If you could spend a day with anyone in history, who would it be and why?

                “My childhood in Corfu shaped my life. If I had the craft of Merlin, I would give every child the gift of my childhood.” 

― Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

Gerald Durrell 

with Ulysses the Owl

     My entire life, my father who is a vet but also a nature lover, has always been pushing me to read books about wildlife, and animals. There was one book that he actually managed to convince me to read, that ended up being one of the best reads I have ever come across. It's one of those few books that you cannot put down until you reach the final page, one of those that open your mind to see the world from a whole new and more colourful perspective. Not less importantly, the author's irresistible humour makes this read even more enjoyable. When I was eleven, while on vacation in France, I finally decided to read My Family And Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. I swallowed it in two days. Without any thought, if I could spend one day with anyone in history, I would definitely like to spend it with Gerald Durrell.

On the Azure Coast in the Yellow Villa with Blue Shutters 

reading 

My Family and Other Animals

      Besides being a famous author, Durrell made a carrier as a naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, and a television personality. He was born in 1925 in British India, but his widowed mother soon moved the family back to England. At his age of ten, the family - unable to acclimatize to the grey and rainy homeland, relocated to the sunny Greek island, Corfu. This is where Durrell spent the most wonderful years of his childhood, creating a bunch of hilarious, sad and happy memories, that he later wrote books about- including Birds, Beasts And Other Relatives, The Garden of the Gods, and the most famous of all, My Family And Other Animals. As a child, he never wanted to learn about anything other than animals and nature, but his mother refused to accept no formal education as an option. He was home-schooled and tutored by some of his oldest brother Lawrence's friends, and by Dr. Theodore Stephanides. Theodore became Gerald's idol in no time because Theodore understood Gerald's interests in nature better than anyone else. When World War Two broke out, the Durrells thought it was best for them to move back to England. Everyone was heartbroken, especially Gerald. 

Dr. Theodore Stephanides

     As a teenager, he managed to find a job in a pet store, and later in a zoo. This opened his mind to the thought of working with animals as a career.  He desperately tried to join animal collecting expeditions overseas, but was denied many times due to lack of experience. Finally, using inheritance from his late father, he financed his first expedition to Africa, to collect animals for various British zoos. Soon, Gerald Durrell came to the realization that one of the main roles of zoos today should be in preservation of endangered species. He started focusing on collecting specimens of disappearing species and organizing their breeding in captivity. In 1958, after a few successful expeditions to Africa and South America, Durrell first founded his own Jersey Zoological Park that housed his growing collection of animals, and only a few years later, the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. In the 1970s, the Trust became a leading organization in the field of captive breeding, helping to rescue species like the Lowland Gorilla, and various Mauritian fauna. The Trust later opened chapters worldwide. Even in Canada, the Trust is among the most successful nature conservation funds.

    It was a very long and exciting journey that Gerald took: from the little adventures boy passionately exploring all shapes and forms of life on island of Corfu, to the celebrated author and one of the world's most famous conservationists. Although Gerald Durrell's entire life was an extraordinary adventure, I would still choose to spend a day on Corfu with Gerry the ten year old boy.

    It is early morning and I imagine myself sitting alongside Gerry in an olive tree grove, watching scorpions nest, listening to cicadas warble, and eating fresh figs. We are just on our way to meet the Rose-Beetle Man, and Roger is running around us, exploring with his nose and happily wagging his tail. The Rose-Beetle Man will sell us a little tortoise that we will name Achilles. That day, we would also get a ride from barrel-bodied, with ham-like hands, taxi driver Spiro Americanos in his ancient Dodge and have an outdoor lesson with Theodore. We would go home for lunch and see that Lawrence's very strange friends are back once again.  I'd say that the sun would be so hot, that the whole family would be up for a dip in the Mediterranean where the fish would nibble our toes, followed by a nice fig, grape, and olive snack in a local families home. By evening, when we return to the Daffodil Yellow Villa Gerry's mother, with Lugaretzia's help, would have prepared a delicious greek dinner. To finish off the evening, we would all sit around the fire place listening to Les' terrible attempt to sing and play the guitar.  
The way that Gerald described the tiny island, makes the entire thing seem like a dream. The warm, friendly, yet superstitious people who live on it, it's beautiful beaches, and the unlimited roaming and discovering. Spending a day with Gerry on Corfu would be full of scents, island sunshine, exploring for hours on end, swimming in the Mediterranean, and having lots of fun with his strange yet, loving family: 'Mrs. Durrells' (that is how Spiro called Gerry's mom), Larry - the oldest brother, already a famous author, Les who is obsessed with guns and weapons and Margo, his sister who just cares about her looks! Spending just one day with the Durrells in Corfu would teach me more then a week of school would! 

Gerry and Spiro with the Dodge in the background

    
It seems now that the world Gerald Durrell grew up in is long gone! That way of life belongs to the past, but as he depicts it so colourfully and lively I wish if we would try to live like that today: close to nature, with patience and kindness, in a big and strong family, true friendships, and enjoy simple things and simple life.

      Unfortunately, Gerald Durrell passed away just a few years before I was born, so I will never get a chance to meet him. However, his work lives on, and I hope I will one day get a chance to visit Jersey.

     

    

In no less than 300 words, argue whether responsibility for Ivan's death lies mainly with Ivan or with his tormentors.

       As the wind howls, on a freezing cold night in a Russian village, a Cossack lieutenant dares a timid little man called Ivan to face his worst fear: crossing the cemetery. He gives Ivan his sabre to stab it into the ground in the very centre of the graveyard, to prove that he has completed the dare. After a few glasses of vodka, with the encouragement of the reward of five gold rubles, Ivan accepts the challenge. In the cemetery as Ivan drives the sabre into the ground, he doesn't notices that he pins his own jacket down. When he tries to get up, no matter how hard he pulls, he cannot get up. Without thinking the situation through, he becomes the victim of his own fear. He is found the next morning in the centre of the cemetery lying dead. Not frozen to death, but literally scared to death. He had let his imagination get the better of him. But who is to be blamed for this rather strange death? Is it the lieutenant for challenging Ivan, or was Ivan himself responsible for accepting, and letting his imagination get the better of him.


