【推荐3】How to Comfort a Grieving (悲痛的) Friend

Comforting a friend who’s just experienced a loss can be difficult. However, now is the time to let your friend know that you’re here for them, no matter what.     1    

Reach out to your friend. If your friend is grieving, they may not feel comfortable reaching out to you first.     2     By reaching out first, you’re already telling your friend that you’re there for them. For example, give them a phone call, send them a text, or stop by their home to see if they need anything.

Give them space if they need it. If you reach out to your friend and they don’t want to talk, try not to be offended. Everyone grieves differently, and your friend might need sometime before talking to anyone.     3     Try contacting them every week or so just to check in, even if they don’t want to talk for long.

    4     Often, people try to beat around the bush when someone suffers a loss. Instead, approach your friend by saying you know what happened and what a pity it was. You could say something as simple as, “I heard that your father died. I’m so sorry.”     5    

【推荐1】David Christof, a Marathon runner, visited my school yesterday. He made a speech about the safe drinking water problem in the world. “I want to do more and help people everywhere have safe drinking water,” he said as he spoke in a gym full of students.

Christof shared with us his story of determination to help solve the world water crisis by participating in the 2021 Blue Planet Run marathon. Starting in New York City, a team of 21 male and female athletes ran around the clock through 16 countries. It covered 15,200 miles and three continents, 24 hours a day for 9 5 days to deliver the message that measures must be taken to help countries searching for safe drinking water.

As he spoke to us, Christof displayed a picture of a woman getting water from a well filled with dirty water. “Would you like to drink this water?” he asked. “I wouldn’t either, yet this woman is washing her dishes in it and later she will use it to cook. The water crisis does not mean people are dying of thirst. It means that they are drinking water that is not good for them.”

Christof pointed out that students in my school may not worry whether or not the water they are drinking is safe. But it is another story in other countries, where people actually have to decide whether their water is safe to drink. He expressed the hope that his speech would help us realize how a single person can make a difference by taking the steps to bring about change.

【推荐3】Everything one enjoys in life has a price. There is no free lunch in the world, for, generally, someone pays. This reality informs why we need to be careful when surfing on the Internet. Every action has its consequence; nothing is free. Therefore, one pays for everything else, somehow, somewhere and sometime; and the Internet is no exception. It never forgives. It never forgets.

Besides the fact that someone sees and can locate whoever is using any device that has a tiny front camera (cell phone, tablet, laptop or desktop), you leave digital footprints each time you visit the Internet. Is it not surprising that often search engines and online marketing platforms suggest to you things similar to what you have already searched for or bought? This fact is possible because you leave digital footprints. These footprints can not be removed on the Internet so long as the Internet exists. Deleting is a pure trick because it gives you the impression that the stuff is gone. But it remains. It is gone from one level of Internet operations but remains at other deeper layers. All our digital footprints and records are all stored in the cyber cloud. A simple analysis of your activities on the Internet for the past ten years will shock you as to the extent the Internet remembers.

Yet responsible use of the Internet can be a boon for a young person. Prevention in time saves one from falling victim to the destructive consequences of the misuse of the Internet. Rightly said, unexamined use of the Internet and irresponsible involvement with the social media leads to psycho-social and emotional disorders that upset progress and ruin a person. While engaging in the Internet, be mindful that your activities today can work against you in the near, distant or eternal future when you might have grown or changed.

The Internet never forgets, so be careful of your activities on social media. While engaging in social media, think about the future so as not to allow the Internet to ruin your dream. Indeed, some suffer awful consequences because of their childishness, carelessness or ignorance. Keep in mind always: the Internet neither forgives nor forgets.