evening of October 9, 2012, when a Taliban gunman boarded her bus and shot her at point blank range in the head. Miraculously, the bullet merely grazed her brain after going through her head, neck and ending up in her shoulder.
She was brought to a military hospital in Peshawar for emergency treatment. Though she had had a lucky escape, her brain began to swell from the damage she had received in the attack. A portion of her skull was removed to allow the brain to swell without causing her any permanent damage. Offers from all over the world were flooding in to treat Malala and she was eventually transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Malala and her family remain in the UK and she returned to school in March.
Since the assassination attempt, her support has soared. She is a nominee for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, she won Pakistan’s first ever National Youth Peace Prize and just last week she was awarded the Tipperary International Peace Prize. In her acceptance speech in Tipperary she bravely stated that she did not want to be remembered as the girl shot by the Taliban but as the girl who fought for women’s right to education.
Malala continues to speak publicly for women’s right to education and will return to Ireland in September to be honoured at an Amnesty International event.
SpunOut's founder, Ruairi McKiernan, attended the Tipperary peace award event and recorded Malala's acceptance speech. You can listen to it below:
The Leaving Cert and CAO excitement is becoming a mere memory as college looms. In just a few weeks, you will be living out of home for the first time, meeting new people with similar interests to you and starting a new chapter of your life.
Now that you have dealt with the shock, delight and congratulations after being offered one of your CAO choices, you’ve probably started to think about the infamous “Freshers’ Week”.
Here are ten tips to surviving your first one ever:
Meet new people
This is more than likely your first foray into the independent world of adulthood – so get to know your classmates and neighbours. Leave your door open when you’re moving into your new place – that way you might get to meet your neighbours as they move in. If someone invites you over pop in to them or vice versa; invite them over yourself. Suggest going for a drink even, you’ve nothing to lose!
Have fun
Might seem like a simple tip but it’s true – you need to have fun. Freshers’ Week is normally the week where (a) you make a life-long friend or two or (b) you meet a few people that you vaguely say hello to by the end of your degree. Either way, it’s always good to meet new people!
Attend everything you need to
This is one of the biggest dangers of college life. You’re away from your parents for the first time and, depending on your class size, your absence might go unnoticed. DO NOT SKIP CLASS! It never ends well, trust me, I know from experience. Freshers’ Week is a particularly dangerous time for this as it tends to be the week you do the most socialising. By all means socialise, but balance your work and play. Freshers’ Week is also the week you’ll have to register and the like so make sure you turn up for these important days.
Set up your room
It won’t ever feel like your bedroom at home, that you’ve lived in for years but make the effort! Bring photos from home, posters, etc. and make your room that bit more welcoming. It’s always nice to have your own space away from home.
Budget
A lot of students fall into the false security trap. When you begin the college year you may have a lot of money. This money has to last you until the following May though! Freshers’ Week can involve a lot of social events which cost a lot of money but set yourself a budget and stick to it.
Join everything
Freshers’ Week tends to involve a clubs and societies day. Go along to this event and go to speak to just about everybody there. Any club or society that takes your fancy or is relevant to your degree, join up! It’s a great way of meeting people with similar interests that are outside of your class too, you can never have enough friends.
Take photos
Simple advice and something you’ll probably do on your phone anyway but Freshers’ Week (and indeed your entire first year) will fly by and it will be great to have the photos to look back on later on in your degree. It’s unbelievable how much you change over the course of the three or four years!
Be safe
This may or may not be an issue; don’t force it. When it happens it happens but on the off chance you have sex during Freshers’ Week, be careful! Use protection and don’t do anything you don’t want to.
Explore the place
Chances are, you’ve visited the college for an open day but you won’t be familiar with it. It can be daunting and the college can seem huge but it really isn’t (with the possible exception of UCD). Take a walk around the college early on in Freshers’ Week so you know where to go and what to do. If you’re not living on campus, explore the area where you live too. Find your nearest shop and the like, so you know where everything is.
Keep your family updated
It’s always easy to forget how tough it is for your parents when you start college. You get wrapped up in the excitement, the nerves, etc. and think about the new experiences you’re about to embark on. Your parents have raised you for 17 or 18 years and this is your first time away from them – it can’t be easy for them. Call them or text them and let them know how you’re getting on when you get a chance.
Universities will always promise students that they will be fully employable by the end of their degree. But increasingly, it seems, the focus of the university is to get the students ‘in the door’ as opposed to really qualifying them for the working world. As a holder of a BA and an MPhil, I have learned so much since graduation that my degrees mean absolutely nothing. But my university experience does, as I will explain.
I finished my Masters almost a year ago and since then I have been quite successful working in media in London. However, virtually none of my employment success is attributable to my education history.
