edited english essay

Matthew Mann
TWM Essay Outline
Ms. Parkes
Nov. 12, 14
Introduction:
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
― Albert Camus
A good life is a happy life.
Thesis statement: A life worth living consists of love, focus and a will to move forward.
Body Paragraphs 1
Love family
Love neighbours
Love yourself
Love the world
Body Paragraphs 2
Focus on your goals
Focus on what’s important
Balance your life
Think before you act/ think about where you’re going
Body Paragraphs 3
Learn from regret and accept
Move forward from your mistakes
Life is what it is, but make it into something else
Take joy in looking to the future
Conclusion
Life is what you make of it
Dream your Dreams but Live your life
The best life is a life of love
God is love

Matthew Mann
TWM Essay Outline
Ms. Parkes
Nov. 12, 14
The Good Life
Albert Camus, French Nobel Prize-winning author, journalist, and philosopher, said this: “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary simply states that life is the ability to grow and change, it separates plants and animals from things like water or rocks. Life is so much more than that. The question is, how can we each live the best life, a life that makes everyone happy and proud? A life worth living consists of love, focus, and a will to move forward. And it is now my turn to go on that journey.
What is love? Many people define love as an intense feeling of deep affection. Sure, we love our families, we love our friends, and we love our pets, but we also love pizza and chocolate. We love our TVs, our houses, our money, and all our material things. But non-living things that can’t love us back give us feelings of emptiness. They leave us wanting more and more, and we can never get enough. If we love money, we will desire more of it because it can’t return the love we gave. Love things that will love you, even if they don’t at the moment, they will learn to love you and return the feeling with interest. This will give ourselves greater feelings of appreciation, of respect and of happiness. Love things that can love you, and you will be loved. Not material things, not money, or fame, or houses, or furniture. Appreciate these things and be grateful, but be willing to give them up in the search for happiness, and in search of love. Matthew 6: 19-21 says this: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Let that be how we live our lives.
Our families are our backup, our support. We need to trust them, love them and guide them. We should want what is best for them, and they should want what is best for us. A regret one of my interviewees said is that she regrets not listening to her loved ones, not appreciating them while they had the opportunity to do so. Loving and taking care of our family adds a purpose to our life. Morrie Schwartz, the subject of the best-selling book, Tuesdays With Morrie, said this: “The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn’t the family.” Surrounding ourselves with the ones who loves us, and the ones we love will make our lives worth living. Knowing that we need them, and that they need us makes us valuable.
To love the people around us can make a bigger impact on the world than any other action or actions combined. Love the person sitting next to you on the bus. The person in front of you in line when you get your coffee. The person who cut you off while driving to work. Loving them does not mean that you would do anything to be with them for the rest of your life. Be nice to People. Morrie Schwartz also said this, “The problem, Mitch, is that we don 't believe we are as much alike as we are. Whites and blacks, Catholics and Protestants, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one big human family in this world, and to care about that family the way we care about our own.”
Love people in a way in which they can have the same happiness you are enjoying. Even if you are not having a particularly good day, let them have the happiness you wish you had at that moment. That means, if someone butts you in line at the supermarket, allow them to go ahead. Making others happy will make you happy. And if they don’t notice your sacrifice, you and God will know, and you can look forward to the joy you will get in the future. This being said, don’t allow people to walk all over you, taking advantage of you and using you; learn where to draw the line.
“If you can learn to love yourself and all the flaws, you can love other people so much better. And that makes you happy.” That was said by Kristin Chenoweth, American singer and actress. When we learn to love ourselves, we learn to love others. Loving ourselves does not involve pride and arrogance, but humility as well as confidence. Humility—it’s knowing we aren’t perfect, and that no one else is either, but accepting who we are and being grateful for the person we have become. Confidence—we believe we can do great things, and make the world a better place. To love ourselves is to take care of ourselves. Do what is best for others, but remember to do what is good for you as well. Take care of your body, take care of your emotions. Remember, you are important too, so look after yourself. Love yourself.
Love the world, not the things in this world, similar to living in the world and not being of it. Love the people, the environment, and goodness people share around. Don’t love materialistic things. They will break. They will get lost. They won’t fill your desires, but as Morrie Shwartz Schwartz said, “Do the kind of things that come from the heart, when you do, you won 't be dissatisfied, you won 't be envious, you won 't be longing for somebody else 's things. On the contrary, you 'll be overwhelmed with what comes back”.
Focus on love, it will make you happy, but what else? What about your dreams? For those who know me well, one of my dreams in life is to have a castle. I know it is quite far off, but I am convinced that with enough work and dedication to that dream it could possibly come true. Of course, I would have to focus on getting more than a good job, and having all the right opportunities, but having a dream, and working towards it, is what really matters.
