The Importance Of Life In My Life

Famous musician, Arthur Rubinstein once stated, “There is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings”. Walking to school every day since being first enrolled in pre-school exposed me to a world different than what was displayed in television every morning. Cartoons would display joyful people out in the streets, clean sidewalks, and worryless kids. Once I would step outside of home and take hold of my mother’s hand and begin walking, I would see a world very different. Homeless sleeping on the dirty, uneven sidewalks became a daily scene I’d watch on my way to school. Streets littered with empty beer cans and bottles, used syringes, and a gray sky is what I remember most. Becoming very observant of my surroundings helped me develop the understanding of real world problems very early in life, shaping me as more of a critical thinker than others. My middle school experience changed me. As the agents of ICE drove away in a gray van with my father under their custody one Saturday morning, my life went from just identifying differences between real world issues and what was portrayed on television, to now living a struggle I was not prepared for at all. Knowing that my father would never set foot in the household again, I was now referred to as “the man of the house” by everyone who became aware of my family’s situation. Seeing how my mother was the one to take the biggest hit of all really took its toll on my new sense of responsibility. My mother would now only have her income to depend on in order to maintain the house, her business, and her three kids of whom I am the middle and only male child.

“There will always be a reason why you meet people. Either to change your life or theirs.” I believe that everyone comes into your life for a reason. It’s just our job to decide if it is a blessing or to teach us a lesson. My parents got divorced when I was only three years old and I was an only child, so when my dad and stepmom told me I was going to be an older sister at age eleven I wasn’t super excited. To be completely honest I was kind of upset and scared. I had always lived with my mom and only visited my dad every other weekend, so I figured I wouldn’t have to see her that much anyways which made it a little better. Having been an only child my whole life I had no idea what it would be like, especially since she would be so much younger than me.

Many mammals may know a lot about life, but many don’t live their lives to the fullest. If they did, many people would change how they do things. In the 1900’s there was a man named Morrie Schwartz, who suffered through ALS, which is a disease that slowly weakens the body. While he was slowly dying, he wanted people around the world to know to live their lives to the fullest so they don’t have regrets later on when they are close to dying. In the memoir, Tuesday with Morrie, Morrie teaches people to live life through accepting death, not being afraid of aging, and valuing money less.

Happiness to me is the feeling freedom after finally being out of debt; to be able to focus on school instead of working 40+ hours a week. Happiness is proving all the people who doubt me and lack faith in the fact that I’m making it. Happiness is getting to buy some pants, and socks and not worry about not having enough money to eat for the next two weeks. Happiness is making a stranger smile; filling their empty bellies. Happiness for me is relief; a weight falling off my shoulders letting content and joy flow in through my body. Little things make me happy; the cigarette after a long shift at work, the full night of sleep, a shower after a fifteen hour day.

Everyone in life has faced different obstacles, I mean when you’re brought up you learn that life isn’t a nice pleasant place. One of my favorite quotes of all time is by Sylvester Stallone who said, “Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life.” Life is defined by how you advance past these obstacles that are put in your path. Look at the successful people life such as: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Mark Cuban, etc. All of these people have experienced failure or tragedy before making millions; however, they did not let this tragedy impair their vision of success.

On the ceiling of my father’s room wall hung Albert Einstein's frame which had the inscription, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” Those words greatly inspired me as a teenager. Even in the most difficult moments, those words scream in my head not to give up. I grew up at a time or period in Nigeria when the military junta overthrew the civilian government. The political environment so tensed that it drove away investors. Consequently, the political instability created crippled the economy. The only people that benefited from the military government were their cronies. During this period, the popular middle class disappeared. The gap between the rich and the poor widened. Food shortage arose because the government stopped supporting the farmers through subsidies. Thus, it resulted in the inability of the head of families to provide three square meals for the family. The food scarcity affected my family as well. There were days I would walk long distances to school without eating. Also, on some days, I turned my hunger to fasting. I constantly improvised so I would not get discouraged. In all these, my father kept telling me, “My son, this is a phase in life we all have to go through, everything will be fine.” Despite the tough hurdles I had to cross growing up, I succeeded and became a role model to other teenagers in the neighborhood because of the moral and financial support from my parents, education

Sometimes it takes people awhile to figure out what they want to do in life. Many people know as kids what they want to be when they grow up. Some people hop from job to job trying to find what makes them happy. I wasn’t the kid who just knew, so I was stuck for a while after graduating high school. I just could not find what I wanted to do or be in life. I didn’t have the drive to do more with my life. My goal was to just graduate high school. I was a kid who was still at home with my parents, and yet to find my calling on this Earth. My life quickly changed when I turned 19 and became pregnant. I knew I had to do more and be more for my child. I didn’t want to be another statistic that fell by the waste side and depended on the government for help me and my kid.

