So basically, my teacher just loved this essay tons. Even told me I had just screwed myself over for setting my standards high already. So, I thought I'd post it on here to share.
Colorful Life
The other day at church I as sitting there and my dad handed me some of the newer Crayola crayons he had found earlier that day. He told me, “Here, draw something, so you’re not so very, very bored.” Of course he was joking but I grabbed them and said thanks. I grabbed a piece of paper and a book, pulled out a color and then stopped. I then realized I had nothing to draw. I couldn’t rack something up in my head to draw. It made me stop and think.
When did we lose the kid in us? The simplicity of life? When did our dreams of being a doctor, vet, pilot, fireman, and police officer, stop? Of course, people continue on with that dream and make those things their careers. Others may come up with something that they would rather do. More often it was just too hard of a goal for some people. Any goal should be something you have to work for. It also has to have meaning to you, because nothing would be worth doing if it didn’t mean a thing to you. That’s something I really admire about children. They can be so determined and nothing will stop them, and when they complete a task, they feel so great about it. For me I can finish the task of homework and feel relieved that I’m finally done with it. Although I worked hard on it, I don’t feel the need to congratulate myself.
Children in general are just amazing and they blow me away on a regular basis. Like my nephew, Kameron, for example; A couple months ago my dad took me, my mom, and Kameron for a drive. It was the first time Kameron was able to sit in a truck tall enough where he could look out the window. As we drove through a canyon area he could see the way the sun and the trees would cast a shadow on the road and he could see the trees flying by in a blur and the entire time we drove he would yell “whee” and “whoa”. You could just tell that this was all new to him and in order to take it in himself he had to make sure he exclaimed his feelings out loud for everyone to hear. Well, where is my exclamation for what I’m seeing? I was able to see everything that he saw. I wasn’t able to see it in the same way he saw it though. He saw it as something new and incredible. I saw it as something I see every day. So, is there no joy and admiration for what I’m seeing? There is, but it’s nothing new and somewhat boring.
There’s this song and in the first verse it says “Yesterday, when you were young. Everything you needed done was done for you. Now you do it on your own.” Sometimes you think that you had to grow up in one day and it really does seem like that. Where did the time go? Why do we have the responsibilities that we have when we didn’t yesterday.
In the bridge of the song it says, “But in the end, the only steps that matter are the ones you take all by yourself.” That statement is so true. You can go your entire life having everyone do everything for you, but you wouldn’t feel all that great about yourself. You, yourself, would have accomplished nothing.
The crayon that I had pulled out was a black one. I colored the page solid grey. It looked so boring and there was nothing to it. If you give a child a box of crayons you would instantly have lines of all different colors on it. They would proudly walk over to you, once finished, and with a big smile on their face, hand it to you. You just know that they are so proud of that. Eventually that piece of paper with colorful lines will be thrown away and eventually replaced with a sheet of grey crayon. As I’ve grown up, I’ve lost the color to life, somewhere along the line it was faded away.
