Premium Essay

Personal Narrative: The Forces That Changed My Life

Submitted By
Words 680
Pages 3
I believe in the motivating forces that compel us to improve.

Generally speaking, we all live for something. Our actions have purpose and their inspiration is rooted somewhere. This ‘will to do’ comes in many forms, like the yearn to succeed, or, almost interchangeably, the fear of failure. Not only could the fear of disappointing yourself loom ahead of you, but also the repercussions of an outside force. No matter the origin, there are those aspects of our lives that lead us to our end game.

One of my experiences of these forces in action was with having my older brother achieving great things, it not being a surprise if the same is expected from me. I still had 2 recesses in elementary school by the time that my brother had graduated high …show more content…
I, of course, also personally had the urge to lead a life worth living. My biggest focus in anything serious was on doing well in school, trying to siphon the most energy there when I could. Looking back, I often wish I could have broadened my focus a little bit further and have done more, but that’s a part of growing up, the “should’ve could’ve would’ve” feeling. This is where a dread of regret could become a part of a decision-making process. We all want to live a life that, when looked backed on, was all that we could hope it to be. The mindset of “Why not?” is often the push for actions otherwise abandoned, being the counterforce of regret. I try to sometimes really give a second thought before missing out on opportunities. What if something great could arise from this? What if I miss out from something potentially beneficial? But it’s not always that simple. With pursuing those opportunities, there’s, a lot of times, some drawback or gamble. Will it be worth it? What if it doesn’t work out? I find myself, and I know others, held back by these uncertainties. It’s seems a better life to live as one that is eventful by taking those chances. It’s not certain that the best will come from the situation, but you will never know if you simply give up right

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Compare and Contrast: the Advantage of Narratives over Descriptive

...Lake” and Judy Brady’s “I want a wife”, both authors write on personal encounters they experienced. The author chooses two different methods of writing styles. E.B. White utilizes a nostalgic reflective descriptive piece, whereas Brady uses a more sarcastic narrative. Arguably both writers do a great job in their story telling skills. Both stories are respected and pleasing, yet similar but different at the same time. The authors’ choice of writing style is what gives one story more of an advantage to the other. Though descriptive and narrative essay have identical intent – to tell the reader a story- narratives are more effective in capturing the audience because the uses of different voices, they bring ideas into perspective and they are relatable. There are special components that both style of writing possesses. Narrative writing usually does not stress adjectives to give the physical details of characters, setting or events in the story. Nothing like descriptive writing, narrative writings are written in the first person in order to convey the author's attitudes, beliefs and memories. Narratives are conventional, while descriptive writings content often emphases on a single event, object or place. Occasionally, writers utilize narrative writing style to tell about the past or the future in broad terms. A narrative often reflects personal experience, clarifying what happened during some sort of incident. Narrative essay topics include recounting an experience where the learned...

Words: 1576 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

9/11 Conspiracy Theory

...This we read the article Popular and Official Responses to 9/11 in Germany and The United States written by scholar Peter Knight. The article critically analyzes the conspiracy theories that emerged in American society years after the tragic events of 9/11. Knight’s main assertion through out the article, is that 9/11 conspiracy theories have more in common with the official reports of the events of 9/11 than many people would assume. He does this my showing comparing and contrasting the two accounts, highlighting the similarities in their narratives. Firstly, the author supports his claim by showing how they both reinforce an essentialist framework of thinking. Firstly, there was a rejection of any blame or accountability, as president Bush...

Words: 1645 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

On Being Authenticity Analysis

...The narrative concept has several consequences. For example, the first one can be described that even though other can influence us, “it is up to us to make something of ourselves in what we do” (127). The second and third theories deal with materialistic things and our social clock. Additionally, there is a question about owning our lives, “In fact, the entire idea of owning my life beings to look suspect” (142). It questions how it is even possible to know that our lives are our own. If we can explore and look through all different life stories. No story is truly ours because others can reach it too. Lastly, it talks about how our selves can lacks the forces to determine what we are. This idea means that what we know as self-making is considered a hoax and cannot truly be down. “The whole business of authenticity begins to look like a set-up for disappointment”...

