school essay

Throughout life, everyone deals with temptation, whether it be something small, and rather insignificant in the bigger scheme of things, for instance that slice of delectable cake that you just know you don't need; or one that would have more serious repercussions, like taking the money off your boss’s desk, because your boss doesn’t really need another trip to Hawaii. We all face the familiar feeling of temptation, which is clearly displayed in this picture, where the boy was constantly tempted to succumb to the sea of death that was washing over him as he was slipping in and out of consciousness; he was lying on the shore of life and death.

Like everybody else in this world, I've faced certain challenges and difficulties. When I was three, my parents divorced. When I was five, my mom married a man who taught me that people can put on very good guises, and people change after marriage. Without going through all of the mundane details of my life, I’ll skip to the present, here I sit today, at 15 years old, six schools behind my belt, I have five siblings through various combinations of steps and halves, I've been told by various psychologists and other specialists that I have depression, anxiety issues, and that I’m medically gifted.

Then I met him. He was my vulture, the one who was just waiting for me to give up so he could take me for his benefit. This boy, let’s call him X, was constantly trying to bring me down so he could reap the benefits when I was low. Like in the picture where the vulture was waiting for the boy to die, X wanted me to hit rock bottom. X told me that if I wasn’t there, he would cease to exist. At the time, I thought X was there for me, but he was the opposite, he nearly destroyed me.

Throughout all of this, like any other human, I've been tempted to do unintelligent, reckless things, and make completely stupid decisions. At some stages, I've wanted to just run away from all of this, I've been introduced to the wrong crowds of people, luring me towards their ways of life with their drinking and smoking habits - at one stage last year, I came very close to self-harming, which was something I saw throughout my crowd of friends. I didn’t.

Now today, I haven’t heard from X in almost a year, but I know through various people that he’s fine, he's still alive. And moving away from the negative people around me, I've managed to see everything through my own, somewhat more positive, outlook of things. Obviously, like everyone else, I'm still tempted to do stupid things-like they say, all the good things in life are either illegal, immoral, or fattening.

 I try my hardest to keep my head screwed on straight and make the right decisions. Like the boy in the picture, sometimes it is easier to just give up on life, succumb to the temptations. Don't.  Like EE Cummings once said, “To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting.”

I believe that if you can overcome that temptation, you can overcome any temptation.