Don’t get me wrong – one of the first things I am always asked about in interviews is where I studied. But there’s the proof – all employers care about is whether or not I have a degree, and where I obtained it (this is important – employers much prefer to hear ‘Trinity’ over ‘IT’). I am rarely even asked what class of degree it was, and certainly, I am never asked what I did it in. On my CV, my education history takes up two lines – despite thousands of Euros and four years of hard study.
The course of interviews takes a noticeable turn after the education is glossed over. Rather, employers care about what I did in university outside of my degree – especially, my time spent writing for the student newspaper, and my other media internships and part-time jobs. My education background is largely irrelevant.
And so it should be. Of course there are jobs out there which require a university degree to train you in a skill, but what does university teach you about the working world? In many cases students spend a few months of their degrees on work placement – and many of my friends tell me that was the most eye-opening part of all their years spent studying.
For students studying Arts, like me, that wasn’t an option, and when I began getting work experience for myself I realised it more and more. One of the biggest advantages for me, in terms of getting employment after college, was being able to tell the employer that I had office experience.
You may be fully qualified for the job ahead but applying what you’ve learned is an entirely different thing. I work in media, and despite having a good few years of experience behind me, every task I undertake is a learning curve. When I graduated from UCD in 2011, I had yet to experience some of the basic tasks I carry out on a day-to-day basis: spreadsheets; email manners; expenses; presentations; pitching…not to mention learning the basic etiquette of an office environment.
These are things that can only be learned on the job. Sitting in lecture theatres listening to someone talk for an hour does not teach you how to engage in meetings, speak to strangers or interact with colleagues.
However, these things can be learned in extra-curricular activities. Even in sports, you learn to build relationships with new people, you learn tactics, and you build on your communication skills. In societies, you can learn about project management, enterprise, networking, and much more. Not only that, but by getting involved in more and more things you can make your university experience even more worthwhile.
So I suppose the best way to answer the question of whether or not university prepares you for the working world is with a yes and a no. The ‘no’ refers to your degree. The ‘yes’ refers to the fact that what you get from university is what you put in. By building up your skillset through extra-curricular activities, employers will see your potential and your suitability for the working world.
Ah, it’s that time of year again. We’re now almost halfway through the month of August and, for a lot of us, our summers are starting to wind down and we’re starting to prepare for the imminent doom of school re-commencing. In a few weeks’ time, I will officially be a 5th year student, and my days of TY tomfoolery will be over forever.
No more getting out of classes because of “computer assignments,” no more skipping P.E. to help stamp letters to send out to parents, and no more staying up til all hours every night watching my favourite TV shows and films. No, those days are behind me, and as of right now, all I really have to look forward to is exams, books, teachers and the inevitable Leaving Cert. Fun, fun, fun.
But even though there’s a lot of work in store for me, I’m still hopeful for this year. Believe it or not, it can get a bit boring during the summer, especially when loads of your friends are off gallivanting and you’re stuck at home, eating popcorn and obsessively trying to finish playing Legend of Zelda (Nope? Just me? Alright) and it’s nice to have the routine of school to get you out of the whole sleeping until 3pm thing. On the other hand, I’m not sure my body is properly equipped to handle waking up at 7am anymore.
Alright, so because I know I’m not the only one half dreading/half looking forward to starting school, I think it’d be a good idea to share a few of my tried and tested methods of preparing for the new school year:
Sleeping patter
A week or so before school starts again, try adjusting your sleeping pattern by going to bed early and waking up that bit earlier too. A 3am bedtime is not unusual for me during the summer, but during the school year it’s a whole other story. You really need to ease yourself into the earlier mornings and nights, so try going to bed at maybe 11 or 10, and in the morning set your alarm to something close to the time you’d normally be up at for school. I find it really helps to settle into the wake-up routine, and it makes it a lot less excruciating when you have to do the real thing.
Start reading
Read up on some of your books! Nerd alert, I know, but even if you skim through some of your schoolbooks, and try to take some of the information in, it can give you a great head start to the year. Try to familiarise yourself with what you’ll be learning for the next year, maybe even jot down a few notes if you’re feeling extra geeky.
Get your study area ready
Set up an area for you to do homework and study. Right now I’m staring at my “study desk” in my room that’s cluttered up with makeup, bracelets, a woodwork project, books, a bra for some reason, bath salts, a bottle of lemonade, a t-shirt and a big poster of The Joker. Hopeless. Always de-clutter and absolutely never become like me. It’s really important to have a designated area for yourself so you can come home and get straight into your work, instead of messing around or trying to get settled in somewhere else. Once I clean my place up, I might hang up some whiteboards or corkboards so I can stick up any notes that might be useful. It’s always helpful to decorate your space too, with stuff you find cheerful, so it makes studying seem less torturous and horrible (which it is).
