Wild Iris Anderson

September 9th/10th, 2014

Composition 1
This I Believe: Getting Started!

Have you ever changed your mind about something that you were previously certain about?
I once believed that miracles were myths. I thought that they were just positive
coincidences, which in a way, they kind oI are. But I thought that it was just something that
someone decided to do or not do - basically a decision made - that aIIected the outcome oI an event
or possible event. Now I think that there are occasions where that deIinition just doesn`t Iit. For
example, iI someone was told they were going to die in 6 months due to an incurable disease and
then 6 months later, they don`t die and ultimately live a long and prosperous liIe. This just means
that there are things that happen that we have no explanation Ior at all. It`s conIusing and at the
same time amazing. It`s a miracle!
I used think that words couldn`t hurt you. You know the phrase, 'Sticks and stones will
break my bones, but words will never hurt me. I believed that this statement was 100 true with
no way oI thinking otherwise. This was until when I was in probably second or third grade and
some people were mean to me. I thought that it was impossible to hurt someone with only verbal
actions. I was wrong. I would sometimes come home mad and write about it in my little journal
thing that I thought I was going to write in Ior the rest oI my school liIe (I was wrong, I would only
write in it Ior about three days in a row until I got bored with it or Iorgot about its existence Ior
about six months and would try again.), and be in a bad mood Ior the rest oI the day. Even then, I
didn`t really understand what it meant when I would come home mad or sad due to someones
words. It wasn`t until I was in I think sixth grade that I started reading young adult/teen Iiction
books. I read about the things people (girls mostly) would do to themselves simply because oI what
people were saying about them. It was a Ioreign idea that words could cause someone to inIlict
physical pain on themselves. Since then I have strongly changed my view on the belieI that words
can`t hurt me, because it deIinitely can.

Finish this sentence: ~If there`s one thing I`ve learned about life, it is.
II there`s one thing I`ve learned about liIe, it is that liIe isn`t Iair. Ever since I was little and
I would complain about something I had ,or couldn`t, do, either my mom or dad would say, 'LiIe`s
not Iair. and I would complain about that statement in itselI but I knew it was true. I think about iI
I was born as a diIIerent person in a diIIerent class or liIestyle that was maybe less 'Iortunate than
I am as I am right now. My liIe could include more eIIort in multiple diIIerent daily activities. I
could not be able to shower in running water or maybe use a computer at all. AIter thinking about
how diIIerent my liIe could be, I Ieel lucky. When I think about really how lucky I am to live the
liIe I`m living right now, even with my ADHD and OCD making my liIe signiIicantly more
diIIicult than others my age, I am grateIul Ior being alive here and now.
There are people who die Ior no reason. Who get sick when they are probably one oI the
nicest or best people most will ever meet. And others who do terrible things and make terrible
decisions like murdering someone, or maybe causing a good person to suIIer in some way or
another. But then again, what made those people who they are? Is it 100 their Iault Ior being
raised the way they were. To be born when and where they were. There are things that make no
sense to me and I have to try to Iigure out who deserves what comes to them. I mean a lot oI the
time, nobody really deserves to die, yet it happens everyday. People die, people get sick, people do
regrettable things to themselves or each other. It`s just the way we are, and although it may not be
as Iair as some may think, there`s really no way oI changing it.