archangel
December 15th, 2007, 01:39 AM
I lament the fact that my teacher forced me to compare a personal experience to the book Night by Elie Wiesel which is a Holocaust memoir. Nothing could possibly come close to those traumas. But, I did my best in this paper.
12-02-07
English 108- Night Essay
Right before the words left my tongue, I knew they were unreasonable. It was the second mile ran that day and there was no end in sight. However, my situation was dwarfed in comparison to the hardships suffered by a large Jewish population during the Holocaust. Whereas I could stop and drink from my Gatorade bottle and look forward to a warm comfortable home, the desperate victims of Hitler’s tortures had no such consolations. Those words of complaint that nearly escaped my mouth are thankfully lost to the world forever.
Naturally, physical conditioning requires a great deal of concentration, but the thoughts of how my slight physical adversity could never match up against days without food or nights in the freezing cold could not be ignored. Mercifully for me, I was pushing myself to the limit in interests of self-improvement; six million Jews during World War II did not share that ambition. They were forced into grueling schedules and impossible tasks at the hands of radical Nazis who they themselves believed in their cruelty based just upon the word of one authoritarian. Thankfully my soccer coach has yet to force such deprivation of respect upon me!
Although it’s very obvious that all 15 year old teenage boys are completely immune from any unwanted influence, just this once, that universal truth failed. Contrary to what I wanted to believe, my opinion of this one particular thing turned out to be wrong.
Ever since I was five years old I played soccer, both competitively and obsessively. Logically I wanted to learn or do anything to increase my aptitude in my sudden life’s purpose of soccer. When it finally came time for club soccer I was eager to absorb as much enlightenment from my coaches and the new environment of soccer mania. Going through many years of my young life like this without another passion other than soccer, it became to not only dominate my physical activity, but also how my mind perceived any situation. Finally, my soccer utopia came to an end -- I met people with another passion; swimming. Understandably, I immediately judged that sport to be far inferior to my own personal preference. After several months of denying the plausibility that swimming may have some merit, I wondered why I had such a set-in-stone view on the matter. Upon reviewing how my discrimination against the sport had unraveled, I discovered that it was only because swimming was something foreign and not comfortable to me like soccer had been for so long. Just because I had been told by coaches and influenced by peers that soccer was by far the best sport out there; I believed it. Suddenly stricken by my lack of diversity in sports, I chose to give swimming a shot.
My apparent lack of open-mindedness in that particular situation still marvels me to this day. But finding a new sport to enjoy was not the only thing I got out of that peculiar experience. I learned that such ingrained things in one’s mind are not always right just for the simple reason that they have always been there.
Hopefully next time I can look at any situation more objectively. THIS is why Night should still be taught; to teach new lessons to generation after generation. That is, if they are blessed enough to be swept up into this book.
12-02-07
English 108- Night Essay
Right before the words left my tongue, I knew they were unreasonable. It was the second mile ran that day and there was no end in sight. However, my situation was dwarfed in comparison to the hardships suffered by a large Jewish population during the Holocaust. Whereas I could stop and drink from my Gatorade bottle and look forward to a warm comfortable home, the desperate victims of Hitler’s tortures had no such consolations. Those words of complaint that nearly escaped my mouth are thankfully lost to the world forever.
Naturally, physical conditioning requires a great deal of concentration, but the thoughts of how my slight physical adversity could never match up against days without food or nights in the freezing cold could not be ignored. Mercifully for me, I was pushing myself to the limit in interests of self-improvement; six million Jews during World War II did not share that ambition. They were forced into grueling schedules and impossible tasks at the hands of radical Nazis who they themselves believed in their cruelty based just upon the word of one authoritarian. Thankfully my soccer coach has yet to force such deprivation of respect upon me!
Although it’s very obvious that all 15 year old teenage boys are completely immune from any unwanted influence, just this once, that universal truth failed. Contrary to what I wanted to believe, my opinion of this one particular thing turned out to be wrong.
Ever since I was five years old I played soccer, both competitively and obsessively. Logically I wanted to learn or do anything to increase my aptitude in my sudden life’s purpose of soccer. When it finally came time for club soccer I was eager to absorb as much enlightenment from my coaches and the new environment of soccer mania. Going through many years of my young life like this without another passion other than soccer, it became to not only dominate my physical activity, but also how my mind perceived any situation. Finally, my soccer utopia came to an end -- I met people with another passion; swimming. Understandably, I immediately judged that sport to be far inferior to my own personal preference. After several months of denying the plausibility that swimming may have some merit, I wondered why I had such a set-in-stone view on the matter. Upon reviewing how my discrimination against the sport had unraveled, I discovered that it was only because swimming was something foreign and not comfortable to me like soccer had been for so long. Just because I had been told by coaches and influenced by peers that soccer was by far the best sport out there; I believed it. Suddenly stricken by my lack of diversity in sports, I chose to give swimming a shot.
My apparent lack of open-mindedness in that particular situation still marvels me to this day. But finding a new sport to enjoy was not the only thing I got out of that peculiar experience. I learned that such ingrained things in one’s mind are not always right just for the simple reason that they have always been there.
Hopefully next time I can look at any situation more objectively. THIS is why Night should still be taught; to teach new lessons to generation after generation. That is, if they are blessed enough to be swept up into this book.