Resilience

The song “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson is a song that talks about resilience because it talks about “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. This song talks about Kelly Clarkson bouncing back after a breakup and being stronger because of it. “What doesn’t kill you makes a fighter” shows that she has fought to get back up again, and that she is very resilient. 

Another song that talks about resilience is the song "Stronger" sang by Britney Spears. This song also talks about getting over a guy and being stronger. The chorus "Stronger than yesterday, Now it's nothing but my way"  shows that the experience Britney Spears has been through had made her stronger and more resilient.  

When I am depressed/angry/sad, I …

-          Talk to friends about my problems.

-          Listen to music. Listening to music helps me change my mood

-          Eat chocolate.. because chocolate is so much sweeter than life...

-          Throwing my stuffed animals at the wall... 

-          Go shopping with friends, it helps me calm down when I walk around and talk with my friends

-      I also find watching a movie helps me let go of my anger and temporary forget my sadness

My Girl

    In the Movie My Girl, Vada deals with loss of her best friend, Thomas J. Thomas J had died after being stung by bees when he was finding the ring that Vada had lost the last time they were there. After the death of her best friend, Vada goes through the stages grief by first being surprised, then denial and finally at the end of the film, acceptance and moving on. The death of her best friend really affected Vada especially since her mom had died giving birth to her and Thomas J was her only friend at the time. I personally think Vada was quite good at dealing with the loss of her best friend for someone her age, but I would suggest her to be more open to help. After Shelly had told Vada about the funeral held for Thomas J, Vada had still been in denial of help, but when the funeral was in process, Vada had slowly descended down the stairs. Vada's situation wasn't made any easier by her father ignoring her. I think Vada's turning point was when her father came to her bed at night and explained to her that her mother's death was her fault. This has allowed Vada finally overcome her grief and to "live again"

    In this movie, I think Thomas J and Vada really balanced each other and used their relationship to be more resilient. While Thomas J is really happy with life and have a good family relationship, Vada has a lot of family issues to work out and she is always “running away”. They help each other balance mentally and emotionally. While Vada is really brave and daring, Thomas J is more timid.

Grief and Loss

Every one experiences loss at some point in their life. It could be from losing a loved one, losing you phone, break up or other things. And most of the time we grief for our loss. Every one can grief in a different way, some more healthy then others. There are stages of grief most of us experience and I found that when I experience grief I am mostly in denial and shock. I find loss hard to accept. I also like to pretend that nothing had actually happened and think that this is just a nightmare and that I'll wake up soon. But of course, it doesn't work that way. When we experience grief and get over the shock we can often feel pain or emptiness and sometimes we even think that there is nothing else to live for. We can experience depression from realizing that we might never have what we loss again and that is very hard to accept and get over. Some people, being more resilient can accept their loss and see hope sooner than others who are less resilient.

When we experience loss it's helpful to talk to friends or others who also experience the same loss, but sometimes we might not always want to talk about the loss. If your friends, family or even someone you don't know very well is experiencing grief, never underestimate the amount of pain that they are experiencing and always try to be there for them! The support from friends and family is very important to the person experiencing grief and loss.

Friends

Friends can really affect how we think, what we do, and who we are. Friends can be real and they can be fake. Fake like a plastic barbie dolls... Friends can help us understand ourselves or they can push us down until we break. Real friends are people who understands us, and accept our differences. They are people who will stick by us. But real friends are hard to find. How do we know if our friends are really our friends? Betrayal always hurt the most when they are from people you once care about...