Book Blog on Adversity

So as you know I am reading All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein. She, her parents and her brother live in a nice house in a town called Bielitz. In the book they are currently facing a lot of adversity. First, the Germans invaded Poland. Then Gerdas’ brother Arthur is required by the Germans to report to the train station. Everyone has heard rumors about what happens to the people that are shipped away, and they are not good. As he prepares to leave everyone is crying. They know that they might not see him again, but his mother acts as if she will (p. 21). Gerdas’ dad owns a factory with another man. They are not allowed to go near it because they are Jews. The sign on the fence says, “Dogs and Jews not Allowed to Enter” (Klein 26). In late 1939 the Klein’s received a note saying that they had to report to an armory in December. They were only allowed to bring twenty pounds of clothing. Once everyone found out about this, all non-Jews were coming to the house to buy up all their possessions. They sold for a few measly Marks. Everything they treasured was gone so fast, and they had nothing to show for it (30). Then, their rations got cut and they were forced to move into the basement of their home where their hired help lived (33). The Jews were not given things such as sugar and eggs, and their coal rations were cut. They lived in a dark damp basement with only candles and an oil lamp to light it because the Germans intentionally cut their electric lines. They eventually receive good news from Arthur who they were told may have been killed in a massacre (40). This news is a relief for them, and one less adversity that they must face. They no longer have to worry about the life of their child. Eventually they are banned from going outside into their garden. This really hurts Gerdas’ father because she says that he needs to get outside on nice summer days to clear his mind.  I feel that if I were a member of the Klein family I would have forced my parents to move. I feel angry because the property that is rightfully theirs has been taken away. They have gotten no restitution for it, and are being slowly starved. I can’t imagine what is would have been like to live every day of your life in fear knowing that the Gestapo could come and take you anytime.

Stress Survey

This article on stress from the New York Times shows the results of a survey conducted on 200,000 freshmen college students. The survey found that the number of students that rated themselves ““below average” in emotional health rose.” (Lewin 1) Also, the number of students that said they were good with their mental health state went down to 52 percent from 64 percent in 1985. Counselors at colleges say that they think this is because the increasing number of loans students must take out, the fact that many more parents are unemployed, and because they have been predicted to not do as well as their parents. They also find that women are the ones who are more likely to go to counselors for stress. This is because men are taught to hold in their emotions and because they usually find ways to relieve stress. These ways include exercising or maybe even doing something dumb.

            I think that most people that I have seen, including myself, have dealt with stress well. There are always people who don’t keep up with their work, or keep organized. These are the people that you will see running around with a scared look on their face because they have forgot an assignment was due today, or that a big paper is due tomorrow. I find that I get stressed whenever I have multiple tests in one day, or when I have two or three papers due in a week. But for me there is always some stress because I can never forget about the large projects that are coming due. These always hang on me like a weight. I know that when I get stressed because of things in college I get mad. This is because sometimes it doesn’t make sense to me why some professors assign such stupid assignments. If you would like to read more about the stress survey conducted on freshmen students go to http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/education/27colleges.html?_r=1 .

My Book

I am choosing to read All But My Life. This book was written by Gerda Weissmann Klein. Unfortunately she was in Poland during WWII, and I am assuming she was a Jew because she was put in a concentration camp. She married one of the men, a soldier, that liberated her camp, and they presently live in Arizona. I chose this book because I have an interest in military history, and in WWII. I figure that this will give me more insight into what the people placed into German concentration camps went through. Although I have read several books about Holocaust survivors I learn a little something new with each book. Each survivor has a story, and generally they are heart wrenching because they tell of how their families were killed before their eyes. It also tells how they were tortured and nearly starved to death. I also chose this book because it seemed to be one of the few that I would be interested in out of the ones available to read. I also hope to be able to expand my vocabulary and intelligence by reading this book. It seems that with each new book I learn a new word or phase that I sometimes “pull out” when I think it is appropriate.

College Stress Test

Hi. I took the College Student Stress test. It is really easy to complete. The test is a list of thirty-one questions that each have a corresponding number. The numbers range anywhere from one hundred to twenty. These numbers are stress points. As you read through the series of questions given you will circle the stress number of any of the questions that you find true of yourself. You will then add up all of the stress points that you circled to get your total. Questions such as deaths in the family or family problems rank the highest in points. The questions cover social, marital, family, monetary, and relational problems. For example, getting a divorce would really stress you out. Therefore it is sixty-five points. But, dropping a class in college doesn’t put stress on a person, and thus it is only twenty-three points. My personal score on this test was thirty-seven. The test only had one question that I thought I could and ‘yes’ to.  Before I took the test, I was thinking that I would be really racking up the points, but at the end I was surprised. This is because I rank way below 150 on the scale. Therefore I have less than a 1-in-3 chance of having a serious health change. People who score above three hundred are in serious danger of having health complications. Finally, people who score between 150 and 300 have a 50-50 chance of having a “health change within two years.”