Avoid distrctions
This one means no phones, no wifi, no TV, basically no electronic devices at all times. If you have a TV/computer/whatever in your room, try to resist the temptation. When I was studying for Junior Cert, I would’ve done anything besides studying just so I wouldn’t have to do it. Like, I’m pretty sure I watched a documentary about horses instead of studying once, that’s how bad it got. Allow yourself a certain amount of time on the electronic device of your choice when you’re finished all your work but while you’re still busy, avoid them at all costs.
Start the day right
Try to eat breakfast every morning. A lot of times people don’t have time for breakfast in the morning when they’re heading out the door, but it’s important to try your best to make time, or at the very least, bring something in to eat on the sly during your first class of the day. It’s definitely never a good idea to start the day on an empty stomach, and if you eat, you’ll get the energy and nutrients your brain needs to function. You’ll feel more tired and out of it if you don’t eat in the morning, so always make a conscious effort to even just grab some fruit or yoghurt if you’re absolutely rushing out the door.
Be optimistic
Keep an open mind, be friendly, and, most importantly; be optimistic! Don’t start your new school year thinking about all the crap things you’re gonna have to do, just try your best to focus on all the great times you’ll have when you’re back with all your friends again! I know I’ve mostly talked about work and studying, but definitely don’t forget about the social side of things either. There are always going to be people in your year you don’t like, but honestly, if you’re just nice to everyone, it’ll make your life a whole lot easier, and maybe you’ll even get to make friends with people you never thought you’d be friends with! Just keep an open mind, and be the kind of person you’d like to be around.
Good luck with school this September, I hope you have a great year!
The time has come. I am now at that point in my life when the only question people ask me is, “And what will you be doing after graduation?” I have one year left at university and time is closing in on me fast.
For me, I have my plan, just not the job. I have told my family over a million times that I will be taking two years off to work abroad and travel, and then transition into law school. Simple, right? Of course not. The questions seem to multiply at that point.
‘What jobs will you do for those two years?’, ‘Where will you live?’, ‘The economy is terrible. You know that, right?’ ‘What if you get married abroad’? ‘You honestly think you will go back to school after two years’? ‘Won’t you be too old for law school by then?’.
If I am going to be too old for law school at 24, I better just crawl in a hole and disappear right now. Why must I be so rushed to jump into going right back to school and deciding the path I will be walking down for the rest of my life?
First of all, I have never truly lived in the real world. I have been in school for 15 years now. I have always had my parents to fall back on if times get tough. I have only been holding jobs for 6 years, and those were barely part-time. I have no idea what the real working and living world is like.
Second, I will never get another carefree time in my life as I have right now. I have no boyfriend, no house, a car I can sell, no high position job, the only thing I have holding me back is my mother, and that is why we were given Skype. Right now is the best time of my life to break away from my everyday comfortable life and experience the huge world available to me.
These days it seems like a rushed process to get all of us students in and out of school and into a desk before you can even say “diploma.”
Young people need to be given the time and space to choose what they would like to pursue, rather than just being pushed into it. Everyone tells us we are destined to do something great, or have that great career, but we are never given the time to make it happen.
Now I am not saying that we should all pack our bags and leave our families behind to go travel the unknown and party two years of our lives away. When I say that I am taking two years off work, I plan to be doing honest work and paying my way through life. I plan to be studying for all of my examinations to get into law school and filling out applications.
I just plan on doing all of this far away from home, doing a job that might not be at all relevant to my future, and meeting people that I would never meet if I had just shipped my way directly into another library and classroom.
Championships are not won overnight. Countries are not created in just days. Buildings aren’t built within hours. Babies don’t develop in a blink. So why should our futures?
Devon has been interning with SpunOut.ie all summer and comes from Detroit, Michigan. Yes… the same place as Eminem.
Before April of this year I had never booked a flight on my own before. I’ve always been nervous about booking these things on my own – what if I accidently book the wrong return flight and won’t be able to get home? What if I can’t find my way around the airport? Yes, I am one of those worst-case scenario people.
Here are all my travel worries in one paragraph: I book the wrong flight, I book the wrong dates, I lose my luggage, I have to go to the toilet right before takeoff (when the seatbelt sign is on), I lose my passport and/or boarding pass, I miss my flight (which HAS happened and IS terrible but manageable), I get lost in the airport, my baggage is too heavy, I get too nervous and feel like crying… you know, all the usual stuff, right?
It would appear that most of my fears about travelling come down to two things: losing things and not being proactive enough to make the journey in the first place. All of this doesn’t matter anymore though, because I’ve become a pro at bookin’ flights, here’s how…
Travelling alone is better than travelling with friends
I’ve been abroad with friends before and the airport situation is almost always more stressful when you’re thinking of more than yourself. Airports, generally, are considered to be stressful places anyway – with security check, queues to check-in, paying for check-in if you’ve forgotten to do it online (Ryanair) – and to make the situation a little more painful just add your mates to the equation.
