Form 4 essays

Qualities of a Good Friend

Good friends are always caring, loving, loyal, passionate, a little bit critic of you. These
qualities make a friend as a good friend. So, the person who talks behind your back and laughs
at you can never be your good and true friend. Friendship is the relation where friends listen to
each other's problems.

Friendship is primarily built on the two pillars of love and trust. From these two
emotions flow the other intermediary feelings between friends. A good and faithful friend
supports you, has your back, and sticks through you during your bad and good times.

To get about with life, we need friends with whom we can connect. Communication
and relatability are the key to life and makes our existence survival. We have numerous
relationships with many people in our lives; of these relationships, friendship is one of the most
important bonds. Friends, like our family, play crucial roles in our lives. Throughout our lives,
we make numerous friends. While some of them drift away, others remain close.

We befriend a lot of people in our lives, but not all of them live up to being a true and
faithful one. We need to understand and judge who the correct ones are and keep them close
forever. Those are the qualities that we need as a good friend.

Stress Among Teenagers

Stress among teenagers cause serious negative effects, both physical and academic.
Teenagers may experience stress due to poor sleeping habits, academic pressure, and poor
nutrition and unhealthy eating habits. Teenagers need enough sleep and less pressure for their
brain to relax and recharge for it to function well.

A little stress is actually good, as it motivates students to overcome challenges.
However, too much stress can negatively impact a teenager’s mind and body, which can result
in a variety of issues. Generally, stress attacks when you start thinking that you are the victim
of circumstances or most importantly when you feel that a situation, things, or work will not
be solved by you, that’s when you place yourself under stress. However, fortunately stress has
a solution within the world and their easy ways to reduce stress in your life.

Schools offer counselling services to students. You can start with the in-school
counselling team. With a counsellor, you can create a plan of action to help you beat stress.
This may include weekly counselling, or it may include using other methods of destressing.

Apart from that, try to have proper sleep, eat nutritious food, and practice good eating
habits. It is good to take part in sports or having outdoor activities with family and friends over
the weekends. Keep yourself busy with healthy activities so that you can lessen your stress.
Always do your schoolwork on time, procrastinating work will stressing you more!

No matter what your stressor, there is help available around you. All these stressors can
be treated and overcome.

Sarawak Cultural Village

When visiting Malaysia, do not miss out on a trip to Sarawak Cultural Village in
Kuching, Sarawak. Kuching is the capital and largest city of Sarawak on the island of Borneo.

This Sarawak Cultural Village is located about 35km from Kuching city and tucked away on
the foothills of legendary Mount Santubong. It is built on a 14-acre site of equatorial vegetation,
next to a scenic man-made lake.

Sometimes referred to as a living museum, the Sarawak Cultural Village depicts the
heritage of the major racial groups in Sarawak and conveniently portrays the respective
lifestyle. The village boasts seven ethnic houses representative of the Malay, the Chinese, the
Penan and the longhouses of the Bidayuh, Iban, Orang Ulu and the Melanau.

Take a stroll around the village and observe the inhabitants of the various houses
displaying their skills in making traditional handicrafts such as beading, woodcarving,
bamboo-carving, pua-weaving, etc. You can also view traditional methods of making sago and
crushing sugar cane.

One of the highlights is to take a look at how the Penan make blowpipes and other
hunting instruments, and try out your blow piping skill, aimed normally at a balloon from a
distance.

Another highlight is the 45 minutes live cultural dance show at the theatre. You will be
entertained in the comfort of the air-conditioned mini theatre where award-winning dancers
and musicians present their famous multi-cultural performances.

Their spectacular costumes and elegant dance routines will provide an entertaining and
educational introduction to Sarawak's ethnic groups and their cultures. There are two cultural
performances each day, scheduled at about 11:00am (morning show) and 4.00pm (afternoon
show).

The Sarawak Cultural Village is a must visit destination for anyone who is visiting
Sarawak, Malaysia. I really recommend it to all my friends to visit the Sarawak Cultural
Village. Enjoy your visit!

A Blessing in Disguise

In our daily lives, we come across many homeless families. My story revolves around
one such small family, Amy and her mom. They had been homeless for quite some time. No
one knew why.

