Someone that influenced your thinking?
To me Mohammed Ali will be remembered as one of the greatest boxers that ever lived; however, his true legacy can also be in the field of philosophy and sociology. His six core principles speak volumes of wisdom when they are examined for truth. I feel a strong sense of motivation when I reflect on his six core principles, which include confidence, conviction, dedication, giving respect and spirituality.
As a member of my school's Lacrosse team, the first three principles are integral part of my membership in this sport. The pressures of succeeding in such a competitive sport, which include bending the rules, winning at all cost, and forgetting about one's responsibility, almost cost me my own values. Most people join teams to become popular, but all I wanted was confidence. I finally broke free of being compared to my older sister, who was extremely popular, socially skilled and excelled in academics, after joining the lacrosse team.
From the inception, confidence, dedication and self-motivation would become a driving force in my endeavor to show up to all after school practices, despite being exhausted from an entire day of school. In addition, the daunting task of facing well prepared opponents, whom seemed unbeatable, was nothing compared to the belief (or conviction) in me that I found after winning many games for the last three years.
The game can test your sportsmanship, especially when opposing teams fail to follow rules by using tactics such as illegal tackling, taunting, verbal insults and others. In such cases, I draw upon principle of giving respect to others, so as to take the moral high ground. In keeping with all six principles, the last one, spirituality, means many things to different people; however, it means one thing to me. It means that I can transcend the ordinary in my life or sport, and become extraordinarily proud of who I am.
Describe a difficult experience in your life and how it changed you?
The essence of caring is sharing with others in times of need. My life changed for the better after enduring one of the worst storms seen in decades. Hurricane Sandy will be remembered as a destructive event; however, I will remember the good that came during and after its aftermath. In my neighborhood, people focus on their own lives, and no one ever stopped to say or offered friendly greeting. There was a high level of cultural misinformation that existed. People were frantically trying to escape the impending doom that came in the form of power outages, high criminal activities, loss of home heating and torrential rainfall.
My neighbors and I had nowhere to go because all roads were closed. The power went out in a wave of synchronized destruction. There was no heating in my apartment. A bone chilling feeling overcame me as I started to envision what it would be like to freeze to death or starve. All the hope and dreams I had seemed to fade away in the blink of an eye. As the hours into the night passed, I expected the worst; however, a knock at my door would become my salvation. It was my neighbor who was equipped with three power generators.
He needed a translator because a large number of the neighbors were Spanish speaking only. I wasted no time in rushing to aid of others by knocking on doors with my neighbor, acting as a translator. People were in disbelief as they saw the power return to their homes as he connected them to his generators. My neighbor displayed a trait that we all possess inside; we can be kind to each other. After the storm subsided, I learned many things about my neighbor which include the importance of family, honesty, integrity and caring. The principles of his culture, which is of Guyanese decent, is something that is worthy of admiration, emulation and reflection. Perhaps if we can have more events that bring us closer together, whether they are bad or good, our world could be filled with enlightened people who appreciate diversity.
