Facing obstacles

Unlike school where you learn a lesson then you take a test, life gives you the test first then you learn your lesson. These ‘tests’ as one may call them are the obstacles that people face everyday and overcome in order to better themselves. These hurdles ultimately force change upon a person and have the potential to bring about either success or failure. During our class presentations, I learned the effects of how obstacles can impact who we are, from different perspectives and characters. From learning about Pip’s struggles in Great Expectations, to Mark Zucklerburg’s entrepreneurship, we found that every person has a battle to fight. There will always be different outcomes of these battles, which will shape each person’s unique identity. The way individuals handle their obstacles defines their character, refines skills, morphs their perspective and ultimately creates their identity.

Diversity is fuelled by the different obstacles each person endures. Since each person faces different struggles in their own lives their individual identities are shaped in distinct ways. In Group 4’s presentation, they discussed how Coy faced struggles at a very young age, and how it impacted her being. Her families’ support alters her perspective on her life and her beliefs and gives her self-confidence and security. This shows that support is essential for a person’s healthy growth as it shows people that they are not alone in their struggles. The most influential positive motivators in life are those who support and love you, as they give you confidence and help you strive and reach your potential. In life, when you over come obstacles, a positive attitude results which can change everything. With that confidence comes the realization that nothing in life is impossible and that life, although sometimes difficult has promise. Humanity as a whole has survived by being a part of a family, a community, a country, the whole world.  We couldn’t live without each other.

Overcoming obstacles can shape an individuals’ identity.  Every experience and how one responds to it can change your mind-set. Recently, in my life, I have been having serious trouble with my tumbling (acrobatic skills). For more than three years now, I have what we call a back-handspring, which at one point was a very easy skill for me. As human nature has it, I was striving for excellence and wanted to be on a higher team, which required more difficult skills that I did not have yet. In trying so hard to attain this new skill, a back tuck, which was required to make my ‘dream team’, I lost the easiest and most basic skills. This act of losing skills that you once had is called a “mental block”. To combat this block I have been working for months to get my confidence back and throw the skills that I have had for years. Overcoming this fear was fairly hard due to the constant reminders from my subconscious telling me that I cannot do it. Having this ‘block’ happen to me certainly changed my perspective on practically everything, because I felt that almost everything I did was incorrect. This also changed my attitude towards the sport as I felt that it wasn’t as much fun as it use to be because I felt that I was an inadequate member of the team.  Today, I have worked very hard to combat these negative thoughts of mine, and I have succeed and now, once again can throw my back-handspring. As soon as I started to combat the negative thoughts, and overcame my obstacle, I realized that I could do anything that I set my mind to, which indeed changed my perspective in a positive way. Now I see my world as successful and positive, because for me the only way to be happy is to be positive. Not only did my teammates encourage me and support me through this journey, so did my mother, which I think was one of the main reasons why I blocked the block. From this experience, I learned that anything is possible as long as one sets a goal and has supporters that are always there for them through thick and thin. 

Society as a whole has a major influence on the perspective of people and how they view themselves and each other. For example in “The Road Not Taken” the author is conflicted on which road he should go down, the reliable and worn path or the dark and less predicable one. The author chooses to take fate into his own hands and takes the road less travelled, because, although it is more treacherous, in the end he believes it will benefit him. This connects to Pip’s life because the easy more predicable path for him would have been to continue his common life, but instead he choose the more difficult, yet more rewarding (or so he thought) path of becoming a gentleman and changing his fate. This proves how choices in life have a direct influence on the paths people take and their future.  The obstacles that result from your choices may make your journey difficult but with family and friends, a great attitude and a good perspective these obstacles can be conquered and your self-confidence and identity will become stronger. One’s identity is continuously morphing, for every day holds new experiences that can build or break someone. How one responds to these experiences will fortify their philosophy on life, either positive or negative.  Respond well and success and strength and self-confidence will result.

This human experience that we call ‘life’, is a treacherous and constant battle that is fought mostly within ourselves. The fight within us is shaping and forming of our reality and identity. Every person’s journey and experiences are different, but in the end we are all connected no matter how different our battles are and how different our being is. No matter how hard we try to be different, we are all interconnected as every drop of water makes a part of all the oceans.