At night, the shelter for them was the bridge and during the day, mostly around cafés
looking for leftover food for survival. Homeless life with a young daughter was difficult.

One such day, they were going towards the café when Amy stopped and showed her
mom, a tiny, weak and extremely cute kitten shivering under the bin. She picked it up and
snuggled it in her jacket. She told her mom with the cutest smile ever that she wanted to keep
the kitten. Her mother couldn’t refuse her. She kept thinking that feeding themselves was a
tough task, and now a kitten. But her little daughter needed a friend. She smiled back and they
went to a nearby café and sat outside waiting for leftovers. Amy was busy keeping her tiny
friend warm and cosy when a woman placed a leftover donut beside her. Amy looked up and
tugged onto her skirt. The lady surprised, turned and Amy asked her, ‘Can you give me some
milk?’

The lady sat down on her knees and asked sarcastically, ‘Do you want to dip your donut
in it?’ Amy’s mom was taken back by her question, and heavy heartedly she looked down.

Amy answered ‘No, no, I don’t want to eat anything. I want my cuddly friend to have
some so we can play.’

Now the lady was really shaken. Then, Amy took the kitten out of her lap and said, ‘I
can wait, and my mom can take care of me, but this kitty has no one.’

The lady now was heartbroken. She hugged Amy and thanked her for teaching her a
lesson she’ll never forget. We all owe each other respect and a helping hand. She asked Amy
and her mom to come with her. She was working in a nursing home. Amy’s Mom didn’t only
get a job but a place to stay and take care of Amy and her friend. The little kitten and Amy’s
kindness indeed was a blessing in disguise. No doubt- no act of kindness, no matter how small,
is never wasted.

A Blessing in Disguise (Chinese Folk Story)

by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming
December 28, 2007

A long, long time ago, there was a kind old man who lived on the plains outside the
Great Wall of China. The gentle old man had only two passions in his life: collecting rare
breeds of horses, and his son, whom he loved more than anything else.

The old man and his son would ride their horses every day. They would travel great
distances to trade horses, meet new people, and enjoy the good fortune that life had bestowed
upon them.

One morning, a servant left the stable door open and one of the old man's favourite
stallions escaped. When the neighbours heard the news of the stallion's escape, they came to
comfort the old man. They told him they were sorry he had had such bad luck.

But strangely enough, the gentle old man was not upset. He explained to his neighbours
that losing the horse wasn't necessarily bad luck. There was no way to predict that the horse
would escape, it just happened, and now there was nothing that could be done about it. "There
is no reason to be upset," said the old man. The neighbours soon realized that there was nothing
they could do to help get the horse back, and that they shouldn't feel sad for the old man's
misfortune.

One week later, the stallion came back, and he brought with him a mare. This was not
just any mare, but a rare and valuable white mare. When the neighbours heard of the old man's
good luck, they quickly came to congratulate him. But again, the old man was not excited. As
he had explained before, it was not necessarily good luck that had brought him this new and
beautiful white horse. It just happened, and there was no reason to get excited over it. Still a
bit puzzled, the neighbours left as quickly as they had come.

A short time later, while his son was riding the white horse, she slipped and fell. She
landed on the son's leg, and broke his leg, so that he would always walk with a limp. Again,
the neighbours came to the old man's house to give their sympathy for the bad luck that had
befallen his son. One of the neighbours suggested that the old man sell the mare before any
more bad luck could happen, and others said that he should take his revenge and kill the mare.
However, the old man did neither. He explained to the neighbours that they should not feel
sorrow for his son, nor anger towards the mare. It was purely an accident that could not be

predicted, and there was nothing he or they could do to change it. At this point, the neighbours
thought the old man was crazy and decided to leave him alone.

Two years later an enemy invaded the country, and all of the old man's neighbours were
drafted to defend the country against the attack. Because the old man's son was lame, he did
not have to join in the fighting. The war was very bad, and most of the old man's neighbours
were killed, but his son was spared because he had been hurt by the white horse two years
earlier.

Very often, when an event takes place that everybody thinks is good luck, the end
results are disastrous. In the same way, an unlucky event can bring about happiness. Therefore,
you should not lose your will to continue if an unlucky event happens, nor should you be too
overjoyed or feel too self-satisfied because of a lucky event, or because something that you
desire comes very easily to you.