No matter who you are, no matter what you do, you are allowed to voice your opinion, whatever that may be. It’s everyone’s right to express their views orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art or through any other media of one’s choice. This is Freedom Of Speech And Expression. I ask myself now, am I really allowed to say whatever I want, whatever is on my mind?

Yes, it is legal for newspapers to write about political situations in whatever way they desire . Yes, on social media, noone is forced to hold back one’s opinion. Yes, I am allowed to stand in the city’s square and scream out my outlook on life. Will I though? Will everyone accept everyone’s point of view on social media? Will the local newspaper ever write badly about one particular political party? I think not. Freedom Of Speech might be legal on paper, but human beings have the actual freedom in their hands. It’s the laws that declare Freedom Of Speech, it’s the people that condemn it.

It would be socially unacceptable to tell Barbara that her dress looks aweful in front of the whole class. It would be socially unacceptable to stand on the beach in California and let everyone know you support Donald Trump. It would be socially unacceptable to advise a student to leave school because you’ve noticed how hard classes are for him.
I am allowed, but wouldn’t do any of those things. Either because I do not want to hurt a person’s feelings or because I’m scared of how others would react. I do not criticise the idea of Freedom Of Speech, but the false belief it would actually work. It can’t, it cannot work. Noone with a hint of social knowledge will do such a thing as tell the truth, their opinion, especially if the truth could hurt not only someone else, but your own social status.

For me, the term “Freedom of speech and expression” is just another way of being politically correct. The law states that everyone is allowed to express their feelings without being judged, so ultimately that’s exactly what’s going on. Even if it’s not at all. It says so on paper, doesn’t matter what’s happening in actual daily life. I cannot hope for change, since change is in the hands of human beings, and the human race is what put us in such a situation. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tell Barbara that I don’t like her dress without having to use phrases like “It’s just my opinion, don’t be mad at me” or “good for you if you like it, you do you” to make it less hurtful, even though it is indeed just my opinion.

Addendum: Religion and sexuality are two topics that have become less and less talked about in public, should they get a waver? I don’t think religion, sexuality or even race should be excluded from Freedom of Speech. There should be, and in Austria there is, a law forbidding false accusations, especially if they are simply based on religion, race or sexuality, but whatever wants and needs to be said, should be.

Speaking of Austria, in our country Freedom Of Speech is a basic rule, I’m not sure how well it is practiced though. I, for example, have indeed held back comments knowing they would lead to nothing and would just make me less popular with fellow classmates. I have been in situations where I’ve said my opinion out loud, and had not thought my actions through, resulting in accusations of being mean and socially incompetent. I don’t have anything to say about the political side of Freedom of Speech in Austria, I just know, that being a Trump supporter for example, wouldn’t have made me any more popular. (And to be correct, but not at all scared of any consequences : I do not support Donald Trump)

The point is, I don’t think Freedom Of Speech will ever turn out to be the way it’s supposed to be : Everyone can say whatever they want and noone will be offended by their comment, but will only learn from it. A good friend of mine once ranted on about how everyone should be aloud to say whatever they desire, and if people don’t like that, then they should just “bury themselves”. Unfortunately, that’s not how the world works.