       "You are a pigeon, Ivan. A rabbit. A coward. You'll walk all around the cemetery in this dreadful cold to get home, but you dare not cross the cemetery." From this sentence, one will get the idea that the lieutenant is a terrible person, a bully, and consequently Ivan's "murderer". Of course, that was my opinion to... until I read between the lines. As we already know, the lieutenant is a leader, he is a Cossack who are known to be strong, proud, freedom loving people who were born soldiers in the Imperial Russia ruled by the Tsar. Because of this, one is under the impression that he allows himself to boss others around, and wants to seem more important than anyone else. However, when daring a weakling like Ivan only to make himself seem braver, stronger, and nobler, the lieutenant comes across  rather as a bully or rascal then any of the above.

       Ivan on the other hand, lives all alone, and far away from everyone else in the village. From this we know that Ivan is a poor and lonely man. Every night he goes to the village saloon and gets a drink before walking to his lonesome shack. The other villagers tease and mock him about his shyness and cowardliness. When the lieutenant challenges Ivan, he shows that he is very timid. When the lieutenant tells Ivan that his reward is five gold rubles, Ivan is motivated to accept. Possibly because to a meagre man as he is, a reward of five gold coins seems like a fortune and even because to a poor, lonely soul like Ivan is an acceptance of his neighbours means tremendously. 

       When I first read The Cemetery Path instantly another dare that could have ended fatally came to my mind: ""Then I dare you to do it," said Josie defiantly. "I dare you to climb up there and walk the ridgepole of Mr. Barry's kitchen roof." "Don't you do it, Anne," entreated Diana. "You'll fall off and be killed. Never mind Josie Pye. It isn't fair to dare anybody to do anything so dangerous." "I must do it. My honour is at stake," said Anne solemnly. "I shall walk that ridgepole, Diana, or perish in the attempt. " In Anne of Green Gables, Anne did not die, and she accepted the dare for an entirely different reason, yet this is a very similar situation to Ivan's. Both Anne and Ivan were challenged to do something they really did not want to do, and although for different reasons, they accepted the dare.

       In conclusion: although the arrogant lieutenant is the one who starts the dare only to bully Ivan, and gain even more popularity among the villagers who are even more fuelled to mock the weakling, I believe that Ivan is responsible for his own death.  It is Ivan’s imagination that gets the better of him. If he were to have taken a deep breath and to look at where he has stabbed the sabre he probably would not scare himself to death. There are many dares that we all accept for one reason or another, some like Anne's dare are very foolish, while others may have meaning like Ivan's.

      "It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.”

                                                                      ~  Seneca the Younger

                                                                          Roman Philosopher who lived                                                                                                                                          from

                                                                                                                           4BC -  65AD       

If you could change three things about yourself, what would they be? Why would you change them?

       When girls my age are asked what things they would change about themselves, their most probable responses would be to be more photogenic, to be really popular, and to have all boys falling head over heels for them. Of course, I won't deny that a possibility of living a life like that sounds amazing –even for me!  However, I believe that these things will not truly make one happy not even in middle school or high school. Being “photogenic” (taking HOT selfies), “popular” (having hundreds of Facebook friends, and going to every party) and “attractive” (tallying the boyfriends you’ve had) is not what I would like to turn myself into!

      

       "Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it", Bruce Lee once famously said. If I could change three things about myself, the first thing I would change would be for me to stop trying to be like someone else. When I was little, I was taught by my parents to stand out of the crowd. I was taught that being unique and different was way cooler than just blending in with the crowd. What is the point of being the same as everyone else? It's plain boring. You come to school: everyone is wearing Uggs, TNA leggings, and Canada Goose jackets. Everyone reads the same books, listens to the same music, gets crazy about the same movies and to truly blend in, they all follow each other to Starbucks after school. It’s almost as if one person has hundreds of identical twins that look, think and act the same! I would like to have the courage to show that I am different, and not to be afraid of being shoved to the bottom of the food chain because I don’t fully blend in.

 

       The second thing that I would change about myself would be my social skills. I must admit, I am a very social person but unfortunately, my social skills are not at their best.  When I say social skills, I don't mean that I am not good at making a lot of friends on Facebook because that is defiantly not what it means. The skills I am talking about are how to communicate and interact better with others. I would like to remember to smile more, not to sound bored when I speak, not to hold in words, and not to let myself be sucked into gossiping or even worse, judging others.

 

       The final thing that I would change about myself if I could, would be my self-esteem. Although it may not seem like it, self-esteem is one of the most important keys to life. Self-esteem by definition is "a judgment of oneself as well as an attitude toward the self." I unfortunately, have a very low attitude towards myself. In things like math, volleyball, and other every day things, because I have a few faults, I have convinced myself that I am not capable of doing them. Sometimes, I may not have even tried doing them, but I am afraid that I will not succeed in them. Perhaps, this is the most important out of all the changes that I would make about myself, as it would enable me in the other changes – so I would say that I should work on gaining more self-confidence.

 

     All in all I love the person that I am, and I would only change minor things: I would only polish my personality a bit. If I stopped trying to be someone I am not, I would start exposing the unique and different person I am. If I were to have better social skills, I would be a much more interesting person when I speak. If I would have more self-confidence, anything would be possible, let alone these little personality tweaks. Although all three changes are more internal rather than external, what is on the inside is what counts.