20 Must-Dos Before Finishing College

20 Must-Dos Before Finishing College College is a wonderful, magical time in a young person’s life. Unfortunately, it doesnt last long and there are some must-dos before finishing college. There is so much to learn and experience. For example, honing the skill of a perfect keg stand takes time, effort and a lot of practice. Since the mind of college students is so full from their education, they might forget there are other things happening outside the classroom. If you are one of those poor, unfortunate souls that have actually attended the vast majority of the semester’s lectures, it is time we gave you a proper college education. We won’t insult your intelligence by mentioning things like attending class drunk or going streaking. By now, you’ve either given those classics a try or you’ve determined you are too much of a pansy to live life on the edge. No, no. Here are 20 must-dos before finishing college. Grab your friends and get to work. Pick someone up in the bar. Use every cheesy pickup line you can think of until you actually score. Bonus points if it happens to be the hot bartender you’ve had your eye on.   This will help you to be more confident when meeting other people. Create total chaos in the middle of a class. Run in and declare your undying love for the lecturing professor or hottie sitting in the front row. To maximize the effect, make sure you don’t know the person. Do a Power Hour. Or, at least the light version of it. You are not a college student if you havent experienced hangover. Read this guide on how to cure hangover fast. Make a move on someone who is totally out of your league. Each person attracts others with certain characteristics. You can be funny, charismatic, open-hearted  - find your strong sides and use them in future. Suggest your RA to do something   inappropriate and fun with you. The point is to develop your skills of maintaining good relationships with someone who is older and wiser than you. Invite your professor to join you at the bar. Getting to know your professor better is not as weird as it seems. You are just supposed to build good relationships with someone who can help you with your future career but dont cross the line in student-teacher relationship. Protest something – anything. Of course, you can always join a group who already has a mission in mind. But it might be better to start your own protest. That way, you can put your foot down about something like having eight-hour workday or selling fast food on campus. Visit a foreign country. Spend as much time there as possible. Submerge yourself in the culture, make new friend, learn other language, try unusual food and have fun! Heres the list of destinations for college students. Write an opinion piece for your school newspaper. Passionately proclaim your ideas about a totally insignificant issue no one cares about. Or, take the total opposite opinion on something that is very mainstream. Throw an unforgettable college dorm party. Put the sweats away for a night and say no to dining service. Sleep outside. With or without a tent. With or without permission from the property owner. Try some foreign cuisine. And no, Chinese doesn’t count. Or pizza. Get something new and exotic. Bonus points if you make it a progressive dinner and hit up all the local restaurants you’ve never tried before. Watch out for the Indian food – it can get spicy! Sign up for a strange class – something totally unrelated to your major that you would never normally consider taking. Get your friends to join you so you can all be confused, grossed out, and/or awed together. Here youll find the list of the most fun classes you can take in college. Tag something on campus. Throw up a little graffiti in a location that is special/memorable to you. Hook up with someone in the stacks at the library. Bonus points if it is a total strange you convinced to put the studying down for a bit. Pull a fire alarm. Either do it at 3 AM or in the middle of final’s week when everyone is studying their brains out. Give them a well-deserved break. Drink in the library. Drinking in places that are not appropriate for that can be fun. However, dont get used to this. Otherwise, it wont be fun. It will be just inappropriate. Throw an â€Å"Anything But Clothes† costume party. A quick tip: dont get dressed in something that can be easily spoiled by drinks. Or, you will have to go howe naked. If its not what you want, choose durable materials for your NOT-clothes. Do something regrettable with your hair or to your body. Pink highlights or a terrible tattoo. Use your imagination. Play on an intramural team. Gather your friends and join a league for something totally ridiculous – like inter-tube water polo or broomball. Many people assume college is for furthering their education. However, this is not the only aim of college education. College is also about experimentation and developing skills which are useful for your adult life.

