My Worst Trip Ever

When I was about seventeen years old, I took a trip to Miami with my mother for fun since there had been a long time we had traveled abroad. Our plan was to go shopping at Miami malls and also to take a brief trip to Disneyland. I had been there before, when I was a kid about 10 years old, but I wanted to go to Disneyland and the rollercoaster park again because I couldn’t go on the rollercoasters when I was little due to my height.

I was extremely happy to go there again. It felt like I was going to an exciting, full of adventure world that could make me forget about all my problems all at once. In addition, the parks would be places where I could eat different food from what I was used to. I would see different people speaking a strange, intriguing and sophisticated language because it was how it sounded to my ears, where every little detail would be different from the stale routine of going to school that I was used to.

After some days I had been in Miami, I didn’t feel as happy as I thought I would be, because my mother and I didn’t speak English very well. I still knew a bit more English than her back then, since I had English classes at school once a week and there had been some years she hadn’t had any contact with the English language. As a result, we had trouble communicating with native speakers and they probably had trouble trying to figure out what we were trying to say. This strange feeling became more intense, because one of the taxi drivers tried to deceive us by bringing us to a small waterpark near by that had been closed for months and then charging us for it. Besides, we hadn’t planned many activities to do so that we had a huge amount of free time that wasn’t filled up. Furthermore, going to the malls for shopping wasn’t a great joy either, for me, at that time, since going shopping was boring and deterrent. We had spend 15 days in Miami and we had just 5 or 6 days to go to the parks that I was looking forward to.

Arriving at Disneyland brought me a jubilant sensation of delightful adventures to come, making my expectations considerably high on that part of the trip. Afterwards, my hopes all fell apart. I remember being excited about going places trying to drag my mother all around to the attractions, not wanting to waste a tiny single bit of time being idle. The disaster all happened when I ate a love apple at one of the parks. Later on the next day, I begin to feel sick, and suddenly, I saw myself throwing up several times and having diarrhea. It hit me so violently, that I could say I had vomitted countless times in the past 20 hours that afternoon. I had nothing in my stomach and I would puke just a mix of water and stomach bile. The whole next day turned out to be the same scatological outcome. I was so weak that I could barely walk. It was when my mother decided to call a doctor.

The doctor prescribed some pills to me and suggested to avoid eating solid food or any kind of dairy. I was slowly getting better, even though, I’d still vomit occasionally. The next day I remained near the room walking around the hotel sometimes so I wouldn’t be as disappointed. The next 3 following days I would go to the parks but I was prohibited of going on any attraction that would give me some sort of excitement in order to avoid throwing up. Yet, I wouldn’t care if I’d throw up later, I just felt a strong desire to eventually go on those rollercoasters. Then, the fateful day came, the day we had to fly back home to Brazil. Even when I was in the plane to fly back, I remember vommiting, which afterwards lead my mother to bring me to a doctor in Brazil. It was very frustrating for me because since I was a 10 year old I had a dream of riding those rollercoasters and again, we had been so far away from home and I couldn’t do it.

Nevertheless, I tried to take some good lesson from that experience, and it dawned on me that that trip lacked planning. Consequently, if I wanted not to have so many problems and a awkward trip like that, one of the solutions would be that I’d have at least to learn how to communicate with natives from the place I was in properly, so I decided to take English lessons apart from school. Today, that decision has shown results, because I understand and speak much better English that I used to.

Books: the tool for independent learning

“Books are men of higher stature; the only men that speak aloud for future times to hear,” stated E.S. Barrett. It’s widely known that the spot students ought to learn to read is in elementary and high school. Although teachers and parents have been worried about teenage literacy, they have not been teaching them how to understand what they’re reading and develop some critical point of view of it. Without this essential tool, teens will become adults that won’t enjoy reading, who will be puzzled with texts because they’re not used to them and don’t know how to decipher documents. These teens can decode words, but they can’t get the real meaning of the text, or even analyze them critically. People should not read a text without analyzing it because they don’t know how to deal with unknown vocabulary while reading, can’t remember what they have read later on and take no practical lesson from it whatsoever.

