The Ultimate Gift
Wil Mathis
Mrs. Caccese
AP English
17 October 2012
The Ultimate Gift Life is the ultimate continuum, because it truly waits for no one. Our time here is limited and our opportunities are unlimited so make the most of what you have and work hard for what you desire. You have an obligation, as a breathing, conscious, living being to make the most out of your life in honor of those who lost this gift. I was 14 years old when my parents got separated, in that first week I stopped going to school, stopped hanging out with friends, I had no care for anything except my own sorrow, confusion, and anger. This continued for weeks to come until one day I got a phone call, it was my friend Freddy, he had asked me to come over his house with a few friends. At first I told him no I had things to do but he saw right through me, I’ll never forget the way he was able to break down my sorrow and see that I truly had nothing to do. He said “Wil, you can stay home, alone, sad, and whatever else or you can get your ass over here and have some good times, with good friends.” I was practically out the door before he finished the 2nd syllable in whatever. From that day on, I knew there would be a million reasons to be sad, reluctant, and apathetic from negative experiences in life, so I decided to give myself a million and a half reasons to be happy, grateful, and ambitious in the life I live. Every day that you wake up and take that first deep breath of air, someone, somewhere is giving their last and that is just a daunting fact of life. The life we choose to lead not only defines us as a person but it describes our soul. Free, caged, ravaged, saved, blessed, broken, beaten, or divine. However one chooses to describe it is entirely up to them and their own experiences, a homeless man may not have the freedom and carefree life style as a spoiled teenager but that homeless man has the drive to wake up wherever he laid his head to rest the night before and go about his day in
Mrs. Caccese
AP English
17 October 2012
The Ultimate Gift Life is the ultimate continuum, because it truly waits for no one. Our time here is limited and our opportunities are unlimited so make the most of what you have and work hard for what you desire. You have an obligation, as a breathing, conscious, living being to make the most out of your life in honor of those who lost this gift. I was 14 years old when my parents got separated, in that first week I stopped going to school, stopped hanging out with friends, I had no care for anything except my own sorrow, confusion, and anger. This continued for weeks to come until one day I got a phone call, it was my friend Freddy, he had asked me to come over his house with a few friends. At first I told him no I had things to do but he saw right through me, I’ll never forget the way he was able to break down my sorrow and see that I truly had nothing to do. He said “Wil, you can stay home, alone, sad, and whatever else or you can get your ass over here and have some good times, with good friends.” I was practically out the door before he finished the 2nd syllable in whatever. From that day on, I knew there would be a million reasons to be sad, reluctant, and apathetic from negative experiences in life, so I decided to give myself a million and a half reasons to be happy, grateful, and ambitious in the life I live. Every day that you wake up and take that first deep breath of air, someone, somewhere is giving their last and that is just a daunting fact of life. The life we choose to lead not only defines us as a person but it describes our soul. Free, caged, ravaged, saved, blessed, broken, beaten, or divine. However one chooses to describe it is entirely up to them and their own experiences, a homeless man may not have the freedom and carefree life style as a spoiled teenager but that homeless man has the drive to wake up wherever he laid his head to rest the night before and go about his day in