3 Steps to Finding Your Dream Job

3 Steps to Finding Your Dream Job We talk a lot about combing job posts, grooming your resume, and sharpening your interview skills. These are definitely important techniques, but they may not be worth all the stress if you’re not also taking a look at yourself and your future to decide what you really want to be when you grow up. Here are some tips on how to find not just a job for you, but  the job for you.1. Know YourselfWhat do you actually want? What do you like doing? What is your largest priority in finding a workplace? Is it the day-to-day responsibilities that need to feel most meaningful? The flexibility it allows you to have in your home life? These priorities can change over time, of course, but it’s important to take a really honest look at yourself before you get started.Ask yourself these questions:What would you be doing if money wasn’t an option?What industries would allow you to involve that skill or field in your day to day work?Do you like working closely and collaboratively with others?Do you prefer autonomy and independence?How interested are you in management opportunities?Do you like the set of skills you’ve currently amassed or do you need to pursue new, more exciting areas of learning?2. Model SuccessYou know how geese migrate with the seasons, flying in those characteristic V patterns? They do that to share the burden of flying right in the face of the wind.  It is okay to be the second goose in the V. Really.The real-life translation of this avian metaphor is simply, find someone who’s doing what you want to do be doing. Learn from them. Ask about the challenges they’ve faced and the lessons they’ve learned as they overcame them. See if they’re actually as happy in their current situation as you imagine they are from the outside.I have a mentor who’s doing exactly the kind of work I thought I always wanted to be doing- but once I saw how much effort she put in and how little that work was valued by he r colleagues or her supervisors, I decided to change course, keep my eggs in multiple baskets, and make sure I had a fall-back plan in case all that effort started to feel like it wasn’t well spent on my chosen career path.3. Find 2-3 Companies that Amaze YouThis is what my mom did when she went back to work after staying home with my little brother. She’d had a few years of clerk and paralegal work when I was very young, then she’d taken that time away. When it was time to make her way back into the workforce, she started by researching local companies with openings that shared values with the government agency where she really wanted to land. Picking out immediate places to apply based on long-term priorities helped her get started in a large corporate office and bring her computer and legal knowledge up to speed, making her  a shoo-in when she finally saw an opening at her ideal job.Now she’s been there for nearly 20 years. The advice she always give s me, and I hate hearing, is to look for places where you want to work and get on their radar before they’re searching for applicants. As soon as that job posting goes up, you could have hundreds of other resumes to compete with; get in there for an informational interview or on a word-of-mouth referral, and you’re going to stand out.The Secret To Discovering Your Dream JobRead More at Careerealism

Reaction to Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Reaction to Philosophy - Essay Example A rule is something which is instructed and just like any other rule, it has a tendency to be broken and rejected. This is contrary to a principle which is more inclined towards the norm or the belief of what should be done. According to Poland and Graham, â€Å"The mean between an excess of self-love and a deficiency of self-love is to count what is in our own true interest and is in the true interest of each and every person as equally important (263).† With the latter statement being a reference of what the golden rule implies, the principle is more of promoting lesser attention and love be given to the self and give more importance as to what would be the better implications that an action can give to the majority. Taking the principle on a more literal manner, one should also think of what will happen to others when a particular decision is made or when an action is done. Though others may say that the self does deserve to be pampered every once in a while, it is also imp ortant to take note of the majority who will be affected even with the slightest implication. When it comes to a point that a major decision is needed to be done, one should think of what will be the implications the decision will make for the majority rather than just for the self. The happiness of the self is also important yet how can one achieve the ultimate happiness when more people had been negatively affected or devastated by just one person’s seek for happiness. A statement of Poland and Graham worth pondering on is â€Å"Loving people as we love ourselves means taking them as we find them as opposed to how we might want them to be (264).† The latter describes as to how a parent would care for their children or how a husband will look after his wife. Unconditionally, one can give up everything just to ensure the security and well-being of their loved ones even if it means that their own happiness will either have to wait for another time or it may be modified for the moment. Yet the self would not be the main focus anymore since it would be the others or the majority who will benefit from the action or the decision. It can be hard to make or not easy to accept however when there will be more people thanking the self for what one has done, it will all be worth the dilemma and sacrifices. If there is a golden rule, there is a golden word to achieve the goal of the ultimate principle. This word is the adjective unconditional. One can accept another despite of the flaws or the baggage that is being carried. This is unconditional acceptance. A person can love his enemy and this is pertained to as unconditional love. There are so many actions that can be associated with the word unconditional. Life is too precious to be filled with anger, grief and sorrow. If a person can consider the self to be happy, can he share the happiness with other people who most of their lives have been experiencing grief? When a person is in love, is it necessary th at one is waiting for that emotion to be reciprocated? Can love be just given unconditionally without any expectation of getting anything in return? When a person has exhibited unconditional actions that resulted to happiness for the others, could one conclude that the person has achieved the ultimate happiness? Question #2 One person cannot exist with just the self alone. There will be times that one will need the assistance or the company of another person. This is more on the worldly manner. However, a