The first problem is that readers who don’t look up unknown words in the dictionary have problems understanding the piece of writing while they’re reading it. Due to that, focusing on unknown words while reading is an important step in a text’s recognition process. Moreover, these unknown words can be written down and used on new sentences so that not only their meaning is recognized, but also it gradually becomes active vocabulary. This process is useful because it is difficult for a person to grade what is essential information and what is not on a text if he doesn’t fully understand the message the author is trying to convey. For example, a common mistake that Karina M., a 18 year old student, makes when summarizing a text is to underline almost every word in the text. She also underlines isolated words that if put together make no sense. She says she gets confused often with the meaning of the words and also because she tries to do the task as fast as she can. Hence, to improve people’s awareness and power of judgment when confronted to a text, they must be sure of what they’re doing, and looking up words is a crucial way to keep on track.
Second, people can’t remember what they read because they do not work on their texts, but simply read them. In fact, they do not exercise their memory skills so there is no substantial information that works as a hook to retrieve it fresh from somebody’s memory. The attempt to figure out what the author’s message is must be practiced by asking questions even before reading the text and while doing it, as in: What are the main ideas exposed? What are the authors’ arguments? What is his thesis? And so on. Rania Mutzin, a 27 year old lawyer, works in a prominent lawyer firm, using these techniques every time she has to analyze a difficult text before her. For her last monograph, she had orchestrated everything to have a clear vision of her paper. She says: “The schematization of ideas facilitates learning and the retention of basic textual information.” For this reason, studying and analyzing a text makes people able to remember what they have read easier.

Third, reading a text and not understanding it makes impossible for the reader to take any lesson from the reading. It leads people to be unable to take a stand based on the ideas exposed on the text, because they cannot make use of their critical reasoning. Most of the time, these people don’t like to be reading, which is correlated with their effort to work on the document, which directly affects their understanding of it. Reading is a tool that leads to autonomous learning which is a precious path to succeed in life. Gina W. Freeman, 32 years old, is a self learner who decided to learn French by reading books. She remembers the first book she has ever read in French. Although the book was fairly easy, she took a long time to go through it. She states that looking up words in the dictionary and analyzing what the message the author was trying to reveal made her ability to read gradually faster and easier as she kept reading more and more books. Nowadays, she can read advanced books in French and even more, now she can discuss a wide range of subjects in French as well. She says: “My previous knowledge of French was very limited.” Accordingly, it’s important to study a text, because the effort and the valuable time spent doing it will be paid off with learning.

Consequently, the study of a piece of writing develops several positive outcome. It has been shown that it is not enough to know how to read a text. It is necessary to understand it; otherwise, it becomes an empty action. The importance of knowing deeply the content of a text is a essential ability for independent learning later on in life. Thus, it is important to develop the ability to analyze texts critically. Also, the acquired ability of self learning leads people to climb the corporate ladder to success. After all, men will only reach higher stature in life through books.

Investing on Yourself

Fear, anxiousness, confusion, nervousnes, yet happiness. These are common feelings that a traveler to a new country will experience during his interchange course. Even though studying abroad is a worthwhile experience, the person must know how to deal with disappointment. Nowadays, taking an interchange course has become easier than some years ago, and there are plenty of options to choose where and how it will be, including price options. Everyone should have a student exchange experience because it’s a way to become more independent, to learn new activities and to see the life from a new perspective.

Taking a student exchange is an excellent choice because it helps students become more independent. Remember that your topic sentence can have only one main idea. Having to get by on their own pushes students to grow, forcing them to learn. This trip gives students freedom to learn from their actions but in an easygoing way while they’re having fun. Alyssa Morton went to Ireland for 2 months and then backpacked with her girl friends around Europe for a year, having occasional jobs. She says that “ going on an exchange program made me learn how to get by by myself, and now whenever I’m lost, I’m able to keep myself calm and ask someone that seems trustworthy for directions or find my way back.” She added that she has learned how to locate herself and use public transportation in an unknown place. Ron Morton, 50 years old, Alyssa’s father states that the trip was profitable for Alyssa because she has learned a little more about how the world is by herself, which is more appealing and useful than learning through people’s advices. Consequently, becoming more independent and learning how the world works is an advantageous lesson that the person will bring for the rest of his life.

