(pictures are from the Internet) See Real Selves through Disadvantages --True Human Natures in Hamlet’s Hesitation “To be, or not to be: that is the question”. Maybe it is the first sentence hitting your mind when we talk about Hamlet—that legendary prince by Shakespeare. It has become a household name for many reasons, and there’s one reason we cannot deny that is miscellaneous opinions from wide readership. From his birth，some people thought this made his nobility while others point out it was the source of his lacking thymos; from his complex characters, some people thought he was both as innocent as kids and as calculated and criminal as a fox; from his story, there was a conclusion said that he was a giant of thought but a dwarf of action. “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” Shakespeare said this. No matter how various the views it is no doubt that his strongest personality was hesitation or procrastination which was his fatal drop and mainly led his destruction. However, we can see sparkles from this disadvantage if we change another way to think. Flaws are not always that bad after all. They can be the evidence of our real selves as human beings. This essay will show you my humble opinion: true human natures in Hamlet’s always-being-blamed hesitation. “To be, or not to be: that is the question, Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them. ” As one of the classical beginning, this “a philosophical exploration of life and death” actually made a lot of people feel anxious about his revenge. It seemed that he should act like those old warriors or heroes who left their lives behind only for justice in minds. However, he didn’t. On the surface, he was just so melancholy to act like a real man. Indeed, his well education made him out of this “mediator” kind. Anyway, even if he wasn’t so cultivated, shouldn’t it be true human natures to do this questioning and contemplative soliloquy? At least I think so. I even doubt whether there’s a person has no hesitation before this “revenge” or “suicide” problem. So Hamlet’s burden in his mind was just natural and from which the character became a person of flesh and blood with life and breath. Then, besides the continuation of “sleep” thing in the middle part of this soliloquy, there were other aspects. “The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes,” He considered that it would be better to “commit suicide”, but being scared of what might happen to him in the afterlife. However, during this consideration, Hamlet not only participated in his life, but also astutely observed society as well. He condemned the hypocrisy and treachery and general corruption of the world. He saw civilian’s sufferings and recognized the decay of the Danish society. This is what we are, we will not only think about ourselves even though there were huge difficulties ahead of us. Maybe Hamlet could just think what would happen to himself if took action to revenge, but he thought about the common people in Denmark as well. For us, if there is just a dead end but no more choice for us, family or friendship will certainly occur to us but not only our own safety. In other words, selfishness lies in everyone’s body, but absolute selfish person doesn’t exist. When we are hesitative because of ourselves as well as others, this procrastination shouldn’t be our shame but the real selves in our hearts. Actually, Hamlet didn’t unrecognized his “indecisive character”, the end of this soliloquy seemed like self – mockery. “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action.” If he could actually realize his flaws and keenly critiqued himself, how couldn’t he throw this “pale and sickly color” away? Please allow me to call this situation as “half-objective” attitude. I mean that he might try to be objective when faced his disadvantages and try to correct it from bottom of heart. However, this objective attitude was only half: there were other blocks hindered him from correction. In our daily life, there are lots of conditions full of this “half-objective” attitude. We may see the point of problems in others’ romance crisis and sometimes even could provide some solutions. However, for our own relationship, we might be unable to handle those situations even if we have already seen them clearly. As you can see, these are real images of us. Sometimes “have known” didn’t equal to “can do”. This hesitation caused by this point is true human natures of us. Flaws are not good of course, but they’re not that bad. They just give us the reflection of our real aspects. Due to people’s blame to this “bad” character all the time, we even have ignored it actually is a mirror for all of us. For these characters in books, we are their shadows and they are our hearts. Most of the time, we criticize those shortcomings is just because that we also have those flaws and we don’t want to face it but only show attitude like “be sympathetic with his sufferings and be infuriated at his indifference” to our shadow selves. This reminds of “Vampire Diary”, a TV series. Elena was a human doppelganger of vampire Katherine. Compared with decisive Katherine, Elena was much indecisive. Among audiences, there are much more people like Katherine and dislike to see Elena who was always full of worries about everything. Maybe we should see that Elena was a human being with those hateful true human natures. It goes the same with Hamlet. Hesitation is real in front of sufferings and choosing. That is, sometimes we can choose to see true human natures rather than dark side in of Hamlet’s hesitation. Then we will see he was not only an invisible character in books which had some unbearable faults, but rather a portrait of us all.

