Stop seeking out approval and get happier

Stop seeking out approval and get happier We’ve all seen people on treadmills- either at the gym or on TV shows or in movies, and it’s always the same thing: someone is devoting a great deal of time and energy trying to race forward, but the truth is they aren’t actually getting anywhere. Did you know that there are â€Å"mental treadmills† that we often put ourselves on? We focus our thoughts, time, and mental energy on something that gets us nowhere. Worse than this, it keeps us from devoting our limited resources on more productive things that would actually help us achieve our goals in life. Not a good formula for lasting success, is it?One unfortunate but popular mental treadmill is the endless effort to gain the approval of others, which often leaves us unhappy, unfulfilled, and feeling worse and more rejected than before. We spend countless hours- in our daily lives, online, in our interactions with others, and in our decision-making regarding everything from what we wear to what we say and how we behave- trying to get others to approve of us, and it can be thoroughly exhausting. It forces us to expend a lot of effort without really getting us anywhere.Let’s take a closer look at the approval treadmill and discover how we can get off of it once and for all!It’s natural to want approval.First off, breathe- it’s completely normal to want to seek the approval of others. The truth is, humans are social creatures and we’re wired to seek the company and acceptance of people we encounter- from peers and colleagues to acquaintances and neighbors and everyone in between. Simply put, we want to be acknowledged and liked, as it reinforces our sense of self and our life choices, and it provides a boost to our self-esteem.Furthermore, seeking the approval of others can be a strategically adaptive life tool. For example, having a positive mentor or role model in our lives whose approval we are constantly pushing ourselves to attain can really help us ach ieve our goals.A problem arises when we become hyper-focused on the approval of others. This need for external approval and the resultant boost of good feelings it can bring can literally become like a drug, and once we’re hooked it’s tough to get free from it. We tend to want and need larger and larger doses of it to feel â€Å"whole,† and we lose the ability to feel contentment or fulfillment from within. Ultimately, this need for external approval is not a sustainable formula for happiness, and we’re left feeling rejected, exhausted, and alienated from our friends and family. And chances are, the people around us feel frustrated by our constant neediness.It isn’t difficult to imagine a scenario where an intense focus on seeking approval from others can blow up in our faces. Imagine being the person at work who’s always second-guessing himself or herself and asking people for their opinions on every single work task and project. Imagine sp ending way too much time obsessing about your outfits every morning, full of anxiety about what others will think? Imagine feeling the pressure of wondering how everything you say, every gesture and bit of body language will be received by those around you? It’s exhausting!There’s just no way that coworkers and colleagues will be able to keep up with your never-ending demands for approval, and the end result will be them getting frustrated and turned off by your neediness- and you’ll wind up feeling rejected and unhappy, which could even affect your work performance.This â€Å"backfire effect† from seeking the approval of others isn’t just a workplace phenomenon. It can negatively affect all aspects of your life, so it makes sense to take this seriously and try to end the vicious cycle.Get off the approval treadmill.Here’s the bottom line: if you spend a great deal of time and effort on seeking the approval of others, don’t beat yours elf up- it’s a natural human urge. But if it’s ultimately leaving you feeling rejected, use the following strategies to try and free yourself from the approval treadmill.Learn to find approval from within.Some people are naturally good at finding internal motivation and self-satisfaction, while others struggle. Which one best describes you? If you’re among the latter, that’s ok- it isn’t a terminal condition! Give yourself the power to approve of your life decisions and feel confident in your choices. After all, you’re the most important person in your life, so trust yourself and your opinions, and be good enough to yourself to realize that the only approval you really need is your own!Don’t try so hard.Here’s an interesting facet of human social interaction- most of us can tell when someone is trying too hard to get others to like him or her, and it’s usually a real turnoff and has the reverse effect. So, not only are y ou spending extra energy at trying too hard, it has the reverse effect of what you’re hoping for! People usually respond best to those who are genuine and true to themselves, and don’t seem desperate to receive the approval of others, so it’s worth giving a try.Be your best self.Not trying too hard does not mean not trying at all and giving up! We do want people to think well of us, we just don’t want to be insincere. We should always strive to be our best possible selves and to make good decisions with the feelings and needs of others taken into consideration. What’s the best part about this approach? When you share this great version of yourself with the world, that approval from others that you’re seeking will come naturally!Move on when it’s time.Here’s some more truth for you: not everyone that you encounter in life is going to like you (hard to believe, I know), and there are just some folks who’ll never provide th at approval that you’re seeking. When you encounter these people, be polite, but don’t beat yourself up or waste too much effort trying to constantly get their approval- it just isn’t going to happen. Cut your losses and move on- there’ll be plenty of people that you’ll come across in life who will like you for who you are and let you know it!End the rejection.It’s okay to admit that you’ve taken more than a few runs on the approval treadmill- we all have at one time or another, and though it’s more than likely that the experience left you feeling worse than you did before you started, you can now see that there are ways to get off of it and end the rejection. Good luck!

