“11 minutes” & masturbation

After reading “11 minutes” by Paulo Coelho, and the impact that book had on me, I felt the need to share what I learned with you.

The book deals with sexuality, the importance of passion, and the conception of sex.

introduction

Maria, from the interior of Brazil, goes to seek her fortune in Switzerland, only to find that reality is harder than she expected and she ends up working in a brothel on Rue de Berne, the heart of Geneva’s red-light district. The book deals with issues surrounding sex and sexuality, such as prostitution, and sacred sex in the context of love. Because of its graphic descriptions, the novel has been described as “erotic”.

Maria is on journey to find what true love is but ends up letting her own life guide her. She enters a life that leads her down the path of sexual awakenings and almost leads to her self-destruction when she is introduced to all sides of sexual experience. When she has given up hope to find true love she meets a painter with whom she falls in love. And she must now choose where she is to take her life. Either to let it lead her or finally take control of her life and end this subtle self-destructive life she is leading. Just like many of Coelho’s books, this book is also about a journey of self-discovery that leads the reader into understanding the issues of sex (in prostitution), sacred sex, and sex in the context of love.

The book started by this beautiful poem:

“For I am the first and the last
I am the venerated and the despised
I am the prostitute and the saint
I am the wife and the virgin
I am the mother and the daughter
I am the arms of my mother
I am the barren and my children are many
I am the married woman and the spinster
I am the woman who gives birth and she who never procreated
I am the consolation for the pain of birth
I am the wife and the husband
And it was my man who created me
I am the mother of my father
I am the sister of my husband
And he is my rejected son
Always respect me
For I am the shameful and the magnificent one.”

And I will share some more quotes from the book before I talk more about my topic:
At every moment of our lives we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss.
Eleven Minutes

After a while she began to enter a kind of paradise, the feelings grew in intensity, until she noticed that she could no longer see or hear clearly, everything appeared to be tinged with yellow, and then she moaned with pleasure and had her first orgasm. Orgasm! It was like floating up to heaven and then parachuting slowly down to earth again.
Eleven Minutes
Maria discovers masturbation.

If I must be faithful to someone or something, then I have, first of all, to be faithful to myself.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s diary

Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally come to realize that nothing really belongs to them.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s diary

. It is not time that changes man, nor knowledge; the only thing that can change someone’s mind is love.
Eleven Minutes

I’m not a body with a soul, I’m a soul that has a visible part called body.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s diary.

In love, no one can harm anyone else; we are each of us responsible for our own feelings and cannot blame someone else for what we feel.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s diary.

No one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s diary.

There is always a right moment to stop something.
Eleven Minutes

Passion: it can be used to describe the beauty of an earth-shaking meeting between two people… It’s there in the excitement of the unexpected, in the desire to do something with real fervor, in the certainty that one is going to realize a dream. Passion sends us signal that guide us through our lives, and it’s up to me to interpret those signs.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s Diary.

Considering the way the world is, one happy day is almost a miracle.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s Diary.

The great aim of every human being is to understand the meaning of total love. Love is not to be found in someone else, but in ourselves; we simply awaken it. But in order to do that, we need the other person. The universe only makes sense when we have someone to share our feelings with.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s Diary.

Passion makes a person stop eating, sleeping, working, feeling at peace. A lot of people are frightened because, when it appears, it demolishes all the old things it finds in its path.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s Diary.

Keeping passion at bay or surrendering blindly to it – which of these two attitudes is the least destructive? I don’t know.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s Diary.

Profound desire, true desire is the desire to be close to someone.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s Diary.

What is real always finds a way of revealing itself.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s Diary.

Really important meetings are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s Diary.

Anyone who is in love is making love the whole time, even when they’re not. When two bodies meet, it is just the cup overflowing. They can stay together for hours, even days. They begin the dance one day and finish it the next, or – such is the pleasure they experience – they may never finish it. No eleven minutes for them.
Eleven Minutes
Ralf to Maria.

Sex has come to be used as some kind of a drug: in order to escape reality, to forget about problems, to relax. And like all drugs, this is a harmful and destructive practice.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s Diary.

We all have a clock inside us, and in order to make love, the hands on both clocks have to be pointing to the same time… If you love another person, you don’t depend on sex act to feel good. Two people who live together and love each other need to adjust the hands of their clocks, with patience and perseverance, until they realize that making love is more than just an encounter, it is genital ’embrace’.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s Diary.

If you live your life intensely, you experience pleasure all the time and don’t feel the need for sex.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s diary.