"We've become a nation measuring out our lives in shopping bags and nursing our psychic ills through retail therapy." Chicago Tribune said in the issue of Christmas Eve 1986. This was the first time that Retail therapy was used as a term. Then, have you ever heard of this term? Retail therapy is shopping with the primary purpose of improving the buyer's mood or disposition. Often seen in people during periods of depression or transition, it is normally a short-lived habit. As you can see, retail therapy is not just an ordinary shopping. It is something that has great influence on your emotions. Before you make a decision on starting retail therapy, in fact it has already affected your mood. You remind of this therapy because you can’t release your bad feelings. You may have had an accident or met some troubles. You feel so upset even extremely angry about all your sufferings. At this moment, you want to say them out to your family or your friends. Maybe on second thought, you don’t want them to be worried about you or they just too busy to chat with you. Then, you will turn to retail therapy for aid. You want to buy a lot of things to comfort yourself. Among these cases, disappointed love can be the biggest reason that leads to crazy shopping. Those brokenhearted people, especially ladies, they prefer this way to take the relationship out. However, next your may sink into anxiety whether you should go on a shopping spree or not. Two elves in your mind will argue for this issue. One is saying: “Go ahead, just rush into the shopping mall! Go on a spree! Let those troubles get out. Your mood will be bright again in that therapy. You know what; it is called therapy for its curing.” The other is saying: “No, please control yourself. Shopping or such retail therapy is meaningless. It can neither bring you back to the previous no-trouble time nor cheer you up. What it only can do is waste your money. Please think carefully of your common salaries and the rent you need to pay. It is not worth doing it.” Two elves can’ stop fighting and you just have lost in such chaos. So, as you can see from all these, the influence of retail therapy have already happened before you meet it officially. During your shopping, retail therapy can really cure your mood. Once you decided to make yourself happy by this way, you wish it can really work. It does sometimes. During your hanging out, the sceneries outside or something in the window can distract your bad feelings. Talking with friends or shop assistants about fashion, clothes or suitable match can drive you into this new splendid world. You forget the annoyances for the time being. Then, as the talk goes on, you suddenly see the beautiful shoes, which represent the signal for a true start of your retail therapy. In shopping mall, the dazzling favorites will fascinate you all the time and provide you with a visual feast. Apart from the sense of aesthetic, you can feel better if they finally become yours. Your satisfaction will rise further as you purchasing. Under the help of professional assistant, you have new hat, new necklace, new scarf, new dress, new shoes and even new makeup. You only need to stand in front of the mirror without Cinderella’s spell, and then you’ll find you have turned over a new leaf. The joy brought from new look urges you to go on your passionate shopping. Next, no more fitting and no more hesitation, you simply get what you like for the fist sight. Items purchased during periods of retail therapy are sometimes referred to as "comfort buys". At last, your satisfied smiles show up which means you really get comfort from those “comfort buys”. I am a student and haven’t enough money to buy lots of “comfort buys”; however, window shopping can certainly cheer me up. Or sometimes, buy some trinkets will also give me huge sense of happiness. Therefore, retail therapy makes a much difference for your bad emotion. However, your emotion in retail therapy may go the other way. The survey among 2000 American women in 2012 found out so many things that retail therapy could have some disadvantages to your emotions and might worse your original terrible emotions. It is said that about 30% women annoyed by arrogant salesperson and couldn’t find her adoring things. Also, the