Rumiqolqa - Primary Source of Incan Masonry

Rumiqolqa - Primary Source of Incan Masonry Rumiqolqa (spelled variously Rumiqullqa, Rumi Qullqa or Rumicolca) is the name of the major stone quarry used by the Inca Empire to construct its buildings, roads, plazas and towers. Located approximately 35 kilometers (22 miles) southeast of the Inca capital of Cusco in the Rio Huatanay valley of Peru, the quarry is on the left bank of the river Vilcanota, off the Inca road leading from Cusco to Qollasuyu. Its elevation is 3,330 meters (11,000 feet), which is slightly below Cusco, at 3,400 m (11,200 ft). Many of the buildings in the royal district of Cusco were constructed of finely cut ashlar stone from Rumiqolqa. The name Rumiqolqa means stone storehouse in the Quechua language, and it was used as a quarry in highland Peru perhaps beginning in the Wari period (~550-900 AD) and up through the latter part of the 20th century. The Inca period Rumiqolqa operation probably spanned an area of between 100 and 200 hectares (250-500 acres). The main stone at Rumiqolqa is bedrock, a dark grey horneblende andesite, made up of plagioclase feldspar, basaltic horneblende and biotite. The rock is flow-banded and sometimes glassy, and it sometimes exhibits conchoidal fractures. Rumiqolqa is the most important of the many quarries used by the Inca for constructing administrative and religious buildings, and they sometimes transported building material thousands of kilometers from the point of origin. Multiple quarries were used for many of the buildings: typically Inca stonemasons would use the closest quarry for a given structure but transport in stone from other, more distant quarries as minor but important pieces. Rumiqolqa Site Features The site of Rumiqolqa is primarily a quarry, and features within its boundaries include access roads, ramps and staircases leading to the different quarrying areas, as well as an impressive gate complex restricting access to the mines. In addition, the site has the ruins of what were likely residences for the quarry workers and, according to local lore, the supervisors or administrators of those workers. One Inca-era quarry at Rumiqolqa was nicknamed the Llama Pit by researcher Jean-Pierre Protzen, who noted two rock art petrogylphs of llamas on the adjacent rock face. This pit measured about 100 m (328 ft) long, 60 m (200 ft) wide and 15-20 m (50-65 ft) deep, and at the time Protzen visited in the 1980s, there were 250 cut stones finished and ready to be shipped still in place. Protzen reported that these stones were hewn and dressed on five of the six sides. At the Llama Pit, Protzen identified 68 simple river cobbles of various sizes which had been used as hammerstones to cut the surfaces and draft and finish the edges. He also conducted experiments and was able to replicate results of the Inca stonemasons using similar river cobbles. Rumiqolqa and Cusco Thousands of andesite ashlars quarried at Rumicolca were used in the construction of palaces and temples in the royal district of Cusco, including the temple of Qoricancha, the Aqllawasi (house of the chosen women) and Pachacutis palace called the Cassana. Massive blocks, some of which weighed over 100 metric tons (about 440,000 pounds), were used in construction at Ollantaytambo and Sacsaywaman, both relatively closer to the quarry than Cusco proper. Guaman Poma de Ayala, a 16th century Quechua chronicler, described a historic legend surrounding the building of the Qoriqancha by Inka Pachacuti [ruled 1438-1471], including the process of bringing extracted and partially worked stones up into Cusco via a series of ramps. Other Sites Dennis Ogburn (2004), a scholar who has dedicated some decades to investigating Inca quarry sites, discovered that carved ashlars of stone from Rumiqolqa were conveyed all the way to Saraguro, Ecuador, some 1,700 km (~1,000 mi) along the Inca Road from the quarry. According to Spanish records, in the final days of the Inca Empire, the Inka Huayna Capac [ruled 1493-1527] was establishing a capital at the center of Tomebamba, close to the modern town of Cuenca, Ecuador, using stone from Rumiqolqa. This claim was upheld by Ogburn, who found that a minimum of 450 cut ashlar stones are currently in Ecuador, although they were removed from Huayna Capacs structures in the 20th century and reused to build a church in Paquishapa. Ogborn reports that the stones are well-shaped parallelepipeds, dressed on five or six sides, each with an estimated mass of between 200-700 kilograms (450-1500 pounds). Their origin from Rumiqolqa was established by comparing the results of XRF geochemical analysis on uncleaned exposed building surfaces to fresh quarry samples (see Ogburn and others 2013). Ogburn cites the Inca-Quechua chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega who noted that by building important structures from the Rumiqolqa quarry in his temples in Tomebamba, Huayna Capac was in effect transferring the power of Cusco to Cuenca, a strong psychological application of Incan propaganda. Sources This article is a part of the About.com guide to Quarry Sites, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Hunt PN. 1990. Inca volcanic stone provenance in the Cuzco province, Peru. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 1(24-36). Ogburn DE. 2004. Evidence for Long-Distance Transportation of Building Stones in the Inka Empire, from Cuzco, Peru to Saraguro, Ecuador. Latin American Antiquity 15(4):419-439. Ogburn DE. 2004a. Dynamic Display, Propaganda, and the Reinforcement of Provincial Power in the Inca Empire. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 14(1):225-239. Ogburn DE. 2013. Variation in Inca Building Stone Quarry Operations in Peru and Ecuador. In: Tripcevich N, and Vaughn KJ, editors. Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes: Springer New York. p 45-64. Ogburn DE, Sillar B, and Sierra JC. 2013. Evaluating effects of chemical weathering and surface contamination on the in situ provenance analysis of building stones in the Cuzco region of Peru with portable XRF. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(4):1823-1837. Pigeon G. 2011. Inca architecture : the function of a building in relation to its form. La Crosse, WI: University of Wisconsin La Crosse. Protzen J-P. 1985. Inca Quarrying and Stonecutting. The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 44(2):161-182.

