The Importance of Friendships by Open Minds

Perceived as the connection with someone and defined as the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected, or the state of being connected, according to Oxford Languages, relationships are considered an important aspect that shapes our identities, whether they are relationships with neighbors, family or friends.

But, did you know that there are different types of friendships out there?

In class, we identified three of them, which were:

•  Best friend: more than a good friend. Someone with whom I share things I like.
• Good friend: someone I really get along with, with whom I can have a conversation.
• Close friend: a friend I can trust. Someone with whom I can be totally comfortable sharing my thoughts, who doesn't judge me but tries to help instead.

Do you have all three types of friends? Consider reflecting on that and perhaps ask your friends too.

 Welcome back to my blog!

This time I'll be sharing with you an assigment we had for "Identities". It was listing adjectives that represented the person we chose to describe.

3 Steps

In this case, the first thing I did was to look at the picture in a very general way.

Then I identified the principal elements, dividing the picture in different areas. I asked myself some question to discover what element characterized the picture itself, for example:

How does she look? Does she look old? Does she have a youthful appeareance? Is she wearing a specific hairstyle? How does her hair look?

I wrote some answers to those question in the "Physical Appearance" section. (Shown in the picture below). Later I went for more specific features, like clothes and accesories.

In this section I was observing carefully each aspect of the person from my picture. I started by the face, the head, the torso and the lower body.

After all of that, I described my person by the following adjectives:

The person I was desribing in this activity, Anne Burrell in her book: Own your kitchen.

By the end of this post you know these 3 simple steps to describe a person, now with the help of vocabularies, you can start writing more about this elements in the picture.

Here you have some helpful links to help you enrich your vocabulary:

• For Physical Appearance:
• English Adjectives to Describe Physical Appearance. English with Harry.
• How to Describe Physical Appearance.
  
• Clothes:
• Learning English Vocabulary: Clothes Vocabulary.
  
• Clothes Vocabulary: Names of Clothes in English with Pictures.

Ask Your Future Self "What Would Better Me Do?" By Sources of Insight

This is one of the most interesting assignments I've had during the first year of Diploma: acting as myself from the future.

For this activity, we had to be our future selves and pretend that we were having a reunion party with our high school classmates. We had to dress in a way we weren't used to.

The context of this activity was: "We graduated and moved to another country. We came back to Panama to have a get-togheter."

I wanted to be a doctor, but I didn't have clothes to wear and look like a doctor. So the night before I was in a hurry to get clothes to represent a profession, then I decided to dress as a bartender.

 

I borrowed my friends' clothes and dressed as one. Later the next day, during English class, I was the bartender in charge of the "drinks" at the reunion party. I actually served coke.

It was really funny to see my classmates dressed up as different people, but then I realized that we were not that far from that reality. Spending time together these years has been a great experience, but one day, not too far from now, we will have to go our separate ways to fulfill our dreams and become better people.

The purpose of this "reunion party" was to reflect and answer the question: How would you present your identity and personality as your future self?

After chatting with all our classmates and asking them what they did after high school, we introduced ourselves to everyone. We talked about "where we've gone to college," "where we work," "what we do for a living," and generally how we see ourselves in the future.

Some of my classmates were doctors, directors, engineers, politicians, architects, and so on.

In addition, after this "reunion party" we were assigned to write an "email" to one of our classmates. We researched the conventions to write one. This was because, apart from the big topics, we were learning about types of text.

This was my e-mail to Angie, my classmate:

My friend Angie,

I'm so glad we met again at the reunion. I just wanted to tell you a few things because we didn't have much time to talk at the party.

My mom was so happy when I told her you were here in Panama now. She said that she wanted to see you. We're having a family reunion this Sunday and she wanted me to tell you to come by. Let me know what you think.

Best wishes,

Angel.

Do you know who you are? Harry Styles for Lights up

After learning and discussing the big topic: "Identities", we were asked to answer a series of questions related to the study of physical appearance: 

They took some time to answer because we often don't question how we present ourselves to others or our behavior.

If you want to know more about yourself, check out these questions:

1. How do I present myself to others?

    The first times that I meet someone I'm not usually outgoing, it takes time for me to get talkative, to get that confidence that I usually need to start speaking about myself. I've noticed that when I'm alone with someone new I might be a little more extrovert, but if someone I know is around I don't talk much.

2. How much physical appearance matters to me?

    First thing I pay attention to in a person is their personality, the manners, the way they express. Physical appearance is more like a bonus, at the end is just an overall aspect of identity, but it doesn't play a significant role, in my case.

3. How do I express my identity?

    I reflect on my values, beliefs and passions. I participate in activities that resonate with me. I don't feel comfortable doing things that I don't like, so most of the time if you see me participating in something it is maybe because I like it. I like being surrounded by people who I can learn from. About clothes, I'm an easy going person. I make decisions based on my principles.