A Quick Way to Make Life Better
- Justin Javier
- Jan 8, 2019
- 2 min read
Throughout the ride of life, there have always been speed bumps that appear unavoidable, as they always find a way to make things a little more difficult. Every now and then, I am greeted with a gentle, yet refreshing, feeling of hopelessness. As people living in the 21st century we are constantly faced with first-world problems. It is almost completely inevitable that I run into the thought that I have no direction, or am possibly blinded by vanity. These thoughts really make you reconsider how you approach life, what's really worth it, and if the way you've been doing things so far has been beneficial.
At the beginning of my ENG4U1a course, I read a story called Araby by James Joyce, a short tale about a little boy who loses his childish ways and, towards the end of the story, unwillingly replaces it with a new understanding of a tough reality and a demoralizing feeling of despair. It was effortless for me to make connections to this story because there was a point where I was in a similar situation, as I am sure many of us have been. A time approaches where life is no longer all about fun and games, and walking around free from responsibility is preposterous. Soon, all those ideas will be replaced by a more realistic and honestly overpowering perspective, one that can crush the spirit and make some believe that things will remain unfairly difficult; however, that is not the case.
James Joyce's work shows a transition in life, something that we need to go through in order to grow as people. I can specifically relate this to myself because as I go through my grade 12 year (the toughest year of my life), it's easy for me to automatically resonate towards the easy path, a path where I simply give up. Araby shows the change between illusion and reality and the difference between a child and a man.
That difference is exactly what we should take out of Araby, in the drastic transition demonstrated. I learned that we can't look back to the days where we were blinded by a cheap trial of life, because all that does is make us lose hope; we imagine the life we once lived that was carefree, and compare it to the hard times that we currently go through. This is already unrealistic as a comparison, and only does us harm. Araby shows you that, yes, things can be very bad, especially when you learn that what you might have believed to be the sole truth at first is not actually the accurate big picture, and that is perfectly okay. It is okay to learn that there is something more, something real and genuine waiting ahead, so it's not fair for us to feel despair everytime life slows us down. Life has its highs and lows, and when we do reach those lows, it doesn't matter how far down we actually go, all that matters is if we're able to push through and reach an amazing high that shows you just why it's great to be alive.
This blog post was very relatable as a grade 12 student. It was very insightful when you mentioned that Araby demonstrates a transition in life, and I definitely agree. I'm sure we have all gone through a transition since we started high school four years ago: we have learned how to be responsible, and have been faced with some very important choices. As you mentioned, we could have chosen the easy way out and given up on our education, but we have persevered and are still here as a result. In the near future, we are bound to go through another phase of our lives where we will be faced with more important choices and once again experience a transition:…
This blog post is highly relatable to everyone that is of this age in their life, because we are all stressing about getting good grades in order to get into our desired university/college and having a good future. Like you mentioned, life for us now is very different from life for us when we were kids. We are now responsible for what we choose to do because it is our life and our parents can't be holding our hands and guiding us through anymore.
During times of unhappiness, I often catch myself looking back into the past and missing the life without worries and responsibilities, but I have to remind myself that we have to move on and focus on…
Justin, I thought your blog post was really relatable when you talked about the highs and lows of life. I thought that your post can relate to the whole class and grade since most people have been super stressed when it came to classwork because we have to remember that this is the hard part in our lives that will eventually get us to the future where it becomes easier. I think what you said was very true when you said that comparing harder times to easier times makes us lose hope because we want our lives to easy and enjoyable.
Wonderful blog! I completely agree with your opinion on life having its ups and downs as well as our life as children being carefree and incomparable to our current stressful lives we lead today. I like how you mentioned that it is okay to look back at the past and think how different your beliefs were as a child to how they are now.Though I think it is also important to mention that even though life has its up and downs, it is important to know that many good elements can come out of those lows in life. It is also good to remember that when looking at the lows experienced in your life, instead of excusing them, it i…
I think something about growing older is us expecting life to get more exciting, when really, the exciting things you think you'll be able to do once you have the freedom to do it are things you either don't have time for or are no longer interested in. When I was young, I remember always being excited to be able to go wherever I wanted without my parents having to come with me, to gain this freedom, and once I got into high school, and did gain this freedom, I only went out a few times and never really wanted to do much when I was outside. The things we aren't able to do are the things we want to…