Future Intelligent Led Policing Model Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Future Intelligent Led Policing Model - Essay Example One such technique would be intelligent led policing, which is mainly associated with the operational strategy of law enforcement. â€Å"Intelligent-led policing is a business model and managerial philosophy where the data analysis and crime intelligence are pivotal to an objective, decision-making framework that facilitates in crime and problem reduction.†(Intelligent led Policing n.d). Thus, the concept of intelligent led policing revolves around the phenomenon of gathering data and using it as a guide operation in drastically reducing the crime even before they arise. Apart from collecting the information about the crimes, fast and efficient analysis accompanied with the appropriate actions has greater potential in controlling the crimes even before they originate. â€Å"Intelligence-led policing is zero tolerance policing but against the right people at the right time for right reasons.† (Stevens 2011). This paper will mainly focus on the positives and negative aspe cts of intelligent led policing on basis of which it can be implemented in future. Based on the ethical and the practical issues surrounding the intelligent led policing, it can be considered as the model for the future policing. Moreover, the collective effort of other agencies plays a vital role in the successful practice of the intelligent led policing. †Police Department need to collaborate with other units and agencies within their cities or countries, such as the parole and probation agencies, which are completely different in scope.† (Joyce 2012). The above can be considered as one of the core concepts where the intelligent led policing differs from the normal stream. One of the highlighted advantages of the model would be the excavating the ways by through which the occurrences of the crimes can be greatly reduced. Thus, it is mainly based on the interpretation, influence, and impact of the data in a criminal environment.

Manufacturing, Raw Materials, and Geography Essay

Manufacturing, Raw Materials, and Geography - Essay Example The large geographical area also made it difficult for the colonists to stamp their influence since it required expertise and numerous resources. The proximity to numerous countries was a concept influenced manufacturing because of the large market base and investment opportunities in those nations (Lu, 2013). The country possesses natural resources such as Zinc and Coal among others that boosted its industrial productivity. The natural possessions affected decolonization and imperialism because it was not dependent on other countries. As a result, the colonists could not force their interests, in returns for the support extended, to the China (Lu, 2013). This is because China had the power to produce its own commodities and transport them to other regions, including the Western nations. In this regard, decolonization and imperialism were enhanced as the Western powers did not want to interfere with the supply of commodities from China for their industrial developments (Lu, 2013). This implies that China used its natural resources to support industries across the world with cheap raw materials and finished products. This influenced manufacturing in the region through the availability of raw materials to the local

