Conformity

 Discuss a significant experience or achievement that has influenced your life. 

      A rather insignificant, yet significant, experience was a movie I saw a year ago. World renowned, and having earned numerous awards, 3 Idiots, taught me a lesson I would never forget. 

      The story is about a young Indian kid who possesses genius, and wisdom that far surpasses even the previous generation's best. Throughout his childhood, he had a passion for learning. What really stood out to me was that his passion did not stem from the desire to become famous, rich, or powerful, but from that childish desire to simply learn. Most people would laugh at him partly due to their own immaturity and difficultly to understand such a simplistic ideal. 
      He was not bothered by social pressure, nor was he bothered by external pestilence. He was focused and determined. When he grew older, he attended the most prestigious college in India, and soon graduated at the top of his class. He fascinated me not because he was the top student in nearly all of India, but one that chose to study for the greater benefit of it; knowledge. 
      Throughout the story, he keeps reiterating the fact that "you should study not for the grades, but for the knowledge that come afterwords." Those words really resonated deep within me, and from that day on I tried to emulate them. So far, so good.


Word Count: 300

      

Rage

Choose a topic and write a response to it

Rage?

          When somebody insults you, what emotion do you feel? When somebody betrays you, what emotion do you, what emotion do you feel? When somebody destroys something you care about, what emotion do you feel? I do not know about you, but I feel a burning anger deep within me. I assume it is the same with you, too.
          We all experience this so-called rage. For some it is easy yo come by, while for others the stimulant must be powerfull. Nevertheless, we have all faced at some point or another. But the question beckons as to why even experience anger.
           It seems fairly useless. Many a times, it clouds ones better judgement, rendering us highly susceptible to other dangers, as well as being dangerous to others. We become very selfish when enraged, and as a result highly unsensitive to others. It can often lead us to make the worst choices conceivable. All it does is create problems. Despite several disadvantages, anger does have some value.
           Firstly, it helps us become motivated do things, we would normally be too docile for; we gain courage when we are angry, enabling us to cross limits, never before though possible. Secondly... Well, that is all I have got.
           Anger does not seem to have any utility to offer.
           But that is not the point, is it? People get angry all the time. One can debate the pros and cons endlessly, but at the end of the day, we are all potentially going to get angered. Since it is an attribute inherent within us all, the best course of action is to stay in control of your anger. It cannot be erased, and so the next best thing must be regulation.
            If my experience has taught me anything it is that getting angry over anything is just an indicator of a lack of intellegence. If we are dumb, or careless enough to allow our rage coming

Power

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad man." 

- Lord Acton

         Power is inherent in all of our lives. We each have it in one form or another. Some have it as a form to help people, some as a manifestation as physical strength, while some as an ability to guide, and the list goes on.Whether we choose to act on it is up us as individuals. Some people choose often to act on their powers, and usually not in a positive way. The power that people have changes them. They are no longer in control of themselves; it is as if the power they possess is a puppeteer of the wielder, manipulating them; controlling them.  
         Human Nature is such that the slightest notion of power sends down even the purest down a violent spiral of chaos to the pits of darkness. Take for instance, every politician in India. Many become politicians to save the country from further degradation, but what happens when the pure of heart, the people who enter politics to abolish corruption become tempted with all the glamour, grandeur, and gifts that type life has to offer. It is very easy to slip into the hands such a powerful enticer. The benefits of it are phenomenal, and as a result people whom choose the easy way out are often rewarded (unfairly, of course) with false fame, and coin, 
        The quote above is very true, since nearly all humans are corrupt and lazy; if given the opportunity to receive infamy and luxury, even at the expense of other, we would surely do so. That is just who we are; all of us are selfish, egocentric, and power-hungry in one way or another. 
        What if, one day you were given the chance to attain immortality, but knew that if you did millions of people would die, would you do it?
        What if, one day you were offered ten billion dollars, but knew that in doing so more than half the population would be robbed of the opportunity to earn it through hard, sincere labor, would you do it?
        What if, one day you were blessed with the ability to control the minds of others, but in accepting you would annihilate every shred of privacy, freedom, or independence from this planet, would you do it?
        History has taught us that we would. We are all greedy at heart. However, we can always become bigger people than everyone before us. We are our own people, and at the end of the day our decisions make us who we are. We can choose to follow the curve, or we can choose to become the new, evolved species of human.


