Criminal Psychologist

During the writer’s fortnight, I attended 4 different stories from guest speakers. The criminal psychologist was the one as I have always been fascinated by the mind. Going in I thought that he would have told quite traumatic experiences and say that the criminals deserve to be punished in the way that they are but as a matter of fact he says that society doesn’t help former prisoners reform causing them to re-offend. The media has a lot to do with this as we see sex offenders as one of the worst types of criminals that will definitely re-offend but in reality, they have one of the lowest re-offending rates. This pushed me to believe that if given a fair shot that lots of reformed prisoners could integrate into society if they would be accepted.

Rescue Story

During the writer’s fortnight, I attended 4 different stories from guest speakers. This one was about a rescue story in Myanmar. His friend was a Language student and was travelling the world trying to get people who spoke dead or dying languages to say a phrase in their language. That brought them to Myanmar. They went to this place were previously tourists were not allowed and they were the first tourists there in years. They went to talk to a pair of 80-year-olds that were the only people in the whole world that spoke this language. The only problem was that they were opium addicts. This surprised me that they would try and convince addicts to say a crude phrase. Whilst they were there, there was terrible rainfall but it soon got worse. Soon after it had been declared a national disaster area and that people needed to flee where they were. His wife was not with him and of course, was worried. They had to empty their wallets to leave the place and just came back with their life. This pushed me to wonder what would’ve happened with the footage of the two elders now dead language if it hadn’t been destroyed in the natural disaster.

Cancer Survivor

During the writer’s fortnight, I attended 4 different stories from guest speakers. This one was about a cancer survivors story. Even though she knew that there was a history of cancer in her family, when she was 30 she fell ill. She didn’t believe that it could happen to her so early. Very few of the family members that got cancer survived. When she said that she wanted to wait 3 months for a surgery that affected me because I thought that she would’ve wanted to get it over with as this was a life-threatening issue. Once she no longer had cancer, her husband and her wanted to start a family. There were many complications in the multiple pregnancies (miscarriages and false positives), but eventually, she fell pregnant. Around 13 weeks in they found out that if she gave birth to her daughter that she would be born with many disabilities, the doctors insisted on her aborting the baby. She didn’t want to abort the baby though because they had waited so long for a baby. This surprised me as there was a high possibility that the baby wouldn’t live for very long and that her daughter might not even make it. Her positive attitude and faith helped her make the decision and that’s why her 6-month-old daughter is alive and healthy, almost as if she was a miracle baby.

Refugee Story

During the writer’s fortnight, I attended 4 different stories from guest speakers. I went to a talk about a staff members refugee story. Her story was about how she had to migrate from her home in South Sudan to Khartoum at the mere age of 2. When she was 6 she felt like she was stripped of her identity as she has to move to a refugee camp in Northern Uganda to help her grandmother. She left with her 18-year-old aunt and this is when she started to take care of her family. She stayed in that refugee camp for 6 years, health care and education was very basic as she had to learn under a tree with only a blackboard in front of them. Although the amenities and life quality was basic, her grandmother made her feel like she had everything that she needed. When she was 12 her mother and her family moved to the USA there was always a distance between her and her peers as she was labelled “the refugee girl”. This pushed me to wonder is someone could ever leave their refugee status and become a “normal” person again.