Imagine this, you’re all together chatting, waiting in line, worrying about your luggage and whether you’ll make it and then one of you realises you’ve left your passport in the café you just had your coffee in? Anti-banter.
When you travel alone you don’t have this added stress; you practically glide through check-in, security and fly past the people waiting on friends and family at the gate. Well, glide is a strong word when you’ve got a wheelie suitcase and a big shoulder bag to compete with, but you are swift.
But being alone while travelling is not quite so fun…
I’ve been travelling a lot this year for work and pleasure – mostly alone. Not by choice. I emigrated earlier this year and in my role I’m required to travel to other European cities. It’s great to visit other countries, be part of other cultures for a while – the time I wore a hijab in Istanbul to visit mosques was a very warm and inviting experience – and experience life on the other side of Ireland.
Other times, like when I was in Vienna, it can be quite lonesome. It was a holiday of choice because I’d always wanted to see Wien (and visit the film locations of my favourite film Before Sunrise) and I got the opportunity when I had to take my holidays from work. I jumped at the chance and it took no longer than 30 minutes to book my Lufthansa flights and Do Step Inn hostel reservation.
But when I got there… I felt sad. I was genuinely excited to see the place, go on the trams (I love street trams!), and use words ending in –strasse and –hof, as a non-German speaker it was a thrill. But I had no one to spend it with. I spent my first night in my room on Skype with friends and family… then felt silly for not taking advantage of being away.
Day 2 was better
The night of Day one, I decided to ‘snap out it’ so I set the alarm for 9am (which is early for me). I’d scoured the internet for interesting things to do in Vienna that weekend and settled for a city bike tour at 4pm. Before that I’d make my way to Friedhof der Namenlosen (Cemetery of the Nameless), a small far-off cemetery on the outskirts of the city.
The name of the cemetery is interesting. It’s called ‘Nameless’ because most of the deceased there have never been identified, having washed up on the shore of the Danube river in Alberner Hafen over 100 years ago. Some say they were from a shipwreck that sank up the River. Almost 50 bodies rest here in wooden coffins with simple iron crosses marking the spot.
I went there because it featured in Before Sunrise. It’s become a cult place to visit in Vienna solely because this film mentioned it. Getting there was tough-going: I took the Underground to Simmering, then Bus 76a to Alberner, the last stop. Unfortunately I disembarked two stops early and had to walk thirty paranoid minutes up a long, wide passage way with derelict building staring at me and non-commuter rickety train tracks reminding me of the eerie film Stand By Me.
Traveling alone taught me
For the following three days I continued my mission to fill up time – to spend it visiting film locations from a film made 18 years before and sight-seeing the capital of Austria. I mostly did novelty European things like drink coffee in cute cafes all afternoon, read from my Kindle (for this holiday setting I reeeeally should have brought an old worn paperback…) with wine in the evenings, and walk around map in hand and wandering intrigue on my face for the moments in between.
The point of this piece is this: I genuinely never thought I’d get to do this much traveling and when it became clear that my life would be like this for a while I avoided it. I stayed on the internet all day to keep up with Facebook and Twitter, which I still do (I’m an addict!) and read The Irish Times to feel closer to home. I didn’t embrace it, but now I do.
It also didn’t help that I had a crippling self-esteem complex that made me think I’d always lose my things, miss journeys and do something stupid – like book the wrong dates for a trip. My mind kept telling me I couldn’t do it. I just started doing it anyway. And you can do it too. If you have a trip on your mind book it now. Don’t be afraid to go it alone!
Every week we have more and more people who speak out about the 'taboo' subject of depression and the effects it has on people and their lives. I'm not here to explain what depression is or to tell you what to do if you're feeling depressed or how to overcome it exactly, I'm just another one of those people who want to share their story in a hope that it might help even that one person in the smallest of ways to come forward and seek help or to see that you are not alone. It can be a very sensitive subject as we all know but I just want to share my story in the most honest way I feel possible.
Just gone 18 years old, just got the course of my dreams, great friends, a loving family, no health problems and no problems in general worth even mentioning. Life is great. I'm an outgoing, friendly, and generally happy guy. Really enjoying life at the moment. Maybe I over think things sometimes, take things to heart too much and care too much, but they are all good traits right?
Let's fast forward:
A year and a half later, death of close loved ones catching up with me, money problems, my so called dream course is becoming a nightmare, long walks home in the middle of the night from college after finishing my work for the day are torture, lossing touch with friends, horrible thoughts constantly circling my brain about everything and it leads to me questioning of my existence and why exactly am I here? Is this all my fault? What did I do to deserve this? Maybe this over thinking isn't a good thing after all!