Red Bulls current marketing strategies Essay Example for Free

Red Bulls current marketing strategies Essay How should Red Bull market its brand in the future? I think, although Red Bull has been extremely successful in the past, times have changed and the company and products should change with it, otherwise we probably lose market share to the tremendous increased number of competitors in no time.At the height of early mornings and late nights, Red Bull energy drink became the fuel of choice for people from all walks of life. So how is Red Bull marketing its brand to meet the changing needs and budgets of its customers? How will the privately owned Austrian company expand its product line beyond the silver-bullet beverage that gives you wings? My conclusion is that we should focus on what the consumers want, need, and can afford and different marketing techniques. Red Bull founder, Dietrich Mateschitz, introduced his tonic drinks to the Austrian market in 1987. Red Bull got off the ground in no time flat, giving people wings right from the start. It wasnt until ten years later, Red Bull charged into the United States, launching a new category of non-soda energy drinks aimed at burned out high school kids, college students, and overworked individuals. In my opinion Red Bull should focus not only on low cost marketing, but also areas of mass marketing. Red Bull is an energy drink with an amazingly clever marketing strategy, but could use an extra shove in areas. Since its inception, Red Bull has shunned print advertising in its marketing strategy. Red Bull has also chosen to eliminate billboards, banner ads, taxicab holograms, blimps, and Super Bowl spots as a form of advertising. It has not created one web-marketing campaign, and it hasnt nipped or expanded its product line. This could be a good area to begin. Promoting the drink with prints or web-marketing campaigns could add to the many satisfied consumers. Red Bulls website could also use renovations. The website, http://www.redbullusa.com/start.html, does not include an in-depth analysis on ingredients contained in the drink, whereas Dark Dog and Red Devil do. If consumers wanted to learn what was contained in the drink and how they benefit from the product, the information should not only be available, but in abundance. Also, Super Bowl advertising has proved to be very beneficial,  with more viewers than any TV program. Advanced communications technology is creating a generation where many individual can be touched by one visual. However, Red Bull chooses to use advertising that cost little or nothing. Red Bull has also adopted another form of low cost advertising. Red Bull sets its grassroots ethic into motion with a simple, yet masterful marketing force, student brand managers. In Europe, collegiate buzz junkies have been successfully addicting friends and classmates for years thanks to a foolproof branding plan; Red Bull provides the student representatives with free cases of its energy drink and then encourages the kids to throw a party. Red Bull could also use this technique with older individuals in high stress occupations. This will not only spread the word quickly and cheaply, but to more individuals of different ages. This would allow Red Bull to expand its target. In terms of attracting new customers and enhancing consumer loyalty, Red Bull has a more effective branding campaign than Coke or Pepsi, says Nancy F. Koehn, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and author of Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers Trust from Wedgwood to Dell (Harvard Business School Press, 2001). Red Bull is building a beverage brand without relying on the essential equipment of a mass-marketing campaign. Perhaps the indispensable tools of marketing arent so indispensable after all. With the little advertising Red Bull uses, an extra push in one of these areas could prove very beneficial for the company. Resources: Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers Trust from Wedgwood to Dell (Harvard Business School Press, 2001) http://www.redbullusa.com/start.html http://www.plan-b.biz/pdf/Speed_In_a_Can.pdf http://www.darkdog.com/ http://www.reddevilusa.com/ http://www.safefoodonline.com/safefood/Uploads/appendix_I_stimulant_drinks_in_ireland%2520_trans_mgmt.pdf

