Character Analysis: The Daodejing Of Laozi
“Be as careful at the end as you are at the beginning and you will not ruin things.” (The Daodejing of Laozi, 64, p. 67)
One day during class, we discussed many different chapters of The Daodejing of Laozi. This quote was brought up and we talked about what it may have meant. When class was over, I continued to think about the applicability of this quote to real situations in my own life. Though we discussed this quote in class, I found that it resonated with me because it holds true to many aspects of life which I have encountered, such as my education. I have always tried to earn good grades in school, and when I didn’t, I worked to make them better. This work ethic began in high school when I realized the importance of my grades. I knew
I needed to work hard from the beginning of a class so that if the material got more difficult throughout the semester, there would always be a “grade cushion” to hold me up until I was able to understand the material to get better grades. For example, I took Advanced Placement Chemistry while I was in high school. This was rumored to be the hardest class in my school, but I loved chemistry so I thought, why not take it? From the beginning, I worked hard and was able to achieve A’s throughout the first half of the semester while the material we were learning was still review from the previous chemistry class I took. Later, the class began to get harder as we were learning new and more difficult concepts, which is where I applied the “be as careful at the end” (The Daodejing of Laozi, 64, p. 67) aspect of the quote. I studied hard so I could fully understand what we were learning. In turn, I received high marks on all my tests and I was successfully to keep up my grades in my hardest class. While in this example, I was successfully able to apply the meaning of the quote to my life, there was a time during senior year when I failed to do so. That was the result of the dreaded “senioritis”. I thought I could evade the problem that almost every senior student endured, but as time ticked towards graduation I began to slip away from trying so hard in school. I began senior year of high school taking the same level of rigorous classes I had taken throughout the rest of my high school career. I thought I could balance school, a part-time job, college applications, a social life, and my health all at the same time. The impossibility of my endeavors began to dawn upon me when certain aspects of my life began to dwindle away. By mid-year of my senior year, my grades began to drop, though still were not below A’s and I started hanging out with my friends less. I started putting more focus into my job, health, and college applications which hurt the other parts of my life I was trying to balance. It really hurt me to see what I strived to become great at begin to fail. As soon as I began to get accepted to college, I tried even less in school because I knew that I was already going to graduate and go to college. Though I did graduate and my grades never fell below A’s, it was a personal moral failure in my mind because I valued achieving good grades and I let myself down. If I were to have continued applying the quote to my life, I would have better held myself to my own standards. Now that I am in college, I realize my mistakes from senior year of high school and I am recovering to fix the laziness that had set in. I am proud of how I am doing so far, and following the meaning of this quote proves true to help me lead a successful life in the way that is morally right to me.
One day during class, we discussed many different chapters of The Daodejing of Laozi. This quote was brought up and we talked about what it may have meant. When class was over, I continued to think about the applicability of this quote to real situations in my own life. Though we discussed this quote in class, I found that it resonated with me because it holds true to many aspects of life which I have encountered, such as my education. I have always tried to earn good grades in school, and when I didn’t, I worked to make them better. This work ethic began in high school when I realized the importance of my grades. I knew
I needed to work hard from the beginning of a class so that if the material got more difficult throughout the semester, there would always be a “grade cushion” to hold me up until I was able to understand the material to get better grades. For example, I took Advanced Placement Chemistry while I was in high school. This was rumored to be the hardest class in my school, but I loved chemistry so I thought, why not take it? From the beginning, I worked hard and was able to achieve A’s throughout the first half of the semester while the material we were learning was still review from the previous chemistry class I took. Later, the class began to get harder as we were learning new and more difficult concepts, which is where I applied the “be as careful at the end” (The Daodejing of Laozi, 64, p. 67) aspect of the quote. I studied hard so I could fully understand what we were learning. In turn, I received high marks on all my tests and I was successfully to keep up my grades in my hardest class. While in this example, I was successfully able to apply the meaning of the quote to my life, there was a time during senior year when I failed to do so. That was the result of the dreaded “senioritis”. I thought I could evade the problem that almost every senior student endured, but as time ticked towards graduation I began to slip away from trying so hard in school. I began senior year of high school taking the same level of rigorous classes I had taken throughout the rest of my high school career. I thought I could balance school, a part-time job, college applications, a social life, and my health all at the same time. The impossibility of my endeavors began to dawn upon me when certain aspects of my life began to dwindle away. By mid-year of my senior year, my grades began to drop, though still were not below A’s and I started hanging out with my friends less. I started putting more focus into my job, health, and college applications which hurt the other parts of my life I was trying to balance. It really hurt me to see what I strived to become great at begin to fail. As soon as I began to get accepted to college, I tried even less in school because I knew that I was already going to graduate and go to college. Though I did graduate and my grades never fell below A’s, it was a personal moral failure in my mind because I valued achieving good grades and I let myself down. If I were to have continued applying the quote to my life, I would have better held myself to my own standards. Now that I am in college, I realize my mistakes from senior year of high school and I am recovering to fix the laziness that had set in. I am proud of how I am doing so far, and following the meaning of this quote proves true to help me lead a successful life in the way that is morally right to me.