Word Count: 600

Strength

I once read this book that told me that true strength comes from within. Of course, I had read this as a child, and did not understand it. Nevertheless, my curiosity was aroused. We all know that the curiosity of a child is greater than that of a cat, and so that statement truly captivated my attention. I could not let it go. However, despite perpetuated effort in understanding the meaning of that particular combination of words, I did not get it. My mind, having been exhausted from this grueling 3-day ordeal, pounced down some new avenue of interest i conjured up. Too difficult was the challenge, so I gave up the quest for something easier. I was not convinced of my progress I wanted more.
As a simple-minded child, I thought strength was a product of muscle mass. I thought that the bigger you are, the stronger you are. I though strength was measured by the ability to beat someone to a pulp. I thought strength was the potential act of lifting something really heavy. I was right, but I was also wrong. What my immature brain did not realize is that there is another type of strength that we all possess. My folly lead me to believe that physical strength was the ONLY strength known to man. It was only when I was in the right place, at the right time that I realized this was not the case.
As I grew older, I began to understand the world around me to an extent I would never had dreamed possible. I shed my immature coat, and had adopted one that promised to let me view the world as openly as I could. Just as I grew up, so too did my problems. Unlike as a child, where my problems ranged from not having enough time to play to wanting a new toy, my problems a few years later were far greater. I now had to deal with a whole new set of problems. The worst of my so called dilemmas was social pressure.
Often at school, there would be a whole new tend developing, and as student and part of that generation, it was my duty to participate in that trend. Understandably, my parents did not feel the same way, because for every new trend that was born, that much more money was deducted from my parents' pockets. I felt very guilty because of my constant leeching. Day by day, my guilt grew and at some nebulous point, I was done. I had finally realized that I needed to stop, and I did.
Beyblades, or battle tops were the next things to hit the trend list. I was constantly urged, begged, and ostracized by my peers for not having a beyblade. When they asked me why I could not have one, I told them everything. The reason for my resistance was out within moments, Some called me a fool, but I knew better. Surprisingly, some people understood exactly what I was going through. Each of them told me that they, too, felt guilty, but had no other alternative. I was shocked.
But what caught my attention that day was not the fact that other people also understood. No, what caught my attention was what a particular person told me that day: "You are very strong, being able to do what you want to do"
It struck me on that day what strength was. My quest from my early childhood was completed, as I now knew the answer to that question, which I had once deemed unanswerable. Strength, though it may lie in the body, it primarily lies in the mind. True strength is the ability to face insurmountable odds, the ability to stand and endure, and the ability to believe whatever it is that you do. What I learned that day has stayed with me even today. Whenever I encounter people I know have strength, I give them all that they deserve: respect.

Word Count: 850

Justice

            Being raised in generally good background, being exposed to the reality of the world, and being educated, I have developed many beliefs over the years. My experience has enlightened me to the corruption
and injustice in society. Every day, I wake up disgusted with current predicement of this world. I feel so powerless against the current system. It is infuriating to see what the world has become, and the trajectory it might take. But at the same time, I feel a compulsive need to save all that I can, to protect the ones I love most, and  to destroy all the problems that we have have to face. I feel this intense sense of justice when I see the atrocities and challenges in this world. All I want is an ideal place for everyone.
            Takeshi Obata, the creator of Death Note, an anime of unparalleled creativity and brilliance, and I share some of those most basic ideas of society. This belief is more than engendered in his anime. The story goes like this: A young teenage boy, named Light Yagami happens upon a note book, which apparently has the power to kill anyone whose real name is written within the confines of this book. At first, Light's rationality prevented him from believing what he read, but when hope dawned on him, he began to experiment, and was surprised to find out the truth. Light considered himself far superior to everyone around the world as he was much smarter than most, and as a result his genius got the better of him. He began to get bored with the world, yet he wanted to see it cleansed from all the evil that existed within it. As such he, the book offered a perfect solution to the problem that he faced.
            Even as stated in the anime, most people would have been too frightened by the temptation and sheer magnitude of that much power; to be able to kill on a whim requires a very powerful resolve. Unlike the rest of the cowering world, Light took on the mantle of a psuedo-god-guardian. he devoted his time to purge the world of all the negative energy; he began to kill all those that he deemed evil.
            This anime reflects a much more darker side than I wish to portray. But what Obata and I have in common is not the desire to kill all those in the world. My desire lies in the solving of all the problems where the most people benefit.

word count: 500

Mask

                What is a mask? According to Dictionary.com, a mask is a covering for all or part of the face, worn to conceal ones identity. This definition does not apply to the simple concept of a physical mask, but to the idea that we do not show our true selves to the world around us. One must not take the concept of a mask lightly, for throughout the age of man, all people have utilized a mask. This is true even today. We all walk around wearing our masks. We all walk around deceiving people into believing that what they see is the truth. It is in all of us, and not just a few of us. I for one, do it all the time.

The question remains though, why on earth do we deceive people into believing that the people they see in front of them is the true person that they are viewing?

                I am no different than any one of you. I, too, have my underlying secrets that I hide. I, too, feel insecure around most people. Just like you, I fear people gazing into my mind and viewing me for all that I am. I do not gain comfort from the fact that someone knows me that well. It scares me even. My hypothesis for my phobia is that I do not want to feel open and vulnerable. In my experience and my observation, I have realized that when people know so much about a person, human nature takes control, provoking them to take advantage. When one knows so much about another person, manipulation becomes as simple as blinking. For fear of that manipulation and for that fear of that broken trust, I close myself to the rest of the world, hoping that people will not know the true me. But that is just me.

Just like me, people fear being manipulated. Being manipulated, in modern society, is a sign of weakness and frailty. Most people detest being manipulated as that is what it implies. Often times that feeling of weakness is complimented with the humiliating feeling of being used. Out of a sense of pride and self-respect, we prevent all from knowing who we truly are. Though people wear masks to shield themselves from being known and manipulated, most of the time, there are also several other reasons why such a phenomenon takes place.

Vanity, the nature of those consumed by the need to fit society's ideals, is one of the primary stigmas of wearing this so called mask. People want to be cool and fit in. In order to be that “popular kid,” people often change who they are. Even famous singers address it in their songs, such as Mike Posner, who criticizes the way people behave in his very popular song,” Cooler Than Me.” They alter themselves to adapt to the social trend; though, these people relatively content, they often are no longer themselves. From a psychological viewpoint, this often takes placeas a result of personal insecurities. These insecurities stem from the fear of not being accepted as they are. They feel safer in being a part of the mass, rather than being themselves.

We all put on masks to distort the perception of who we truly are. Some people do it more thoroughly than others, while others show almost all of themselves. For those people who feel no fear in expressing themselves completely, kudos. However, to those people who feel the need to hide, show some courage. Embrace who you truly are, and do not hold back. Of course you are entitled to your opinion, but my suggestion still stands – dare to be yourself. 

Word Count: 750