All of these problems by themselves are problems that people put up with every day. I may sound like I'm just complaining about everyday little problems, but it just so happened that all of my so called 'problems' have built up over time and I cannot cope any more. The camel's back is broken and the roof has finally fallen in on me. I didn't realise at the time but I would soon learn that I was in trouble.
After a year of feeling horrible, worthless, upset and generally not myself, I can remember the day exactly. It was like a scene from a film: being in my room by myself for about a week, a cold bleak night, horizontal rain outside, my room lit by a faint orange lamp post flickering outside, and there was me with bottles of beer littered around my room and an attack made on a bottle of whiskey, curled up on my bed, t-shirt and pillow soaked in tears and sweat, voices in my head won't stop. Why am I here? What happened to me? Why do I feel ill? Am I sick? Am I dreaming?
Why can't I wake up from this? Why am I alone? And the main question, how do I make this stop? No that's not a question, it's a fact; this has to stop! At that moment I realised I needed help. Sitting on the edge of my bed in the middle of the night. Everyone in the house thinking I went to bed so early because I'm not feeling well. I've been pretending that all is ok for too long. That masking smile that my friends see every day is a lie.
After hours of staring at the ground I finally get the so longed after courage to grab my phone. I call my brother. I just need to hear a comforting voice. He answers, I don't say a word. The only sound he can hear is the attempt of me trying not to cry. 'You ok?' he asks not knowing exactly what's going on and that was the queue for me to let go of all that was held up.
The next morning after an open conversation with my brother, I found myself on the bus home. I stayed with him in his apartment and we talked for hours. It was great to finally have someone to share these problems with.
But what do I do now. I still have these horrible thoughts in my head. Telling my parents was the first step we both agreed on. A trip to the local GP was next. Maybe these anxiety sleeping tablets will help me. I now knew that this was going to be a long road to fight this off. I dropped out of my course and decided to take the year out.
I would work for the year and stay with my friends whenever I had the chance. This was all a healing process but I still was not myself. The day my best friend sat me down to 'talk' was a big reason why I am still here.
A year on I can now say I am in a good place. I still have mini panic attacks in big crowds, I still feel down sometimes and constantly worry about all of life's problems, but now I have learned how to deal with this. I may feel down for a couple of days but I can manage now.
I would love to say I have beaten depression but that would be a lie. We still fight and it does knock me down hard at times but I'm winning at the moment and someday I hope the fight will be over and the demons will be gone.
I'm now back in college, I have even closer friends and family who I cannot express how much they mean to me. I'm finally feeling like me again. The once happy, friendly outgoing guy is back and I really like that guy. I now look at everything with a more open mind, have things to look forward to and I take every day as it comes.
As I said I am just here to share my story as I found reading other stories helped me get through things. If I had just one piece of advice, and you all hear it every day, is… talk to someone. Even if it's just about something small. If I didn't talk it out and open up a just that little bit I could still be in that 'dark room' or worse where no one wants to be.
Talk to a family member, talk to a mate, talk to your doctor, talk to your dog even. Just talk to someone. Even leave a little comment to share how you are feeling, you don't have to say much. I, and everyone around you just wants you to know that you are not alone no matter what is going on. Just talk!
In recent years computing has become a significant part of our lives, nowadays instead of writing a letter we send emails and instead of going to the library we use sites such as Wikipedia. The vast majority of us have in some way used a computing device at one point in ours lives.
Many young adults or as I rather say, teenagers, are becoming slaves of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, according to the social networking statistics, over 90% of young adults use social media. I wonder how many of these young adults can use or even know about the wonderful skill of coding.
First of all, what is coding? Coding is the act of writing a program in a programming language, coding is what makes it possible for us to create computer software, games, apps and websites. Your browser, search engine, Facebook and this website were all made by coding.
Coding is the way in which we speak to computers, the way in which we tell the computer what to do, coding has become a widely used language and as Mark Surman, Executive Director of Mozilla, says, "The web is becoming the world's second language and a vital 21st century skill, as important as reading, writing and arithmetics".
It puzzles me as to how so many of us young people our age can be able to open a browser and log on to social networks such as Facebook, use it, and not have a clue of the process involved in making the social network. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you should go out and start learning complex languages such as C++ or Binary (I'm sure we all know that from the movie Matrix) but having a basic understanding of programming can help fix simple computer problems which really does save a lot of time.
Actually, learning how to code isn't a difficult task, all you need is an interest in coding and internet connection, you don't need to be in college and you certainly don't need to enroll in a university or programming course. In fact, thanks to many programming resources such as Codecademy or W3Schools basically anyone can learn how to code and unlike some of the scary myths going around, a mathematical ability is not needed, even though it can help.
Let's look at some of the benefits of learning code:
Make your own website
Have you ever wanted to make your presence known on the web such as designing your own web portfolio or a website for your own business? Your ability to create your own website is severely limited if you do not know any of the coding languages such as HTML, CSS or Javascript.
