Analyzing Shel Silverstein's 'Picture Puzzle Piece'

Being a part of a family that couldn’t afford the things that we needed, it was a necessity to learn how to survive in this chaotic world. I didn’t choose to do things the hard way, I didn’t choose to barely make ends meet, and I didn’t choose to live the life I was given. I just worked with what was given to me. Living with my family has never been the easiest, but it has taught me to thrive when the bare minimum was given to me. To face this chaotic world with the knowledge that nothing is too hard to figure

The more I observe, the more I understand who I am. I come from a small town in a very cold part of the world, where very few exciting events occur. This means, I have to work extra hard to become an artist. I remember having my neighbor say, “You aren’t an artist until I buy a painting from you,” and she did. I never wanted the money, but I did enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that what I create makes others happy. So many people in town encourage me and support me with my dreams, and all I do in return is help them back in return. When people need a little sunshine on gray, winter days, I am there to lend them my happiness. That is why I am able to succeed. When failure strikes his wrath upon me, I learn from the mistakes rather be held back –being optimistic allows me to grow much quicker than if I were to be

“Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire other,” says Virginia Woolf, an English writer. Growing up is preordained. Everyone grows up. When do we grow up? Perhaps, after we graduate school, maybe after our first love, or maybe after our marriage or maybe after the birth of our first kid. It primarily depends on how one looks at it, but irrespective of what we consider the right time or the right situation to be “grown-ups”, we cannot help but admit that it is that moment in time where innocence vanishes. As children, we dream of growing up, getting a job, getting married, living happily but on the contrary it is quite different, we find that reality is completely opposite. More often than we wish, we were still children,

In your life, there is a life skill that assists you with anything you can imagine. That life skill is called “Standing up for what you believe.” Many people don’t realize the importance of this skill. Standing for what you believe in is how all the successful people made it in life, most of the famous athletes or business owners you see today came from nothing. Meaning that they mostly came from a

I leaned my head against the car window watching the leaves blowing around, just trying to distract myself from a slight feeling of emptiness inside of me. This feeling seemed all too familiar to me. My family and I had all of our possessions packed into boxes yet again. We were moving to a new state. At this point, up rooting our lives and starting over almost seemed more like a hobby than anything more significant. However, I have just now come to realize that what seemed like constant inconveniences in the past, have actually taught me how to be the best me with influences all around the country. Living in three different states and five homes may have been a challenge, but it provided me with memories that I wouldn’t trade for anything because those moments created the person I am today.

I have been given this opportunity to be here, in this world that is mind boggling to even think about it, but I don’t know what to do with it. Every day is a cycle, but the only difference is that my time cuts shorter every passing day. I don’t really know what I’m doing, all of my friends have their lives figured out. They have mapped out their entire life; right down to what they’ll wear to their 65th birthday bash the grandkids put together. We live in a world where you’re expected to go to school for the first quarter of your life, and then work until you die. But I don’t want to do that. I want to travel and explore, spend time with my family and think about meaningful things that will make a difference. Meaningful things that I can use to change the world. How can we accept such a limited life when we only get this chance once? I have never been so trapped and if I knew it would have been like this, I would rather not have be born. How unfair is that? To want to live this great big life with hopes and dreams and desire to make a change, but instead you’re trapped in the corner of your bedroom imagining it all right before you fall asleep at three in the morning. I dream of leaving this small town and making my name known. I dream of waking up in Italy to watch the sunrise from my bedroom window. I dream of finding happiness and acceptance. I wonder what it would be like to wake up in a world that didn’t discriminate based on

It is the dream of all to live a life of greatness; where one belongs, and leaves only the best legacy behind. To have such a life is to have meaning, something which every person looks for. Sadly, due to relentless factors in one’s life this search for meaning doesn’t always work. In Chocolat, Lasse Hallstrom demonstrates how an individual seeks to create a meaningful life, revealing how time and opportunity affect what an individual wants in their life.

The pencil liberates my stresses and sorrows. Bare and unimpeded, my mind is able to isolate itself from anything that was happening in my life. At my art table, which is merely an escape from reality, my curiosity is able to wander. Within this room, five blank canvas's look in on me as I become a mold of my imagination. A step inside my world develops into a sea of color and exploration. The vibrancy of the walls resonates throughout. Over the years, my room has served as my oasis. It’s my escape from monotonous and mundane routines. It’s my exploration of another side of me. I observe such works of art almost as much as I create. Taking notice of my classmates’ innovations and inspired by their creativity, my paintbrush begins to alleviate stress. I strive to produce pieces others will appreciate, but often find myself to be the true admirer. My pride, in this world, is driven simply by my own curiosity to express myself. I credit this side of me as the “passion” that supplements my insane drive for success. This passion has sparked critical thinking in me as well as how I see failure. Life is a blank canvas and you can truly draw whatever you want, and if you fail, you start over and don’t make that same mistake again! Hard work takes ideas quite far, but true success is derived from ingenuity and the generation of

When we weren't riding our bikes or enjoying backyard football, we would rely on our thinking caps. In a modest town with little to do, my friends and our imaginations would easily transform ourselves from children to adult super heroes, and climbing trees to deep trackless jungles. I also explored various artistic expression through paint, chalk, markers, clay, and music--the world was mine to decorate. Though the town itself lacked in size, memories of a modest home collect largely in great

Roth worked as a mechanical engineer before he was inspired to start teaching a class at Stanford. He was tired of people talking about what they wanted, but not doing the actions. In his class, he made his students do a personal, deeply personal, project. “Now, for the first time, Roth brings his mantra of “doing is everything” to his inspirational and a valuable new book, The Achievement Habit, Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life" (Theachievementhabit.com). Roth uses examples and situations of his life to make the reader analysis their patterns and lifestyle choices; choices that stop them from reaching their goals. He then intrigues the reader by using encounters he has had with his students that also demonstrate our

Our Town is a novel that ideally expounds upon how important each and everyday day of our life is. However, we find ourselves stuck in an accustomed routine where as time passes without us even noticing how fast it is going by. The Stage Manager expresses this by saying, “suddenly, you are young and you make a decision to get married, and the next thing you know, you are seventy and that white haired lady at your side has eaten over fifty-thousand meals with you.” (Wilder 49). Falling into this routine could be detrimental to people’s attitude, dreams, and goals.

“You’re not the same individual you were a year ago, a month ago, a week ago. You’re always growing experiences so don’t stop. That’s life” (Jorge Infante).

This book, by Spencer Johnson, reveals the truths about how we deal with change that happens in our lives which effects us in so many ways, either positively or negatively. The book takes an amusing approach to what happens when you don’t adapt to change and what happens when you do. In the book, cheese is used as a metaphor for what you want to have in life. All my life I wanted the nice house, the beautiful wife, the kids, money, the dog, the nice tuck to pull the nice boat, the great career, and so on , and so on. To me, it’s human nature to want those things and I eventually got all of those things and then some….. More on that later. There was another metaphor in the book, which was the maze.

Emphasis, these days, seems to fall too heavily on humanity’s need to push, to dream, to work to achieve a lasting happiness. People seem to forget that everything they’ve ever been, known, and have yet to experience moves. People seem to forget that life is change.

Remember when we were young and all we could think of was growing up and getting to do ‘grownup’ things? We spent our whole childhood thinking of what we would do when we finally ‘grew up’, and here we are, almost completely grown up and we still haven’t made up our mind of what it is we will do when we grow up. We’ve painted this pretty little picture in our head of what it’ll be like when we eventually do grow up, and when it finally comes for the picture to be taken off the wall and put into action, it’s not nearly as fun as creating the painting.