Also, learning new activities while traveling is fun and also helps people relax. There are plenty of activities to do while in an exchange course like kayaking, English courses, French courses, mountain biking and so forth, according to the place someone has traveled to. These activities occupy spare time while providing enjoyment, which could be difficult to schedule in a daily routine. Laura Rodrigues, 48 years old, decided to travel abroad for 6 months to learn French as an exchange elderly student. Her relatives were very supportive of the idea, especially her daughter. “When my mom came back, she seemed a whole new person. She looked 5 years younger so happy she was.” Her daughter also added that her mother seemed ready for anything she wanted to do now. For instance, after going to the gym in France, she realized she has time for it now and she has carried this wholesome habit on.” Furthermore, engaging in new activities has been proven to enhance people’s quality of life, which makes an exchange experience a interesting way to meet this objectives. Very often, traveling abroad changes the person inside and out. It happens because any experience people have affects who they are and how they interpret occurrences around them. Being in touch with a new culture broadens people’s mind and makes them able to see other perspectives, angles and usually makes them more tolerant toward differences. Samantha Burns, 28 years old, is a proof of this: “My homestay was awkward to me during the first week. Their religious beliefs and the fact they would pray every day probably 5 or 6 times daily scared me at first. But then I got used to it and learned to respect their differences.” Thus, making part of a new group changes view points and bring maturity and tolerance to the integrants because they are in contact with new models of behavior and life.

Considering all the good improvements that an exchange course can provide a person with such as independence, maturity and learning, it’s evident that whoever is able to have this experience shouldn’t postpone it because it will be a worthwhile personal investment. Furthermore, taking a break from routine is crucial for the health of our minds and body, and going abroad on an exchange course has shown its ways of improving people’s lives.

Investing on Yourself

Fear, anxiousness, confusion, nervousness, yet happiness. These are common feelings that a traveler to a new country will experience during his interchange course. Even though, it’s a worthwhile experience if the person knows how to deal with disappointments. Nowadays, taking an interchange course has become easier than some years ago, and there are plenty of options to choose where and how it will be, including price options. Everyone should have a student exchange experience because it’s a way to become more independent, to learn new activities and see the life in a new perspective.

Taking a student exchange is an excellent choice because it helps students become more independent and mature. Having to do things on their own pushes students to grow and force them to learn. This travel gives then freedom to learn from their actions but in an easygoing way while they’re having fun. Alyssa Morton went to Ireland for 2 months and then backpacked with her girl friend around Europe for a year, having occasional jobs. Alyssa Johnson says “Before going on an exchange vacation I learned how to get by by myself, now whenever I’m lost, I’m able to keep myself calm and ask someone that seems trustworthy for directions or find my way back” She added that she has learned how to locate herself and use public transportation in an unknown place. Ron Morton, 50 years old, Alyssa’s father states: “That trip was profitable for Alyssa because she has learned a little more about how the world is by herself which is more appealing and useful than learning by people’s advices. Consequently, becoming more independent and learning how the world works it’s an advantageous lesson that the person will bring for the rest of his life.

Learning new activities while travelling is fun and also helps your mind relaxing. There are plenty of activities to do while in an exchange course like kayaking, English courses, French courses, mountain biking… according to the place someone has travelled to. These activities occupy spare time while providing enjoyment, which could be difficult to schedule in a daily routine. Laura Rodrigues, 48 years old, had decided to travel abroad for 6 months to learn French as a exchange elderly student her relatives were very supportive of the idea, especially her daughter. “When my mom came back, she seemed a whole new person, more jolly and she looked 5 years younger.” Her daughter also added: “She seems ready for doing anything she wants now, after going to the gym there, she realized she has time for it now and she has carried on.” Furthermore, engaging in new activities has been proven to enhance people’s quality of life, which makes an exchange experience a interesting way to meet this objectives.