Become a programmer
Ever wanted to design your own game? This is the no.1 reason why many kids such as Jordan Casey get into programming, by learning code you can attain the knowledge needed to know how to make your own iOS games, apps, web services or even console games! Also let's not forget that the demand of programmers in the technology industry is rapidly growing, the world as the video below shows, is practically crying out for programmers:
Understand how technology works
This is probably the biggest benefit of all, after all we are in the 21st century, you probably use a phone, touchscreen device or some sort of computer, isn't it strange that you don't fully understand how any of these devices work? As Douglas Rushkoff says, "Program or be Programmed"
I believe that the times when we could simply afford to switch on a computer is over, technology is evolving and we as a people should evolve with it too by constantly improving our skills. Of course coding is not for everyone, there are many more skills that we should all learn and coding is simply one of these skills.
Everyone has a talent and everyone should express this talent and be able to build on it. Just remember that you have no right to complain about your parents not being able to use a computer unless you know how to operate it yourself!
I have finally finished my Leaving Cert exams. Words cannot describe how happy I feel right now. I am elated. Ecstatic. Excited. I have always considered myself to be a fairly optimistic person. I always “look on the bright side of life” and I am an all-round happy guy. But in a lot of ways, the Leaving Cert took its toll on me.
I think that in general, school caters to one type of person and they are the logical thinking, academic people. I think that I am more creative; I like drama and theatre, music, and writing. I knew that the education system and I would not necessarily be the best of friends, but now that it’s over I am looking forward to just living for a while.
A difficult year
To be completely honest, the leaving cert was probably the worst ten months of my life. I hope I don’t sound too melodramatic, but it’s honestly the truth. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of good times too – the graduation ceremony, the mock interviews, the various college open days, and even the excitement of setting up my CAO account for the first time.
But the awful days were too many, in my opinion, and the optimistic light that had once shone from me had started to distinguish slowly as the year dragged on.
My advice to anyone who is struggling
I couldn’t take the pressure of it, the exams, the decisions, the lack of time. It was all too much and when I got it wrong, I was made to feel like a failure. I’m writing this article to let people know that it’s okay to feel this way. Many people feel this way. It’s not something to be ashamed of and it’s a normal part of human life.
My advice to future 6th years would be – try not to panic. The Leaving Cert will not define your life if you don’t let it. The exams are very important but at the end of the day, a piece of paper with a grade on it is not a reflection of your success as a person. Whether you end up getting a D3 on an ordinary level paper, or an A1 on a higher level paper, you are worth more than that.
This was something that took me a while to realise, and is something that the Irish education system has, in my opinion, failed to grasp. There are always back doors into everything, points race aside. As my stereotypical Irish mammy once said to me “The only results that matter is the results you get from the doctor.” If that’s the case, how lucky we all are.
I remember the anticipation welling up within me when I received my acceptance letter from my study abroad program in Ireland. A celebratory dance and a few glasses of wine later, I excitedly Googled pictures of the green Irish countryside and the long, winding streets of Dublin. I couldn’t believe my luck – I was going to be spending my summer in the “land of saints and scholars.” Unknowingly, I was already setting unrealistic sights on some sort of mythical fairy tale summer.
In the days before I was leaving, I hurriedly filled my suitcases to the brim with the packing guide’s recommendations of jackets, tennis shoes, t-shirts and scarves. I could talk of nothing else but my plants to take Europe by storm. Looking back on it, I think I was in such a frenzied pace of excitement that I forgot to consider all the people, places and things that I was leaving behind in America.
But as I walked through the security gate at the airport and turned around to wave goodbye to my mother, it hit me like a wave. I was leaving my home, my family, my dog, my friends, my favourite food, and everything that I had grown so accustomed to for the past twenty years.
Sure, I’m only gone for two months, but walking onto that plane sure felt like I was leaving my home for an eternity. I had never even considered that I would feel so panicked as the jet hurled through the sky, carrying me thousands and thousands of miles away from home.
Once I arrived in Dublin, though, the real culture shock began. How do I get money? What are all these coins? Why are these cars driving on the wrong side of the road? All these thoughts echoed incessantly inside my head throughout my first few days here.
From dream to nightmare
Suddenly, my dream summer had taken a turn into a nightmare. And to cope with the seemingly huge space between myself and home, I was constantly Skyping, Face Timing and iMessaging my friends and family back home. I holed myself up in my room, never bothering to go outside and explore the city that I had so desperately wanted to come to in the first place.
Soon enough, my family back home realised they could no longer enable my homesickness. As hard as it was for them, they told me they would only be able to talk over the web twice a week. Soon enough and much to my dismay, my constant barrage of Skype messages were going unnoticed.