Strategic Tourism Planing case study of city Brighton Essay

Strategic Tourism Planing case study of city Brighton - Essay Example 2. The purpose of the study is to find out the sustainable tourism plans of the city of Brighton & Hove. A tourism plan according to Stynes, D. & O’Halloran, C. (1987) must look at all the tourism resources, organization, markets within the region. It should also include economic, environmental, social, and institutional aspects of tourism development. The tourism plans of the city therefore must address all these issues. In analyzing the goals and objectives of the city plan, it is important to see if the plans serves the broader purpose, such as does it contribute to a broader tax base, how does it increase employment opportunities, expand recreational facilities, better educational programs, and how does it improve the quality of life. Destination places, like any economic product, has a life cycle and goes through several stages. It is like stages of cancer that comes in several stages wherein the fourth stage is the final blow – the termination of the life cycle. The first stage is the discovery stage wherein a number tourists come to a place seeking for â€Å"unspoiled† destination. The social impact at this stage is generally small and the residents welcome the tourists with positive attitudes. [BFSC} On the second stage, is the launching, wherein the host community is now ready to welcome the increasing number of tourists. The host community has started to provide facilities. Business starts first from a family base structure, but later on develops to a wider range as outsiders develop their business interests. Business develops into a mass market and novelty declines. Stage 3 is the stagnation wherein the market is saturated , the quality of services is no longer good, and there are signs of environmental degradation of the tourist destination. It is the worrying stage. (BFSC) Stage 4 marks the decline of tourism, and falling profits leads to withdrawal of business in the

Rough Draft Puritans Essay Example for Free

Rough Draft Puritans Essay In the middle of the 1600’s, from around the 1630’s to about the 1660’s the Puritans were fleeing to America for mostly religious reasons. Many of them came to set up what is called the Massachusetts Bay colony. John Winthrop was the leader of this colony. They believed religion was the key to the perfect community. Puritans had many influences on the political, economic, and social development of the New England colonies using their religious values. Puritans had so many influences on the political outcome of the New England colonies. The form of government they had created was almost like a theocracy, where God’s law is law. A lot of the New England colonies didn’t want this at all. Nathaniel Ward (doc G) was trying to tell them that the state laws needed to go along with the morals of the church, or a lot of bad things might happen. Even though Ward stated this, a lot of the colonies already had religious tolerance so they didn’t base the laws from the church morals. In â€Å"Limitation of Government,† John Cotton (doc H) is saying that the government shouldn’t be all that good because any ‘mortal’ man will abuse it. This is sort of like a democracy, which the New England colonies will develop a government almost like this. Roger Williams (doc F) says that states should only have one religion each. If they acquire more than one religion, it could only begin a war. This basically shows that puritans were not very tolerant of other religions. Quite a few people believed there should be religious tolerance, people like Roger Williams, who was sent to Rhode Island by the Puritans. Then Rhode Island became one of the first colonies to obtain a separation of religion and state, which made it a colony for freedom of religion.

Where The Red Fern Grows :: essays research papers

In the story Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. Billy is willing to try his best when he wants to get the dogs. He also tries his best when he wants to get Old Dan down from a tree. Billy thinks that God helped him knock the tree down and catch the coon who was up the tree.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Billy tries his best to get the dogs he saw in an ad, he found in a magazine by the lake were fishermen fish. He picked berries util his feet were covered with scratches because of the bushes. He also hunted for coons with the traps his father got him. He would sell the fur and the berries in his grandfather's store. After two years Billy finally had enough money to get the dogs he wanted. He was so excited that instead of waiting for the dogs to come to him he went to the dogs. After getting the puppies Billy got into a fight with some school kids because they were picking on the puppies and Billy was getting angry. He wanted to protect the puppies   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Billy and his dogs went coon hunting Old Dan went up a dead hollow tree to try and catch the coon who went up there. So Billy had to go up and get him down. Billy tried as hard as he could to get his big dog down, then he finally did. When Old Dan got down he was so eager to get the coon he went back up the tree. So Billy went up the tree again and tried to get him down. With all his strength he finally got Old Dan Down for the second time. Billy thinks that God helped him in getting the tree to fall and catching the coon. This all happened when Billy promised his dogs that if they get the coon up the tree he would get the coon. So Billy thought of climbing the tree but it was to high. So he tried to cut the tree down. It took along time; Billy's Grandpa made a dummy so Billy can go home and rest. The purpose of the dummy was to make the coon think that a person was standing there. So the coon would stay up on the tree for several days before he finds out that the dummy is fake. When Billy went back to the tree he started cutting and cutting, but the tree was too big and thick to cut down.