It’s often realized when travelling abroad that the person changes inside and outside. It happens because any experience people have affects who they are and how they interpret occurrences around them. Being in touch with a new culture broadens people’s mind  and makes them able to see other perspectives, angles and usually makes them more tolerant toward differences. Samantha Burns, 28 years old, is a proof of this:  “My homestay different behavior was awkward for me during the first week, for example their religious beliefs and the fact they would pray every day probably 5 or 6 times daily. But then I got used to it and learn to respect their differences.” Thus, making part of a new group changes view points and bring maturity and tolerance to the integrants because they were in contact with new models of behavior and life.

Considering all the good improvements that an exchange course can proportionate, independency, maturity and learning, it’s evident that whoever is able to have this experience shouldn’t postpone it because it will be a worthwhile personal investment. Currently, having a break from routine is crucial for the health of mind and body, and going abroad on an exchange course has shown its ways of improving people’s lives. Hence, all the unpleasant feelings that are felt during the trip are outweighed by the power of new experiences that are felt and new patterns and activities that are learned.

My worst trip ever

When I was about seventeen years old, I took a trip to Miami with my mother for fun since there had been a long time we had traveled abroad. Our plan was to go shopping at Miami malls and also to take a brief trip to Disneyland. I had been there before, when I was a kid about 10 years old, but I wanted to go to Disneyland and the rollercoaster park again because I couldn’t go on the rollercoasters when I was little due to my height.

I was extremely happy to go there again. It felt like I was going to an exciting, full of adventure world that could make me forget about all my problems all at once. In addition, the parks would be places where I could eat different food from what I was used to. I would see different people speaking a strange, intriguing and sophisticated language because it was how it sounded to my ears, where every little detail would be different from the stale routine of going to school that I was used to.

After some days I had been in Miami, I didn’t feel as happy as I thought I would be, because my mother and I didn’t speak English very well. I still knew a bit more English than her back then, since I had English classes at school once a week and there had been some years she hadn’t had any contact with the English language. As a result, we had trouble communicating with native speakers and they probably had trouble trying to figure out what we were trying to say. This strange feeling became more intense, because one of the taxi drivers tried to deceive us by bringing us to a small waterpark near by that had been closed for months and then charging us for it. Besides, we hadn’t planned many activities to do so that we had a huge amount of free time that wasn’t filled up. Furthermore, going to the malls for shopping wasn’t a great joy either, for me, at that time, since going shopping was boring and deterrent. We had spend 15 days in Miami and we had just 5 or 6 days to go to the parks that I was looking forward to.

Arriving at Disneyland brought me a jubilant sensation of delightful adventures to come, making my expectations considerably high on that part of the trip. Afterwards, my hopes all fell apart. I remember being excited about going places trying to drag my mother all around to the attractions, not wanting to waste a tiny single bit of time being idle. The disaster all happened when I ate a love apple at one of the parks. Later on the next day, I begin to feel sick, and suddenly, I saw myself throwing up several times and having diarrhea. It hit me so violently, that I could say I had vomitted countless times in the past 20 hours that afternoon. I had nothing in my stomach and I would puke just a mix of water and stomach bile. The whole next day turned out to be the same scatological outcome. I was so weak that I could barely walk. It was when my mother decided to call a doctor.

The doctor prescribed some pills to me and suggested to avoid eating solid food or any kind of dairy. I was slowly getting better even though, I’d still vomit occasionally. The next day I remained near the room walking around the hotel sometimes just so it wouldn’t be as disappointed and the next 3 following days I would go to the parks but I was prohibitted of going on any attraction that would give me some sort of excitement in order to avoid throwing up. Yet, I wouldn’t care if I’d throw up later, I just felt a strong desire to eventually go on those rollercoasters. Then, the fateful day came, the day we had to fly back home to Brazil. Even when I was in the plane to fly back, I remember vommiting, which afterwards lead my mother to bring me to out doctor again in Brazil. It was very frustrating for me because since I was a 10 year old I had a dream of riding those rollercoasters and again, we had been so far away and I couldn’t do it.

Nevertheless, I tried to take some good lesson from that experience, and it dawned on me that that trip lacked planning. Consequently, if I wanted not to have so many problems and a awkward trip like that, one of the solutions would be that I’d have at least to learn how to communicate with natives from the place I was in properly, so I decided to take English lessons apart from school. Today, that decision has shown results, because I understand and speak much better English that I used to.

