When this show was first released, like everyone else, I binge-watched all 13 episodes immediately. As a huge fan of the book, I was surprised, but satisfied, with how they portrayed each event that Hannah described – though it was darker than the books, I found it to be extremely powerful and impactful.

Recently, I have come across multiple articles trashing the show for “glorifying suicide.” They suggest that such vivid portrayals are not only triggering, but only promotes the idea of death as a permanent solution to one’s problems.

If anything, I believe, these vivid portrayals of such sensitive subjects in the media are necessary. It is something that needs to be talked about – and not just suicide – things like homophobia, racism and sexual assaults, and their causes and effects are all things that need to be discussed in schools, communities and homes.

There is an oversensitivity in society nowadays, where everything needs to be politically correct. By advocating for the removal of these sensitive subjects from the media, we are simply pushing these issues further away from discussion. These are things that occur every day, and if we cannot even address the topics, and the raw and real aspects of such issues, how can we prevent these things from happening?

‘13 Reasons Why’ does not glorify suicide. Rather, it raises awareness of the issues surrounding bullying and depression. It includes the appropriate trigger warnings for graphic, but necessary, scenes. The scenes are confronting for a reason – they send a message across, and are extremely powerful representations of real life experiences.

It does not depict suicide as beautiful – Hannah’s death literally shows just how messy it all is. The show illustrates the devastation of the aftermath for her parents and her friends. Throughout the tapes, Hannah addresses how she could have been helped, and what caused her so much pain. These depictions send a message to anyone who has ever bullied or attacked someone else, and show the severe consequences that certain actions and words can cause.

Like all other powerful portrayals in the media, ’13 Reasons Why’ brings up sensitive subjects that need to be discussed openly in society. It does not glorify or promote suicide; it merely shows the reality surrounding such events. This realism, though confronting, is necessary to bring attention to these subjects, in order to start discussions on prevention.

Where to Get Help

Lifeline 13 11 14

Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800

MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78

The post 13 Reasons Why – A Glorification of Suicide? appeared first on IH Globe.

We often forget how we can learn from people with disabilities…

I initially started volunteering casually with a special needs support group in Dubai called ‘SFS’ which organizes outings for children and adults with special needs as well their families. Then, in school, I met a family who were raising money for an art studio for adults with special needs through a charity concert. After performing at that concert, I visited the studio along with my parents. The art studio is located in a historical and culturally rich area of Dubai and is named ‘Mawaheb from Beautiful People’ with ‘Mawaheb’ meaning ‘talent’ in Arabic.

From there, my mother started regularly teaching yoga at the studio and I would volunteer whenever I had a day off school. After I graduated from high school, I had a 9-month gap before starting university and I genuinely had no idea what to do with my life, so I decided to start volunteering at the studio on a non-committal basis.

I absolutely fell in love with the studio, the people and the work I was assigned and so, the plan of casual twice a week volunteering turned into a full time internship. As cliché as it may sound, this experience truly changed me as a person and brought me closer to the simplicity of life. The purity and sheer love in the artists’ eyes and smiles inspired me to create a mini photography project detailing the lessons that I learnt on my journey at Mawaheb. The artwork created by Mawaheb’s artists is truly beyond anything I’ve seen before and contains so much raw emotion and integrity as it is a true reflection of them on a canvas.

Interacting with people with special needs be challenging but some of the most memorable moments come from seeing them work on their passions and showing the world how talented, smart and independent they are. A huge display of this was on a trip we took to Singapore upon invitation by Tanglin Trust School (TTS) to conduct painting workshops and educate the students on American Sign Language, anti-bullying, dance and the artists’ experience with their disabilities. It was a week-long trip with no parents and the artists were completely responsible for themselves. From seeing how the students at TTS responded and made friends with the artists (some of whom still remain in contact today) to seeing how much the artists enjoyed looking after themselves to the A+ banter made this trip the most memorable one of my life so far.

We often forget how we can learn from people with disabilities. People often adopt an approach whereby we feel like we’re above a person with special needs and they need us no matter what. However, we should see ourselves as equal to people with special needs and be open to the countless lessons that they have to teach us. They truly are the happiest people I’ve ever met and they make everyone around them happy with their positivity, joyfulness and unprejudiced nature.

There’s a huge gap in how adults with disabilities are treated. The artists at Mawaheb are all adults and as such, must be treated as adults but it’s often the case that they’re treated like children. This demonstrates a huge flaw in the access of equal opportunities for adults with disabilities. Oftentimes children with special needs are able to go to school but once they become adults, there is a limited amount of accessible resources for them to pursue their dreams and, as a result, many people stay at home instead of chasing their passions.