Conditioning: Psychology

Learning is an important skill that all organisms must acquire in order to survive or fall prey to Darwinism’s main idea of survival of the fittest. Learning is the long lasting effect of a change in behavior. This would constrict the application of learning conditioning to a few applications. The three most recognizable applications are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and learning by observation. Each type of learning is different, but uses similar ideas such as an unconditioned stimulus, which is usually food, and an unconditioned response, which food is associated with salivation and hunger. There are several ways that an individual can condition an organism to learn skills through three different applications of learning: classical, operant, and observation. The idea of classical condition is one of the most notable learning techniques because it involves a stimulus rewarded for a certain response. Naturally, animals and human have unconditioned stimulus that triggers an unconditioned response. The most common connection is the correlation between food and salivation. Food naturally draws organism to it in order to satisfy a drive created by hunger to acquire homeostasis. A response is created because of the organism’s reaction to food, which is usually salivation. Classical conditioning is considered an effective way to train an organism to learn habits not naturally associated with certain unconditioned stimulus. This creates a conditioned stimulus. The once unconditioned response is now conditioned to respond to the conditioned stimulus, which is called a conditioned stimulus. An example of conditioned stimulus and response is the example of associating the school bell with food. Children are hungry by nature, but when the school bell is added, the children are reinforced to associate the school bell with lunchtime. Classical conditioning is effective when trying the teach an organism a skills by rewarding the organism with a unconditioned stimulus. An individual could use classical conditioning to teach an organism to learn skills that could aid in their own survival such as teaching human to avert certain food because of taste. If one were being taught to avert away from sour tastes, the teachers would first use a food that was extremely sour. By using the person’s innate instinct of hunger, they would give the person a lemon to eat. This sour extremity would cause the person to avoid lemons. The teacher would continuously use this tactic until the person has acquired the skill of aversion of lemons. The learner would have an acquisition of the skill. The teacher would then condition the learner in a variable interval to constantly reinforce the skill. The learner would then avoid all lemons. This may cause the learner to generalize the concept of lemon, for example, the learner may generalize the yellow color to symbolize all sour products, such as generalizing bananas as being sour. The teacher would then have the obligation of teaching the person how to discriminate items, so that his aversion is just towards lemons. While classical conditioning involves the stimulus being rewarded to incur a response, operant conditioning deals with changing the occurrence and forms of behavior. The main different between operant conditioning and classical conditioning is the operant conditioning deals with modifying the learner’s voluntary behavior. Operant conditioning involve consequences to teach desired skills. There are two ways that operant conditioning works, through reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement comes in two flavors: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is the teacher adds something of pleasure to the learner’s behavior in order to get a certain skill. An example would be a mom allowing her child to play video games if the child put the trash outside. The mom uses the favorable stimulus, which is the video games, in order to achieve a behavior, which is taking out the trash, out of the child. There is also negative reinforcement, in which negative reinforcement is the teacher removing an aversive stimulus, which is usually seen as unpleasant, in order to increase the frequency of a certain behavior. For example, when someone wakes up early in the morning, they use an alarm clock to tell them when to wake up. When the alarm clock is activated, it sends a signal, which is usually an annoying buzzing noise, to the learner that it is time to wake up. To reinforce the behavior of waking up, the learner must get up from bed to turn off the aversive stimulus. Reinforcements are consequences of reinforcing favorable behaviors. Punishments, on the other hand, are consequences in which the teacher tries to reduce the frequency of unfavorable behaviors. As with reinforcements, there are also positive and negative punishments. Positive punishment refers to occurred behavior followed by aversive stimulation, such as shock. An example of positive punishment would be if a child had talked negative to the mom, and the mom would respond with a slap on the wrist in order to lessen the frequency of such behavior. Negative punishment, on the other hand, is the removal of a pleasurable stimulus after the occurrence of an undesirable behavior. As with the example of the mom, and the child taking out the trash, if the children had not taken out the trash, the mom would instead take away the video games to lessen the frequency of not taking out the trash. The problem with punishment is that it may cause the learner to demonstrate bad behavior in response to the punishment through responses of fear or anger, rather than lessen the occurrence of the aversive behavior. Operant conditioning is more effective using reinforcements than punishment. However, using both facets successfully is the most effective way. An individual could teach another through operant conditioning if one would like to change a voluntary behavior in another. The teacher would have to use reinforcements to reinforce the desired behavior from the learner. For example, if the individual wanted the learner to wash the dishes after eating, the individual would have to give an incentive to the learner in order for the behavior to continue, such as letting a child play video games after completing his chores. The continuous stimulation by the positive reinforcement would allow the learner to associate good behavior with pleasurable activities. Once the learner has acquired the behavior, the learner may generalize the behavior to include doing all his chores in order to gain the positive reinforcement. The teacher would use punishment sparingly to lessen the frequency of aversive behavior such a taking away the video games. The way that an individual could instruct an organism to acquire a skill is through observable learning. Observable learning is the observations made by the learner through the actions of the teacher in order to create a skill, or change a behavior. Observational learning is the most commonly used tactic. It allows the learner to learn a skill without reward or consequences. The learner learns through observing the teacher and then imitating the actions of the teacher. This is a more common tactic to teach child skills that are learned and reinforced throughout their adulthood, such as table manners. The individual could teach an organism how to do a skill through observational learning. The individual would do an act that is observed by the learner, and they would have the learner imitate the actions. For example, a mother would like to teach her child table manners. She would demonstrate proper table manners to the child. She would then have the child repeat and imitate her actions. Once the child has acquired that knowledge, the mom would continuously reinforce the behavior. The child would learn table manners without much need for punishment or reinforcers. The way that observational learning works, some may categorized observational learning as operant conditioning because it usually involves changing behaviors. The individual could use these three conditioning techniques in conjunction with each other, in combination with them, or separately. Either way, these techniques, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational leanring, are the effective way to show an organism how to learn skills.

