Ceilie's Essay

Ceilie Moore

Mr. H. Salsich

English 9

16 September 2008

Advising the Journey: 

An Essay on Two Quotes and a Project

When entering the main building of Pine Point School, you see various (FAST word) quotes resting on the walls, guiding both students and teachers throughout the say with tips on how to succeed, achieve their goals and never give up. There is one quotation that sits above the doorway, a Chinese proverb that reads, "The journey is the reward." There is another quote, not on the wall, by German poet Rainer Maria Rilke about advising young ones on how to find the answers to their questions. The two quotes not only take us on a journey to the deep meaning of the two statements, but also teach us a lesson on how life should really be lived. 

Rilke's quote and the Chinese proverb both advise people, especially today's youth, of multiple things on their journey through life. In Rilke's quote, he says, "You are so young [...] have patience with everything unresolved." What he means by those words is that what remains uncertain will figure itself out in the end. And while you wait for those questions to sew themselves into answers, love and cherish the life you're living because "the journey [of life] is the reward", not the end result. (loose sentence) Another way the quotes both send a helpful message to people is they both see the questions you ask in life as precious gold. "Love the questions themselves" because the questions you ask are what define you and make you who you are. Questions are the real "rewards" in life, while the answers are just signs that read "Dead End" because one all your questions are answered, what else is there to live for? The third way in which the Rilke quote and the proverb give advice to the world, is that they both say that you'll find your way to the answers, so don't go searching for them. The proverb is stating that the events that occur on your journey through life have no effect on the outcome, so live for the moment because those memories you make along the way are the true "reward." Rilke also says something much like this when he explains, 

"Someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer," meaning there is no need to fret about answering your questions because you will eventually stumble upon them, maybe without even noticing or expecting it.

After comparing these wise quotes to each other, I noticed they compared to something else, the eighth grade assessment project. The first way they are all alike is that when we did our volunteer work for the project, we had to love the work we did in order to get the real experience out of it. We didn't like doing the work as much as we wanted to get it done, much like in the Rilke quote when he talked about how you had to "love the questions" as opposed to just wanting their answers. To relate the project to the Chinese proverb, the "reward" we received for our performance at the end of the Assessment "journey", was knowing we helped people in need. Another reason the quotes and Assessment relate to each other is that the project was a long, grueling (FAST word) "journey" that we had to travel and patience was key  to succeed in the Assessment. We had to be patient with the exhausting amount of work we were given because even though it was a lot to take in, we knew that if it wasn't done, the consequences were extreme and ones we did not want to face. We also had to do many different things with long lengths of time in between, such as our essays and our volunteer hours,  but we knew "someday far in the future [...] [we would] live [our] way into the answer" and that answer was the end of the project. (loose sentence) The final way that the quotes and Assessment tie together was when we received our grades. After Assessment was over, we had a two-week vacation and over that span of time, we were going to be given our grades. Mail is an unpredictable thing, so we had to wait for our final "answer" of how we did to come to us, instead of us "search[ing] for our answers." In the end, I think Assessment was one of those journeys that the proverb was describing because the things we did along the way were the rewards that we received, and the grades we all got were just letters that judged how well we presented our achievements to an audience. 

In the end, although the two quotes are different in length and one may be longer than the other, what they are saying is just as strong and wise. The two quotes are perfect advice to those eagerly searching for the answers to their questions. Both quotes talk about how the memories we share and the friends we make that you make in your lifetime are the real treasures in this so-called journey. The outcome of life is just fate falling into place.