How can we develop self control? - Rishona Chopra

We all have our weaknesses and strengths; the most common fault is falling into the trap of peer pressure. 

We need to develop self-control. We first need to self-reflect on ourselves and know ourselves better. We need to analyze our strengths and weakness, understand our personal temptations, then make a chart and set daily goals on how we plan to avoid doing things that can harm us and tempt us. Setting daily goals soon turns into monthly goals and soon into habits.  

When we start to do this, we might feel lazy and tell ourselves, "Let me start tomorrow." But as said, what has to be done tomorrow must be done today, and what has to be done today must be done now. 

The problem arises when we start doing things due to peer pressure. We don't want to be the outcast and wish to fit in, but isn't it the outcast who shines the brightest?

We should know the adverse effects of whatever we do and the risks we take. People try to tempt us by showing us a few positive results and telling us how fun or cool it is. The definition of 'cool' is different for everyone. Smoking may be cool for someone, drinking may be cool for someone, studying may be cool for someone, and we cannot let our 'cool' be someone else's definition of 'cool'.

Sometimes, we need to trust our instinct and avoid people we believe are bad company. That doesn't mean we have to shut down all means of socialization, but we should do it to an appropriate extent. 

Often it helps to talk to your parent or a close person older than you and let your heart out and hear their opinion, but after all, we are not weak people who start following things just because people tease us. We need to be strong and have self-control over our minds.

Rishona Chopra
Grade VII
Gyanshree School

Happiness - Oshi Singh

Image courtesy https://www.pinterest.com/
used by Oshi Singh for representation only

'Be grateful for everyone you have, not everything you have.'

There's nothing more unpredictable than life itself. All situations we face in life are like dice. It's about our perspective towards it. The same applies to life too. We can spend this unreliable journey with a big smile on our faces or with a heavy heart. Many choose happiness over sadness. But you may find many who stop trying and sit back after facing an unavoidable path in life. But hey! This is a long journey. Instead of being all sad and hopeless, fasten your seatbelts to the journey of the 'unknown'. All you have to do is simply focus on the positive side of the world. A world where everything is better, and you finally get your 'happily ever afters'. You shall achieve all this just by waking up every morning and enjoying every single moment, and living it to the fullest instead of wishing for it to the fullest. 

Living in this materialistic world, many try to find happiness in worldly things like money, not realizing that it's temporary and all that will matter in the end is their happiness and whether they had a meaningful life. So find your meaning in life, find your source of happiness, and together, celebrate the value of happiness and live the rest of your lives with a big smile stuck on your faces? 

Oshi Singh
IX C 
Gyanshree School 
Reference: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/631981760203224980/

Reflection on the topic Peer Pressure - Tenzin Jambey

In the Oxford dictionary, the word "peer " means people of the same age as you, and "pressure" means forcing someone to do certain things or activities.

It feels fun to do things with our friends; we play, study, and spend time with our friends in school and without friends, life would be pretty dull. When we make friends at first, we never know who is nasty or good; only after spending some time do we learn about our friend's personalities and mentality. A good friend will always think and wish for good welfare, but a lousy friend will try to pull you in the wrong direction. Bad friends often put pressure on you to do the activities which they do. 

If I had to tell you how to overcome peer pressure, then I would say we should break our bond with the wrong people or bad friends as we know a bad person always puts pressure on you and will always emphasise on wrong things, but we should first try to change them and if they don't change then we must simply end our bond with them. A good friend would never pressure you and always teach you productive things.

Tenzin Jambey

Pestalozzi Children's Village India

Reflection on the topic Peer Pressure - Nishan Karki

At any given point, you can release your most fabulous self. Don't let anyone hold you back. Don't let anyone dilute you. Don't be peer pressured into being less than you are. - Steve Maraboli

Reading The Art Of Focus at the Sunday School.

Peer pressure means a strong influence on a person by another person's behaviour and specific actions. It makes a person behave the same as the other, although the behaviour of the other may not be good. It is one of the significant problems of youth and societies. The primary source of peer pressure on students is their friends. A lousy friend may encourage his friend to fight, smoke, take drugs, smuggle, etc. These evil actions cause peer pressure on people.

The effects of peer pressure are:-
• Peer pressure hampers day to day life of people and creates hurdles in their lives.
• It can cause depression in case of performance of serious actions
• It creates a distraction from good works
• It leads to a change in the behaviour and attitude of people.

There are many measures to reduce peer pressure. Some of them are:-

• Avoiding fights and other serious actions
• Hanging around less with friends
• Making a reliable friend
• Concentrating more on self-work
• We should say no to bad things and yes to good.

