Self Reliance

A paper I wrote in high school on an excerpt of my choice from the book "Essays of Emerson." It was one of my praised papers, and I evern wrote it under the influenece.

 

 

       While preparing to write this, I realized a lot of things can be said in paragraph or even in three sentences. I found my favorite part in Self Reliance and it perfectly describes everything that the school goals try to say.

       "There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide: that he must take himself for the better, for the worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed in that plot of ground which is given to him to till." Emerson, Self- Reliance, pg. 74, paragraph 1.

       It is so hard for me to describe what I feel Emerson is trying to say. I can think of the perfect words to help someone understand it, but those are just in my mind. Writing them down or actually speaking them out loud is much more difficult. There are so many mini messages in this sentence, but also one big message that comes all together.

         *Discover the Joy of Learning*: It is hard to find a part that fits this goal but it is there. "That he must take him self for the better, for the worse, as his portion." This relates in my mind because I think of all of the complications that I see in education, not only in traditional school but even in our school. Kids in a traditional school hate it, i.e. the worse. They see education as a required lesson, instead of something that you need to survive, as a skill. In our school we are very lucky to have a lot of freedom, i.e. the better. Also with our school we have the worse because so many people start to take the Open school for granted. If people would take things as their portion, then things might not be like that.

What I think Emerson is trying to say with that "tiny" part is that instead of finding all of your flaws and only your flaws, you must look at the bad and the good. Find a balance between the two and try to be happy with who you are, with your portion.

       *Seek Meaning in Your Life*, *Deal With What Is*, and *Create the World that Ought to be.* This whole paragraph relates to these goals. Especially this part that says "There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide." For me that says that everybody needs to be who there are with out imitation, without ignorance. Unfortunately, that is impossible. I think there would be a lot less sadness in the world with out these things, but the human race as a whole strives to be all alike. It is really hard for someone, especially a teenager, to not imitate. It is even harder for people not to get jealous, not have envy in their system. It’s impossible, I think for anyone to be their very own person. So many things influences a persons thoughts and actions. In order to seek meaning, you must first be happy with who you are, even if you are being an imitator. To create a "new" world, you must try your hardest not to imitate and to not live with envy in your heart. In order to deal with what is, a person must realize that they can’t change the people who like to "commit suicide." There are always going to be people who can’t think for themselves, you are the one whom can strive towards a person that is there own person. You must change yourself before you can change the world.

           What I think Emerson was trying to put out there, is exactly what I was talking about. He is basically saying that is all about the title of this essay, self-reliance. You need to depend on yourself, rather then someone else.

            Prepare for What Will Be* The last part of Emerson’s sentence is exactly what a person must do to prepare for the world ahead. "No kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground given to him to till." In order to be ready, you must do things beforehand, prepare yourself for that date or for that nerve wracking meeting. In order to eat lunch the next day without money, you must pack your lunch. I know that must be a weak analogy, but it’s true. You have to prepare in order to live. You need to prepare to do anything. It’s a way of life and the Open school teaches that well with the many drafts of a Passage proposal before there is actually a Passage meeting.

What I think Emerson is trying to say is exactly what I was thinking. In order to survive, you must work, you must prepare.

 

 

Author's Note

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