The post Humans of IH: Prarthana appeared first on IH Globe.

The line between the two was so clearly drawn, and I hardly questioned why the two were bordered like so, why they were mutually exclusive from one another. I didn’t wonder who defined the ‘right’ from the ‘wrong’. I just acepted it as how it was, how life was supposed to be, no questions or doubts. Afterall, didn’t everyone play by the same rules?

Enter my first semester in Arts, and I was told by every single one of my tutors that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. This left me completely bewildered, of course. How could it be that there was no ‘correct’ answer? I didn’t get it. My whole past education, my teachers always defined what the ‘correct’ behaviour and set of answers to an assignment were.

And I’ve been pondering over this for the past number of weeks, and here’s what I think: what we think is defined as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ is shaped by how we were brought up.

I could tell you that it’s called ‘slippers’, but you disagree and correct me, that it’s called ‘thongs’. But neither of us are wrong, we are both correct. It doesn’t matter that its called ‘slippers’ or ‘thongs’, or whether its called ‘football’ or ‘soccer’. These are all just preferences, opinions and perspectives that we’ve gathered while growing up from different backgrounds. And perhaps instead of projecting what we think onto others, we should come to respect one another instead.

We also shouldn’t be so quick as to define, categorise and label something either. It’s never as simple as that, there are always more layers, stories and reasons to it. Such as people. We all have different heights, builds, backgrounds and experiences. And these are all our layers, which are what makes us interesting and multidimensional.

So, let us look at life in a plethora of colour, instead of constricting our vision to simply black and white.

The post Everything In Between appeared first on IH Globe.

There are layers to each of us, and I’m not talking about muscle layers. I’m talking about the layers that make up our personality. There are things we don’t show to everyone else whether it is for fear of judgment or maybe just the fear of deviating from the norm. We, as humans, have this innate ability to categorize people, which does come in helpful for processing information but not so much for social purposes.

Shrek in all his wisdom declared that ogres are like onions, and I’m inclined to not only agree but to extend this statement to humans. We are all complex individuals with a variety of likes and dislikes and no single all encompassing personality trait. It’s time we stop assuming, and appreciate the layers in each of us. Let’s not determine the capabilities or passions of a person solely in regards to their choice of course, what sport they play, the kind of music they listen to, or even what personality they seem to give off. If a person is not talkative on the outside, maybe try and figure out what it is they like to talk about, maybe they like Shrek.

Look for the layers inside people, and take the time to look at yourself. Find out what makes you an onion.

The post What Makes You An Onion? appeared first on IH Globe.

The way you speak directly impacts the people around you and influence the culture of college whether you want it to or not.

“Lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex and transgender and gender diverse people are much more likely to experience depression and anxiety than the broader population. They are also at a greater risk of suicide and self-harm.” – beyondblue

If someone is questioning their sexuality or their gender identity, or hasn’t shared it publicly, it is the people around them and their attitudes that play a big part in determining their mental health.

You might not see the harm in calling your mate a ‘faggot’ for a joke, but sometimes that’s all it takes to keep someone in the closet, or the last straw before they decide life isn’t worth living.

You don’t get to decide if what you say hurts someone, and staying silent only makes you part of the problem. If you hear something that’s not okay, SAY SOMETHING, stand up for those people who don’t have a voice and be part of the solution.

Just in case you need a refresher;

• Gay is not a synonym for ‘bad’
• Calling someone a ‘retard’ shows you think disabled people are inferior
• Using ‘faggot’ in pretty much any context is not okay (and nah, don’t pretend you’re talking about sticks)
• Homo and dyke- also not okay

Pick up your game guys, it’s sad that I have to spell this out to a bunch of generally inclusive and friendly adults.

It might be time that people took another look at the core values of IH and assess if their actions truly value difference, and show their commitment to a caring community.

The post Are You Part Of The Problem? – Carrie CV appeared first on IH Globe.

A sweet relief and confidence boost found dangling before us in passing compliments or thrust upon us in times of deep confession. But why do most revolve around our physical appearance? Doesn’t the excessive reliance on comments on our (sometimes materialistic) physical features get old? When you stop to think about it, doesn’t it make you wonder why it seems like more weight is placed upon what’s on the outside rather than what makes you you, on the inside?

Call me a romantic, old-school sap, but I think it’s time we brought back (or introduce) some heartwarming truths to make someone’s day a little bit better. I’ve compiled a few from my scrolls through Tumblr and conversations with friends, in the hopes of perhaps giving you a few ideas on other means of making people feel good, and perhaps in the long run, such compliments will become the norm and not something a cheesy goon like me drabbles about in a weekly college magazine.

