FUN FACTS ABOUT THE FOURTH OF JULY
WHAT JARAH OQUIAS LOVES ABOUT W Meet Ja
You Can Share With Your Kids
What do your kids know about the Fourth of July? Do they know it’s a day when you have a barbecue, spend time with friends and neighbors, and watch a fireworks show? These hallmarks of the holiday certainly do make it fun and memorable, but they don’t really exemplify why we celebrate the Fourth of July, the anniversary of when the United States declared its independence from Britain. So, along with the sparklers and hot dogs, here are a few fun facts about Independence Day you can share with your kids to help them understand the significance of the holiday. The Fourth of July marks our country’s independence because it’s when the Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence. This fact might seem like a no-brainer, but it contextualizes the holiday for kids. It’s a great jumping-off point to talk about why the United States wanted to be its own country, what the Continental Congress was, what the Declaration of Independence said, and what it means to “ratify” something. Two future presidents signed the Declaration of Independence: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They both died exactly 50 years later, on July 4, 1826. This fact is an interesting coincidence sure to fascinate both kids and adults. It’s also a great way to introduce kids to some of the Founding Fathers and share how they helped shape the United States today. In 1776, the year the United States was founded, only 2.5 million people lived here. Today, the U.S. population is 331 million. Lots of people have been born in the United States since it was founded, and millions more came here from other places, hoping to find a better life. Many succeeded, too. Many people want to call this country home! On the Fourth of July, around 155 million hot dogs are eaten in the United States. Okay, so this fact might not have anything to do with American history, but it’s still pretty funny! If anything, the fact that we have so many hot dogs to eat on that day is evidence of the prosperity so many people enjoy in the United States of America.
Jarah Oquias, Johnson Law Group’s Director of Finance, started her first accounting job when she still lived in the Philippines. She not only grew up there, but also earned her first bachelor’s degree there in development studies. While she didn’t have a background in accounting at that point, she found that she liked the work.
“I just like how there’s a science to it. If you put this number here, take it from there, it all works. It’s a logic field,” Jarah says.
Then, in 2013, her family moved to the United States. Her grandfather had lived in the U.S. for over 20 years at that point, and he had been working to get Jarah and the rest of her family (14 people in total) here as well. Shortly after settling down in Colorado, she spent almost four years doing accounting work for the local Boys and Girls Club. During that time, she decided to pursue a second bachelor’s degree in accounting, which she is pursuing while working full time.
Last February, Jarah found her way to Johnson Law Group after seeing that she could work fully
DOES DE HELP U
Many mental health experts blame the recent spike in mental illness on the DSM-5 (the standard classification of mental disorders) and the ever-expanding list of psychological conditions
it identifies. But others, like neuroscientist Stephen Porges, aren’t convinced we can attribute increasing mental health problems to just diagnoses — and new ideas about mental health are changing how we view depression forever. We used to think depression started in the head and presented physical symptoms as a result, a behavioral representation of the turmoil within. But Porges, and researchers like him, believe it’s actually opposite of that. They theorize that the body can take in stimuli and internalize situational data much better than we thought, and that — at least for the Americans afflicted with mild or moderate depression — the mental illness is an immune reflex, similar to the swelling caused when blood rushes toward an injury to flood it with nutrients and, in some cases, immobilizing the area. Of course, that swelling can be a serious health problem in itself, and the same is true for depression.
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