When a teacher helps someone to discover something, the teacher always learns something new too.
Eleven Minutes
Terence to Maria.

The world enjoys suffering and pain. There’s sadism in the way we look at these things, and masochism in our conclusion that we don’t need to know all this in order to be happy, and yet we watch other people’s tragedies and sometimes suffer along with them.
As I say, it’s the human condition. Ever since we were expelled from paradise, we have either been suffering, making other people suffer or watching the suffering of others. It’s beyond our control.
Eleven Minutes
Terence to Maria.

The art of sex is the art of controlled abandon.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria’s diary.

We are human beings, we are born full of guilt; we feel terrified when happiness becomes real possibility; and we die wanting to punish everyone else because we feel impotent, ill-used and unhappy.
Eleven Minutes
Ralf to Maria.

Why was it that in God’s holy world men were only interested in showing her pain. Sacred pain, pain with pleasure, pain with explanations or without, but always pain, pain, pain…
Eleven Minutes
Maria.

“I felt that pain is a woman’s friend.”
“That is the danger.”
“I also felt that pain has its limits.”
Eleven Minutes
Maria and Ralf.

…it’s (pain) a very powerful drug. It’s in our daily lives, in our hidden suffering, in the sacrifices we make, blaming love for the destruction of our dreams. Pain is frightening when it shows its real face, but it’s seductive when it comes disguised as sacrifice or self denial. Or cowardice. However much we may reject it, we human beings always find a way of being with pain, or flirting with it and making it a part of our lives.
Eleven Minutes
Ralf to Maria.

Pain and suffering are used to justify the one thing that brings only joy: love.
Eleven Minutes
Ralf to Maria.

They all believe that man feels desire for only eleven minutes a day, and that they’ll pay a fortune for it. That’s not true; a man is also a woman; he wants to find someone, to give meaning to his life.
Eleven Minutes
Maria thinking about the other prostitutes, her mother and her friends. Bodies always understand each other, even when the souls do not.
Eleven Minutes

Maria asks Ralf to touch her and feel her with his hands. In all languages in the world, there’s the same proverb: “What the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over”. Well, I say there isn’t an ounce of truth in it. The further off they are, the closer to the heart are all those feelings we try to repress and forget. If we are in exile, we want to store away every tiny memory of our roots. If we’re far from the person we love, everyone we pass in the street reminds us of them.
Eleven Minutes
Maria, in her diary, quoting a priest.

Love was necessary if one was to experience pleasure in bed.
Eleven Minutes
Maria thinking.

After reading those quotes you already awaked yourself on some points…

We all know it is quite harder for women to reach orgasm during intercourse so they turn to masturbation, though it is not the only reason why women as well masturbate.

Only about a third of women experience orgasm regularly during intercourse. A third can reach orgasm with intercourse but need extra stimulation. A third never achieve orgasm during intercourse but can by manual and oral stimulation. Having orgasms by means other than intercourse is a normal variation of female sexuality. In the past, people thought that “mature” women had their orgasms with intercourse; you will sometimes run across an older book that has this view. However, laboratory studies in the 1960’s showed that an orgasm is an orgasm no matter which way you obtain it. How a woman reaches an orgasm has nothing to do with her mental health or emotional maturity.

While there are many ways a loving partner can help a woman reach orgasm, in the end, a woman is responsible for her own sexual pleasure. That does not mean her partner should not be involved. Communication between partners is very important. It is up to the woman to inform her partner her likes and dislikes in their love making.

And here is the important point that the book did talk about… communication

It is never about reaching an orgasm or not or the way to reach one, but the communication between the couple, they should click together literally

“Many women enjoy the closeness and physical intimacy of sex and are satisfied even if they do not, or do not always, have an orgasm.”

I found a good simple article about masturbation:

Written by Christine Webber, psychotherapist and lifecoach

What is masturbation?

To masturbate means to stimulate yourself in a sexual way. This can be done by hand, or with sex aids – some highly-sexed women can even do it by rubbing their thighs together. And a tiny minority of women can do it with no genital contact at all, but simply through caressing their breasts.

Such stimulation often leads to orgasm, but not invariably, as many women enjoy stroking themselves and experiencing pleasure that does not necessarily culminate in a climax.

Most men have masturbated, often beginning at a fairly young age.

Women tend to start masturbation later however, and it does not tend to be such an automatic activity as it is for most men and boys.

Furthermore, even once a woman has learned to masturbate, she will probably do it less than the average man – and it seems that far fewer women than men do it regularly.