most respondents said they felt so upset by the long queue outside the fitting room and even lost patience to change bad feelings because the feeling only to go worse. Meanwhile, 44% of them thought they would be looked down in some boutiques; 38% said they couldn’t find the suitable clothes; 10% said they would fell embarrassed when they were asked about their size; 37% said they were not comfortable in fitting room; and 15% didn’t received joy of therapy because of their poor figure. So, all these reasons can totally ruin you in therapy. Coleen Nolan, a spokesman of a brand named Marisota, did some study and denied a myth: it is the happiest thing for women to dive into the shopping mall. He said: “retail therapy is just a common phrase related women with purchase. However, to some ladies, buying clothes is extremely different with therapy. If there’s no good body shape, it is not easy to buy clothes that can really cheer you up. Nevertheless you have perfect figure, and yet you might come back empty-handed. That is, shopping supposes to be a nice thing, but you can’t always receive supposed result in the shopping mall.” Though retail therapy has benefits and shortcomings during its process, you may see the true influence on your emotion clearer after the done. After the shopping, it is the high time to see the effect of retail therapy. One case is that you get satisfaction and comfort from buying things. Your full wardrobe and shoe shelf please you with their new look and your new look appeals more praises or even more admirers. Maybe a new relationship will begin and you will soon get out of the struggles in previous one. In addition, you think that you have become a fashionistas who you ever think you will be before. This feeling of standing on the leading edge of the fashion can actually help you build your confidence. This confidence can do well not only to your relationship in daily life, but also to your working. You may express your idea more clearly and the teamwork may go better. However, the other case is that the curative effect on your mood is unreliable. There are findings in a new study from Chicago University: Shopping might relief you at the moment, but if you wanted to use this kind of therapy to cure your lonely heart or chaotic emotions, you must know that it was useless even adverse. Through data analysis, researchers found that actually it could enhance people’s sense of loneliness. Further more, it would form a vicious circle: you go shopping because of loneliness, but made it deeper instead. As this went on, you would be lost in this retail therapy. Besides the problem of loneliness, it may cause some more serious problem. In 2001, the European Union conducted a study finding that 33% of shoppers surveyed had "high level of addiction to rash or unnecessary consumption". This was causing debt problems for many. The same study also found that young Scottish people had the highest susceptibility to binge purchasing. Also, researchers at Melbourne University have advocated its classification as a psychological disorder called oniomania or compulsive shopping disorder. These can be so horrible because it is not only a slight sentimental problem; it is too serious to ruin your normal life. So, this just tells us that this therapy may do much harm to your emotions and even send you to the real medical therapy. Now, you should have a thorough idea about retail therapy. It is not perfect. It has advantages and disadvantages; it may make your better or let you worse. It is not a stranger; it can exist in everyone’s life. Although it has big influence on your emotions from many aspects, you don’t have to worship it to show your differences with others, and you also don’t have to reject it like avoid a virus. What you need to do is to face it with a comprehensive and objective view. Then, you will realize that you are no longer controlled by it, but control it in your own hands. When your emotion get hurt and you have no choice but to resort to retail therapy, you can use it properly which can bring you real happiness and cheerfulness. In that case, your feelings can exactly refreshed and keep away from the bother. In a word, this condition is where the retail therapy’s true value lies.

