Jan. 21–27, 2008 “Change your thought to change your world” originally appeared in the May 2007 Journal and was titled: “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”
On Saturday, February 10, a sunny winter day in New Haven, Connecticut, the Christian Science Organization at Yale University hosted an intimate and thought-provoking regional “Global Awareness” conference for members of Christian Science Organizations (CSOs) at college and university campuses from New England. The Journal asked Yale student Inge Schmidt, an organizer of the conference and the CSO contact for the university, to share how the conference began and the events of the day.
Jennie Patterson - The Christian Science Journal, Dec. 2006
Normally I spend Christmas at my dad’s house in Virginia, or at my mom’s in New York. But last Christmas was different. And it was the most special one I’ve had.
My mother’s friend Bonnie invited my mom, my brother, my sister, my aunt, and me, to spend my December school break in Ecuador, volunteering in a little village called Azama, located between two mountains in the Andes, just north of the capital, Quito. The area is beautiful–very green and tropical. The temperature isn’t humid, as you might think, but rather cool and refreshing.
Garrett Fielding - Adapted from the Christian Science Sentinel, Oct. 9, 2007.
The bullying started with name-calling and basketball stealing on the courts at lunchtime. Then my group of fellow eighth-grade friends began picking on almost anyone from the lower grades who crossed their path.
I was disappointed my friends were making the basketball courts such a miserable place to be. And although I wasn’t participating in their bullying, I felt embarrassed to hang out with these guys. It seemed like they were copying a group of eighth graders from the year before who had also wanted to prove their “power” simply because of their age. Even though I didn’t want to lose my friends, separating myself from them for a while seemed like the right thing to do.
I started smoking as a teenager. After about 15 years, I wanted to be free of cigarettes. The smell of smoke on my clothes and on my body had become offensive to me, yet I couldn’t seem to break the habit. Using will power to stop smoking just didn’t work. I’d quit for a time but then pick it right back up again when I felt I needed something to calm me or when I was in a social situation where smoking made me feel more sophisticated. (more…)
Snejana Andjelkovic - Adapted from The Christian Science Journal, March 2007
WHILE I WRITE THIS ARTICLE, I’m on a plane from Paris to the US for an exciting new work adventure.
As an international financial advisor, I’ve come a long way from my childhood dreams of being an actress someday. And yet my working life could easily be described as a sequel to different movies. Glamorous, like a fairytale—with some twists and turns—but always with a “happy ending.” Just like those good old black-and-white movies I used to watch as a young girl. (more…)
Quentin The Christian Science Journal, Nov. 2006
Last year toward the end of seventh grade, a group of boys my age and younger created a rumor about me suggesting I did something very embarrassing in sixth grade. There were so many reasons why the rumor was ridiculous. But the boys thought it was amusing.
Things started to get out of hand pretty quickly, and more and more people started to make fun of me when they saw me. (more…)
Paul C. Benjamin Overri - The Christian Science Journal Dec. 2006
IMO State, Nigeria
In 1999, I began my first year at the University of Calabar in Nigeria. At that time cult practices were common in Nigerian universities, and the school I attended had the highest number of students who were involved in a variety of these cults. When the students in cults couldn’t resolve issues through dialogue with other students, they frequently resorted to killing. Because of the brutal killings that had occurred at my school, I was totally engulfed in fear. I felt like I wore fear as my daily uniform. I had been in school only two weeks when I witnessed the killing of a fellow student. Gradually I lost self-confidence, and everything around me felt chaotic.
Though my philosophy that nobody would think evil toward me because I don’t think evil of others gave me courage, I didn’t welcome the idea of looking my fellow students in the face, because I saw 80 percent of the male students as heartless mobsters. Out of fear, I stuck to a rigid daily routine of going from my hostel to the lecture room to the library and then back to the hostel. I felt like a man in bondage. (more…)
Christine Love - The Christian Science Sentinel, Oct. 23, 2006
During my junior year of college, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Austria and Germany for ten weeks, taking classes and learning in a different environment. Right before that term began, I met a friend during spring break, and we set out to travel around Europe.
We started out in Italy, and then had to get up to Paris so that my friend could catch her plane to go home. We were supposed to take an overnight train from Florence to Paris, but we found out that the train was full and that our only other choice was to take a train that arrived in Paris at 11:30 at night. But because my friend needed to get to the airport, that’s what we had to do. (more…)
