My 'This I Believe' essay that I wrote is something that I'm very proud of! I felt the need to post it on here so that others could read it. From the comments that I recieved from classmates it seemed that I affected them in a postive way, making them step back and take a look at their own lives. I absolutely love this! I love helping other people and allowing them to see a different perspective on things. To me, a majority of things in life depend on perspective and how you approach situations. If you choose to go into things with a 'woe is me' attitude it's not going to result in a postive outcome. However, if you go into things with an open mind I believe you will find things turn out much better! So, here is my essay, please comment and let me know what you think!
I believe in growth.
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” - Benjamin Franklin. Growth is an essential part of our life in all different ways. I believe in growth physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally. Without growth we remain a child, always relying on others for support. Let’s start from the beginning:
When you were a child, learning to walk, it didn’t just happen. You had to learn to crawl and build your muscles; when you had enough strength you stood up for the first time. In the beginning you had the support of your family, holding you by the hands while you tried to gain your balance. After you accomplished the task of balance you tried walking on your own. Once you figured out that landing on your face isn’t a fun thing, you chose to grow and learn to walk. You tried and tried again; you fell. You even experienced scratches and bruises, but slowly, you built your courage. Then, eventually, you did it; you grew from a baby that could crawl, to a toddler that could walk.
When you had mastered the art of walking, you grew into running, and then you grew into sports. When you grew into school, you began to form relationships with friends, and that was a major step in your life. You formed bonds with other people, and as you grew older those bonds grew stronger. Those bonds were tested, some of them broken. After you experienced the heartbreak of losing friends, you grew to know who to trust in your relationships. The more time you spent with a person the more they rubbed off their actions and opinions on you, and vice versa. Before you knew it, you not only began to think like each other, but also act like each other. You learned to know the way they: walked, talked, cleaned, and cooked. You grew together, and became one soul. Together, you lived your lives – always connected, forever intertwined. However, this could not last forever. You had to face another growth spurt, and let go of that person.
You learned to grow on your own, not relying on others anymore. After being let down by other people in certain situations you came to understand that you, and only you, could control your life. You became strong in your values, opinions and knowledge. However you did not go through life alone, you kept friends, co-workers, and family all around you. Through them you experienced other cultures, music, food, and religions. They became less of a crutch and more of a wheelchair: when you were younger you needed people to support you. However, now, you allowed them to transport you into a different place where you could learn new things!
You no longer needed other people to live – you grew to live for other people. Suddenly, it wasn’t about just your life, it became about others. Like a climax in a story plot, you grew to the highest point of your life. When you reached this point in your growth, you decided to help others grow as well. You looked towards the younger generation, and you told them of your mistakes, in hopes that they wouldn’t make the same ones. However, you knew that they had to go through tough situations in order to grow themselves.
You watched the younger generation grow, as you grew older. While growing older, you also grew wiser and smarter in your ways. People looked toward you for advice because of your strength that had continued to expand over the years. You had encountered some things that people never live to see. Those events made an impression on your soul and made you stronger than you were before. Every time you had a chance to grow - whether it was mentally, spiritually, physically, or emotionally – you took the chance. A new job, something you had never done before, but you conquered it in a short period of time. You ran a marathon to raise money for Cerebral Palsy. You went to a Sunday school class to grow with your God. A realization that you had to let go of the people you love was the hardest one for you to get over, but with time you grew to overcome that, too.
In our life, we encounter tough times that knock us down so that, when we stand back up we are stronger and better than before. Too often people tend to overlook the bad times and focus on the good. They can choose not to reflect on the past because they’re scared of failure, or of someone else noticing their flaws. However, if you don’t stop to reflect on past mistakes you’re going to end up making the same mistake again, if not more than once. In order to grow and improve ourselves as a person, and emotionally, we must take time to focus on our flaws; to see what mistakes we are making, and to correct them. If we don’t achieve growth then we never fully appreciate what life has to offer. Take time to stop and experience different things and seize every opportunity to grow and expand as a person, because it’s only then that you will be fully satisfied in life.
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