Jordan Duckworth
College Prep English
Autobiographical Essay
Sep 21, 2016
Self Discovery
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” This saying has literally been around for centuries, Aristotle said it around 300 BC. I never really understood what people were talking about when they referred to finding themselves until I lost myself. We all go through phases and it was during one of my two major ones that I realized I wasn't being true to myself and allowing myself to make my own opinions on major issues. I found myself at the end of sophomore year after going through two phases and I found that if people aren't true to themselves then they are going to be unhappy in the end.
In my early years of middle school, like many teens do, I went through an “edgy” phase. I was extremely into my phase, black hair, skinny jeans, the whole nine yards. I will be the first to admit it was a cringe worthy time in my life. My friends at the time were not the most supportive people, and while I did have a few good ones, most did not care about me. Towards the end of middle school, my favorite cousin snapped me out of the edgy phase, and that then lead to a new phase as high school approached.
High school drew near, and with the stress of all the freshman horror stories bearing on me, I was more worried about popularity than ever before. Some of the friends I had made towards the end of my edgy phase were popular.After I dumped my previous phase I forgot about all the friends that weren't popular even if they were good friends. Some of my popular friends weren't the best of friends either though. A couple of them encouraged me to be close minded and generally a bad guy, so I lost even more friends that way. I was brought out of this phase by realizing how unimportant popularity really was.
My “trying to be popular phase” ended when I realized that high school popularity means nothing in the real world. I started to focus on school, and while I lost most of my friends, I also gained a few really good ones. Those are the friends who have looked out for me and helped me grow as a person. They helped me realize that my thoughts should be the most important to me, and not those of others, especially bad friends. We all go through phases and many of us see them as a mistake, but I think that if we look back and are embarrassed by our old self then it's a good thing. That means we have grown, have changed, and have realized that we should not go down a path like that again. My favorite phase is when I tried to be popular because at least I started to be social and care about others, and that helped make me who I am.
I realized that as a person we have to formulate our own thoughts on things such as: music, life issues, religion, and other important things in life. Good friends will be there to help if we need it, but they will allow us to grow on our own. Today I believe life doesn't last long enough to be close minded, so we should love all and accept everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, sexuality, or religion. I'm glad that I have a favorite mistake because it has allowed me to be a better person, and it's one of the influencing factors on wanting to be a doctor. The phases helped me realize that even if we have friends and go to all these events we won’t truly be happy until we find our true self and accept it.
College Prep English
Autobiographical Essay
Sep 21, 2016
Self Discovery
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” This saying has literally been around for centuries, Aristotle said it around 300 BC. I never really understood what people were talking about when they referred to finding themselves until I lost myself. We all go through phases and it was during one of my two major ones that I realized I wasn't being true to myself and allowing myself to make my own opinions on major issues. I found myself at the end of sophomore year after going through two phases and I found that if people aren't true to themselves then they are going to be unhappy in the end.
In my early years of middle school, like many teens do, I went through an “edgy” phase. I was extremely into my phase, black hair, skinny jeans, the whole nine yards. I will be the first to admit it was a cringe worthy time in my life. My friends at the time were not the most supportive people, and while I did have a few good ones, most did not care about me. Towards the end of middle school, my favorite cousin snapped me out of the edgy phase, and that then lead to a new phase as high school approached.
High school drew near, and with the stress of all the freshman horror stories bearing on me, I was more worried about popularity than ever before. Some of the friends I had made towards the end of my edgy phase were popular.After I dumped my previous phase I forgot about all the friends that weren't popular even if they were good friends. Some of my popular friends weren't the best of friends either though. A couple of them encouraged me to be close minded and generally a bad guy, so I lost even more friends that way. I was brought out of this phase by realizing how unimportant popularity really was.
My “trying to be popular phase” ended when I realized that high school popularity means nothing in the real world. I started to focus on school, and while I lost most of my friends, I also gained a few really good ones. Those are the friends who have looked out for me and helped me grow as a person. They helped me realize that my thoughts should be the most important to me, and not those of others, especially bad friends. We all go through phases and many of us see them as a mistake, but I think that if we look back and are embarrassed by our old self then it's a good thing. That means we have grown, have changed, and have realized that we should not go down a path like that again. My favorite phase is when I tried to be popular because at least I started to be social and care about others, and that helped make me who I am.
I realized that as a person we have to formulate our own thoughts on things such as: music, life issues, religion, and other important things in life. Good friends will be there to help if we need it, but they will allow us to grow on our own. Today I believe life doesn't last long enough to be close minded, so we should love all and accept everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, sexuality, or religion. I'm glad that I have a favorite mistake because it has allowed me to be a better person, and it's one of the influencing factors on wanting to be a doctor. The phases helped me realize that even if we have friends and go to all these events we won’t truly be happy until we find our true self and accept it.