Independent learning: a path to success

“Books are men of higher stature; the only men that speak aloud for future times to hear.” by E.S. Barrett. It’s commonplace that the spot that students ought to learn to read is elementary and high school. Whereas, teachers and parents have just been alphabetizing teenagers, they’re not teaching them how to understand what they’re reading and have a critical point of view upon it. Without this essential tool, they will become adults that won’t like to read and are puzzled over texts, because they’re not used to them and don’t know how to decipher documents. They can decode words, but they can’t get the real meaning of the text, or even analyze them critically. People should not read a text without analyzing it because they lose track of its meaning while reading, can’t remember what they read and take no advantageous lesson from it.

Readers that don’t look up unknown words in the dictionary have problems understanding the piece of writing while they’re reading it. Due to that, focusing on unknown words while reading is an important step in a text’s recognition process. Moreover, these unknown words can be written down and used on new sentences so that not only their meaning is recognized, but also it gradually becomes active vocabulary.  This process is useful because it is difficult for a person to grade what is essential information and what is not on a text if he doesn’t fully understand the message the author is trying to convey. For example, a common mistake that Karina M. makes, a 18 year old student, when summarizing a text, is to underline almost every word on the text. She also underlines isolated words that if put on together make no sense. She says she gets confused often with the meaning of the words and also because she tries to do the task as fast as she can. Hence, to improve people’s awareness and power of judgment when confronted to a text, they must be sure of what they’re doing and looking up for words is a crucial way to keep on track.

People can’t remember what they read because they do not work on their texts they simply read them. In fact, they do not exercise their memory skills so there is no substantial information that works as a hook to retrieve it fresh from somebody’s memory. The attempt to figure out what the author is trying to say, what message he is transmitting must be practiced. What should be done to accomplish this is to ask questions even before reading the text and while doing it, as in:  What are the principal ideas exposed? What are the authors’ arguments? What is his thesis? And so on. Rania Mutzin, a 27 year old lawyer, works in a prominent lawyer firm, using these techniques every time she has to analyze a difficult text in front of her. For her last monograph, she had schematized everything to have a clear vision of her paper. She says: “The schematization of ideas facilitates the learning and the retaining of basic information of the text.” For this reason, studying and analyzing a text makes people able to remember what they have read easier.

Reading a text and not understanding it makes impossible for the reader to take any advantageous lesson from the reading. It leads people to be unable to take a stand based on the ideas exposed on the text, they cannot make use of their critical reasoning. Most of the time, these people don’t like to be reading, which is correlated with their effort to work on the document, that affects their understanding of it. Reading is a tool that leads to autonomous learning which is a precious path to succeed in life. Gina W. Freeman, 32 years old, is a autonomous learner, that decided to learn French by reading books. She remember the first book she has ever read in French, it was a very easy one, and she took a long time. She states that looking up for words on the dictionary and analyzing what the message the author was trying to reveal made her ability to read gradually faster and easier, as she kept reading more and more books. Nowadays, she can read advanced books on French and even more, now she can discuss a wide range of subjects in French. She says: “My previous knowledge of French was very limited before.” Accordingly, it’s important to study a text, because the effort and the valuable time spent on doing it will be paid off with learning.

Consequently, the study of a piece of writing develops several positive outcomes.  It has been shown that is not enough to know how to read a text, it is necessary to understand it, otherwise, it becomes an empty action. The importance of knowing deeply the content of a text is a essential ability for autonomous learning later in life. For all this, is important to develop the ability of analyzing critically texts. Also, the acquired ability of autonomous learning leads people to climb the working ladder to success. As a result, some people are remembered through times because they hold the knowledge.

My worst trip ever

When I was about seventeen years old, I took a trip to Miami with my mother for fun since there had been a long time we had traveled abroad. Our plan was to go shopping at Miami malls and also to take a brief trip to Disneyland. I had been there before, when i was a kid about 10 years old, but I wanted to go to Disneyland and the rollercoaster park again because I couldn’t go on the rollercoasters when I was little due to my height.

