Weltschmerz: Or, How I Came to cherish reality above the ideal.

Hi, this is a short little supplementary essay I wrote. Any advice would be deeply appreciated. There was no required topic for this essay. The max length is 1500 characters.

Weltschmerz.
It's a strange word for a morbid concept, roughly meaning "the realization that life will never live up to the ideals of the mind", and oh how true weltschmerz is. So many of us live life with a golden gaze in our eyes, believing this or that or any other thing that might keep us in clover for the next little while. The whole purposelessness of life is lost on most of us, but that doesn't mean it's ever truly gone. It might hit you when your car runs out of gas on the highway, or when you get stood up by a date, or when your mother passes away from say, heart disease, after trying to fight her body for most of her life.

I told myself she was going to make it, and as I held my mom's lifeless hand, I was woeful, bitter; I had come to know weltschmerz. I had fell into the cold pit of reality and couldn't claw my way back to my illusory world. I was caught in the flux of a purpose I no longer knew and an optimism that no longer existed. But soon, I realized that weltschmerz was not a philosophy. It wasn't even a belief. It was a feeling, just like the warmth of being with loved ones or the wistfulness of a long trip home.

Reality is not ideal because unlike the ideal, reality progresses. It wanders through opportunities to grow and struggle, to experience fortune and misfortune, to help and be helped by others. Reality is all we've got, and the fact that we have the luxury of experiencing the good as well as the bad makes life better than ideal. It makes life whole.

Not a bad piece of work for an open topic essay Kevin. The fact that you were able to successfully explain the meaning of the word not only be definition, but also through action. displays the inner workings of your mind and the higher sense of logic that you posses. All of which are excellent qualities for a potential student at any university should have. Now, the only fault with this essay are a few grammar issues. I'll point them out below:

It's a strange word for a morbid concept, roughly meaning "the realization that life will never live up to the ideals of the mind", and oh h How true weltschmerz is. ![

- You need to create an impact with your opening statement. by removing the part that I indicated, you create an almost Shakesperean like insinuation for your realization.

or whenyour , AS IN MY CASE , when MY mother passes PASSED away from say, heart disease, after trying to fight her body for most of her life.

- again, we are going for emotional connection and impact in this instance.

had fell FALLEN into the cold pit of reality a ...

Applying these corrections will make the essay ready to use :-)

Thank you Louisa!