Roots Of My Contemporary Self Essay Examples

There are many incidents that I can describe that have influenced me into the autonomous person I am today; however, there is a particular incident that comes vividly to my mind every time I contemplate about my life. It was during the high school games in my school, in Texas after I won the inter-house 800 meter race. I have always been a sporty student and passive of an academic since junior high. I speeded past the finish line in the relay as the first and saw my housemistress on the other end of the field. I had never seen her eyes light up so brightly. I mean this was the same lady who had the most disapproving eyes in the whole school and almost never smiled. I have never been an individual who waits for approval, but that was the proudest day of my life. I had always been a disappointing student all through life but at that particular time I was happy she had made one of her fewest smiles in life because of me.
I am a21 year old young lady living in America. I was born in China in 1993. My family later moved to America when I was two years old. June 14th, 1995 was a very tragic day to my family but could also be because all the successes encountered so far too. As much as it was an important day for China’s environment, it is the day that will always have a tragic meaning to us. This was the day dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) pesticide factory was closed down after the ban on the production of DDT. DDT was widely used and exported in China before 1995. Both my parents worked in the factory to support the family. Therefore, they had to apply for a green card to come to the United States of America. At that time, the economy was in shambles, and China had been hit badly by inflation and all the goods in the country were expensive. I don’t remember that part of my life well since I was only two years old, but I remember, we barely had anything to eat during that time and had been struck by adverse poverty. My mother always looked tired and my father, no matter the brave face he put up, he always looked worried to my two-year old eyes. These circumstances made me grow up very fast and at a very young age, I could understand what was going on around me. As Nicholas Spark said “It's hard at times, but it makes a child strong in ways that most people can't understand. It teaches them that even though people are left behind, new ones will inevitably take their place; that every place has something good - and bad - to offer. It makes a kid grow up fast.”
My parents applied for a green card to America out of desperation and lack of any other option after the hard economic times. It took a longer time to apply for a green card, and they had to do tough jobs to survive. There was a lot of fraud and political corruption in China and one had to be rich to get such a chance. It took a lot of early visits to the immigration office by my father for him to be granted a green card, and even then he was conned of a little of his money. When the green card came through, all three of us left for America with the little savings my father had managed to scramble together. This was the toughest time for my family. We had to travel in the business class which was then cheapest class of air travel then.
When my family got to United States of America, my parents got jobs in production factories. The working conditions and the remuneration rates were better than the factories in China. They did this while saving money to put up a business of their own. Each day my parents took me to a local day care before proceeding to their work places. After some time, we were living comfortably, and my parents had even saved enough money to buy a family car. In 2000, I enrolled in elementary school. By then life had become easier. My teachers were good to me, but my academic grades were not as exemplary as the other students due to my poor background in the English language though I was very fluent in the Chinese language.
I joined junior high school in 2005-2008. Here I discovered my ability in sports and my interest in academics grew thinner. The sports teacher encouraged me to join a sport when he discovered my ability. I joined the soccer for two academic semesters; I switched to swimming after learning how to swim. My swimming teacher was very supportive. During the national championships in 2007, I emerged the best in three races and had the opportunity to be trained by the top coach in the country for three weeks among other prizes. It was the best opportunity that all the people in my team had wished. My parents and my coach were proud of me. This was the peak of my swimming duration in junior high school.
After junior high school, I joined high school in Texas. My high school put more emphasis on academics than sports. Due to the interest and passion I had developed in sports, I lost interest in school. I spent most of my daytime hours playing computer and online games. My grades suffered greatly, but I barely cared since I didn’t think myself capable of achieving any good grades. My parents made me study English outside school for two years. Even after this, I could only communicate well in English but my writing and spelling skills were very poor. My school in Texas was a missionary school. The sisters and nuns were very strict and made us study for long hours to make us better our grades. There was barely any time to socialize, and people here had no social life at all. I felt caged in, and my teenage hood made it less simple to believe otherwise. During one of the visits from my parents in which they were allowed to visit us for an afternoon only, I asked my parents for a transfer from the school. My father was against my elect course of action, but my mother who is more empathetic convinced him otherwise on condition I better my grades.
In two weeks, I was given a transfer to a high school in New York. The school had many rich students and the life was simple and devoid of strict regulations. We even had the freedom to choose our teachers that were unheard of back in Texas. Life was fancy that did not make it better for my grades. I began taking and selling drugs. I did not have a care in the world and felt that the world owed me this newly found feeling I got when I took drugs. My break came one day when we, the popular kids, went to a club with our fake identification cards to have a ‘fun’ night. While partying and enjoying ourselves, there was a burst-in of the police in the club we were enjoying ourselves. Although I was high from the drugs we had taken, I remember the big sniffing dogs they had. In the United States of America, the legal penalty for illegal possession and distribution can vary from a fine to a heavy prison sentence. I don’t remember what happened, but I remember Alan, my then boyfriend, holding my hand and running with me. At some point, he carried me on his back, and I remember him getting us into a bush nearby. When I got to the next day, Alan was lying next to me unconscious. Confused, I called an ambulance since I couldn’t imagine anything happening to him. After a few minutes, we were at the hospital. My parents were very disapproving of his company. Our parents were called, and both of us were taken to our homes when he got better At that point, I requested my parents to take me back to my former high school in Texas. That is the last I saw of Alan.
