What is Freedom?

For me, in its most basic definition, freedom is the ability to do whatever you want, wherever you want, and however you want, as long as it doesn’t affect anybody else’s freedom. By this definition, freedom affects numerous parts of your life. What clothes you wear, what religious faith you’re a part of, what you say, what systems you use (for calendars, temperature, etc.), and what things you do. For example, because I am free, or at least I think I am, I can play whatever sports I want and read whatever books I want. I am allowed to drive a car when I become older, and I can even engage in harmful activities legally, like drinking or smoking. Also, I have numerous rights like the right to live, the right of freedom of speech, the right to liberty, and the right to own property. I also have the right to not be taxed unfairly, and the right to send complaints to my government. 

These examples are one reason I think I’m free. Another way for me to check whether I’m free or not is to compare myself to some people who have been unfairly treated and are famous for being non-free people. For example, the Cambodian people in Pol Pat’s reign were forced to work as farmers, were killed for being educated, were killed for speaking out against him, etc. Jews in Hitler’s time were killed just for practicing the Jew faith. So were people who chose to be gay, or people who were physically disabled, people who practiced the Catholic faith, and people who roamed the countryside as gypsies, mentally ill people, deaf, dumb, or blind people, and political enemies. Lastly, Americans during the American Revolution were taxed unfairly, didn’t have the right to complain to their government, and were not allowed to explore the country. Now when I think of Thailand, Thai citizens can choose whatever job they want, they are not killed for any unfair reason like being educated, gay, disabled, or Jewish, etc. but are only killed if they commit a serious or repeated crime. They are not taxed unfairly, can send letters or complain to the Thai government, and are allowed to freely roam this country. Also, Thai citizens have the right to vote for whatever political party or representative they want to, and are not prosecuted for it. For these reasons, I think Thailand is a very free country, and I am a free person. 

All About Me, and some questions I have for people living in Maryland

My name is Shashank Saravat. I am 13 years old, and I’m from India. I am currently studying in the 8th grade in Ruamrudee International School. I’ve read your posts, and I found them interesting. Here are some things about me. 

I love playing sports like: softball, basketball, tennis, soccer, cricket and many others. I enjoy reading books, especially fantasy. Some examples of my favorite books are Harry Potter, of which I’m a massive fan, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Pendragon, Narnia, Ranger’s Apprentice, The Golden Compass, and more. I’m also a very big videogame fan, and play videogames including Call of Duty, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Burnout, Need for Speed, Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield, Counter-Strike and Assassin’s Creed. In addition, I like watching movies and TV shows, like the Big Bang Theory and Sherlock, and I enjoy listening to music. 

My favorite food is definitely pizza, but I am a vegetarian, so I only eat plain cheese or vegetable pizza. I prefer plain cheese. I also like other Italian food like lasagna and spaghetti, and I like eating Thai papaya salad. I noticed that a lot of you have pets, but I have none, because my parents think I wouldn’t be able to take care of one and clean up after it. 

While studying US History this year, my favorite thing was learning about the battles and strategies of the American Revolution. What about you? What is your favorite season, and what do you like to do most during that season? Do any of you read fantasy? If so, what are your favorite books or series? And what are your favorite videogames/TV shows/songs?

My Month Long Flood Experience

Personally, the flood has completely devastated my life in AIT. The campus where I lived every single 13 years of my life is now submerged under 3 meters of water (check out the photo, the floors you're seeing are the third and fourth!). Almost all the friends I had there lived on the ground floor and are probably not going to be back for at least 4 months. So I’ve now literally lost all social interaction at home for 4 months. I was forced to relocate to a new apartment, but the apartment is pretty awesome, so that’s fine. Thankfully, the only thing I lost in this flood was my fridge (just covered in layers of slimy, oozing fungus) and my mom’s fishes (which I really don’t care about, I want a dog), as my house is on the third floor and completely dry. My family is fine as well; my dad’s office is now 15 minutes away instead of 1 hour and my mom is now able to go to work as well. My extended family is in India, so they’re obviously completely dry. Overall, my house is fine, I am in an awesome new apartment, and I still have my laptop and internet, so I’m great. In terms of being an online learner, I think I did fine, as by Monday morning all my due assignments will either be already mailed or handed in to my teacher.

In the short term, Thailand would have suffered a massive loss to its economy, with completely destroyed harvests, skyrocketing food prices, rapidly decreasing clean water, and 0% tourism, which is one of Thailand’s biggest industries. In the long term, Thailand’s capital is mostly safe, and there hasn’t been too much damage to the country as a whole, and almost no permanent damage.

As an individual, I really doubt I can do anything to help, and my community is pretty much non-existent right now. Obviously, I really want to help people, as I have heard and seen what some people have lost in this flood with my own eyes, but I doubt I can do much as of now (I’ve just moved in, and we’ve only brought absolute necessities from AIT). I guess the best I can do right now is help spread the word about helping victims of the flood, and hope it spreads and people are helped.

My Music Video Project

My Music Video Project was about me and my personality. It showed what parts of my personality were influenced by inherited traits, family, physical traits, geographic location/nationality, media (TV, music, movies, and books), hobbies, and hero/role models. I tried to show how I was very much like my father (many people have told me that), how my family has 4 people (Father, Mother, and 2 sons), how I LOVE sports such as softball and swimming and am decently tall, and that I am from India. One of my favorite movies is Batman: The Dark Knight, I absolutely love Harry Potter (read each book twenty times) and my favorite singer (rapper) is Eminem. My movie also has photos of my hobbies, which include sports, books, and computer games. Finally, my movie shoes my role models in the last 4 photos. My movie took me quite a lot of time to make (8-12 hours), but I loved the finished product, and it thought me a lot about using Windows Movie Maker and making movies.

My Birmingham Grid of Learning Results

I'm quite happy with my results in the Birmingham Grid of Learning, as I got above 20 in all my different sections. I find it weird that I got lower in my textual smartness than my Interpersonal and Body smartness,  as I read more than I eat healthy food and socialize with people. I don't really know what Nature Smarts are, and don't really care about my Picture Smarts. I think my Logical and Music smarts' results make sense, because I do like to sing, and am decent at Maths. I don't know how you can have high Intrapersonal smarts, so I'm unsure about my results there. Overall, I was very pleased with my results.