I feel pebbles under my feet. I touch a damp,rough wall with my right hand. I see nothing. Nothing but a fading light in the near distance. My heart, it beats a thousand times per minute, as if it could burst through my ribcage any second. I tell myself to keep going, to not let any story fool me. I’m not here for gold, but for wisdom. All I ask for is a little advice, a little help from the creature inside this cave. I do not know how to live on, who to trust and who to kill.
Disorientated I let the sparks guide me further into the cave. “Why are you here?” I shriek. A voice. “Hello?”, I call out with a wavering voice. ,,Hello. Why are you here?”, the voice asks me calmly. A monstrous creature could appear before me any second now. Run,Kerrin,run before it’s too late. No, no I won’t leave now. I’ve come this far. I will not turn around and leave. I want, no, I need answers.
“I want answers, answers to every question I have in mind.”, I tell the mysterious voice.
“From whom?”
“From you, of course. I need answers only you can give me!”
“For answers you’ll receive, but you will have to meet me, for all your questions to be answered”
My heart still pounding in my chest, I slowly make my way towards the light. Run, Kerrin. What you will see will traumatise you for the rest of your life. You should not be here.
I do not listen to the voice in my head and keep taking tiny steps, my eyes focused on the sparks not too far away from me.
“Come on, don’t be scared. You’ll be fine.”, the voice tried to calm me, only frightening me even more.
“What is this?” I ask, totally confused by the ghost-like figure standing there, seeming to be the light I got so captivated by. “Is this you?” I am unable to make out who or what that’s supposed to be.
I try to lift my feet, which seem to be glued onto the pebbled floor, and walk closer to the creature.
“Hhuuuugh!”, I shriek, unable to form any other word. Fascinated, scared, confused. I feel it all, now that the figure has turned around. And then, here I am and get all the answers I had questions to.
What I see is beautiful, but nasty, fascinating, but daunting. I do not know what is happening with me, but it’s a wonderful feeling.
The creature that stands in front of me is not a monster, not a zombie or a beast. It’s me. Right in front of me stands myself. It seems like I just healed myself.

1. 5C’s Class Community
   I’m not a poetic person at all, so coming up with a text that rhymes AND contains all the letters of the alphabet was very hard for me to do. I put quite a lot of effort into it, which is why it took me more time than I had. I’m proud of it, not because it’s perfect (which it isn’t at all), but because it’s the result of sitting myself down and working consequently. Unfortunately, it doesn’t rhyme, but that doesn’t make it any less poetic!
2. Tobias Eaton-his character development
   Again, I do not love this text because it’s absolutely amazing, but because i remember the enthusiasm I found in me while writing the essay. After reading the Divergent trilogy, I got incredibly obsessed with it and used every chance I had to share information about Veronica Roth’s books. I wish I would have been as motivated while writing every other essay as I was with this one. I put my heart into it and tried to describe Tobias the best way possible.
3. Blind af
   This one was probably the hardest essay for me to write, as it had to be exactly a 100 words long. I love writing long stories and if I’m passionate about one, it’s really hard for me to stop writing. It was a challenge, but I managed and it will now forever remind me of the day Sophie and I were too blind to find that school.

Robots – programmable machines capable of carrying out a series of complex actions automatically. These are probably one of the most important technological machines ever invented. We have made great advances with the development of robots, but are still at the beginning of a fascinating journey.
Already in 1920, Carel Capek found the word “Robot”. The author described human-like machines and didn’t know how to call them, until his brother Josef had the wonderful idea of calling them Robots, meaning slave in Czech. George Devol patented the first programmable manipulator in 1954, which counts as the birth of the development of industrial robots, as, from then on, fast, huge advances have been made.
Today, we do not only use robots in industry. There’s a hotel in Tokyo, where service is pretty much done only by Robots. Human-like robots, so-called androids, work as receptionists, robotic cubes wake up the customers and another machine sorts out all the luggage and brings it to one’s room.
If this is already happening somewhere around the world, I can only imagine how crazy the future will be:
I believe robots will assist us in so many different ways. We’ll be sitting in chairs, which move through the air, all day and there will be machines helping us to eat our artificially produced food and we won’t have to clean our houses anymore, as there will be robots doing that for us, but our houses won’t just be simple houses, they will have a voice and tell us when there’s someone at the door, which will open on one’s command. There probably won’t be any agriculture left, but that’s absolutely fine, as we’ll be eating artificial food that tastes like junk food but is actually very good for us.
Hold on? All this reminds me of a movie! Wall-E! In Wall-E all human beings live on a giant space ship flying around the cosmos, because they left planet earth in an unlivable state.
Will our world look like this soon, because we start to accustom to robots doing everything for us? Will we stop taking care of our home planet completely, just because robots and machines will do and produce everything for us? Will the further development of robotic machines ruin our planet, and therefore us, or will it result in better standards of living for everyone and maybe even safe our planet?
Well, we will not know until robots have completely taken over our lives, which might just not be tomorrow!

