Before I start, I would like to note that growing does
not always mean learning something new, sometimes it means validating and
becoming more assured in the things you believe. So this year, although I
learned more about individuality, self-worth and justice than I thought there
is to know, I think the most important thing that happened to me, is that I
became more certain of the things I have known and believed before, whether by
experiencing and thinking about them on a deeper level or by expanding my
perspective.
I knew that parents are great blessings from God,
which are not to be taken for granted, but treasured and their wisdom is worth
attending to. This year while reading Things
Fall Apart I grew in my certainty that God gives us parents to teach us how
to live, and came to understanding that we are also to learn from them, from
their virtues and vices, accept them and be thankful for them and to them.
Okonkwo’s tragic example reaffirmed me in the fact that I should not resent my
parents for the way they are, but to love them and thank them for doing
everything in their ability and bringing me up so that I might become the
person God wants me to be.
I knew that God is good and all his plans are for my
prosperity. This year while I was reading The
Plague, while being convicted with the darker side of life and the small
amount of explanation and justification that we can think of in our small human
minds for the torment and woes we experience, I reinvigorated my belief in the
majesty, power, stability and unsurpassing wisdom and care of God for me and
all human kind.
I strengthened in my belief in the necessity of second
chances and forgiveness and began unraveling the mystery humanness and
humbleness while reading about the Bishop in Les Miserables. While reading
about Cossette’s affliction in the Thenardier household and Nora’s predicament
with being a trinket of her husband, while aspiring to have worth and respect
from others, I rejuvenated my belief in the importance of understanding others
and valuing them not as “creatures”, but as masterpieces created in the image
of a perfect God
I could not have been more blessed this year in this
class. World Literature, through which Mr. O was my guide, gave me answers and
questions, time and deadlines, freedom in creativity and restrictions in length,
protection and exposure, to make me stronger, more sensitive and help me be
affirmed in my convictions and the Truth that I know.