Various people have speculated on why this is the case. But most agree that it is to do with basic sex drive.

It does appear that if you compare the sex drive of an average young woman and an average young man, then the man is likely to be the more highly sexed of the two. This is partly because a woman’s fluctuating hormones tend to mean that her desire for sex is not as constant as a man’s is.

Another reason for masturbation being less important to women than men is that a man’s sexual apparatus is all outside his body and he is focused on the pleasure his penis provides him from a very young age.

Women’s sex organs are less obvious. For example, the clitoris – which is the main organ of pleasure in most women – is hidden away under the labia. Also, though this is less the case now than it used to be, girls have traditionally been brought up to be more modest and secretive about their bodies.

Even so, many young women nowadays will enjoy masturbation prior to experiencing love play or intercourse with a partner. But vast numbers of females do not discover masturbation till their late teens – and some never do it at all.

Is masturbation a good thing?

Years ago, girls were told that masturbation was an ‘immature’ activity and that it was important not to get too fixated on it and that if you did, then you might be unable to progress to ‘proper’ lovemaking with a man.

Most experts now regard this sort of advice as nonsense.

Indeed, most clinicians and counsellors working in the world of sex and/or relationship therapy believe that a woman can learn a great deal about her own sexual response through masturbation, and that she can then pass on what she knows to any partner – male or female – she may have.

So, masturbation should not be regarded as immature or shameful. It is something that most normally-sexed women do. They may reserve it for when they feel in need of a treat, or they may do it very regularly – even when they are in a relationship.

Some women choose to masturbate in order to ease abdominal cramps during their periods. Others only ever do it if they feel seriously frustrated. And yet others do it both privately and also as part of the loveplay they share with their partners. All this is normal.

For some people the very idea of stimulating themselves can seem worrying, or unappealing, or something to be ashamed of. It’s a good idea if women can rid themselves of these feelings.

Masturbation is a great way to lessen tension in your body. It’s a very safe way to have an orgasm. And it’s probably the best way to learn about how your body likes to be loved. . But masturbation, like most things, takes practice. And the only way to learn about your own sexual response is to try it.

Finally … I heard about lots of source of pleasure, like passion which is the biggest mostly.

I as well heard about women who reach orgasm without even touching their genitals, some just by thinking or watching their lover…

I as well came across something important in the book, sadism and they way pain can give pleasure to some, and how dangerous it can be as well.

Christmas

christmas nowadays

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Christmas is near; it is nothing I imagined it to be.
With all the decorations, the Christmas tree, the new clothes, the celebrations, the Christmas songs, the dinners with the family, the red wine, the presents, the holiday…
It is not the Christmas I always wanted, the one with the spirit of giving without expecting a thing in return, about prayers, about a time to look towards the people in need and make a difference, time for forgiveness and loving.
Wake up and make each other warm with love this Christmas, love who u hated, forgive who caused you harm, and care about the person u didn’t even care to stop and say hello too…
And keep that Christmas spirit with you everyday.
this is an awesome article about giving, written by Dania Dbaibo Darwish, a woman i respect
http://coachingur3ps.wordpress.com/2…wer-of-giving/

Quote:

How many times do you bend backwards attempting to do someone else a favor only it does not get reciprocated when you are the one in need? Does it happen often enough to discourage you from being a giving person? You wonder: This is not in line with the “norm of reciprocity” (i.e. the social expectation that people respond to each other in kind)? Consider this: the expectation that you receive back from the same person may be the norm, but never the rule. You will receive back in return; albeit, from multiple other sources. Don’t be reluctant to keep giving as you are bestowed at least ten fold. How is that possible, you ask?

1. Giving feels good. You have been a positive impact. You took part in someone else’s life. In return, you reap a positive psychological reward (i.e. I am useful). Caution: buffer your disappointment by not expecting a repayment in kind. Do it for the sake of getting that “helper’s high”.

2. Giving enhances your physical health. When you feel good psychologically, it feeds into your physiology. It is a known fact that psychological and physical states are interrelated.

3. Giving others can offset being totally self-absorbed. That is very applicable in times of distress or even success. It is a distracter from over-indulgence in one’s own misery on one hand; and a source of redirecting the overflow of positive emotions to others in need on the other hand. Why hoard the pleasure of accomplishment to ones’ self? Share it.

4. Giving fosters a sense of abundance. You are wealthy if you are able to provide and give. Have the conviction that your reservoir will not dry. Hey! “There’s more where that came from”.