Privat broadcasters like Netflix or Amazon Prime have taken over the movie market and keep visitors away from the cinema. Many decide to get comfortable on their couch, instead of going to the cinema. Is it better to watch films at home or should one head to the local movie hall the next time they feel like watching a movie?
In the cinema, movies are projected onto a huge screen guaranteeing high quality, whereas at home, you might not have the best TV or a projector for watching a movie.
Though Netflix or Amazon Prime cost a bit more than a ticket at the movies, in the long run such private broadcasters are way cheaper, especially because you can watch as many movies as you wish. When cozying up on your couch, popcorn, coke and other snacks end up being less expansive as well.
Furthermore, privat broadcasters provide so much more choice than movie halls. You can watch movies, but series or documentaries for example as well. Also, no matter what time, you can just watch a movie, without having to worry about the cinema being open.
All in all, privat broadcasters like Netflix or Amazon Prime are more cost-effective and better for spontaneous movie nights. For newly released movies that you’d really like to see in high quality and with great sound, you should definitely visit a movie theatre.

Digital footprints-we all leave them everywhere. With this post I leave a digital dossier here, on edublogs. Even before my birth, I was photographed and information about me was shared with many different people. It has become inevitable to leave marks behind, can the amount and kind of information known about you ,though, be controlled by yourself?

Social media is an incredibly important point to mention when talking about digital footprints. Teenagers, adults, and nowadays young children are connected through different platforms like Instagram or Snapchat. Especially teenagers often give away way too much information about themselves. They post revealing pictures and tell strangers where they live. Everything they publish will stay on the internet, no matter their profile having been deleted. The internet knows it all! These footprints could then have major consequences later on in life. Your boss could find an old profile, with which you once, ages ago, expressed your bad feelings towards his company or posted pictures with loads of alcoholic beverages. This and much more could make you lose your job, just because you left a footprint, visible for everyone, behind.
Choosing to leave social media, to not share information about yourself publicly and to quit connections with your friends over the internet has become a hard thing to do, and just impossible for some. You cannot not leave marks behind, but you could certainly control the amount and kind of information that’s known about you. By not inviting to a house party via social media or posting revealing pictures of yourself, you decrease your personal information drastically. To completely shut down not only social media but your access to the internet, to stop taking pictures of yourself or even to quit sending postcards with personal information is near to impossible. Even I, who posts little to nothing on social media, could not live without Instagram, not to mention the internet by itself.
I mainly use the internet to seek information about historical or geographical things for example, but I’m also online to , in a way, spy on others. I’m interested to see what other people, whether that’s celebrities or friends, are up to. I don’t mind anyone knowing about the fact that I googled some youtuber’s twitter to check on his profile. I do not share much with the world, but enjoy the world sharing loads with me.

All in all, it’s inevitable to leave digital footprints, even if you’re able to control the amount and kind of information known about you. This, though, is still very hard these days as society has seduced so many to leave digital dossiers everywhere. I try to keep my things private and only post, search or tell things I don’t mind anyone knowing about.

Really, my family only consists of three people: My mum-the busy nurse who has to clean up the mess in the kitchen that I’ve left, my dad-the great entertainer and who plays his drums way to loud, so that even our neighbors can hear and me, the cutest, cheeriest and most hilarious little kid (lol no). But the real heroes, the real stars of our crazy family, that are my cats. Lily and Diego, both completely different, but both incredibly loved.

Lily-a very common name for a cat- is the wild and free hunter. We got her from a farmer for fifty bucks and love her to bits. She’s brought home mice, has left bits and pieces of a common blackbird all over the staircase and has climbed plenty of trees- the first time ,when she was still a tiny baby, we struggled getting her down again. Because she’s so active, she is quite thin in summer, but obviously gains weight in winter. The complete opposite to her, is Diego.