Suggested Format for a Reflective Journal

Suggested format for a reflective journal Dr Elaine Regan, Postdoctoral Research Associate, King’s College London This is one of many possibilities, but it will give you some idea of the types of questions that you can usefully ask yourself. Feel free to modify this format to suit your needs. Write a page (or two) for each session, completed by you in order of the sessions. Complete this information after each time you do some work on the course. This includes the formal sessions, the related reading and any other preparation, such as work in groups.Answer only the questions that apply – but think carefully about whether each question applies or not. A Reflective journal/diary is not like an essay! In your notebook you reflect on the academic content of the INQUIRE course/workshop in relation to your professional practice. It can be written in an essay-type prose, with an introduction and conclusion, or it can be a mixture of continuous prose, notes, bullet points etc. The contents should (www. llas. ac. uk/resources/gpg/2395): ? relate the content of a workshop and related reading to your own teaching and personal development support any statements you make with evidence and examples from your reading and from your practice ? refer to insights gained into your practice ? consider the intention to try out new ideas and methods ? identify the need for further exploration of issues ? identify longer-term development What would an unsatisfactory entry be like? ? A description only of content from a workshop and reading ? Little reference to the workshop and related reading ? Generalisations unsupported by evidence or examples of how an insight or opinion came about A satisfactory diary entry would: Review (what happened in the course or something you tried form the course in your teaching) ? Reflect (make sense of what happened) ? Digest (absorb the implications of the learning event and link it with experience, action plans or questions for you to e xplore further) Keep the following page in the front of your notebook to stimulate your thoughts and writing (taken from www. audiencedialogue. net/journal. html). Your name Session date Session number Session topic What did I read for this session (apart from the notes)? What was the most interesting thing I read for this session (mark it above with an asterisk) – why was that?What were three main things I learned from this session? What did I previously think was true, but now know to be wrong? What did we not cover that I expected we should? What was new or surprising to me? What have I changed my mind about, as a result of this session? One thing I learned in this session that I may be able to use in future is†¦ I am still unsure about†¦ Issues that interested me a lot, and that I would like to study in more detail Ideas for action, based on this session†¦ What I most liked about this session was†¦ What I most disliked about this session was†¦ Mis cellaneous interesting facts I learned in this session†¦

