International Essay Contest 2015
Today, I would like to share my first winning essay competition; I received honorable mention award for the essay I wrote when I was a recent graduate from Regina Pacis Senior High School. Hopefully my essay can inspire us to find the inner peace and happiness.
GOI PEACE FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL ESSAY CONTEST 2015
YOUTH CATEGORY
Peace in Mind and Heart: A Trailblazer of Everlasting
Global Peace
I was struggling in verbal
bullying when I was an elementary-junior high school student. I was mocked and
insulted by my friends. At the beginning although I was being bullied I did not
oppose, instead of that I responded them with jokes and did not give much
attention. However, I deeply felt humiliated and pathetic. As the condition was
not changing I felt uncomfortable and mad. While people were mocking at me I
went against them, countered, and mocked them back. I finally felt like winning
the fight but I actually was not joyful or proud, as my friendship went worse I
just got overwhelmingly upset. Unfortunately, my school did know nothing about
the bullying. I had told my parents but they just ignored it considering that
was ordinary experience mostly faced by students. Even it was not a terrible
bullying, in fact it undermined me to be hard socializing with people due to
lack of self esteem.
One day I started to love
listening several inspirational songs e.g. Heal the World. It unconsciously
made me calm, comfortable, secure, joyful, and grateful i.e. peace. I suddenly realized
that I could not depend on the situation to feel peace then I started to
gradually recover myself. Importantly, at the first, I knew that I should forgive
myself and the others. The deeper I forgave myself and the others, the more
peace and happiness I felt. It was truly not an easy thing to do at the
beginning but I was sure that I could do it step by step in continuity. Furthermore,
I am learning to open and adapt myself as well as interact and communicate with
the others. I am being more tolerant and currently I am a lot of better at
socializing with other people. Nowadays, I figure out that peace is an
essential-simple thing. It is not able to be imitated; it just emerges naturally
from the bottom of mind and heart.
It is what is called as a
peace in mind and heart, in the other words inner peace. Inner peace is a
condition of peace that is not influenced by the outer factors. It means that I
can feel peace even facing many problems which are not about war but modern
problems such as having conflicts with my family as well as having tough
homework from school. It does not mean that I always feel peace every day, in
every circumstance but I can manage myself to avoid the overwhelming negativity
to come back to peace and happiness again. I am the decision maker who decide
whether to feel peace or worried, the one who able to manage my thoughts and
emotions. I believe that when I rely on situations, I will barely feel the
inner peace. I should be the one that create the environment, not vice versa.
Feeling the inner peace
triggers me to create the peace in my environment. Through my writing, I am
campaigning anti-bullying to prevent anti social behavior and physiological
illness as well as creating more conducive environment for kids and teenagers
to study, socialize, and develop. Surfing the internet and opening videos that
depict majorly about poverty, hunger, and war make me feel touched and
grateful. I am grateful because I feel immensely lucky and blessed while I am
touched because I know that it will be difficult to live in such conditions, thus
I am motivated to contribute more through social acts like being involved in
social organizations as well as giving donations in the form of money, daily
necessary, or books. Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that[1]. I believe that no matter
how powerless I am, I always have the power to contribute to my
small-surrounding environment furthermore the small environment will affect the
larger environment and so on. Substantially, I believe that through small yet
meaningful acts like caring, sharing, loving, smiling, and forgiving you and I can
make a better living condition for people and the new generations to live in
humanity and peace.
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