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We are all aware of the many achievements made in one’s life. Amounts of wealth, fame, or accomplishments are constantly made, and constantly surpassed. Forward one hundred and fifty years and the likelihood of someone accomplishing the same goals to a greater extent is extremely high. Save history’s greatest heroes, we will all fall victim to the passing of time. It is simple to fall into a pit of discontent, to hold an pessimistic attitude towards life. This attitude is not the intent. To narrow one’s life through the magnification of time, an idea becomes apparent. The idea that one’s life is only validated though the fulfillment of one’s desires. A hedonistic approach to life may come to mind at first, but the fulfillment of one’s desires is different for different people. One may want to accumulate wealth and fame, another may have the desire to marry and produce offspring, others yet may only wish to persevere and enjoy the fruits of their labor. I believe that the fulfillment and freedom of one’s life is the sum of two constant, lifelong events. Knowledge and resources are the two essential events that must have an active role in order to live a free and fulfilled life. For an example, suppose Bob wanted to ride the world’s greatest roller coaster, without knowing which roller coaster is the proclaimed greatest, Bob would pass without fulfilling his dream. If Bob was mislead or did not posses the knowledge and rode what he thought was the greatest roller coaster, did Bob really have the choice to ride the greatest roller coaster? Like wise without the money or means of transportation, although Bob knew where the greatest roller coaster was, Bob would be unable to get there and again would not lead to a fulfilled or truly free life. Not to imply that a the fulfillment of life hinges on a single event or desire, but to show that the most important thing to possess in life is knowledge. Knowledge of oneself, knowledge of one’s needs, knowledge of the mechanics of building and accumulating the essential resources in order to fulfill one’s desires, these are the essence of knowledge. The possession of knowledge benefits anyone. To the hard rocker that rages against the machine or feels there is no way to live but outside the system, you have big shoes to fill in order to become peer to Albert Einstein, Dr Martin Luther King, or Noam Chomsky. For the ones that inspired to excel and become something great, names such as Michael Jordan, Aristotle and Benjamin Franklin are great heights to strive for. If one just wants not to be notice and just do their job could be forged by extraordinary circumstances to become extraordinary heroes, such as the brave men and women of the armed forces, or Rudolph Giuliani. Knowing what to do in certain situations is critical. To be a part of the passing of knowledge, to become an instrument for others to build there own life, is a desire of my own. Be it teaching the alphabets or quantum mechanics, conveying knowledge is critical to all mankind in order to live a free and fulfilled life. This is my philosophy of teaching. To me there is no greater cause to lead a meaningful life than the commitment to the accumulation and distribution of knowledge. |
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