Words: 623 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Designing the Experience

...Experience: Design Approach to Human-centered Jodi L. Forlizzi Submitted to the Department of Design, College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Design in Interaction Design Abstract My thesis attempts to understand experience as it is relevant to interaction design. Based on the work of John Dewey, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, and Richard Carlson, I identify two types of experience in user–product interactions: satisfying experiences and rich experiences. A satisfying experience is a process–driven act that is performed in a successful manner. A rich experience has a sense of immersive continuity and interaction, which may be made up of a series of satisfying experiences. Based on this definition, I identify a set of design principles with which to create products that evoke rich experiences. These principles are intended to encourage designers to think about how to create user–product interactions that suggest values and communicate meanings that enrich the quality of life. Narrative plays a key role in these design principles. Our series of life experiences form a narrative; the values that designers impart in an object form a narrative which is elaborated...

Words: 13374 - Pages: 54

Free Essay

Social Sciene/ Medicine

...ARTICLE IN PRESS Social Science & Medicine 58 (2004) 1647–1657 Understanding breast cancer stories via Frank’s narrative types Roanne Thomas-MacLean* Dalhousie University Family, Medicine Teaching Unit, Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital, P.O. Box 9000, Priestman St. Fredericton, NB Canada E3B 5N5 Abstract While breast cancer narratives have become prevalent in Western culture, few researchers have explored the structure of such narratives, relying instead on some form of thematic analysis based upon content. Although such analyses are valuable, Arthur Frank (The Wounded Storyteller, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1995) provides researchers with an additional means of studying stories of illness, through the examination of their structures. In this article, the author applies Frank’s work to a phenomenological study of embodiment after breast cancer. Frank’s three narrative types are used to enhance understanding of the ways in which stories are culturally constructed, using data collected through one focus group discussion and two in-depth interviews with each of 12 women who had experienced breast cancer. The author then conveys the significance of this form of analysis for future research. r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Breast cancer; Qualitative and narrative Introduction Frank (1995) writes that those who are ill ‘‘need to become storytellers in order to recover the voices that illness and its treatment often take away’’...

Words: 9088 - Pages: 37

Premium Essay

Consequences of Slavery

...about slavery and the long lasting effects it has left on the United. In, Frederick Douglass’ Slave Narrative, I was able to gain true personal insight from Douglass’ personal experiences and further my understanding of what all went into slavery and how it effected not only African Americans but Whites also. Slavery not only put a mental and physical strain on the oppressor and its oppressor but also the surrounding people who had to deal with it’s reputation and after effects. At the beginning of the Narrative, Douglass talks about his different accounts with his masters and overseers. He states that he had 2 masters and that the first ones name was Captain Anthony. Captain Anthony wasn’t a very rich master and he owned a couple farms with about 30 slaves in total possession. Anthony’s farms were mainly under the control of an overseer Douglass recounts as being Mr. Plummer. Douglass described him as, “a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage monster. He always went armed with a cow skin and a heavy cudgel” (50). I can’t help but think that these problems and rage were only intensified when he took over control of the slaves while the master was away. And Captain Anthony wasn’t a kind master either. Douglass recalls his first time, as a young child, witnessing someone being whipped by Captain Anthony and it engraved a memory into Douglass’ head that would leave a life long impression on him. Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder. It required extraordinary...

Words: 1344 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Experiment in Modernist Fiction

...that everything is relative. Things take a new shift and the absolute truths vanish, leaving room for multiple interpretations and personalized opinions which are presented now, in writing. But how can one define something that has no clear conclusion? An element of this sort cannot have a finality, therefore, it is understood according to one’s personal background and experience. Modernist literature will always raise serious issues concerning the purpose and form of literature, questioning its former aspects. What are the reasons for writing a novel and what should a novel consist of? For example, the notion of “novel” becomes ambiguous in the mind of Virginia Woolf, who declared after writing “Mrs. Dalloway” that “I’m glad to be quit this time of writing a novel, and hope never to be accused of it again.” Next to Virginia Woolf which is believed to be one of the greatest modern authors, the faithful readers come across names like James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, or as in the case of the Romanian literature: Camil Petrescu, George Calinescu etc. These are the main symbols of the modernist era which changed the course of literature in a significant manner. However, the balance seems to hang in favor of the British literature which has brought to surface some of the icons of modernism: James Joyce,...