5. Giving shapes your life with meaning. Yes, you are here for a reason. You have a purpose. Giving is life enriching.

6. Giving satisfies the need for social connections. We all have this need to connect with others; and sometimes those interactions are not so satisfactory. How about turning things round when that’s the case? Make your relationships and interactions beneficial one way or another?

7. Giving makes you nicely remembered. We are not going to live forever (and that’s another fact). Ask yourself: How would I like to be remembered? Wouldn’t it be nice to leave positive prints behind?

8. Giving can trigger a multitude of positive thoughts about yourself. Again, as long as you’re not expecting anything in return, your thoughts will rotate around those positive attributes you possess. You are charming in so many other ways.

9. Giving entails superiority. You have the upper hand. It is your wish and will to do the things you do. Think of it as your choice; no one coerced you into doing anything.

10. Giving characterizes those who are self-actualized (i.e. those who have reached their utmost psychological development like Mother Theresa, Ghandi, and Albert Einstein). Self-actualized people are only motivated by personal responsibilities and ethics; and not by what they receive in return.

So, you see, giving spirals up into a great deal of life and self-satisfaction. I can think of many other alluring reasons for giving, but the above suffice to endorse it as a life philosophy. I am in awe when I hear of those who stretch their giving to that of self-transcendence. They give others because it makes them more fulfilled; they transcend the egocentric focus. They are so lucky to be there. Others give so much, but that has its bases in their “inability to say NO”. Giving becomes distressing, so one has to really consider if negative emotions surface. For me, I keep few things in mind as I adopt a giving attitude: it’s about being a positive influence. It is about the value it adds to my own personal growth and progress. I am able, then, to give back at least double what I receive…..

Red Alarm on

I would like to say at first that all the pollution and global warming… which lead to Climate changing, Are not the problems, but they are the symptoms of the way humans think and act, so in order to save the earth, we have to change our mentality towards nature and the earth, and be aware of the damages we are causing to our environment.

Earth is a dynamic place with a system for itself. The earth system normally passes through changes, but recently scientists have been noticing other changes in the earth system that are due to global warming as well as changes in the way land is used and pollution.

These changes are changing the regular patterns of the system.

Scientists are also studying how the parts of the Earth system affect each other and how they impact climate.

“The Earth reacts when aspects of the system are changed because of warming. Some reactions shrink the amount of warming while other reactions lead to even more warming. These reactions are called feedbacks.

• Reactions of the Earth system that shrink the impacts of a change are called negative feedbacks. For example, as warming causes more evaporation, this creates more clouds in the atmosphere, potentially blocking more solar energy from entering the Earth system and reducing the amount of warming.
• Reactions that exaggerate the impacts are called positive feedbacks. For example, as global warming makes sea ice melts in the Arctic less sunlight is reflected back out to space and more is absorbed, causing more warming.”

According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) things, that we humans are doing, are causing the earth to warm. It is the humans’ activities such as burning more coal and oil for homes, factories, and transportation…burning these fuels releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and more greenhouse gases causes Earth’s greenhouse effect to grow stronger, warming the climate. We should not forget that the way the land is used has impact on the climate as well, and wherever we go we see forests being vanished, we see mountains disappearing.

Scientists around the world with the IPCC tell us that during the past 100 years, the world’s surface air temperature increased an average of 0.6° Celsius. This may not sound like very much change, but even one degree will have tremendous effect in the earth system.

We can notice nowadays some effect of the climate change happening:

Sea level is rising: the global warming will make the sea level rise for two reasons; first, when climate warms, water that is on land in glaciers and ice sheets melts and makes its way down rivers to the ocean.  Second, as seawater warms, the water molecules move further apart which makes the water take up more space. Scientists expect the sea level to rise around one meter by 2100, with such an increase in water levels many coastal areas around the globe are said to disappear.

So what about there are large human populations living in coastal areas worldwide?

What about the freshwater supplies that could become contaminated with salt water?

And what about the farmland that could become flooded?

What about the millions of people who live in the cost of Bangladesh? and the homes, towns and cities are in risk of being flooded in the south Asian countries, New York, Netherlands, Tokyo, and so many other countries?

Arctic sea ice is melting. The summer thickness of sea ice is about half of what it was in 1950. Melting ice may lead to changes in ocean circulation. And this is so dangerous; because once the ocean circulation stops the polluted water would stay on top, which would cause the life in the ocean to fade, such as plants, and humans as well.