“A Modest Proposal” is a satire by Jonathan Swift. Through the long-time study of this essay, I’ve learned the unique expression of the writer. Also, the astonishing content of this essay reminds me of a story from Journey to the West. The book is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng’en. It is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. The story from it which I just mentioned took place in an empire called Biqiu. Although this story and the essay “A Modest Proposal” were written by different writers from different countries, they both put forward proposals about children in an ironic tone. From the content of articles and the background of writers, I found some commons and differences. In the beginning, Jonathan Swift said that his essay was “For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public.” Also, he described deplorable state of residents in Ireland: overpopulation and poverty. Based on these, he showed a serious attitude and a sincere heart for country and people. This kind of start gives readers a sympathy feeling for their people. A seemingly positive energy of this essay also can be shown. There’s a similar start in the story “Rescue Kids in Biqiu”. The whole empire was covered by a kind of gloomy atmosphere. Before every house of family, there was a cage carrying a baby. The cages are so many that made readers wander the reason. Then, it also made readers curious that all the people of this empire kept themselves to talking about kids. Although this start is just as uncomfortable as the Jonathan’s essay, it has much weird feeling rather than the visional impact. After the beginning words, the two writers’ move to the body part of their articles. The main content is also shown from it. However, the content created a horrible feeling. Though kind of different, both articles are so unexpected. Jonathan suggested to Irish people that the best way to end their misery was to produce children and sell them at market as a delicious dish for the rich. This kind of suggestion has really shocked me. Furthermore, he explained the suggestion in details; the suitable age for picking as dishes, the cooking method for good taste, and the benefit and saving money for the families and country. He also said that his suggestion was “innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual” because that “As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in the computation.” The so-called serious and calm tone to describe such a disgusting thing not makes me not only feel sick, but also realize his sharp style of writing. Just as I’ve said, the “Rescue Kids in Biqiu” is also a story about kids as “A Modest Proposal”. The babies in the cages were prepared for a kind of medicine. The emperor had a kind of incurable disease, and the father of the queen raised a secret prescription which was believed to have the immortal effect. This is the important point. The medicine needed the hearts of 1,111 kids. This suggestion has frightened me just as the Jonathan’s did. However, Wu cheng’en gave the answer in the body part of the story that this medicine thing was because of the trouble made by evil spirit. The queen and his father were both evil spirits. They wanted to control the whole empire. So, this cruel suggestion was made. Wu’s tone is also ironic but his irony is clearly and openly, while Jonathan’s expression is kind of irony with a pretty veil which creates a strong contrast. In Wu’s story, this evil thing was made by evil spirits. In the end, they were defeated by the heroes of the story. In Jonathan’s suggestion, all the cruel things were said in a gentle way. In the end, he also found a gentle excuse to keep himself away from this so-called beneficial but actually inhuman advice. The two kinds of irony were different but they both pointed to the top rulers of their time according to their background. Wu Cheng’en and Jonathan Swift were both in a family that was not that rich. However, in that condition they both learned a lot. In political circles, they saw and realized the darkness. Wu was frustrated in his career path. Then he wrote Journey to the West. Through the demons and ghosts in the book, he expressed his dissatisfaction to the darkness of the bureaucrats. Also, the stories in it reflected the tragic situation of the ordinary people at that time. For Swift, his direct motive to write this article was also the poor and miserable people in his country. Heavy tax, exploitation and colonization almost destroyed the Irish. The top rulers disregarded these tough situations and continued their oppression towards people. Therefore, Swift decided to do something for the poor. Then, “A Modest Proposal” published, and the strong words conveyed by it in an absurd way. Though there are so many differences between the two articles, such as from of description and narration, they are both in an ironic tone. They tell something about kids. The cruel sense of vision not only shows horrible pictures, but also reveals the tragic condition of people at that time. The writers played a role as voice of the times. Also, for us, their ingenious use of words and expressions, English as well as Chinese, are worth learning.

