Boot Camp: A Story of Success

It has been a week since our last day of Work Success Boot Camp. This Saturday was different; I woke up and found out that I do not have training like I used to have every Saturday. It was a sad feeling; I just wished the Boot Camp did not come to an end. The story started when I applied to the Boot Camp through Amideast website. Bank of Beirut, the funder of the workshop, called me a month later to inform me about my selection to attend the Boot Camp. The period of the Boot Camp was from February 18 until March 17, 2012. The camp consisted of 25 members selected from different backgrounds, universities, and locations. Moreover, the trainers were completely awesome: Aya, Rana, Robert, and Chris gave us, from the bottom of their hearts, a big push forward in our professional careers. Some topics covered during the Boot Camp are: Brand You, Presentation Skills, Personality Assessment, Time Management, Communication Skills, Interviewing Skills, Networking, and much more… Personally, the part that was most beneficial to me is the public speaking part. I cannot forget the exercise about going to Beirut Souk and interviewing people separately and independently; I never thought I might do such a thing in my life. However, I was surprised about how easy it was for me. I did not feel nervous at all; but in fact, I interviewed more people than I was requested to interview. To sum up, the experience was wonderful. It was the correct place to understand the behavior of different people and their different personalities. At universities, we cannot go deep inside each classmate and understand how he thinks. So now, I have more experience about the diversity and the uniqueness of each one of us. I wish I will always have the chance for such accomplishment through my life.

EARTHQUAKE AWARNESS

I-             What is an Earthquake?

An earthquake is the shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane.

II-            Can we predict an Earthquake?

An earthquake is a sudden release of energy stored by the movement of plates which means we cannot predict the time, magnitude, and location of an earthquake.

Moreover, we have to keep in mind that most death and destruction in an earthquake are caused by collapse of man-made construction. Therefore, we should be aware of the steps to take before, during, and after an earthquake.

III-           What to do BEFORE an Earthquake?

·         Identify the safest place in your apartment

·         Prepare an emergency supply kit

·         Teach yourself and all family members what to do due an earthquake and the emergency phone numbers (such as 112, etc..) 

IV-          What to do DURING an Earthquake?

·         STAY CALM!!!

      ·         If you are indoors:    - Stay away from windows and falling objects
                                               - In bed, cover your head with your pillow
                                              - Hide under sturdy furniture such as heavy tables

·         If you are outdoors:  -If you are driving, stop in a safe area 

                                          -Go away from buildings, trees, electrical lines

-If under debris, cover your mouth with your cloths

V-           What to do AFTER an Earthquake?

·         Expect after shock waves and keep yourself safe

·         Stay away from damaged areas

·         Help injured and trapped people

·         Listen to a battery operated radio

Jane Eyre: The Strange Ending

Strangely, the ending of Jane Eyre is not about Jane herself or her marriage with Rochester. Brontë describes in the last chapter of the book the happy marriage of Jane and Mr. Rochester and how they had a children and Mr. Rochester recovered his sight in one eye. However, Brontë ended the novel by a letter sent from St. John in India to Jane in which he declares a premonition of his death after he has done his life mission as a missionary in India. Brontë used words from Revelation 22:20 as the last paragraph in the book: “'My Master,' he says, 'has forewarned me. Daily he announces more distinctly, "Surely I come quickly" and hourly I more eagerly respond, "Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus" '” (Brontë, 1847, p.521). This is a very weird ending of a novel that has been more about self-identification, love finding, and ethics than about religion. So why does the story move away from the plot of marriage towards the death of St. John at the very end of the novel?

A first interpretation could be that that Brontë wanted to show what could have happened to Jane if she went with her cousin to India and forgot about her love to Mr. Rochester. St. John had the chance to fall in love with Ms. Oliver but he didn’t believe that love can exist with religion at the same time; as a result, he sacrificed his own happiness with Ms. Oliver in order to go to India where he lived lonely and worked his self out to death. Jessica Richard confirms that Brontë wanted to show what could have happened to Jane by saying: “Though the romantic solution to Jane's choice-of-life inquiry is reinstated, the religious solution remains prominent in the novel's conclusion. Indeed, the novel ends not with Jane the narrator's words, but with St. John's. This substitute authorial voice unsettles the romantic idyll that Jane describes at the end because it continues to suggest that the narrative, and Jane herself, could have followed a different path entirely.” (Richard, 2003, p.351). So Jane chose to live a joyous life with Mr. Rochester rather than going to India with St. John and work herself out to death.

A second interpretation could be that Brontë ended the novel with the story of St. John in order to attack and criticize evangelism and the Victorian father since Brontë has lived in the Victorian era. Richard Chase describes the relation between St. John and Patrick Brontë, the father of Charlotte, as following: “St. John Rivers in his tyrannical evangelism, his cold, harsh dominance, his torpid Christian love-making is Mr. Brontë père.” (Chase, 1947, p.489). Throughout the novel, Brontë presents several characters to criticize religion, especially evangelism, such as Mr. Brocklehurst, Helen Burns, and St. John; however, the novel ended with St. John story since he was the most complex character in the novel. St. John represents the extreme case of evangelism in which he sacrifices his own happiness, love, and life to his duty as a clergy man.

Despite being one of the most interesting and famous British novels, Jane Eyre has one of the most disputed endings in literature. The novel might be ended with St. John death to show us what could have been happened to Jane, or to criticize and attack religion. No one explanation for this ending, yet Brontë forced the readers to think more about it after closing the book.      

References

Brontë, C. (1847). Jane Eyre. The Penguin edition.

Chase, R. (1947). The Brontës: A Centennial Observance (Reconsiderations VIII).

      The Kenyon Review, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Autumn, 1947), pp. 487-506. Retrieved from

       http://www.jstor.org/stable/4332879

Richard, J. (2003). "I Am Equally Weary of Confinement": Women Writers
       and "Rasselas" from "Dinarbas to Jane Eyre". Tulsa Studies in Women's
       Literature, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Autumn, 2003), pp. 335-356. Retrieved from

       http://www.jstor.org/stable/20059156

First Things First

First Things First is a self-help book written by Stephen Covey and Roger & Rebecca Merrill. The book aims to teach us how to put our first things first trough a time management system and defining the priorities in our lives. This excellent book had a real impact on my life, and I always recommend it to people who are willing to make their lives more effective.

Surveys show that the purpose of life for the majority of us is to live, to love, to learn, and to leave a legacy.  "First Things First" is a great assistant for all of us to balance our mental, spiritual, physical, and social elements of life. Stephen Covey explains through the book that most people are driven by the concept of urgency. In order to be more effective and relieve our stresses, we need to adjust our concepts to the concept of important – not urgent. This means moving our lives to the Quadrant II activity of the quadrant matrix for importance and urgency (Check the quadrant under the review).  The results of properly dedicating ourselves to Quadrant 2 activity are that we will gain control over what is happening in our lives: we will thereby reduce the time we spend in Quadrant 1. Are you wondering where to find time for the activity in Quadrant 2? Of course it must come from Quadrants 3 and 4 by minimizing or eliminating the time you spend there.

At the end, as Covey reminds us in “The Miracle of the Chinese Bamboo Tree”, when a bamboo tree is first planted, all growth for the first four years occurs underground, but in its fifth year the bamboo tree grows up to eighty feet. With this book we can help ourselves develop the roots we need to grow in the years ahead.

The four quadrant matrix for importance and urgency