1. You are    e m p o w e r i n g
2. I would trust you with my phone password
3. I’m so happy you exist
4. I hope we know each other for a long, long time
5. You inspire me to be a better person
6. Your ideas matter
7. You have great taste in _______
8. I am fascinated by how your mind works
9. You have a lovely laugh
10. Can you teach me how to do that?
11. You make the room a little bit brighter when you walk in
12. You have a gorgeous soul
13. You’re the kind of person one reads about in books
14. You are so strong
15. Can I hug you?
16. You make me feel important
17. I love how passionate you are about ________
18. I admire your confidence
19. You’re intelligent
20. Your positivity is infectious

The post Compliments appeared first on IH Globe.

Why do we humans fear so much? Why are we so protective of ourselves, so afraid to venture out and try new things? Why are we so terrified to fail? Why do we choose to live such monotonous lives and rest comfortably in the boring, dull comfy corner of our old and worn-out sofas?

When we were young, adults taught us to be brave and bold, to chase our dreams and live life on the edge. We were risk-takers and courage was a natural instinct to us. However, as the years piled up, we became more safe-guarded and protective. Having learnt about failure, we started pulling ourselves back from life’s uncertainties.

However, we must know that staying in a stagnant place will only bring us dissatisfaction to ourselves in the long run. A little push, a slight discomfort, and opening ourselves up might actually reap us a lot of benefits in the future.

We can start with something small, like trying a new cuisine you’ve never dared to try. Or saying hi to the person sitting beside you in a lecture. At IH, you could start a conversation with your floor-mates or sit with a completely new group of people during meals.

When you step out of your comfort zone, you will learn to appreciate the uncertainty and the unknown, be confident and enrich your life by gaining more experiences. You will not thrive in monotony. You don’t have the power to change the environment but you can change the way you view and engage with it.  It’s going to feel so great when you finally accomplish something you never thought you would!

So, make that first move, and live in the moment! Enjoy the ebbs and flows of life.

The post Why we should step out of our comfort zones – Patricia Paing appeared first on IH Globe.

In my first semester at college, a drunk person took a shit on the windowsill of a bathroom during on the year’s first party’s. That’s right, they shat (the past tense of “to shit”) right on that windowsill. The result was probably the most hilariously funny and uncomfortably serious speech that PC ever gave us, in which he said the bracketed quote. That same semester, I participated in the ICAC play, and got to know not only my own college mates who were in the production better, but also students from the college crescent as we trod the boards. In that very semester, I heard perhaps one of the greatest stories of revenge against a milk thief on Scheps 5th. I won’t go into many details, Nishq can fill you in if you’re curious, but let’s just say the whole situation left someone feeling shitty. (Jeez this first paragraph talked about a lot of shit).

The next semester, even greater heights were hit. I co-directed a musical with Freya McGrath, Fame, and we got to enjoy the remarkable talent of so many IHers (#remember). We had Jun Kit Wong perform an amazing version of Let it Go that won him the Mr. IH crown. Cindy Nguyen, our wonderful former president, finally learned what a T-Swizzle was, as well as what the word “pls” means. The YO app gained a small cult following for a short time, although they failed to convert Meagan Mcdonald, a staunch advocate of common sense against the app. I missed my first ever exam, a time in my life where I felt amazingly horrible and learned a valuable lesson about checking your timetable.

This year, well I feel it has been summed up well by our wonderful Satadal. We laughed over a myriad of running jokes and memes like Harambe. We cried over losing someone so dear to us that it feels like the world has grown so much smaller without them. We loved and hated and argued and came together, all under the broad expanse of this amazing college. It has been said over and over, our great motto of this college is Fraternitas, literally meaning brotherhood, but for all of us, meaning family. Blood is thick, but our bond over this time has been irrefutably thicker. We recognize each other, through blue and yellow attire, through our love of international cooperation, through our ability to see the amazing beyond the skin.

I hope to return many times after I have left, down the years to see where all of us have gone. What avenues we have chosen and the new stories we have added to our books. Because that is what it means to be a college student. It has nothing to do with money as some would think. It has nothing to with arrogance or entitlement or seclusion. It has to do with sharing our lives together, pouring out and taking in, every mote of life lived at this wonderful, strange, and complex place that we eagerly and with pride call our home.

Once an IHer, always an IHer.

– Hamish Plaggemars

The post What it Means to be a College Student appeared first on IH Globe.

This magazine is a weekly, going out to the almost 330 students every Monday morning at breakfast.

Contrary to the small readership, the magazine is called …. Globe. In a completely un-ironic way.