Now I was in a really terrible position. I felt completely out of place in this city and yet I had no one to talk to about it. With no other form of social networking to distract me, I forced myself to take a walk along the river to escape the misery of my room.
I walked up and down the bridges, strolled though the pebble streets of Temple Bar, and walked through the impressive gates of Trinity College. Slowly but surely, my homesickness was giving way to a new feeling – one of excitement. Yes, the excitement that had so filled my thoughts before I had left had finally returned! I was in a completely new world, and as cheesy as it sounds, there was something new and exciting to be found around every corner.
In only a little over a week, I feel as though I have been able to change my outlook on my experience here completely. One of the most important pieces of advice my mother gave me was to be thankful for the opportunity to come here. Yes, we’ve all heard that before. But for me, it really worked. I can’t count how many people who told me how lucky I was to be able to travel abroad, and realising that I am fortunate enough to be able to have this experience was a real game changer for me.
But still, everyone reacts to situations differently. Some people can easily handle change and other can’t. It doesn’t make you any lesser of a person if you can’t jump right into your abroad experience. It can take time for many to feel comfortable and adjusted, and that’s completely fine.
Simply put, for some, homesickness will be inevitable. You’re just going to miss home! Don’t be ashamed of that – be proud that you love where you come from so much.
Don't let homesickness ruin your trip
But please don’t let homesickness ruin your time while you are traveling abroad. I promise you can beat it! Learn from my mistakes – explore your new environment, keep yourself busy and don’t constantly keep in contact with your life back home. It is wonderful to be able to talk to your family from time to time, but relying on that too much might prevent you from fully immersing yourself in your new home.
Like me, you may find that coming abroad doesn’t meet all your grand expectations right away. Don’t worry – nothing turns out exactly how we plan for it. But give yourself time and I’m confident you will find the experience you were looking for.
Lastly, remind yourself that you came abroad for a reason. Whether that may be to find yourself, to work at a cool new job, or to meet amazing new people, there is a reason traveling abroad is one of the most rewarding and valuable experiences a person can have.
And always remember, time will heal homesickness. Luckily, time is on your side.
As a gifted teen growing up in Ireland it has always annoyed me that there was no online information about growing up gifted in Ireland. From the perspective of a gifted teen in the same situation, there was no information from anyone that I could relate to. I still remember when I was fourteen going through intelligence testing and just wishing that I could have more information about the effects being gifted would actually have on my life if it came back that I was gifted.
I would have had a better idea of what it actually had the power to change in relation to my mental health, the likelihood that I would experience bullying in my life and my perspective on the world in general if had actually found someone or somewhere online where I could ask someone my own age who was going through the same thing. So, in the spirit of activism and empowerment SpunOut implies, I've decided to change it and write an article about what it's actually like to be young and exceptionally able in this country.
Being a teenager is not an easy task, probably the most misunderstood qroup of people there is, but growing up gifted is perhaps even more of a challenge. As a general rule gifted teens are exactly the same as everyone else and we're contented, perfectly run of the mill people. Sadly it's certainly not the case for all of us. Social isolation is a major problem for many of us – it's difficult to connect with ordinary peers because our interests are often very different, there's little common ground. The things I'm deeply passionate about, the jokes I understand and the way my mind processes thoughts are all wildly in contrast to the majority of my classmates for example.
Pressure from parents and teachers to achieve is quite possibly the most real issue for gifted teens though, right here and now I am dispelling the myth that all exceptionally able teens are high achievers. Bogus! Lies! Not true. Not one bit. Intelligence is not measured by exam results, no matter what the Irish education system tries to tell us.
Another challenge is that due to the fact that we tend to understand concepts faster then our peers it's common to be bored in class, it leads to many gifted teens becoming disruptive in a classroom setting and in some cases misdiagnosis of conditions such as ADHD and Asppergers. Even more acute an issue is the fact that it is possible for teens to be "twice exceptional" ie. to have a learning disability as well as being gifted.
The fact that these teens are gifted is very often ignored in the Irish education system and they can feel frustrated because special educational resources are provided for them to assist them with any difficulties they face in the classroom as a result of their learning disability but there are no resources provided in relation to their giftedness.
Irritation regarding the lack of resources for gifted teens is not exclusive to the twice exceptional. In fact the majority of people like myself call for giftedness to be recognised in legislation as a special educational need and for resources to be allocated to gifted teens.
Bullying is a major problem for teens like myself and I have no honest answer why. I experienced bullying in two of the three schools I've attended and many of my friends who are also classed as gifted have similar stories to mine. I've heard stories I couldn't repeat about disgusting acts of physical and verbal abuse towards gifted teens, simply because they have an elevated intelligence level. It's heartbreaking, it's really not acceptable. If you are being bullied (gifted or not!) please seek help.