In this information age, cell phone fills our life all the time. It seems that we have to tie ourselves to it on pain of getting behind the times. Actually, we are enjoying the convenience of it arranging from daily communication and shopping. Gradually, we even have nomophobia. It sounds horrible because that we have became controlled by this kind of electronic good. It occurs to us that indeed life can be better if we try to put our cell phone away. As a person, we can build a more healthy life; as a student, we can more concentrate on our study; as a family member or a friend, we can feel about warmer emotion from our parents and friends than that from the hard machine. Try to put our cell phone away and we will find your life healthier. In free time, we will consider doing sports, listening to music, or reading books, but not just killing time with cell phone. Maybe you think that it didn’t make any difference with your health to hold cell phone all the time. However, according to the research, phubbing can damage not only our cervical vertebra, but our fingers and eyesight. The process of these damages is in a slow pace, and we can hardly feel their existence. Even so, finally these diseases can awfully show on our body. To avoid this situation, we can consider sports and reading. They can improve and enrich our physical and mental well-being. Certainly, other activities like cooking can also be great. Therefore, a healthier life will come to us during free the time without our cell phone. As students, class without cell phone is more efficient. When we concentrate on class, what we got is favorable to us. You may say that you played cell phone just because of the boring class. That’s a ridiculous excuse. It’s our obligation to focus on the knowledge on books and think about the words from teacher. Cell phone held in our hands shows no respect to your teacher. In fact, it also kills the money and time which we supposed to put on our study. Try to put our cell phone away. For instance, once we piled all of our cell phones up till the class was over. Try to learn something solid and true. Leave the gossip from your cell phone away. Then, we will find words from teacher are more indispensable than that from cell phone. When staying with family members and friends, we’d better spend more time with people in front of us. Try to escape from the visual world for a while. Business may bother you all the time and you don’t want to but have to deal with things by your cell phone. However, for choosing cell phone, we have already left these intimate people alone. This can truly upset them and can also make the closeness of relationship fade away. So, once we have free time spending with family members and friends, we should cherish this kind of precious moment. Try to put your cell phone away and feel the real emotion from real people. As we can see, we will live a life of better quality if we try to put our cell phone away. We will have a happier time with our parents and friends. We will do more other meaningful things when we’re alone. These are all because of putting-away cell phone. Time without it can be a true joy and can bring us the life which we are always looking forward to.

“She belongs to another world,” Some people just left the table nearby, whispering like this. As usual, I had my breakfast alone. Looking outside from the window, I smiled. “Today is a nice day,” I thought merrily. I didn’t feel sad for being isolated. Instead, I was in a good mood, not only because of that glance of outside just now, but also looking forward to a friend coming to see me. Actually, he’s rather a frequent visitor than a friend. Most people were surely unwilling to step into this place, asylum. However, he’s an exception. I had already known him for seven months. Since last winter, he would come here to see me twice or three times a month. Some doctors said he’s a journalist just as he said himself, but I really doubted this profession. He’s different from journalists’ common images in my mind. Also, I had no idea why he had insisted on “interviewing” me for such a long time. Except these wonders, he’s the only person I wanted to talk with. I head the clock tick and looked up at it. Yesterday, the nurse said he’s arrive time would be 9:40 am. After killing time on the bench for a while, I saw him, Mr. Tate. He smiled at me, holding a bouquet of gentian flowers. I remembered that I mentioned gentian as favorite last time. “How’s everything going?” he said, passing me the flowers. “Good,” ordinary question and answer, like always. “Thank you,” the fragrance of flowers made me feel fresh. I know I was an excessive quiet girl and hate to communicate with others. When I first came here, doctors said that I really need cure because of silence, depression, or sometimes extreme emotional instability with no sign. There were also other symptoms I even didn’t get them. I knew I was kind of strange but definitely not that weird or terrible. They all said that I put myself into another world, which I imagined by myself. In fact, their opinion was half right. I was special and indeed belonged to another world, but it’s real and not fake, only could be seen by my own. Obviously, nobody