The magazine is written by the student body with nearly a dozen writers each semester and an editor whose god awful job involves managing the writers, editing articles, printing the magazine and circulating it to the students. Suffice to say it involves a lot of 3ams. On top of university work.

It is a small but important part of what it means to be a student at IH. It is an outlay for the voice of its students.

In 2013, I became a writer for Globe. And proceeded to do absolutely nothing.

But it became immediately apparent how strange the print magazine was. The writers would work hard to write articles to publish each week only to then have them disappear forever.

The individual Globe articles would be read by the students and then no-one would ever get to read it again. The print editions would be cleaned up and turned into rubbish.

One day another student Claudia Martin harassed me into doing something to give back to the college. I didn’t participate in any college events and largely kept to myself. But she was right. I was a total recluse.

So at her behest, the thing I gave back was Globe Online. If it wasn’t for Claudia, the site would never have been made. She was the catalyst. So, hooray Claudia.

In October 2013, from my tiny dorm in Scheppes 201, coded up and launched the first version of Globe Online. I built the site and for all of 2013, 2014 and 2015 basically financed and paid for the whole thing myself. It was my way of giving back.

A few months later the Globe editor left for Europe and a new Globe Editor was chosen. Her name was Zizi Averill, a first year journalism student. You couldn’t have picked someone better.

She learned how to use the site and began writing and publishing at a furious pace. She is one of the longest running Globe Editors, running the site for 2 years all of 2014 and 2015. Under her tenure, Globe expanded its readership and grew rapidly.

She was also my girlfriend. We started dating while working on Globe. It really was a labour of love. It made her happy to run it and what made her happy made me happy and so I was happy maintaining the website. In a sense, I’m immensely thankful for Globe because of that.

Within 2 years of launching. This year, in 2015, Globe Online will serve nearly 250,000 pageviews to a readerbase of nearly 30,000 readers. A quarter of a million hits per year is an absurd number for what was a tiny college magazine that only printed to 300 people every Monday at breakfast when we joined.

It is unquestionably one of the most successful college magazine in the history of any college or university in the entire country. It has become more successful than we ever thought. And is now the standard that every collegiate magazine should base themselves.

The site could even give a number of commercial publications a run for their money. And it’s still growing. 0 to a quarter million hits in 2 years and 1 relationship is pretty darn incredible.

And all of that, was due to Zizi. She made Globe so successful. There was this tiny powerhouse magazine running from the dorms of Scheppes and New Building.

For my part, Globe is set up to run on it’s current server forever. I’m still covering all of the costs. And I’d love for one day my kids to go to IH and read the same magazine that I helped create and grow into something so meaningful.

At the end of 2015, Zizi retired as the Globe Editor and I’ve left IH. The site and it’s contents have been left to the new Editor, The Talented Mr Kerrison.

And so with a heavy heart we both say goodbye to Globe.

Goodbye Globe, you will be missed.

Below are a snapshot of some of the metrics taken in August 2015.

The post Goodbye Globe, We’ll Meet Again One Day appeared first on IH Globe.

Not only did the world not end as the Mayans predicted, but 72 individuals entered the doors of International House College Melbourne. Those same 72 individuals were still residing there 3 years later and became the Valedict Class of 2014.

To the un-colleged reader, a valedict is a senior. But not just any senior. A super senior. A person who has spent 3 years at the college and / or completed their undergrad degree whilst at the college. In other words, they’re the top dogs. The big fish on campus. The seniors. The big kahunas.

And this is one of the largest valedict cohorts of any college in the entire history of all colleges in the entire country. For a college of 330 students, to have 72 Valedicts is such an impressive achievement, that it is a wonder it didn’t get more attention.

It is a testament to the quality of the college that 72 individuals would trade the formative years of their lives to this place.

And in true editorial excellence, Globe didn’t even write an article about it until a year later. Today.

This is that article. This post is to that class.

To the 72 Valedicts. And to all valedicts. And to all students of the house.

The world is your oyster.

Make a dent in the universe.

May the force be with you.

Live long and prosper.

To infinity, and beyond.

Go get ’em kid.

*Disclaimer, I was one of those Valedicts so I’m probably biased. For a list of the Valedicts we recommend purchasing a copy of Satadal 2014, the college yearbook.

I also really debated which movie reference to use as the headline and image. Either 72 Valedicts (7 Samurai) with a picture of samurai or The Magnificent 72 (The Magnificent 7) with a picture of cowboys.

I’m explaining this so you know how hard a decision this was.

Kirasawa, you will always be in my heart.

The post 72 Valedicts appeared first on IH Globe.