My way of dealing with the challenges I faced was to use the only palpable resource available to gifted teens in this country, in fact that's what the intelligence testing was all about – I went to CTYI (Centre for Talented Youth Ireland). If you just so happen to be a gifted teen or a teen who thinks they might be gifted you should know about CTYI.
It's a camp for young people with "exceptional academic ability", you can attend residentially or commute to campus, and you attend college style courses in subjects not seen in second – level education, eg. Japanese, law and behavioural psychology, on the DCU campus for three weeks in late June to early July (Session 1) or mid July to early August (Session 2).
I didn't know it when I stepped onto campus that first day but CTYI became the one place in the world I could really express myself and be who I wanted to be. It was -and still is!- filled with wondeful, caring intellectuals who taught me that I can be confident, I can have people skills and I don't have to hide who I am to fit in the real world. Gone were the days where I would cower away from social interaction, prefering to be alone with a book in my own mind.
It helped me to get over any social anxiety I had. I still have the amazing friends I met my first day and I make more every summer I return. My new found confidence meant I returned to school and got a million times closer to the group of friends I was developing at the time. I became happy and I have CTYI to thank for that. It became my second home, my homeland and my safe place (where I think about if I'm feeling low) for the 50 weeks of the year I'm not there. This summer will be my third on campus.
I think you'll see the importance now of a place like CTYI, where gifted teens have a place to go and be with people who are experiencing the same daily challenges, where we can go and be completely ourselves. Where we can go and embrace our beloved traditions and friends – most of all though, CTYI is a place of complete acceptance. Sadly, no government funding is provided for CTYI and they rely on public donations to provide any necessary financial aid to students who wish to attend the programme but can't afford the expense.
Our electoral system is broken we are told. Nobody else in the world uses PR-STV besides Malta. It’s time for a change. With the Constitutional Convention about to consider our electoral system, PR-STV appears to be just about hanging on.
Several claims have been leveled against the current system; chief amongst them that it promotes an excessive sense of parochialism amongst TD’s. Opponents claim that the overly proportional and open nature of our system means that any prospective candidate is not only fighting against other parties but also those from within his/her own party.
This leaves little time for interest in national affairs. When looked at comparatively, Ireland’s political representatives are in fact not far outside the norm in stating that their primary concerns are their constituents. In fact, in the House of Commons 53% of MPs state that it is a ‘high’ priority versus 39% in Dáil Eireann. Hansard, a political research organisation, found that MPs spend on average 49% of their time on constituency based issues.
Dáil Deputies, by comparison, spend 53% of their time on constituency issues. As Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the House of Representatives has said ‘All politics is local’. PR-STV is both an open (in terms of voter choice for candidate and party) and proportional system of electing representatives. While the system itself is unique when compared with other proportional systems, it does not differ as wildly as has been claimed. It makes the politicians responsive to their electorate.
Indeed, ensuring that politicians are linked to the electorate is becoming increasingly common across Europe where variations on a list system are used. It is this system that has been proposed by some as an antidote to our current woes. Nevertheless, these solutions come with their own problems. Closed list systems mean voters are once removed from their representatives. One could argue that it is better for the electorate to choose their own candidates rather than anonymous individuals at party HQ presenting the electorate with a restricted menu of options.
Proponents of a list system are essentially saying that they trust party apparatchiks to choose who we should have as a fair proportion of our representatives rather than the electorate. The reality of why our politicians are seen to be parochial in nature is far more complex. We have a system that perversely facilitates a huge amount of choice by the electorate in choosing who they want and from what party.
Post-election though, the electorate becomes powerless, as the political representatives that have been elected find themselves in a Dáil where the Cabinet and Government is all powerful vis á vis the Parliament, and where the average backbenchers or leader of the opposition has little or no say in policy formulation or legislation.
Our politicians also find themselves in a situation where their constituents look to them rather than local councillors for assistance in relatively mundane issues. Our local system of Government is effectively useless; it has paltry powers in terms of raising funds and in comparison with other states, it has little or no role in the provision of education, health or transport.
What is needed then is not in fact an overhaul of the electoral system but rather a reform of our Parliament and local Government. The much maligned PR-STV actually gives Irish voters greater choice than most other options while also ensuring minority groups are heard. Until backbenchers and the Opposition are at least given the chance to look at legislation in a meaningful way and hold inquiries in committees we cannot simply lay the blame at the feet of our electoral system. Reform of local Government would also go a long way to alleviating the local, “bread and butter” issues that our TD’s have to deal with on a regular basis.
This is not to say that another system cannot be tried but it would, at best, be a band aid solution to the problem that bedevils Irish politics. Parochialism. Do some politicians abuse this loophole in the system? Undoubtedly. But as long as our national politicians are perceived to have more power than councillors on local, relatively unimportant issues, such as filling in potholes and are ignored once they reach the gates of Leinster House, then no electoral system will fix the ‘way we do politics.’