Protein Thermal Stability Essay examples -- Scientific Research, Soy P

Proteins are a series of connected amino acids, and in food products, proteins provide both nutritional and functional properties that contribute to the quality of a food system (Christen and Smith 2000). Protein in the diet is essential to the maintenance of life and health. Proteins are compounds with a function that do work in the body such as facilitate reactions; however, proteins are also functional in food systems. Proteins are used for a variety of reasons such as: to create an emulsion, join pieces of meat together, form a skin on the surface of a product, and form a stable foam matrix. Milk proteins such as whey and casein are isolated for many different functions in food systems such as: foaming, whipping, gelation, nutrition, flavor enhancement, and emulsification (Punidadas and Rizvi 1998). Casein in milk compromises approximately 78% of proteins found in milk, and determining the amount of casein in milk is essential to cheese manufacturing (Punidadas and Rizvi 1998). Whey proteins in milk are often isolated from cheese production and are used for a variety of reasons such as a nutritional protein supplement. Whey protein isolates are also used as a whipping agent (Punidadas and Rizvi 1998). Milk proteins can be extracted in numerous ways such as the Wijis method, chromatography, and cross flow filtration (Punidadas and Rizvi 1998; Christen and Smith 2000). Soy proteins are commonly used in commercial food products as a relatively inexpensive form of protein for many reasons. Soy can be added to meat products to increase the regulated amount of water that can be added to product. Soy proteins are also a good source of nutrition (L’hocine and others 2006). Soy proteins have functional properties si... ...5: 256-259. Punidadas P and Rizvi SSH. 1998. Separation of milk proteins into fractions rich in casein or whey proteins by cross flow filtration. Food Research International. 31(4): 265-272. Ryan M, McEvoy, E, Duignam S, Crowley C, Fenelon M, O’Callaghan, DM, and FitzGerald RJ. 2008. Thermal stability of soy protein isolate and hydrosolate ingredients. Food Chem. 108: 503-510. Stellwagen E and Wilgus H. 1978. Relationship of protein thermostability to accessible surface area. Nature. 275: 342-343. Thompson LD and Dinh T. 2009. Acid-Base Chemistry. FDSC 5305 food chemistry laboratory manual. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University, Department of Animal and Food Sciences. Vogt G and Argos P. 1997. Protein thermal stability: hydrogen bonds of internal packing? Distance-Based Approaches to Protein Structure Determination III Supplement 2: 40-46.