The big, fat red-haired British Blue does not move all day. He loves my bean bag, but is still very fussy. If there’s any piece of clothing on there or the blanket isn’t in it’s usual position he will refuse to lay down. Barely ever leaving his place, for food Diego will do anything. We’ve had to scale down the portions, as he sat in front of his pot like, 5 times a day. I love his chubby cheeks and how his belly nearly touches the floor. That’s really nice for cuddling, but unfortunately he’s never really up for that. Still, stroking his head makes him purr a lot.
I love my mum and my dad, but these two stars will always have a special place in my heart.

The year 2020 marks the end of an era. Then, I will (hopefully) have passed my A-Levels and leave school behind. Until then, I have a lot to achieve, some of which I have listed below:

• Going On Holiday With Friends
  I would love to spend a week in a bungalow, chilling out and having fun. We could go swimming whenever we wanted to if we lived near a lake or we could also have a barbecue at two in the morning. I really think a week somewhere else would be great fun.
• To Not Care About What Others Think
  I’ve been told bad things throughout my life, and every single one of those still hurts. No matter how many times a friend tells me not to listen, they still keep me up at night. Being one of those people that doesn’t give a damn is an important goal of mine.
• Getting A One In German
  Though achieving the previous one will take a long time, getting a one in German is probably the hardest of them all. I’m not the best author and German isn’t quite my language, but hard work and good will have gotten me a one on a test already ( to mine and everyone else’s surprise), so I will give my best and keep going. What could happen? Nothing more could go wrong than not achieving this incredibly irrealistic goal.
• Genuine Happiness
  Putting on a smile each day is one thing, experiencing genuine bursts of laughter and making actual memories another. I would love to know what it feels like to love the moment and never want to let it go, I’ve never had one of those.
• Survive Puberty
  It sounds ridiculous, but puberty is taking the mick out of me. I cannot wait to stop the constant fighting with my parents and those horrible mood changes. Though my brain won’t stop changing until the age of 25, I hope everything else will have passed. It hurts to be moody and disrespectful, when you’re not able to keep yourself from doing so. I struggle with my teenage years, and though they are said to be the best of one’s life, I really want to get it over with .

Most teenagers are excited about moving out from their parents’ house when they turn eighteen. A rather important decision to make when leaving your home is whether you want to live alone or have one, or maybe even several roommates to share an apartment with. I don’t think there’s a real answer to what’s better, really it depends on what you as an individual prefer.
Independence is a key factor of why young people want to leave “Hotel Mum”. Although living alone will teach you about the daily tasks of life, having a friend there to help you with your first go at washing your clothes will be just as eventful.
Money wise, you’re certainly better off with one or several roommates, as you can share the rent, costs for food and other goods. When your ways part after having lived together for some time, the struggle of who bought what might come up, though that can easily be arranged by simply keeping track.
Living with another person can be quite frustrating at times, but will help train your acceptance. The person you live with might also become your best friend, as you spend a lot of time together. If you prefer to have your own space and want to be left alone, then sharing an apartment may not be for you.
I think it’s everyone’s choice whether they want to live with someone or not. Some are more likely to, others Need their privacy. Both is absolutely fine.

In the modern world, studying abroad has become very popular amongst teenagers and young adults. I believe attending school or university in a foreign country is a great chance, though not everyone is interested in doing so and that should be accepted as well.

When living in a foreign country for a few months, you will be interacting with many foreigners and therefore get to know their different culture. If you spend time in a country and talk a different language, your language skills will also improve.
Another plus point will be your personal development. Without family to help you, you will learn to be self organised. Studying abroad helps to gain independence from your parents and can even make you self sufficient. All that will make you grow up and become an adult.
Furthermore, at a foreign school or university, you will for sure make friends and get to know lots of people. Maybe, you will even make connections with people who will be helpful later on in your career.

All in all, studying abroad is a great opportunity to improve language skills, learn about a foreign culture, gain independence and make lots of friends. However, not everyone enjoys these things and definitely shouldn’t be forced to study abroad.

~210 words