I was extremely happy to go there again it felt like I was going to a exciting full of adventure world, that could make me forget of all my problems all at once. In addition, the parks would be places where I could eat different food from what I was used to, I would see different people speaking a strange, intriguing and sophisticated language because it was how it sounded to my ears; where every little detail would be different from the stale routine of going to school that I was used to.

After some days I had been in Miami, I didn’t felt as happy as I thought I would be, because my mother and I didn’t speak English very well. I still knew a bit more English than her, since I had English classes at school once a week and there had been some years she didn’t have any contact with the English language. As a result, we had troubles communicating with natives and they probably had troubles trying to figure out what we were trying to say. This strange feeling became more intense, because one of the taxi drivers tried to diceive us by bringing us to a small waterpark near there that had been closed for months and charging us after. Besides, we hadn’t planned many activities to do so that we had a huge amount of free time that wasn’t filled up. Furthermore, going to the malls for shopping wasn’t a great joy either, for me, at that time, go shopping was boring and deterrent. We had spend 15 days in Miami and we had just 5 or 6 days to go to the parks that I was looking forward to.

Arriving at Disneyland brought me a jubilant sensation of delightful adventures to come, making my expectations considerably high on that part of the trip. Afterwards, it all fell down. I remember being excited about going places trying to drag my mother all around to the attractions, not wanting to waste a tiny single bit of time being idle. It all happened when I ate a love apple at one of the parks. Later on the next day, I begin to feel sick, and suddenly, I saw myself throwing up several times and having a diarrhea. It hit me so violently, that i could say i had vomitted uncountable times in the past 20 hours that afternoon, I had nothing on my stomach and I would puke just a mix of water and stomach bile. The whole next day turned out to be the same scatological outcome, I was so weak that I could barely walk, it was when my mother decided to call a doctor.

The doctor prescribed me some pills and suggested to avoid eating solid food or any kind of dairy. I was slowly getting better even though, I’d still vomit occasionally. The next day I remained near the hotel walking around the hotel sometimes just so it wouldn’t be as disappointed and the next 3 following days I would go to the parks but I couldn’t go on any attraction that would give me a chill down my spine in order to avoid throwing up, yet I wouldn’t care if I’d throw up later, I just felt a strong desire to eventually go on those rollercoasters. Then, the fateful day came, the day we had to fly back home to Brazil. Even when I was in the plane to fly back, I remember vommiting, which afterwards lead my mother to bring me to out doctor again here. It was very frustrating for me because since I was a 10 year old I had a dream of riding those rollercoasters and again, we had been so far away and I couldn’t do it.

Nevertheless, I tried to take some good lesson from that experience, and it dawned on me that that trip lacked planning. Consequently, if I wanted not to have so many problems and a awkward trip like that, one of the solutions would be that I’d have at least to learn how to communicate with natives from the place I was in properly, so I decided to take English lessons apart from school. Today, that decision has shown results, because I understand and speak much better English that I used to.

My worst trip ever

In 2004, I took a trip along with my mother to Miami, when I was about 18 years old, to have some fun time together since there had been a long time we didn’t travel abroad. Our plan was to go shopping at Miami malls and also take a brief trip to Disneyland, and a rollercoaster park that was 2 hours ago from there. I had been there before, when i was a kid about 10 years old, but I wanted to go to Disneyland and the rollercoaster park again because I couldn’t go on the rollercoasters when I was little due to the fact that I didn’t had enough height.

I was extremely happy to go there again, it felt like I was going to a exciting full of adventure world, that could make me forget of all my problems all at once. In addition, the parks would be places where I could eat different food from what I was used to, I would see different people speaking a strange and sophisticated language because it was how it sounded to my ears, where every little detail would be different from the stale life of going to school that I was used to.

