Analysis Of Dear Marcus: A Letter To The Man Who Shot Me

Jerry McGill, author of Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me, discussed the important concepts of forgiveness, persistence, and appreciation throughout his book and during his presentation. These concepts have also prevailed in my own life from learning how to forgive others who have wronged me, remaining persistent through challenges I have had to face, and appreciating the wonderful things that have happened in my life.

At some point or another, we have all been wronged in life and instead of living life full of resentment against the person some of us choose to forgive. In my life, I was wronged by someone who was supposed to be my caretaker, my provider, and teach me how to love. Instead, I was abandoned forced to figure out things

for myself. Angry and full of hatred at first, I began to realize that this experience molded me into a strong independent woman, someone who has learned not to assume anyone will stay in my life. Instead, those who do choose to stay love them, love them deeply with every ounce of love I have, but if one day they do leave let them. If someone comes into your life, and makes a mess no matter how big or small forgive them. We all are human, we make mistakes, we let emotions get the best of us, and we do not always use our best judgement. But when we learn to forgive, we are more likely to be forgiven for our mistakes. Forgiving someone can be extremely difficult, but those who forgive we show how strong we are. In the book, Jerry discussed how he was mad at the shooter in the beginning but over time he begins to accept and forgive the shooter, even thanking him and that takes an incredible amount of strength.

Forgiving someone also takes a certain amount of persistence. Some hold on to the grudge and let it consume them, others want to let go, but to let go you must be able to persist and fight the urge not to give up. Forgiving someone is very difficult, you must want to forgive someone and really work towards the end goal of forgiving and closure. If it was easy to forgive wouldn’t everyone do it? We would hope, right? Persistence also takes a great deal of strength, strength to not give up on something you want. Forgiving someone often means slowly rebuilding, something that will take tons of work and years to gain. That sort of commitment is going to take a great deal of persistence. Jerry, he persisted to rebuild his life after being shot and paralyzed. In my case, I forgave those who did me wrong and persisted to find a place where I was content. I knew that we would never have a relationship again, but I persisted to rebuild, enough to be civil.

In my life, from going through a major fallout, to being angry, to growing up, forgiving, persisting to rebuild, to finding a place where I am content. I began to accept and appreciate that this is the life God dealt me. At times, I think, “why are these things happening to me? What did I do that was so wrong to deserve this?” But then I begin to appreciate it because those moments are opportunities, beautiful opportunities to learn and grow. I am strong and independent. I have knowledge, wisdom and can pass on great advice through what I have learned from experiences. Both Jerry and I, we share this, we both accept and appreciate the life that we have been blessed with, we both have powerful stories about what we have overcame. And we share the ability to give others great advice about forgiveness, persistence, and appreciation.