Following my traumatic experience and a warning from the mother superior, I was more determined to study hard and make up for lost time. The mother superior is like the principal in urban schools. I took my studies seriously. I would study for more hours than everyone. Since I was the best student in my class, I was chosen to attend contests for school work and debates. The teachers were surprised at the change that had happened to me within nine months in the other school. Every time I remembered how I had narrowly escaped a prison sentence, I read more furiously. I eventually graduated from the high school in Texas with honors and joined college.
My college life is more of a balance since the WSU School has emphasis on both sports and academics to produce all-rounded students. I participate in swimming contests and still good in my Philosophy major. With all the life lessons, I have leant so far; I no longer sail through life but live life with a purpose. I have joined a group that hosts campaigns against drugs. I am a more constructive member of the society.
All the events that have occurred in my life have contributed greatly to who I am today and what I do. I am mature and constructive in dealing with the circumstances in my life. I do not look at myself as a Chinese in the country of Americans but as part of America as a country. The drug incident made me realize that life can be thrown away in the second yet I want every moment of my life to count. The last chance I was given to study made me a better student ready to join college. I made my college applications and got accepted to WSU as a philosophy major which is the exact major I had applied.
I made the decision to pursue Philosophy to understand how people think and teach people how to make productive decisions. Philosophy is the study of general and central problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. People’s lives are lead, and the choices made as the result of the philosophies they hold whether they are consciously or not. My reason for philosophical study is simply to aim at answering the questions that lie at the base of all the institutions of human interaction , and that all human beings must correspond to some fashion, if only by unthinkingly following the philosophy of life of someone else. Simply, it is a way of understanding the human mind and finding the answers to questions asked and find why people do the things they do. I have elected this course of action this with the hope that my studies and research will help now and generations to come.
The year 2014 will make two years since I graduated from high school I intend to be a lecturer and philosophical counselor when I graduate from college. I intend to come back to WSU as a philosophy lecturer. This way I can continue my study and still influence students in the study of philosophy in the right way. Philosophical counselors are trained philosophers that help one deal with issues or conflicts that have become too difficult and complicated. They deal with circumstances when people navigate their life meaningless path or feel trapped in an escapable cycle in which they cannot be helped by the people close to them. Philosophical counselors, mostly deal with people whose previous counseling did not work. They help uncover their hidden biases and probe an individual unconscious for answers. Everything studied in the philosophy major is directly applicable and valuable to this career, as many counselors and psychoanalytic use logical approaches to helping their clients. Most of the answers that have been attributed to complex human problems such as how to deal with serial killers have been found by philosophical counselors.
The studies of Personal Life History Reflection Paper (PLHRP) have made me evaluate the events in my life and give me an open way of looking at the world. For instance, my short time in China and the economic problems experienced then, and a quick recovery to what it is now, an economic super power, in just a decade has given a fresh way to look at the world. It has made me realize that everything that borders human capacity and ability is possible. I am connected with the events in the world around me. I am interested in politics and sincere political leadership and I have a way of predicting political outcomes from my study in philosophy. I am more in touch with people as compared with before during my time in school. The study of Personal Life History Reflection Paper (PLHRP) in college has led to making me open minded person and well, an all-rounded person. To understand the mind of a human being, this study has made me delve into my own past and uncover my life events and relive some moments in my life to be able to understand the subject.
The study of Personal Life History Reflection Paper (PLHRP) has helped me better understand the history. The ability to go back in my own history and understand all the events in my life and pick out the lessons in it during the study of Personal Life History Reflection Paper (PLHRP) has enabled me better understand the history. Also to write any paper in Personal Life History Reflection Paper (PLHRP) entails linking my life events to the events that were happening at that particular time in the economy, political and social environment. Hence I am able to understand the events more clearly and get what exactly happened then. I am able to better understand the history of the country and my own place of origin. Study of Personal Life History Reflection Paper (PLHRP) enabled me to understand the history in that by the study of the society today, one can understand what it created and the events and people whose actions have been inscribed in the pillars of history for shaping the we are today.
All the events in my life, the sequence of the seasons and eras, are a way of reminiscence and evaluation. As I walk through memories I always recall certain memorable events that make me who I am. My life is not over; I am still writing the story, but I like the direction it is now taking. Armed with the lessons learnt from the past seasons in life, I can confidently say that I am ready for my future. My dream to be a lecturer and philosophical counselor is a good opportunity in which I will be able to make a philanthropic contribution to the welfare of the society. Along with my experience in life, I hope to develop myself to keep pace with the changes of the era in my profession.