After some days I had been in Miami, I didn’t felt as happy as I thought I would be, because my mother and I didnt’ speak English very well. I still knew a bit more English than her, since I had English classes at school once a week and there had been some years she didn’t have any contact with the English language. As a result, we had troubles communicating with natives and they probably had troubles trying to figure out what we were trying to say. This strange feeling became  more intense, because one of the taxi drivers tried to dicieve us by bringing us to a small waterpark near there that had been closed for months and charging us after. Besides, we hadn’t planned many activities to do so that we had a huge amount of free time that wasn’t filled up. Furthermore, going to the malls for shopping wasn’t a great joy either, for me, at thar time go shopping boring and deterrent.

Arriving at Disneyland brought me a jubilant sensation of delightful adventures to come, making my expectations considerably high on that part of the trip. Afterwards, it all fell down. I remember being excited about going places trying to drag my mother all around to the attractions, not wanting to waste a tiny single bit of time being idle. It all happened when I ate a love apple at one of the parks. Later on the next day, I begin to feel sick, and suddenly, I saw myself throwing up several times and having a diarrhea. It hit me so violently, that i could say i had vomitted uncountable times in the past 20 hours that afternoon, I had nothing on my stomach and I would puke just a mix of  water and stomach bile.

Society’s Invisible Hand

“Collective tendencies have an existence of their own; they affect the individual from the outside” said Emile Durkheim on his suicide thesis. Suicide is defined as all causes of death produced by a direct or indirect act of the victim itself. Statistics demonstrate that the suicide rate goes from 100 to 300 people per million a year. The majority of suicidal people have tendency to have neural or mental problems that are far away from the reason that has brought them to this extreme act. In fact, suicide should not be considered an act made by individuals having no connection with themselves as in just being justified by the possible psychopathologic side these people may have, because all of them relate to the social environment and can be separated into three major groups: the egoistical suicide, the altruistic suicide, and the anomic suicide.

The first type of suicide is the egoistical suicide. What leads a person to this kind of suicide is the lack of social integration with society. Due to this lack of strong bonds, the suicidal is individualistic, thinks essentially about himself because he feels isolated from social groups in general. Every person needs some kind of moral compass to live by. This suicidal’s wishes are not satisfied and they are left with little social support and guidance, becoming prone to committing suicide on an increased basis. Studies show that unmarried people that have no children have a higher rate of suicide compared to married people with children. Marcos Lavigne, a 42 year old divorced man who, after having been divorced, lost his boundaries and stability, was not connected to stable social norms and goals. As a result of such detachment, he chose to take his own life away with a 45 caliber pistol. Therefore, having no stronger ties can lead to desperate actions like an egoistical suicide.

The second type of suicide is the altruistic one and it is the result of too much integration. In contrast to the egoistical suicide, self sacrifice is the defining trait, when the individual loses sight of his individuality and becomes willing to sacrifice himself to meet the expectations of his society or his interior social values. This suicidal is obedient to the standardized values, where he doesn’t mind killing himself for the traditions and goals present in his society. An example of this kind of suicide is an Islamic terrorist who agrees to do away with himself in favor of Islam. For this reason, to show obedience to his God, he commits suicide in favor of Islamic values in order to go to heaven and a life of luxurious eternal existence among virgin women. A suicide bomber believes that, by ending with his life to kill other people that are against his religion, he is making Ala jubilant and, for that reason, he will receive eternal forgiveness from his nasty actions on earth. Hence, society plays a giant role on the death of these altruistic suicidal people.

The third kind of suicide is the anomic one, which happens due to political or economic crisis. Anomic suicide is a characteristic of modern societies and correlated statistically with the phases of the economic cycle. During economic crisis or a period of great prosperity, suicide rates increase because of peoples’ dissatisfaction with their current financial situation compared to other families, for example. Additionally, anomic suicide happens when the political scenario is rough and a political party is oppressing and persecuting people. During the Great Depression in 1929, Rodney Lewis, a 47-year-old bank manager, committed suicide along with many more people. Feeling without an escape from his reality and not knowing how to deal with having gone bankrupt, he put an end to his life. Thus, the suicide rate also increases during periods of economic crisis due to the power of the crisis to affect people who already have an impulsive, unstable behavior but are not extremely individualistic or strongly integrated to the society.

