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Farewell
to Depression, and meet the sunshine
Reading again
The Diary of Anne Frank
Cheung
Man Kwong
 Teachers
are sad to hear about the two suicide cases of their counterparts
right at the beginning of the new school year. Meanwhile, the
PTU has received calls for help from individual teachers, letting
us understand more about their stress at work.
Three
big mountains, three sources of Pressure
In recent
years, the teachers' job becomes more demanding. The role of
the teacher is being continually broadened and the requirements
for the job are becoming more diverse. Furthermore, teachers
today are under serious psychological pressure from three different
sources: fears of losing their jobs because of the shrinking
students' population; the compulsion to take the Language Benchmark
Examination for language teachers and, coping with always- changing
policies from the Education Reformation.
People
deal with stress in different ways. Some of them may take them
as challenges which turn into positive motivation while some
may be driven to depression and collapse. Some may get helps
from the others to get through the adversities while some may
choose to confront their stress alone. It is not possible for
teachers to change the external world at this moment, so they
have to find ways of regulating their inner-selves, not letting
their stress turn into despair.
Today,
I want to share with you the story of an ordinary girl who found
extraordinary strength of spirit to survive the worst circumstances.
Most of you might have read The Diary of Anne Frank. Anne was
a young Jewish girl who lived and died during the Holocaust.
The Frank family hid from the Nazis for two long years in a
Secret Annex at the back of a warehouse. During that time, Anne
kept a diary in which she not only wrote about the horrors of
war but the everyday problems of being a teenager. Although
Anne faced the threat of discovery and death every day while
living in the Secret Annex, she found the courage to get through
each day and her diary is one of the most widely read books
in the world.
Enjoy
the sunshine, embrace your fortune
In Anne's diary, there is a part describing how Anne and her
mother tried to handle depression in different ways: "Whenever
there are people feeling depressed, my mother will advise them
to think about those in the world who are in desperate plight
and they will feel better. But my advice to them is: go out
to the nature and enjoy the sunshine, you can only get your
fortune through yourself and God. I think mother's way of dealing
with depression is wrong. If people have to comfort themselves
while they are feeling depressed, they will easily collapse.
We can find our comfort and peacefulness in nature and sunshine.
Therefore, people of fortune should send their fortune to the
others, those with courage and beliefs will never die in adversities"
The story has not ended yet. In August 1944, the people in hiding
were arrested and deported. Via the transit camp Westerbork
and then Auschwitz, Anne went to Bergen-Belsen concentration
camp. In March of 1945, nine months after she was arrested,
Anne died of typhus at the age of fifteen.
Courage
and Strength of Spirit from her belief
In 1947
Otto Frank, the only survivor of the Frank family, had the diaries
of his deceased daughter published and touched the hearts of
million readers. A victim in the Auschwitz death camp described
Anne as the most courageous one among the women in the Frank
family. "She never cried in her plight. Although there
was not enough food, she was willing to share her bread with
the others. Her courage and strength of spirit has helped her
endure all pains and sufferings." Anne's courage and strength
is originated from her beliefs, in which she learnt to lead
a common life through finding the beauty of life in nature and
sunshine. Despite Anne's death, her kind and optimistic spirits
have been continuously encouraging and leading human beings
to pursue the beauty of life.
A
girl's Diary, the candle light of human life
Anne
has passed, together with the sufferings of the WWII: the horrible
Secret Annex, concentration camp, and Holocaust. However, her
strength of spirit still exists through her dairy like a candle
light, helping people overcome their difficulties and giving
them warmth and hope.
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