- Nishan Karki

What is peer pressure and how can we deal with it? - Tenzin Nyesel

Generally, everyone has a circle of peers with whom they are comfortable talking and sharing things. But sometimes the circle you are in might not have the people with whom you are meant.

Sometimes, the people in our circle pressure us to do the work they demand, which might need to be corrected. When our peers give orders instead of advice, it leads us on the wrong path and makes us do bad things; that’s when we go through peer pressure. 

Peer pressure affects us not only physically but also mentally. Due to this, many people of young age get spoiled physically and mentally. They lose their concentration power. It decreases self-confidence and self-worth. Also, distances us from our family members and friends.

Tenzin Nyesel
Pestalozzi Children's Village India

Quaint Little Bookshop - AI Chatbot

A short story
This is fiction, and any resemblance to any character or persona is just by chance; we did this to test an AI Chatbot and see how we could draft a story for a book. Shmooz AI is a WhatsApp bot based on GPT 3 model from OpenAI. 

Once upon a time, a quaint little bookshop was tucked away in the heart of Dehradun called The English Book Depot. It was owned by a young woman named Millie, who was passionate about books and deeply loved the English language.

The shop was small, with shelves of books overflowing onto the floor. It was a cosy place, with a warm ambience and the scent of freshly brewed coffee filling the air. Millie would often host readings and discussions at the shop, inviting people to come and share their thoughts on literature.

One day, a young writer named Rohan stumbled upon The English Book Depot. He had been struggling with writer's block for months and desperately needed some literary inspiration. He wandered through the shelves and soon found himself lost in the pages of a novel.

As he sat reading, sipping on a cup of coffee, Millie started conversing with him about the book he was reading. That conversation led to a friendship and eventually blossomed into something more. Rohan and Millie bonded over their love of literature and spent hours discussing their favourite books at the shop.

Over time, Rohan began to write again, finding the inspiration he needed within the walls of The English Book Depot. He even published his first novel, which Millie proudly displayed on a shelf in the shop. People would come from all over the city to visit the little bookshop, drawn in by Millie's welcoming vibe and passion for literature.

Years passed, and though the shop remained small, it had become a beloved fixture in the community. Millie continued to inspire people with her love of books, and The English Book Depot remained a haven for writers, readers, and literary enthusiasts alike.

Fun exercise, Shmooz AI and Grammarly work in tandem to put together this story!

Disclaimer: This post is purely for fun and a chatbot experiment. Please read as a piece of fiction, and the blogger and the authors take no responsibility for the content or the language generated via the AI Chatbot.

What is peer pressure and how can we deal with it? - Rishona Chopra

Peer pressure is the pressure we face from our peers to do something. It indirectly or directly affects us. Often we find ourselves pretending to fit in the crowd, so we start doing things and becoming people we are not. We lose our own identity just to make 'friends'. But friends who force you to do something or friends who you cannot be yourself around aren't really friends, are they?

Each of us has our own identity, which we are given for a reason because we all are unique, we put on a different persona, and it affects no one but us.  

Being with the right company matters a lot. One ripe apple kept with ten other rotten apples will soon rot too. It is better to be alone than with bad friends. 

Dealing with peer pressure, though, is quite a challenge. Often people try to bully us by telling us that we are 'not cool' and 'boring'. But we must remember that the right path is often alone, but being alone doesn't mean we must be lonely. Ignoring people like that is the best way. We need to have a calm and composed mind that knows what is right and wrong. We do what we do, and pressuring someone needs to be corrected. 

When we start ignoring all of this, people start bothering us because peer pressure that makes you do bad things is just to trouble you or force you towards the wrong path. 

While dealing with peer pressure, we might think, "everyone is doing this", or "what could be wrong with this?" but something correct is not what the majority does. People around us may TRY to have a strong influence on us but we have to be that one person who stands on the right path, whether alone or not. Their TRY must be a left a try only and be in vain. 

Because of peer pressure, we start feeling insecure about our own selves and doubting ourselves. All our choices and decisions seem to be made by others and their opinions, but it is OUR life, OUR choices, and they cannot be changed. People may give us good advice that we should always lend an ear to, but then again, there has to be a straight line between right and wrong, people you trust and don't. 

We may need friends at this age, even if that means pretending to do things they don't. It feels terrible when you have no one to sit with you, talk to you and a person you can share your thoughts with, but it's hard to find someone like that, with who you can be yourself ( apart from your parents, of course)!

Sometimes, I am in the impact of my peers. I know what they might be doing is wrong, but I just pretend to do what they do just so I can get along with them, but then you have to remember that you have higher goals in life. You have higher aspirations than pretending or changing yourself to make friends. 

Instead of finding company outside, we can be our own friends! No one knows us better than we do, and no one ever can! 

Rishona Chopra
Grade VII
Gyanshree School