Words: 1600 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

A Call for Further Research: Afro-Chinese Marriages in 20th Century Cuba

...married in 19th century Cuba both romantically and strategically. I argue that there needs to be further research around Afro-Chinese marriages in Cuba and a recentering on women. I had originally planned to center this paper around African slave women who married Chinese men in Cuba in the 19th century but was not able to because of the lack of literature available. However, I aim to focus on a reading against the grain for indications of women’s agency and voice in this set of literature. My personal stakes in this topic are two-fold. First, my mother’s side of my family lived in Cuba for a few decades from the late 1920s to 1960 as a part of an entrepreneurial endeavor and as refuge from persecution from the Communist Party of China. Because of my personal tie to Chinese in Cuba, I seek to uncover untold stories and hidden transcripts. Second, this paper is a part of a larger project on Chinese in Cuba in the 20th century, specifically looking at race and the transition to socialism. My specific interventions in this topic is a rereading of the secondary sources written about Afro-Chinese marriages for resistance and erasures with a feminist and diaspora lens. For this paper, I will not be using the term “Coolie” or “Coolieism” as a form of resistance to the violence...

Words: 3789 - Pages: 16

Free Essay

Amitav Ghosh's Glass Palace: a Critical Study

... which colonialism maintained power was by writing its own histories. These histories were conceived within grand narratives of progress, expansion and enlightenment. Inevitably, they both systematically and accidentally recast, ignored and silenced other competing histories from the places and cultures with which they came into contact. Post - colonial studies has consequently set itself the task of examining and challenging those narratives, developing other ways of telling histories, and re – evaluating other ways of remembering. If post- colonial literature means the interrogation of the subaltern to the “center”, no other book is representative of the post-colonial theory and practice as Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace. The novel won the 2001 Frankfurt e – book Award of fifty thousand dollars Grand Prize for Fiction. Abreast of the contemporary academic debates about colonialism and culture, Ghosh is well-equipped in challenging the institutionalized perspectives of the colonial history. He is certain of his human and historical insights. He belongs to a nation that was once conquered and ruled by Imperial Britain. Ghosh in “The Anglophone Empire” (2003) says: “I am Indian and my history has been shaped as much by the institution of this empire as a long tradition of struggle against them”...

Words: 3415 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

Hospitality in the Iliad and Odyssey

...The Gods of Hospitality in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey In Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey, much is made of hospitality as a recurring theme. In Ancient Greece the gods demand it. The nature and extent to which society today follows in that tradition has changed in form only, but not in substance. Food, shelter and protection of strangers from cultural norms of today, as the people of Ancient Greece were more inclined to take in strangers worn weary by travel. In the Iliad, the reader sees that in times of war, hospitality is provided to even the enemy. Housing strangers in one’s home was very common then, as many weary travelers trod by foot or sailed by boat to reach far-off destinations, making stops along the way. Moreover, since the Greeks believed the gods walked the earth amongst them, then turning down a travelers request, could mean rejecting a god masked from view. The Greeks took no chances in this regard; and with only a few exceptions, Homer’s literary characters comply with this religious doctrine and cultural norm. Hospitality in Ancient Greece, as portrayed by Homer, accounts, in part, for their longstanding world dominance and aligns itself in many ways with the Christianity enjoyed by many peace-loving nations of today. The guest-host relationship in both The Iliad and The Odyssey remain constant, the differences between the two dependent only on the differing circumstances posed by each tale (Biggs, Joseph, Schrodt & Dustan, n.d.) Today, America’s...

Words: 3496 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

Wife by Bharathi Mukherjee

...University of Tennessee, Knoxville Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2010 Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimaging the Nation in a Global Context Leah Rang University of Tennessee - Knoxville, lrang@utk.edu Recommended Citation Rang, Leah, "Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimaging the Nation in a Global Context. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2010. http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/655 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact trace@utk.edu. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Leah Rang entitled "Bharati Mukherjee and the American Immigrant: Reimaging the Nation in a Global Context." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in English. Urmila Seshagiri, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Lisi Schoenbach, Bill Hardwig Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) To the Graduate Council:...

