Ralph Waldo Emerson's Aphorism Essay

Throughout the many works by author Ralph Waldo Emerson, included are many aphorisms that connect to life through short, clever observations. These observations connect to life at the time in which were they were written, as well as even to life today. From Emerson’s work, Self-Reliance, there is an aphorism that states, “To be great is to be misunderstood…” (Emerson). This connection to life explains that many of the people that we accredit to many successes- leaders in many different fields, are misunderstood at one point. Emerson explains that in order to be great, you must at one time be misunderstood by those around you. Although Self-Reliance was written in 1841, over one hundred and fifty years ago, Emerson’s aphorism referencing
However, these examples are extremely large-scale, and this idea of being misunderstood to become great can even be evident in our own lives. I can remember a time when this aphorism connected to my life clearly in the second grade. Every day in school we did a math worksheet with one hundred addition problems. I was always the first one to finish, so my teacher decided to give me multiplication instead of addition. I understood the math right away, but no one in my class could get it at all. With no help from my teacher, I did all of the problems faster then any other kid did the addition, but they all sat there confused when they saw what I was doing. They did not understand what I was doing with the numbers whatsoever, when all it was to me was a little more complicated addition. No other kid understood how I got the answers that I got, but it did not matter to me at all. All that mattered to me was that in learning multiplication so early, I would be ahead of all the other students in my class, and I was every single year. This misunderstanding that I received was very important to me, for I realized