Final Draft Essay

Phong Luong
Professor Louis A. Agregán
English 101
24 February 2015

Optimistic People often speak of their success stories and how they came to achieve it, and it is by being optimistic. A lot of people would have conceded due to negative outcomes, such as not getting a job at a job interview, if it were not for their optimism. Being optimistic gives people that hope to continue to move forward and keep trying. People convince themselves with positive affirmations, and persist no matter what the obstacles are. From the past to the present, people have made efforts in various ways to bring that optimism to fruition. To be optimistic is to be positive under any given situation or circumstance. Optimism starts off with the thought of envisioning and achieving a desired outcome. And, in the aftermath, whether successful or unsuccessful, one can interpret the outcome with a positive and encouraging explanation. In a half-filled goblet an optimistic person would see the glass half full versus half empty. One person from our past had embodied what it is to be optimistic is Mahondas Karamchad Ghandi. According to Ashok Nalamalapu who authored Reflections… reminded readers of Gandhi’s great struggles to free India from Britain’s rule and oppression and also supported in Encyclopedia of World Biography “Mohandas Karamchad Gandhi.” Mohandas K. Gandhi, well known as “Mahatma” (“Great Soul”) Gandhi envisioned freeing India from the oppression of the British, which ruled India for about 150 years. His method was through nonviolence. He dedicated his adult life to this vision, and was willing to die to achieve this goal. Through his kindred spirit, he felt the anguish and self-defeat from the injustice done to Indians, and wanted to bring equanimity to all of India. He struggled to alleviate poverty and to liberate and put an end to caste discrimination, with the ultimate objective being self-rule for India. Gandhi was just one, small, frail man to go up against the might of Britain. “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.” (Gandhi) When there were setbacks, he would not interpret it as a defeat but just an opportunity for a better recourse. Ghandi would organize meetings to which the British would find out, and in one instance, have set fire and killed 400 Indian men, women, and children. It would have been easy to have met violence with violence, but instead, he chose a positive and peaceful way about it. “Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.” (Gandhi) Gandhi’s acts of nonviolence were in the form of peaceful marches and protests, and upon himself, he fasted for many days. He was pelted by stones, beatened, placed in jail, and even suffered assassination attempts. Most people would have given up, but Gandhi, through his positive beliefs, did not. He had extraordinary patience. “To lose patience is to lose the battle.” (Gandhi) Ghandi did not have to take on this leadership role, but he did, and persevered, as Nalamalapu quotes Gandhi, “All good action is bound to bear fruit in the end.” He maintained those positive thoughts and actions. As a result, through his optimism, Gandhi led about 300 million Indians to freedom in 1947. Kathy Harris, according to Stacy Simon on “Breast and Lung Cancer Survivor Says Life is Worth Fighting For,” has been a cancer survivor for 30 years. Harris at the age of 40 first discovered her breast tumor. When she was diagnosed and that it was confirmed to be cancerous, she was hysterical and depressed. She described it as, “The hardest thing for me to go through.” Her doctor told her, “You can do 1 of 2 things. You can sit here and cry and moan or you can take back your life and be strong and positive.” She began to think of her family and friends, and of all the things she

Show More

Essay on final draft