Writing essay
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auto_collage_first.docxSait Sahin
Writing 102
Dr. Rowley
Autobiographical Collage
First Draft
#1
I believe people should always be thankful for what they have and try to be happy because there is always worse. Being happy is not that hard. I just look at the people around me who are in worse conditions and be thankful for what I possessed of. It has been the gateway to happiness for me after I had a significant day with my dad.
I was one of those people who get depressed when they face the smallest struggle. However, a few years ago two hours with my dad changed this for the rest of my life. Back then my dad was earning a lot of money. He had a few jewelry stores in different corners of the city that we lived in. Since I was younger and grew up with money, I didn’t know how to be thankful. After some time things went wrong and my dad had to close all of the stores except for one. I could realize that we weren’t as relaxed as we used to be. This was the only time I was really depressed in my life. Seeing my family members especially my dad stressed was making me even more upset. In one those days, my father called me to tell he wants to take me somewhere. Since I am the oldest child, he used to talk about his job and plans for future with me. I thought he was going to give me one of those speeches. With this in my mind, I met him and he started driving without saying anything. He drove for nearly half an hour. We arrived in a neighborhood that I had never been to before. People were so poor that they didn’t even have roofs on top of their shanties. Children near my age were playing soccer with an empty soda can in the street and shockingly to me they were having fun. Some of them had ripped clothes on and some of them didn’t even have shoes on their feet. Then I looked at myself, my clothes, my shoes and all of that, I had everything to be happy. I had a lot of things that those kids could only dream of.
What I saw in that neighborhood really touched me. My dad gave me the best lesson of my life without even saying a word. He knew I would understand and I did understand. After that day, whenever I face a problem in my life I say the same thing to myself. My struggle can be someone else’s dream.
#2
Our lives are full of decisions. We often pick something out of others to make our lives better. For instance, we even decide what to wear or which restaurant to go to. However, there are only a few decisions that can change our world. I happened to face one of those hard decisions when I was 14.
When I was back in Turkey, I was really happy. I was with my friends and family all the time and had a small world of myself. Before starting high school my dad came up with the idea of sending me to the United States for education. It was a hard decision to make for a 14 year old that never left his hometown. I refused at the first place. I was scared and didn’t want to leave my family, my friends and my country. I was happy. Later on I started thinking about the positive sides it will bring. It was really going to change my life and teach me a lot of things however I was not going to be as happy as I was. After all I decided to use that opportunity. After I came here, I realized that it was the best choice for me. I was going to go to a better college than the best one in Turkey. There was no one to do my laundry, to feed me or talk to me when I have problems however I was thinking about the long term benefits that this choice is going to give me and that was making me happy. As time passed I had new friends and I could have the same connections with them as I had with the ones in Turkey. Meeting new people, learning English and starting to live by myself had widened my perspective to the world. When I made mistakes there was no one there to fix it for me or show me a way to fix it. Those made me fix my own mistakes, deal with my own problems, and eventually learn from them and not making them again.