Student, businessman, outgoing, dedicated, creative, and willing are just a few things that set me apart from other kids. I don't find myself as being a normal person. There are people who lead others, who set trends, who do things first, who strive to better themselves no matter what it takes. Then there are the followers, those who follow the trends set by the leaders, those who will do anything to fit in and be “cool”. I like to classify myself as a leader.

Ever since I was able to produce thought, and even before, my family has been hardcore Auburn fans. Later in my life I visited Auburn University and instantly I fell in love with this college. As my life continued and as I grew older my family kept telling me how amazing an engineer I would be with my stubbornness to fix things or to find out how they work. Like just recently my computer broke and to find out what went wrong so at 1 am I took apart my computer, with no prior knowledge of what made a computer run, and fixed it. My father, a Mechanical Engineer who graduated from Auburn, jokes saying that I did better than he usually does because when he takes things apart to fix them usually they end up broken more than before. My family has been a huge part of me finding out what I want to become, with me finally deciding on an Aerospace engineer, and what I want to do with my time on Earth and maybe even Mars depending on what the future has in store for me.

Life isn’t always easy, but it’s beautiful in the end. Life begins differently for everyone. We can be born into the best or the worst situations, or any combination of both. These experiences will shape us for the future and help us grow. My life hasn’t always been filled with the best experiences, but they have been what has allowed me to grow and become a stronger person. Through all of the tough times, I have been shown so much love and support by some of my friends and family, but most of all through my faith. At some moments that life throws at you, you may begin to question God, but if you stay strong and hold on to your beliefs you’ll get through it.

Life puts obstacles in our way, it’s up to us to get passed them. I think my biggest complaint is “That’s not fair” as my mom always tells me “Life’s not fair”. Life isn’t the greatest but it’s up to oneself to make the best out of it. I complain a lot about how unfair life is with me, I’ve had personal events happen that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. I lost my grandpa when I was twelve, my grandma is in and out of the hospital for medical reasons. I grew up with my grandma and grandpa due to the fact my mom was always working or to busy too be around when I was younger. My older sister and I always fought and hated being around each other, I was bullied since the third grade for being “fatter” than everyone else. My father walked out of my life without caring. My father named his other child exactly like me knowing about me. Due to all these situations, I began to care less and less about life, my education, the ways it affected my family, and the way it would affect my future.

Growing up my family has always been there to provide for me. Now, I am in college away from the nest but never far enough that I still cannot fly back home. A year or so after graduation, I expect to be living on my own, without the protective wing of my parents overshadowing me. In order for me to achieve this freedom, I will need a steady job and a place to live. Simple! However, for me to achieve a happy life on my own, I will need to do a lot more than just make a living. I could consider myself free from my parents if I lived under the freeway in a cardboard box; however, that life would not further my personal freedom to be happy. Achieving happiness and contentment in life is not easy; the steps taken to cultivate joy in my life that are found in the paragraphs below are going to be hard but worth it. I would like to be happy in the future by keeping my body in the best physical condition possible, working at a job that brings me joy, and loving a woman with all of my heart.

Life for me has always been making mistakes and learning from them. I’ve always been open to different experiences in life but I do have some boundaries. I know that everyone’s life in this world is different than every other person. I have been really close to my mom my whole life. I talk to her for hours and share my feeling, and tell her how my day goes. Whenever I had a problem, I knew that my mom would fix it for me, and once I tell her about it everything is going to be okay. I perpetually respect my parents and want to appreciate them for they do for me. I am really lucky that I have parents. Now as I became a teenager, I continuously thought that I would never change, my life would never change, I will always stay the same.

I believe anyone has the ability to change anyones mood. I believe one person can make me feel awful about myself. I believe one person has the power to fill me with joy, and laughter. I believe one person can ruin my day with just a couple awful words. I believe one person impacts another. At a young age I realized how much happiness one person brought me. When I was nine years old I then realized one person can also fill you with sadness.

from then on my path was set. I had made my decision, I would run. Throughout my childhood I was always the short one. I could not say I was not athletic, but you would not see my making plays and scoring goals. I was always hesitant, worried for all of their safeties, worried for my own safety. Needles to say football was not my sport, but we will come back to that. I played almost every sport I could think of, I played Basketball, I played Baseball, I played Soccer, I played football, and almost every track event that they let me in. sadly, I wasn’t very good at any of them.