Undergraduate / 'Why so serious?' - Common App favorite quotation [4]

Option 4 - Using a favorite quotation from an essay or book you have read in the last three years as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world. Please write the quotation at the beginning of your essay.

Here's my essay.

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."
― Robert Frost

Why so serious?

I was surprised to see her again. When my friend Rebecca told me that she would introduce a friend to me, I never thought that it would be her. Even though I hadn't seen her for almost three years, even though I was a very forgetful person and we were not close at all, I still recognized her at the first sight because of what she told me last time we saw each other.

She looked so pale and gloomy when she sat down next to me on the bus. I greeted her as usual but didn't get an answer. I turned to look at her and surprisingly found her sitting with her head down, almost lifeless. "What happened?" I asked with a soft voice, "You can always talk to me if you want." She didn't look at me, remained silent for a while and showed me her left wrist. I was terrified to see a dark red scar lying across her wrist! It was new; the blood crust was still red. Then, she told me everything: the stolen wallet, her mother's scold, and how desperate she felt. She felt that her mom didn't understand her and didn't love her at all, so, she cut her wrist. She told me the whole thing with her head down, shoulders shaking. I couldn't see her face, but I could imagine how sad she must have felt. It was like the whole world turned on you out of sudden, and everything just went wrong. Didn't I feel the same way when I had a fight with my parents? Although I didn't think suicide was a good way to solve the problem, I sat with her and tried to comfort her with platitudes. I didn't know how to comfort people, but I guess it was all right. What she needed was a listener, not another didactic person.

Look at her now: she became prettier, full of vitality and carefree. I asked her about what happened three years ago with curiosity because she seemed to forget about it. "Oh, I was just being stupid." She answered lightheartedly with a brilliant smile as if nothing had happened. I smiled back feeling relieved. Robert Frost once said: "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." When I just had a fight with my dad and cried in my own room, I felt that no one cared about me, but two days later my dad and I was sitting in a restaurant having fun. When I didn't get perfect scores on my final exams in elementary school, I felt like a loser who could never do anything correctly, but I graduated as the best student in my class. When my great grandpa passed away, I thought that I wouldn't be able to live anymore, but it came out that my life goes on. All those times that I felt like the end of the world came out to be normal, and I was just being stupid.

Why so serious when treating seemingly important problems? As time passes we will find those problems trivial. Why so serious when facing obstacles? Do the best we can and everything will be just fine. Why so serious at the lowest point of life? Since we have nothing else to lose, whatever we do will only bring us up. Why so serious? Life goes on!