trusted me. Whatever, I had already got used to it. I would never tell them my word. It was the last secret I’d give out. In this patients’ heaven, I only saw creepy hell. Thus, I chose deeper silence until Mr. Tate come to me. At first, I resisted his interrupting into my life. I stuck to my own businesses, such as reading, drinking, eating, or most time, keeping silent. I took delight in this state, and hoped that this stranger could leave me alone. However, he’s so persistent. Finally, he won. Not enough satisfied with simple communication, he was try to know my real world recently. “Today your role is still a gentle thief?” I showed my humor only with this acquaintance. “If you want me to,” he was smart, journalists’ feature. I said nothing with my pouty face. “If you don’t want to say anything, just go for a walk,” Tate caught a glimpse of the nurse not far away, “I think you are too well-behaved to let her supervise.” “Um…” maybe he’s right or maybe just a kidding. I didn’t think it for a long time and move forward. “Would you mind putting the flowers to your room first?” he asked softly. The aroma was still around me and I stared at gentian in a while, “I want to stay with it.” “Maybe you should thank for these lovely flowers,” I sighed and lifted my face, “Today is a nice day because when I had my breakfast, I saw today is blue, just like gentian.” “Blue?” His eyes bright about, but did not speak. Then I saw him switching on his voice recorder. His professional habit always made me uncomfortable. It seemed that our friendship was more complicated and he preferred regarding me as a patient not a friend. I realized this long long ago. Some doctors said he would leave if he had enough materials to complete an essay. I knew but didn’t want to believe. I still wanted to unfold my secret today, looking at the blue flowers I thought like this. “Um…” actually, I was afraid of friend’s leaving than my special world unsealed. “Every day has its color.” I could feel my heart trembling, “I could see this color every morning and…” “And?” his voice tried to be calm to hide his exciting. I could tell this for getting along for months. “And every color has its own meaning, such as grey refers to a plain day, yellow refers to something unexpected, green refers to my suffers. I only saw red twice and its bad because somebody I know would die,” I took a deep breath and thought I was going to cry. “Blue is a good day. My feelings are up and down with these colors. I’m not weird, I ‘m just special with these…these different things…” I hid my face to calm down myself avoiding out of control. Honestly, I had no courage to see his look now. “Thanks,” no emotional voice. Then, I saw an average journalist’s face. Grabbed the recorder, throw it into the fountain, wear a smile and I had my eyes on him, “Are we still friends now?”

The atmosphere of graduation is everwhere in the campus. The seniors, with their baccalaureate gowns on, are taking photos. They are trying to keep their memory of these four years in different ways. Graduation exhibition from College of Arts in our university have brought me an amazing feeling. The theme of this exhibition is "Concentrate & Elucidate ". The works are showing the designers' own understanding of concept, band, logo, life, or their own dreams. This is a dinosaur made only by threads. It is so vivid and amazing. This is one painting from a group related to LIPS. If you see carefully, you will find every painting of lips conceals a silhouette in it, such as animals, people, landscape, and so on. In this painting of lips are some people. Could you figure out what kind of materials in this work? This colorful work is made of buttons. Sometime, usual life can also be beautiful. Next， here are some other works. Cafe with relaxing and comfortable hue, plants with simple and nature feeling, fairy tale house with happiness and enjoyment. I also wish I could keep my own unique memory in my lovely university. There's still one year left. Move on and cherish it.

Someday We Will Say Goodbye Summer, Forest of fireflies, Meetings on rainy days. All I want to keep, Just memory of your smiling. Winter, Station of farewells, Whispering at bare trees. All I can not hold, Only moment of snow’s falling. I know, Always know, Someday we will say goodbye. But before that day, I am here beside you.

From: LemonTo: PenguinPasswords: SHMILY Yesterday was the Beginning of Summer. What kind of summer of this year would be? Considering the entrance exam of postgraduate for me next year, I think it must be a busy summer. However, I like this season, and I believe that every summer has its own magic to create the most beautiful memory of the whole year. This time, I want to bring you an excellent summer though it seems too hard to become true. At least, I can show you some lovely fruit to open your journey of this unique season.Cherry is one of my favorite. She is an angel of early summer. She could soft your heart and relax your mood. Watermelon is a cool boy. Almost everybody loves him in the summer. He could calm you down and bring you comfort.This is my first blog, and may this start my nice summer. Wish these fruit could make you happy.(Pictures are from Inernet.)