Post # 53

53. Discuss a significant experience or achievement that has influenced your life.

Just a couple of days ago, while talking to a friend, I was told that I have “mellowed down a lot.” I didn’t know what that quite meant, and instead of saying anything to him, I just nodded my head. I didn’t think much of it until one of my friends told reminded me of the first thing she saw me do when she arrived at Woodstock. She reminded me that she saw me pick up a guy from our grade, and throw him on the fence. I was a bit taken aback at first, as I hadn’t recalled this incident in a long time. She sat there describing it to me as I continued denying it. She told me that she was scared of me then because she saw me do that to a guy; she told me of how she was afraid to say hi to me even when I said hi to her. I started remembering then. I remember getting in trouble and being dorm gated until quarter break in the first semester of my 7^th grade. I was finally out of the “underdog” status as I wasn’t in 6^th grade, and then I was classified as a “bad boy” – well at least by that friend of mine. I remember being so angry about small things then, and I remember being agitated and always needing to do something about the anger that had bottled up inside me. I didn’t know how to get rid of it, so all I ever did was take it out on someone else.

That’s when it finally struck me. I had mellowed down, as that friend of mine said. I finally understood that I had stopped being rowdy and angry in a physical way, and I was really happy. Yes, of course, I’m a growing boy, and I will be rowdy at times, and I will get angry and will want to punch things, but it wasn’t like the way it used to be before. That experience with me pushing someone on the fence, clearly ended up reflecting in a positive way on me. I know that I will still get mad, and I know that I have gotten mad in that way after that incident, but I have always tried to control myself and stopped from harming someone else.

This is experience may be common and something minor to talk about to many of you, it has been one of the few significant experiences in my life that has changed me. I have become a calmer, more collected person after that incident. I have tried my level best to be kind and generous to everyone. Though that fails at times, and my human instincts get the best of me, I still try to be as good as I can possibly be. I have tried to be gentle and caring towards everything around me – be it animals or humans (if you think about it, they are pretty much the same thing). I used to think that being gentle and mellow was a power of weakness, but I have come to realize that it is only a question of strength. This shows how much control I have over my feelings, which makes me more powerful than the strongest person there is.

Number of Words: 560