AN ECCENTRIC EXPERIENCE

UNEDITED SAMPLE LITERARY ARTICLE
By Jezel Christine Nolasco Quevada
IV-Madame Marie Curie


Life is an adventure. It is a long journey where you have to climb all the highest mountains, swim the deepest oceans and fight all the vaguest of odds just for you to find what you are looking for - YOUR PURPOSE. The road you will journey through is never easy. Surely, there will be countless impediments that will test the strength you possess. It will push you to your limit until you concede. Because of this, one must really be focused to achieve his goal for him not to give up easily despite the excruciating trials he has and eventually, for him to succeed. These things will make us a real being and show us the true meaning of existence.

In my sixteen years of learning, I have learned a lot about life which moulded me to who I am today. I have seen the world’s personality behind its deceitful mask. Once, I thought it was just a bed of roses where everything was delightful. I thought it was full of magic where everything was uncomplicated. But, I was definitely wrong. The world we all know may also be full of bleaks and sorrows. It may also be full of struggles and complexities. Truly, the world is never perfect just like what most fairy tales and children’s stories tell.

I journeyed the world filled with much innocence. All I know is that I should study hard and give my best because my parents once told me that education is the only heirloom they could pass on to us. They also added that if we would study now, we would no longer have a hard time in the future. Because of this, I was encouraged to study more. I dreamed of finishing my studies and finding my purpose.

However, our family had been struck by many storms. Our funds became exhausted due to the concurrent death of my grandmother and grandfather. We were forced to lessen our miscellaneous expenditures and not to have our regular family day. We could no longer buy our wants and we had to sacrifice some of our allowance to help in our financial problems. This branched out to many other problems. I lost hope in studying and my grades started to go down.

The time came when I already lost hope of pursuing my goals. I became so downhearted and felt so weak because of the many obstacles coming in and out of my life. Pessimism came rushing through my blood already until one day, one of my teachers invited me to join in going to Handicapped Center of Lourdes, one of the projects of Caritas which is a home for abandoned disabled children. We donated clothes, food and toys and we prepared a program just for them. Those children were abandoned by their parents. I was hurt when I saw them without eyes, hands and feet, or hearing.

This opened my eyes to the nature of men. I saw men’s cruelty. I saw how they are greedy of glory, riches and power. They wanted to take advantage of others to the point that they hurt people and acted like gods. Their greed provoked them to do evil and caused numbers of people to be orphans, to be abandoned and to be too ill. As I saw these things, I felt a stabbing pain in my heart. I felt anger and depression flowing through my whole being. I did not understand why they had to do these things when God created us all equal. I felt that this incident had given me a burden to carry. I realized that God had already showed me my purpose in life which is to start living for others.

I also realized how lucky I was to have a healthy body and parents who love and take care of me. My life may be filled with problems, but if I were to compare my obstacles to theirs, mine would be just a size of a pea. I was ashamed of myself because I was complaining about what I was going through but they were not. They were even using their skills to accomplish a task. Most of all, I did not see anyone of them sad because of the situation.

From that, I not only earned how to live life but also how to live for others. Joining that activity sure was fun, I learned a lot of things which made me a better person and also I have contributed to the joy of the children there. Though our time there was only short, it was so fulfilling for me. I discovered that life is not easy. There will be manifold challenges that will arise and test your strength to purse your goals. Some will prove you how unfair life is. But despite all these, rise again, and continue your journey to achieve, and there will be a silver lining to help you.