Four Kinds of Morpheme

Four Kinds of Morpheme Four Kinds of Morpheme Four Kinds of Morpheme By Maeve Maddox A useful definition of morphemegood enough for most purposesis â€Å"a minimal and indivisible morphological unit that cannot be analyzed into smaller units.† This broad definition is adequate for most general discussions, but it’s possible to get more specific. Just for fun, here are four different kinds of morpheme. allomorph or morph: any part of a word we want to talk about. A morph can be a whole word, like dog, a meaningful affix, like un- or -ness, or a part that has no meaning, but is separable, like the o in kissogram (a telegram delivered with a kiss, intended to amuse or embarrass the recipient.) portmanteau morph: a single form which consists of two or more morphemes, but which cannot be divided neatly. For example, the verb crashed can be separated into the morphemes crash and -ed, but a word like sang, which consists of the stem sing and a past tense marker (the changed vowel), cannot be so divided. empty morph: a piece of a word that does not contribute to its meaning, but is necessary to make it easily pronounceable. For example, the o in kissogram. (Linguists argue about something called a â€Å"null morpheme,† but as I’m not writing for linguists, I won’t go there.) cranberry morpheme: a morpheme that occurs in only one word, like the cran in cranberry, the twi in twilight, and the -art in braggart. Note on cran-, twi-, and -art: cran- The Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association explains the cran in cranberry this way: The name cranberry derives from the Pilgrim name for the fruit, craneberry, so called because the small, pink blossoms that appear in the spring resemble the head and bill of a Sandhill crane. The OED entry tells us that the word cranberry was unknown to herbalists writing in the 16th and 17th centuries. They knew about cranberries, but they called them other names, such as marsh-whorts and fen-berries. The North American cranberry growers may have adopted the name from German immigrants. Low German has the forms krà ´nbere, krones- or kronsbere, krà ´nsbr, kranebere; all translate as â€Å"crane-berry.† British speakers adopted the word cranberry in the 18th century. twi- This allomorph may also derive from German. Both High German and Low German have words that mean what twilight does. Middle High German has zwischenliecht, â€Å"tweenlight†; Low German has twà ªdustern, twà ªdunkern, literally â€Å"twi-dark.† -art This affix belongs to class of suffixes that turn a verb into a noun doer of the action. The spelling s of words in which –ard conveys the discreditable connotation include drunkard, laggard, and sluggard. Braggart is the only -art survivor in common use. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar 101 category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Arrive To vs. Arrive AtWhenever vs. When EverEpidemic vs. Pandemic vs. Endemic

Suspension Definition in Chemistry

Suspension Definition in Chemistry Mixtures may be classified according to their properties. A suspension is one type of mixture. Key Takeaways: Suspension Chemistry Definition A suspension is a type of heterogeneous mixture.Over time, particles in a suspension will settle out.A suspension contains larger particles than are found in a colloid. In a colloid, the particles remain mixed over time. Suspension Definition In chemistry, a  suspension is a heterogeneous mixture of a fluid and solid particles. In order to be a suspension, the particles must not dissolve in the fluid. A suspension of liquid or solid particles in a gas is called an aerosol. Examples of Suspensions Suspensions may be formed by shaking oil and water together, oil and mercury together, by mixing dust in air. Suspension Versus Colloid The difference between a suspension and a  colloid  is the solid particles in a suspension will settle out over time. In other words, the particles in a suspension are large enough to permit sedimentation.

Research paper on the death of ivan illyich by tolstoy Essay

Research paper on the death of ivan illyich by tolstoy - Essay Example The inevitability of death is a realization which comes to most of us very late in life if at all. While the characters in the story understand that death is a reality and an event which will occur sooner or later, like Ivan, they choose to ignore it and give thoughts to other more pressing considerations which take up their time (Hustis, 2000). Strangely enough, it takes a writer like Tolstoy to show us that without considering death while we have the time to actively change our lives, our final days may be spent like Ivan who examines his life and finds it lacking. The introspective nature which Ivan develops before his death could have served him well had he thought about life and living before he had to struggle with thoughts of death and dying. At times the reader can associate with Ivan since death is never a pleasant topic to consider, especially one’s own death which is seldom given thought in our daily lives (Danaher, 2003). As the novella progresses, the intense inte rnal struggle that Ivan has with his own thoughts magnifies his dread of the approaching eventual end and so overwhelms his thoughts that it becomes impossible to live the life he still has left with him. The plot of the book shows how Ivan is a government official serving in the capacity of a high court judge who lives a carefree, happy and more or less content life with his wife and family members. He begins to suffer from a mysterious pain in his stomach once he falls while hanging curtains in his house. With time, the pain becomes worse and he runs from pillar to post while trying to find a cure for his ailment. We find out that his condition is a terminal one and he will be dead soon. Yet at the same time, he does not accept his death. He certainly knows that he will not live for ever since he understands the philosophical concepts of morality and the idea that all