“You have to dream before your dreams can come true,” said by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, a former Indian president. Don’t just dream it, do it. Focus on your goals. Focus on being healthy, continuing your education, and being happy. My goal is to have a castle; I know what I need to do to reach the goal. Now I need to focus on doing what I need to do to make my dreams come true.
Many focus on just their jobs, getting money, becoming famous and important, they reach the top, they realize they focused on the wrong things. Yes, those things are important. We, have to provide for our families and loved ones, but we also have to love them, too. Put your phone down when your kids are begging to tell you something. Have a nice family dinner and catch up on each other’s day. Call some old friends from high school and tell one another about life, even call your old professor. Morrie Schwartz said this, “Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, as I am sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money or power will give you what you are looking for, no matter how much of them you have”.
Balance is key to how we become whole. If you lean to one side too much, metaphorically, the bucket will spill. If, you lean to the other side, it will spill again. If God is our water, and we have a balanced bucket, we will have the feeling of fullness that we all desire. Don’t focus on your job so much that you forget your family, and don’t stay home all day with your family while there is no food in the cupboards. Balance is the key is to success, the real type of success.
The relationships you have with the people around you are important. Don’t just focus on them, but experience them. Remember that thought should be given to whom we invest our time. Advice on this issue is wide-spread, but it comes down to not allowing negative people to impact you. But, what if you are the one who is not having a particularly good day? You can damage many valuable relationships by saying things while you are angry. Think before you speak, a wise piece of advice. Focus on the relationships that matter, and let go of the ones that are keeping you back.
There are times when we all lose focus, and we make mistakes. But are regrets really a big deal? We have all made them, and some are pretty big. But it is what you do afterwards that makes you who you are. Learn from your mistakes, accept them, and move forward. If you can fix it, then do so, but if not, accept it. What, can you do about it anyway? Each lesson has a teacher; sometimes, experience is the greatest teacher of all. Be grateful that you now have this lesson, and make it apart of your testimony.
Leanne Farley, one of the people I interviewed, said although she went through a difficult divorce, she is grateful for it. She is grateful because if the marriage had not existed, she would not have had the two children that she loves dearly. She has the strong will to move forward in life, and she has the right attitude needed to make the best of life. Daisy Fuentes, a woman whom I know well, was diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease. Although the time she had to struggle through was difficult, she is now cured from the illness. She now looks at that experience as a part of her testimony, and is another great example of determination. These are two examples of a characteristic more people need to develop.
I agree with the statement, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” but I also think it is very limited. If life gives you lemons, and you don’t want lemons, go to the supermarket and exchange them. Get oranges and make orange juice, or if that doesn’t suit you, get apples and make apple juice. I know it’s definitely not that easy, but the way I see it, life will give you certain things. You can sit there and complain, and not change anything, or you can theoretically go to the supermarket and get the ingredients you want. Certain situations are unfair: things that nobody should have to go through, but yet it happened, and it is up to us to change it. Life is what we make of it, either apple juice or orange juice, whatever we like best.
We cannot always choose our situations, but we can choose what we do with it. Most times, our pain is the result of our actions. We can now learn from these mistakes, and share the experiences, but we can also look forward to the future, where there is one more thing that won’t hurt us. The future is a place never to be feared. Be excited for the future, and don’t sulk in the past. Realize that the choices you make today, will define your future. So, choose to be happy. Choose to live a long, meaningful life.
The way to add meaning to your life is to live it. Live it each day to its maximum potential, where God can guide us to brighter and better futures. Choose to be happy, love one another. Choose to love God. “They say, find a purpose in life and live it. But, sometimes, it is only after you have lived that you recognize your life had a purpose, and likely one you never had in mind,” by Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan-born novelist and physician. All these things add up to a meaningful life, but my final conclusion is that no matter how hard or where we search, God is the ultimate reason we are alive. He gave us life, and he even gave up his own life to save us. The best life, and a life full of meaning, is a life in harmony with God. Only then, will we find the answers we all desire.
Matthew Mann
TWM Essay Bibliography
Ms. Parkes
Nov. 12, 2014
Work Cited
Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life 's Greatest Lesson
New York: Doubleday, 1997. Print. http://www.brainyquote.com/ Fuentes, Daisy. "Interview 1." Interview by Matthew Mann. 2 Nov. 2014. Television.
Transcript.*
*Henderson, Kyle. "Interview 2 ." Interview by Matthew Mann. 2 Nov. 2014. Television. Transcript.*
*Farley, Leanne. "Interview 3." Interview by Matthew Mann. 2 Nov. 2014. Television. Transcript.*
* All interviews are anonymous and each have been given a pseudonym.

Bibliography: New York: Doubleday, 1997. Print.