Glaciers and permafrost are melting. Over the past 100 years, mountain glaciers in all areas of the world have decreased in size and so has the amount of permafrost in the arctic. Want a proof, do not look so far, ask here in Lebanon, and check the mountains…

Sea-surface temperatures are warming. Warmer waters in the shallow oceans have contributed to the death of about a quarter of the world’s coral reefs in the last few decades. Many of the coral animals died after weakened by bleaching, a process tied to warmed waters.

Heavier rainfall cause flooding in many regions. Warmer temperatures have led to more intense rainfall events in some areas. This can cause flooding.

Example in the US, the amount of rain falling in the heaviest downpours has increased approximately 20 percent on average in the past century.

Extreme drought is increasing. Higher temperatures cause a higher rate of evaporation and more droughts in some areas of the world.

And not only the temperatures which is causing this, but as well humans behavior such as making forests vanish either to build a town or for the wood, can you imagine that at least 85% of the forests in the world do not exist anymore? Do you have any idea how many regions are turning to deserts?

Hurricanes have changed in frequency and strength. There is evidence that the number of intense hurricanes has increased in the Atlantic since 1970…

More frequent heat waves. It has become more common in more areas of the world

Warmer temperatures affect human health. There have been more deaths due to heat waves and more allergy attacks as the pollen season grows longer. There have also been some changes in the ranges of animals that carry disease like mosquitoes.

Seawater is becoming more acidic. Carbon dioxide dissolving into the oceans, is making seawater more acidic. There could be impacts on coral reefs and other marine life.

Ecosystems are changing. As temperatures warm, species may either move to a cooler habitat or die. Species that are particularly vulnerable include endangered species, coral reefs, and polar animals. Warming has also caused changes in the timing of spring events and the length of the growing season. You watch the changing of seasons here in Lebanon, it is a drastic change, and summers are getting hotter year by year.

Climate disruptions will affect more people than does war.

Now the solution, the solutions have always been there, written in books from ages, but placed on the shelf in libraries, and never applied. Why? The biggest companies which are controlling the world today mostly the petrol’s companies would not benefit from it, and the politicians who rule the countries and work under those companies would not accept those solutions that is why…

The industrial companies are ruling the world, and they look at nature as if it was an object they can own and get the freedom to do whatever they want with it, the law alone was never able alone to protect nature, nature should be protected, the conception of nature needs to change, nature has rights just as humans do, without it humans can’t survive.

The change needs to start, in the people’s culture, in the people’s minds, little step could help, stuff we learn in school, and in campaigns…

We humans are quite selfish, as for nature, all it did was give us, and we took and never gave anything in return, and that has to change.

Climate changing is not a game anymore, it is not a “What if ?”, it is happening Today, and we have to act before it is too late.

“Every citizen of the world needs to be aware of rapid climate change:

1. Understand the problem, its causes and threats.
2. Let your leaders know the facts and that you expect them to act.
3. Do something today to reduce greenhouse gas output — please Take Action”

I did my researches, and the majority of what I wrote was taking from websites, I watched documentaries which opened my eyes, and pushed me to act, I am not telling you to save the planet, but to care enough and try too.

I found Blog action day a great idea, it pushed me to open my eyes and look around me for real, and Turn the Red Alarm on. >> http://www.blogactionday.org

Money First… Humans Second

Sir… I Have an Objection

From the doctor’s oath :

“To keep the good of the patient as the highest priority.”
“ There may be other conflicting ‘good purposes,’ such as community welfare, conserving economic resources, supporting the criminal justice system, or simply making money for the physician or his employer that provide recurring challenges to physicians.”

I was always outraged by stories I heard about people dying on the doors of the hospital because they have no money to pay for their surgery.
My mother is a nurse, she has been one for more than 25 years, and I heard from her stories, which make you wonder if humanity has any meaning anymore.
I did imagine if they did treat people without money, it will cause chaos and some other sort of injustice, and then all people will want to be treated for free, and will claim poor just not to pay, but I think solutions can be found, such as let them pay later, after a long time, and if someone lied about his/her financial status, let there be bad consequences such as take extra money, so he won’t do it again, and this way it will be a lesson to someone else to not do it as well…
We have a brain to come up with such a solution, but to let people die on the doors just because they have no money is just wrong!
For money to come first and humans second is just wrong!

And my other objection, are shrinks and therapists… they are too expensive.
My friend who seriously needs to go visit a shrink can’t go now, because he can’t afford to go.
This person might someday endanger his family, himself, or others can’t seek proper help because he has no money.
And so many other people I know as well, which makes me so angry, because it is just unfair.
I did ask my social assistant in school 2 years ago, if I can find one who is not expensive, she tried to look up, but she told me you have to go to an organization or even go to a school for special needs, well I was for 2 years in school for special needs people and it was too damn expensive, and all they wanted was fake stuff just to swallow more money.

