Life_Experience

Life Experience: Your own way When you listen to the story below, you’ll probably know that it isn’t real. It isn’t even a story I read as a kid, but, it is true. Yes, we are taught as children to always listen to our parents & elders & we obey out of respect. BUT, as you get older, you have to start experiencing life for yourself in your own way. And yes, we make huge mistakes & we mess up but we try to learn from them & move on. I’d rather regret the things I didn’t do in life than regret anything that once made me smile - Unknown Each person is his own best teacher. A person must experience something to learn from it. He is not going to listen when he is told what to do or not to do. After experiencing the effect of an action, he learns something from the situation. In the Turkish novel Siddhartha, Siddhartha leaves his home for this very reason. Rather than listening to the teachings of Brahmins, he goes out to experience life for himself. Kids that always listen to their parents and elders and just agree with everything they say are not going to get to experience things for themselves and learn from their mistakes. For example, when someone is told that fire is hot and ice is cold, is he just going to believe it' Most people have to see this for themselves, which may mean touching a flaming hot stove burner, or getting frost bite from running out in the freezing snow barefoot. But this is how we learn; experience results in knowledge. Siddhartha gained his vast knowledge in that very way. Listening to the teachings of Brahmins didn’t satisfy his curiosity, so he left to learn things on his own. As it says in the novel, “Siddhartha himself was not happy… the wise Brahmins had already passed on to him the bulk and best of their wisdom… they had already poured the sum total of their knowledge into his waiting vessel; and the vessel was not full…” He traveled many places, tried various new things, and learned from all of it. He made plenty mistakes, but with each mistake, he got closer to his goal. If he never tried any of these things that brought him grief, he wouldn’t have come to happiness. When children listen to their parents at all times and elders and always do what they are told, they don’t really learn anything; they are not going to benefit from always doing and believing what people tell them. Someone could tell them that rocks are soft as pillows, and if they never go out, grab a rock and smash a window with it, they may never know the truth. When people don’t do things for themselves, they don’t learn. If they always believe what they are told, they may not get the whole truth, and they may not ever learn the whole truth. Everyone is their own best teacher; a person can’t learn from another what he can learn from an experience. Thank You