Words: 30269 - Pages: 122

Premium Essay

Astr

...[Indiana University Libraries] Date: 24 February 2016, At: 16:43 Journal of Postcolonial Writing Vol. 46, No. 1, February 2010, 65–75 “He does not understand our customs”: Narrating orality and empire in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Jarica Linn Watts* University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA Downloaded by [Indiana University Libraries] at 16:43 24 February 2016 jarica.watts@utah.edu Jarica 0 100000February 46 2010 &Article OriginalofFrancis 1744-9855 (print)/1744-9863 JournalandPostcolonial 10.1080/17449850903478189(online) RJPW_A_448194.sgm TaylorLinnWatts 2010 Writing Francis This article delineates different strains of Achebe’s narrative technique in Things Fall Apart, arguing that earlier critics have failed to account fully for two fundamental principles in Achebe’s narrative: the myriad phrases that are repeated throughout the first part of the work; and the formative shift, the poetic volta, that takes place between parts one and two of the novel. Drawing on Achebe’s assertion that “anyone seeking an...

Words: 6891 - Pages: 28

Premium Essay

Liberal Education

...making employability of the graduates the main goal of education. With two thirds of all majors being in business and finance, humanities don’t seem to play a big role in higher education overall. This work makes an attempt in defense of liberal arts education to our students, and the importance of teaching the subjects like English, Literature and Philosophy independent of a student’s major concentration. Even in our age of specialized and corporatized education, these courses are of great importance. These subjects can help young people find their way in this confusing web of life weaved out of pressure, expectations, failures, problems, fears. What other fields of study can teach them about history of cultures and languages, people who made history; who made contribution to the world in art, literature and science; what young people can learn from them. But most importantly, how to raise questions about life in...

Words: 17805 - Pages: 72

Premium Essay

Generals Die in Bed

...battles, and the psychological impact each stage of the war took on the soldiers. Transforming boys into men, the war forever changed the lives of the soldiers that fought for this country. Harrison’s book made it difficult for the war to be forgotten. Through the first-person narrative, Harrison exposes the reader to fear, allowing the reader to understand through the close views of the narrator, what a soldier actually experiences. Harrison builds opposition between the lives of boys, and their transformation into the nightmare of becoming a solider. The novel tests the reader and places his/her mind in the battlefields of war through metaphors, simile and imagery. This is such an important part in getting the point across and a huge reminder of how frightening war can be because Harrison gives attention to the five senses so the readers can understand the experience the narrator is going through. Harrison forces the reader to focus on the military aspects of what a solider really is, portraying how unavoidable the fear of dying and killing is, and just how easy it was for the innocence of a life to be taken. For example, the narrator is placed in an ammunition battle: “suddenly the stars revolve. I land on my shoulder. I have been tossed into the air. I begin to pray ‘God-God-please. I remember that I do not believe In God. Insane thoughts run through my head. I need something to grasp”(Harrison 26). Another example of when the curiosity of the other soldiers towards Brown’s...

Words: 1387 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Monolouge in Reluctant Fundamentalist

...gripping monologue. A novel in the form of a monologue and without a dialogue is a brilliant and novel idea, and it works magnificently in this case only because Mohsin Hamid is a superb writer with formidable powers. He grips the reader's mind with polished and haunting prose. The hero of the novel, Changez, a student from Lahore, Pakistan, attends Princeton University. After graduation at the top in his class, he secures an excellent and well-paying job at the elite valuation firm Underwood Samson. He becomes well-adjusted and well-accustomed to the American way of life, falls in love with the beautiful and elegant, Princeton-educated Erica, who hails from an aristocratic family. For the first time in his life Changez is happy. Then, unexpectedly, on September 11, 2001, two planes crash into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. As a result, the towers collapse. And along with the towers, Changez's personal world also collapses. When the terrorists are identified as Muslims from Saudi Arabia, and people, and the media speculate about the reasons for the attack, Changez finds himself questioning the injustices by America abroad. His priorities...

Words: 1517 - Pages: 7