Why do the majority always care about the money, more than they care about a human being?

Life is more than a game

My friend asked my opinion on this line: “life is a game, but it not fair” that line is taken from a song, my friend didn’t agree with the fact that life is a game, though he did admit that it isn’t fair.

And I told him that it depends on people, and on their conception of life.

Some see life as a game.

Some see life as a test.

Some see life as obligation…

Some as well, might see life quite fair.

I, as an example, see my life as a novel, and myself the hero, the story starts at my birth, written by other authors ( by example parents ) and I get to a certain age, where the pages start to get empty and blank, and I continue writing the story the other authors started.

Remember what people often say about the past is the past, but we can still control the future… that we can’t do anything about the past, but we can change our future?

The past is already written… I can’t change it but in front of me there is so many white pages, and I have the pen ( referring to the ability  to change my life ) to write my own story and continue it .

During that time, stuff will be written, stuff I can’t erase or change ( example a car accident, or someone’s death, or me getting a disease) but in the book there is still some spaces available for me to fill, so in the end, I can still have my own story, what I write in it matters.

In conclusion, we all have our own story, where we are the hero of this story!

Taking a Stand

Summer will soon be over, universities and schools back, and I had to take a stand.

I heard a lot about universities, and I read a lot, as well as I saw a lot, and I have to say it is quite a shame for the government as well as for the entire country to not provide an enough and respectable orientations for students getting into universities, or even providing opportunities for student to have the chance to study the major they love and they are good at it.

Most private universities in Lebanon are expensive, and yes there is financial Aids, but I know that even with financial Aids, it is so hard to afford such universities, because they always forget that the student not only has to worry about tuition but about transportation, tools, projects… and there is some other private universities, where you learn for couple of years, but in the end, it is useless.

The Lebanese universities, we all know how hard it is, not only to get in, as much as to fit in, and to go with the system.

First I have to give my own opinion, which is that the administration in LU hadath sucks, they barely give you information, and if they do it is mostly wrong, and for the website to be under construction for months, that is just wrong.

Yes, not anyone can enter LU, if u do, you are lucky, and lucky if you will be able to handle it.

Where are our choices? Myself as a Lebanese student, searching for a decent university which will offer me the knowledge I need, a chance to do something I love, and pushes me to achieve my dreams.

Is it okay, to let in Lebanon, money limiting the dreams of the future generations?

I see people searching for majors, no idea in what university to go, what this major is about, or what majors do we have in Lebanon, and mostly what the country needs! Who is responsible for that?

Yes it is the job of the student to search, but I searched by myself, I asked people, I went to university, I went to orientations, and I read books, and I still find majors now that I didn’t hear about before because no one told me about it before.

So this student graduating from school, with enough stress, standing in the middle of this crossroad, who will help him/her to make the right choice, the choice that will affect the rest of his/her life?

Everyone should care about that issue, because this is our future generation, the people who will rule tomorrow, who will build Lebanon tomorrow, who will handle our business, and who will heal us.

Someone needs to step up and take responsibilities.

Schools as universities should work together, in order to do more orientations in all schools, not in the expensive private schools only, and they should offer to the school more guide, as books and websites and brochures, for them to check, and someone to talk too, someone able to answer their questions about the major.

Now there is what to choose, what major, should we do what we love, what we are good at, what we can finish faster, what is easier, what brings more money, what sounds better?

My choice was easy, easy for me, but not for people around me, a graphic designer.

You chose something you love over money, what mum usually says, maybe but maybe not, I am planning to continue my education as long as I can. And I rather live poor going to work happy everyday, focusing all my energy on something I like to do, being enthusiastic about what I do, it is all better than going to a job I hate, just to be able to afford the home of my dreams, or to get the perfect car.

But money is important, it is not a game, it is not about buying an expensive car, or a big house, it is about life and death, because without money, I won’t be able to take care of my parents, and years from now, I would have my own family, how can I be happy doing a job I love, while my kids are starving?

That is a dilemma but it can be simple, we should be wise, do some sort of balance, put some priorities in your life, it always helps, what is more important than what, and focus on that, we can have money and same time be happy, we just should be wise and acknowledge the world we live in, and embrace reality, as well as to keep some of our idealistic thoughts, and keep on dreaming, because this is how we change the world.