In other words, suicidal actions are based on social relations and the social environment and not only on people’s inner tendency related to psychological origins. On the contrary, it’s a mix of these factors that make people who have nervous and anxious traits to commit suicide. Moreover, it’s the  stimulation that society’s characteristics reinforce on these people who are more sensitive to pressure that leads them to an extreme act since not all of the anxious people kill themselves. Suicide is caused by several factors combined as in a professional situation, political circumstances and marital status. Thus, these collective forces are more severe in affecting anxious citizens than imagined by ordinary people; it’s like an invisible hand that affects the individual from the outside.

Society’s Invisible Hand

“Collective tendencies have an existence of their own; they affect the individual from the outside.” said Emile Durkheim on his suicide thesis. Suicide is defined as all causes of death produced by a direct or indirect act of the victim itself. Statistics demonstrate that the suicide rate goes from 100 to 300 people per million a year. The majority of the suicidal people have tendency to have neural or metal problems that are far from the reason that brought them to this extreme act. In fact, suicide should not be considered an act made by individuals having no connection with themselves as in just being justified by the possible psychopathologic side these people may have, because all of them relate to the social environment and can be separated into three major groups: the egoistic suicide, the altruistic suicide, and the anomic suicide.

The first type of suicide is the egoistic suicide. What leads a person to this kind of suicide is the lack of social integration with society. Due to this lack of strong bonds, the suicidal is individualistic, thinks essentially about himself because he feels isolated from social groups in general. Every person needs some kind of moral compass to live by. This suicidal’s wishes are not satisfied and, left with little social support and guidance, he becomes prone to committing suicide on an increased basis. Studies show that unmarried people that have no children have a higher rate of suicide compared to married people with children. Marcos Lavigne, a 42 year old divorced man who, after having been divorced, lost his boundaries and stability, was not connected to stable social norms and goals. As a result of such detachment, he chose to take his own life with a 45 caliber pistol. Therefore, having no stronger ties can lead to desperate actions like an egoistic suicide.

The second type of suicide is the altruistic one and it is the result of too much integration. In contrast to the egoistic suicide, self sacrifice is the defining trait, when the individual loses sight of his individuality and become willing to sacrifice himself to meet the expectations of his society or his interiorized social values. This suicidal is obedient to the standardized values that he doesn’t mind killing himself for the traditions and goals present on his society. An example of this kind of suicide is an Islamic terrorist who agrees to do away with himself in favor of Islam. For this reason, to show obedience to his God, he commits suicide in favor of Islam values in order to go to heaven and a life a luxurious eternal existence among virgin women. A suicide bomber believes that, by ending with his life to kill other people that are against his religion, he is making Ala jubilant and, for that reason, he will receive eternal forgiveness from his nasty actions on earth. Hence, society plays a giant role on the death of these altruistic suicidal people.

The third kind of suicide is the anomic one, which happens due to political or economic crisis. Anomic suicie is a characteristic of modern societies and correlated statistically with the phases of economic cycle. During economic crisis or a period of great prosperity amazingly, the suicide rate increases because of peoples’ dissatisfaction with their current financial situation compared to other families, for example. Additionally, anomic suicide happens when the political scenario is rough and a political party is oppressing and persecuting people. During the Great Depression in 1929, Rodney Lewis, a 47 year old bank manager, committed suicide along with many more people. Feeling without an escape from his reality and not knowing how to deal with being bankrupt, he put an end to his life. Accordingly, the suicide rate also increases during periods of economic crisis due to the power of the crisis to affect people who already have a impulsive, unstable behavior but are not extremely individualistic or strongly integrated to the society.

In other words, suicidal actions are based on social relations and the social environment and not only on people’s inner tendency related to psychological origins. On the contrary, it’s a mix of these factors that make people who have nervous and anxious traits to commit suicide. Moreover, it’s the incitation that society’s characteristics reinforce on these people who are more sensitive to pressure that leads them to an extreme act since not all of the anxious people kill themselves. Suicide is caused by several factors combined as in a professional situation, political circumstances and marital status. Thus, these collective forces are more severe in affecting anxious citizens than imagined by ordinary people; it’s like an invisible hand that affects the individual from the outside.