Yesterday my son, who is 14 years old remembered last minute that he had to write a little essay for one of his classes. He loves to get things done at the last minute… I’m not sure where he got that… (Probably me) The guide for the homework gave him a few options to write about. But one of them was sort of a heavy topic.
The topic he choose was “What is life?”
This is what he wrote:
What is Life??
By Connor J Nielsen
What is life? What a question. Many people have many
different answers to this and some search for it,
but i have my own explanation.
Some people say life is pointless and that
after you die you fade into nothing. I ridicule that,
because I believe in reasons and especially
the reason of why we are all here on Earth. I believe
that there is a valid point in everything.
The reason we are here is to get better. Before
this life we were spirits up in a premortal
existence. We were sent down here with physical
bodies so we could learn pain, struggle, face
trials, and get brought down, but only so we can
bring ourselves back up.. We are faced with
adversity so we can learn to overcome it, and
become stronger. Notice that a lot of people say
“Life sucks”. that is because most of the time it
can very much suck. But if it didn’t life would
suck even more because it would be too easy and we
would gain nothing from it, if that was the
case.
Like i said everything happens for a reason and if
life was a box of chocolates it would
give you nothing, and therefore be pointless. Life
is supposed to be hard, and the cruel means
that you are being put through are going to be just
ified in the end by a noble cause. One day
when you are old you are going to realize that all
the bad stuff you went through, only made
you better. And if you don’t think it did then that
is because you are either lying to yourself or
you took the easy way out and cheated.
Notice that most of the successful people are hard
workers. Notice that they are
resilient and know how to come back from the challenges
they face like a boss. They have also
had the most challenges and they took them head on
and decided to use them as a tool to
better themselves. That is why they are so good, they
have been the deepest in the bad and
came back from it.
If you do that you will not come back empty handed
. If you face your own trials in life
with a sense of purpose and a sense of “I am going
to get through this, even if it is difficult” kind
of attitude than you will be pretty awesome at hand
ling life.
Take the famous rapper Eminem for example.
(this is my evidence) Take a look at his
childhood. He moved to a different school two or
three times a year, which couldn’t be stable
or easy for him. His mom half the time was a drug addict
and had to frequently change jobs. He
never had any friends and was always the outcast who
got beat up. (Not to mention he lived in
Detroit for a long time, which isn’t the best city
ever.) He sucked at school and dropped out
when he was seventeen. Imagine trying to figure out
what you were going to do if you were at
that point of your life. He went from there to being
a millionaire.
He also in a big part of his career almost died. After
releasing a couple of albums which
went platinum he started having trouble with his wife
and ended up with a divorce. He then got
severely addicted to drugs and almost overdosed and
killed himself. But he made himself clean
and fixed things with Kim, and they remarried.
This guy has an extensive history of big problems
which most people wouldn’t have
been able to deal with. And look at him now, owning
a music record label and getting titles as
the best rapper ever. The reason he is so successful
is because he faced his trials and overcame
them. He has learned to be adaptable in his lie, which
is a major feat, and a skill that you want.
You are put through trials to overcome them, and God
will not put you through
something you can’t handle. Face you challenges with
mental toughness, resilience ,adaptability
and a sense of purpose you will get through this life
with a prize. That prize you can call your
own, and you shall always treasure it throughout the eternities.
The reason we are on this little blue planet is so
we can prepare ourselves. God put us
here so we can be able face hard trials and to be
brought down. We are supposed to know
what it is like to be beat up and to have everything
taken away so we can appreciate what we
have more.
That doesn’t mean life is a demanding abyss of suffering,
it gives back every once in a
while, just to keep you going, and to kind of, reward
you. God knows this is tough but he
promises that in the end it will be worth it.
He tries to remind us every once in a while so we
don’t forget.
We are here to prepare to become perfect.
What a beautiful piece of writing from a teenager who clearly gets a lot. Thanks Connor for this article.