The Worst Day of my Life

The Worst Day of my Life BY challenge It started out as a great summer day with my band class. Than all of a sudden something happened that has not happened In 16 years while the class was on a trip. What had happened had ruined everyone's day of fun. In June of 2011, we went to Kings Island to have a fun day before school started back up in August. We had planned to be there until pm. We split up into small groups and did our different things. I was walking around with my best friend, Taylor. We went and rode the Vortex, which was the first time that I had rode it since the last year of going with the class.It was about 9:30 when we got done riding the Vertex and Taylor wanted to go and ride the Fire hawk. I decided that I would ride It with her. We were walling In line talking until it was our turn to ride. When we got on and started buckling up, the seat belt wouldn't go around me so I was told that I had to get off. Taylor said she would get off too but I told her to go ahead and ride because she was the one who wanted to ride it in the first place. I went to get off and the two people on the other side of her wouldn't move their feet, so I had to climb over their feet and when I did, I tripped and fell.When I fell I heard my ankle pop. I tried to get up but I couldn't move my feet. While the people that were watching the ride was on the phone with the Meet's, Taylor had called our teacher to let him know that I fell and that they were taking me to the hospital. After she got off the phone with him, she called my mom to let her know what had happened and that I was on my way to the hospital. When the Meet's got there, they had to carry me down the stairs In a chair. They put me In the back of one of the trucks that they use and took me to the clinic at Kings Island, where they put me Into the ambulance and got y teacher to go with me.He had to go since he was the one In charge of me for the day. When we got to the hospital, they took me back to get x-rays o f my ankles. While we were waiting for the results, my teacher called my mom and let her know that I was at the hospital. She told him that she was already notified and that she was on her way there. The doctors came back with the results, they told me that I had fractured my left ankle and sprained my right one. My teacher had called the bus driver and let him know what had happened. He gathered up all of the other students and faculty; and come to the hospital.My teacher had stayed there with me until my mom got there. My mom had got to the hospital when the nurse was putting my ankle into a half cast. After my mom got there, the bus had pulled Into the parking lot. My teacher had left with the rest of the group to go back home. When they released me to go they were going to have me walk out to the car, but I wasn't able to walk. They finally brought a wheelchair in for me to go out in. I had a hard time getting into the car because of the cast, so I had to sit sideways in the car . My mom wasn't very happy because she had to come and get me from the hospital at 0:30 pm.We got back home around midnight, which was about an hour before the rest of the class did, because the teacher had the bus driver take the long way home. Another x-ray done to see how my ankle was doing. The doctor told me I was able to get the half cast off, but I had to wear a boot until I could walk without it. A few days later Taylor had come to my house to see how I was doing. I was doing better but my ankle was still hurting. I had gotten a lot of calls from faculty that went on the trip to see how I was doing, but I really didn't mind them calling because that gave me money to talk to.I knew that they were all worried about me. I went to church the second Sunday after it happened and everyone there asked me what happened. I told them that I fell at Kings Island and fractured my left ankle and sprained my right one. That is one thing that I love about my church family because I know tha t they will always care about me. They always know when there is something wrong with me because of my facial expressions. When it came time to sign up for school the next year I was still in the boot and everyone kept saying â€Å"you're still in that thing.I said â€Å"yeah and I am tired of it. † It was getting a lot easier to walk with the boot on. I was able to stop wearing the boot two weeks before school started up, which I was very glad to get the boot off. That was the day that had ruined everyone's day of fun. I will never forget that day at Kings Island when I had hurt both of my ankles. Now every time that I go to Kings Island I will find a way to get hurt. This past summer, which was my last year going with the band class, I stepped in a hole; and fell and skinned my knee while walking with my group to go ride a ride. The Worst Day of My Life In my life the most thrilling and funniest days I have spent were when I used to be in a primary school. They were also probably the scariest and most troublesome days of my life. I used to get into a lot of trouble in those days; it was mostly due to bad luck, because it was mostly my friends' fault for doing anything bad. Despite this, I actually quite enjoyed doing troublesome things with my friends. These were my thrilling mates with whom I've spent, not the literally worst, but the scariest day of life. They were Imran, Rubel, Minaz and Jamie and the reliable and decent person in the crew was, Argha. And that's me. To start of my story I'll talk about something normal like the games we played. I used to love playing football, tennis, pool and cricket with my friends. Nowadays, I only put my effort and concentration into cricket because I'm good at it. The only thing I couldn't stand was racing. This was because I was a disgraceful runner. I was never able to keep up with my friends. Leaving a distance of less than five metres between my friends and me was a target I never achieved. Even if I was the first to start I was surely the last to finish. Luckily, I was never disgraceful enough to get beaten by any girl who wanted to join us, or by any boy who play with dolls manufactured for girls. When we were a bit out of breath from playing games or had just come out of lunch with our stomachs full we chucked stones at the window of an apartment accommodated by an old lady in a flat just beside our play ground. Whenever she looked out we hid behind the walls. Once the window cracked and the lady came over to our school, luckily none of the other kids gave us away. It was Monday. The first day of a school week. As usual, my friends and I did something to lighten up our boring day of school after the final bell rang to relieve us all. We were walking round the neighbourhood, full of narrow alleyways, where there wasn't a chance of police patrol to be present. I was chatting with my friend Imran never expecting what would happen behind us. We heard a small explosion. We turned around to see a blown up car tyre and Jamie with a big screw in his hand. Beside him was Rubel. Just as we finished shouting â€Å"why the hell did you guys do that?† an old lady screamed out of the window from the second floor, â€Å"you bloody hooligans, you're gonna get it this time†. Realizing that it was the same lady whose window which we often cracked, we started running with our faces covered. As I was obviously running like a tortoise behind all my friends I looked back. I screamed making my friends also look back to see a man chasing us with a machete and another man with a long lead pipe. That day, my fear actually brought out the best in me, because my heart was beating so fast that it made my legs work faster, I crossed my maximum speed without feeling any pressure or pain on my legs because all I was thinking about was not getting caught by them. Plus, I needed to sprint faster because they didn't seem like boys who play with Barbie dolls. I didn't think that they would really crack our skulls with that lead pipe or slash us in half with that machete. They were probably trying to scare the living daylights out of us to avoid any more of their properties getting damaged, but I just couldn't believe that a normal life like mine could be at risk of bleeding heavily to death. With people like these after us our only hope was to get out of these narrow streets and alleyways and into the main road, where there were more people and police patrolling everywhere. Then there wouldn't be a chance for them to wave their weapons about and chase eleven year olds. Thank God, we did make it to the main road and before we did they stopped and walked away. My body was shaking so much; it was as if I was in the middle of a snowstorm with only a pair of shorts on. I walked back home with my friends shivering like this. They dropped me off. I got home and went straight to bed to stop myself from trembling. It's likely my friends did the same. They sure did scare the hell out of us. Having a fight in school unarmed is one thing, getting chased by men with weapons in another. We left that matter behind our backs because even if our school is in their area, they didn't get a glimpse of our faces. It was ably the scariest day of my life, but my life has lots of years still to go, therefore no-one can tell, maybe this day will not be considered as the scariest, or the worst, in the future.