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More handpicked essays just for you.
Overcoming biggest obstacles
Overcoming obstacles
Overcoming biggest obstacles
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I chose my best experience over my worst experience since it changed me and made me the person I am today. Don’t get me wrong, my worst experience changed me as well. It just didn’t make me the person I am today. Before this experience, I was really unsure of who I was and who I wanted to become. I was still deciding who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do in, and with my life. In a way I was just like Stephanie Sheppard. In the essay Sheppard states “When she was questioned about who she was she could not come up with an answer.” When people asked me who I was I really couldn’t give them a straight answer because I was unsure myself. No matter what you go through in life, good or bad, there will always be people there saying something about what you do. In this paper, I will discuss the best experience in my life so far. This was the best experience in my life so far because I overcame obstacles, did the best I could, and made myself proud. My best experience was when I received my high school diploma. I did not walk across the stage, but I at least received my diploma. To me, t...
“I have lived every day of my life asking myself ‘is what I’m doing reflective of who I am? Or who I want to be?’ If not...”
With hindsight comes insight. When looking back at experiences, connections, and meanings can reveal themselves to us. That then provides a greater depth of understanding for that experience, providing assurance of if we make good choices despite harsh judgment. In the essay “Working at Wendy’s”, the narrator Joey nurtures his understanding for what it means to work a low-end job and to understand that people can’t be judged fully on their current career position. I too have had similar experiences where over time and with past reflection, I have noticed and understood things differently than I did in the moment. I want to describe how and what Joey learned as he progressed in his work at Wendy’s, then describe my own similar experience, then
Writer, Andrew Solomon, explains that hardships “forge meaning” and thereafter “build identity”. By “forging meaning” he explains that hardships should be about changing oneself and “building identity” should be about changing the world. Solomon states, “It involves substituting ‘and’ for ‘but’ -- not ‘I am here but I have cancer,’ but rather, ‘I have cancer and I am here.” as he tried to explain that we should speak of our hardships to let others know we survived. This gives people a chance to give strength to a group in which one identifies. Throughout his TED talk, Andrew Solomon, speaks about his childhood, adulthood and his struggle through his sexuality in order to convince his audience that past struggles can shape the identity you wear.
Ridley, Matt. “What Makes You Who You Are.” Time Magazine 2 June 2003: 1-6. Print.
A person does not experience many events that shape their life in a large way, whether it be for better or worse. I have had just one major situation that has sculpted me into the person that I am today. In February of 2008, I was diagnosed with a life changing disease; it would relieve me of the agony I had been experiencing for as long as I could remember, but also restrict my diet for the rest of my life.
Within my fifteen and a half years of living, I have experienced many heart wrenching moments that have changed who I am, so many that I stopped trying to keep count long ago. Like most teenagers, the past couple of years have been some of the most confusing, hectic years of my life. I'm at that age I'm trying to figure out who I am, as well as who I want to become. As indecisive as I am, I will more than likely change my mind a time or two, but right now at this very moment, I've finally come to terms with who I really am, and what I would like to do for the rest of my life.
“It’s a blessed thing that in every stage in every age some one has had the individuality and courage enough to stand by his own convictions.” The part of me that sums up my identity best is not the adjectives given by family, or the faults I find in myself. My identity is my desire to better myself, and my passion for children. My identity is who I want to be and what I do to accomplish my goals My identity is the feelings and emotions I pour into my journal every day, and the way I feel when I do something right. My identity is not what others thing of me or what I think of myself after a bad day. My identity is the love and confidence I have in myslef, and the beauty inside.
Growing up, I was given the freedom to choose who I wanted to be, to decide what I wanted to do. I grew up with many different opportunities and chances to try out new things. A simple life I led as a child, sheltered and loved by all, but I was oblivious to reality, lost in my own “perfect” world. Yet as I grew up and began to surpass the age of imaginary worlds, the idea of “perfection” had begun to fade and reality began to settle in. Like a splash of cold water, I went from a childish mindset to an adult’s. Child hood play was a thing of the past and responsibility became the norm.
Dr. Munter's comments: The purpose of this assignment was to relate an event that changed the direction of your life. Not only does this student successfully accomplish this task, he does it with a certain amount of understatement. The instruction “to show, not tell” is beautifully and subtly completed. There is also a nice balance of long and short sentences, unusual similes, and the sense that the author allows the reader to view this event through the eyes of an eight-year-old. Overall, the writing is clean, simple in technique, yet powerful in its message.
Through out life people go through so many hardships. Whether it be good or bad there is always something that comes out of the situation. One of the most exciting but yet scariest events would be graduation. For a lot of people, graduating from high school is a goal. It takes a lot of time and effort to achieve that goal. In the long run, it opens a lot of opportunities for people to succeed. Graduation is the end of high school, and the beginning to life.
Not knowing who I was for many years led to a series of bad decisions and choices. However I began to notice that I had a gift, a talent of making others feel good and found myself wanting to be an emboldening model for others. Often my friends and family looked to me for advice and answers. I later realized that it was not about giving advice but helping them find the answer that are locked away in their subconscious mind. Helping them discover who they were; the irony I discovered who I was, my life purpose, my calling.
When I left my room, my mother knew that I had gone through a rough time, and I did not want to talk to her about it. Even though there was only a month left in my school year, I promised myself that I would be completely truthful to my friends, my family, my heritage, and myself. I expected all my friends to leave me, but I was fully prepared for this. However, none of this ever happened. My friends didn’t leave me, I wasn’t alone at the lunch table, I wasn’t even seem differently by those around me. I had failed my family by doing this, and I wished I had stopped acting like someone I wasn’t sooner. This is one of the only mistakes I have made which I consider a failure because it had taken me close to a year to fix, and this is why I consider it my most successful failure.
Being better was Marry’s choice, she ventured off from her sister and made her own high school experience. Her sister’s actions have been just that, the actions her sister chose. She never asked anything about them. Her sister remained alone for most of her high school experience, until her junior year she made a friend she is still close with now. Marry made her own friends and found out who she was and not the person she was trying to be. She still loved her sister and would always know the good in her, but she didn’t look at her as much as she did. “My sister will always one on my biggest influences, but I’m happy I was able to see her in the outside world, so I can learn be who I am,” she finished the interview
People don't truly accept life for what it is until they've actually tasted adversity and went through those misfortunes and suffering. We are put through many hardships in life, and we learn to understand and deal with those issues along the way. We find that life isn't just about finding one's self, but about creating and learning from our experiences and background. Adversity shapes what we are and who we become as individuals. Yann Martel's Life of Pi shows us that adverse situations help shape a person's identity and play a significant role in one's lief by determining one's capabilities and potential, shaping one's beliefs and values, and defining the importance and meaning of one's self.
In 7th grade I had to get up in front of my class to get, and present a commercial. I was so scared at first because I am a very shy person. It is not easy for me to speak in front a lot of people. As I waited for my turn I felt like I was going to cry. It felt like my stomach was in my throat. In the end I was scared for nothing because when I went up and did really good. The teacher complimented me on my work. After that day I was so proud of myself for conquering my fear. In 8th grade I finally got on the honor roll, again. I was so happy to be on the honor roll, because I hadn’t been on the honor roll in a really long time. seeing all those A’s made me so happy. I felt the same excitement as I felt in kindergarten when I first gotten on the honor