Lydia Schulz
Mr. H. Salsich
English 9
16, September 2008
Is it so Cliché?
An Essay Comparing Two Quotes
After hearing it so many times, when someone says that you need to live in the moment it sounds a little cliché. Once I better understood these quotes, however, those four words seem so much m ore important. You really do need to “live your way into the answer.” The journey certainly is the reward.
The main idea that Rilke is trying to get across is to be patient and that we should think about this in everything we do. He talks about, “books written in a very foreign language.” This seems to be encouraging us to be inquisitive and try to learn things. However, we also have to be patient, as learning how to read a book in a foreign language takes time and practice. Rilke also says to, “live everything,” meaning that we are to take the opportunities that are thrown at us. If we do not take chances in life, we gut stuck in a safe zone from which we might never emerge. If this is the way we live, we may look back on life and regret. The fundamental point of the quote is to be patient. All of your questions may not have answers at first, but the thing you have to do is wait for them to come to you. It all has to do with being patient and trusting that time will sort things out for you.
I think that this quote relates to another quote that is written on the wall in the hallway: “the journey is the reward.” This quote is a Chinese proverb. Many people would say that you are rewarded most at the end of a journey. This quote tells us that it is actually the journey and what you learned form it that is the most important reward. What these quotes say to me is that you need experience in life to learn yourself. That experience (the journey) will help you to be patient when the answers don’t come right away. That experience will show you how to “live your way into the answer.” Finally, these quotes tell us to live for the moment, or, “live everything.” It really is the present that counts, not what happens in the future. What is happening now is the reward. It seems to me that these quotes have exceedingly similar messages.
These two meaningful quotes have taught me many things. I have learned that you would do better to live completely in the moment, although I had already grasped this message from numerous magnets and bumper stickers. The main thing I learned is that the end result is not the most important reward. It is the steps you took to reach that goal that really count.
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4 comments:
i tried to highlight the fast words and loose sentences but it didnt exactly work so sorry that theyre not really identified
you can change things if you want to just highlight it or something so i know its there
Lydia,
I like how you started off with a statement, and then contradicted yourself in the opening paragraph to give the reader an idea about what this really meant to you personally. One thing i noticed was that when you said, "we may look back on life and regret," it seemed a little unclear. I was confused by the mechanics of the sentence and what the DO was. Something else I think you could work on is the aptness of your FAST words. Fundamental seems kind of unnecessary and and a word like "main" would be a lot more to the point. Anyway, i really liked you essay it showed your hard work.
Lydia,
What a good peice of writing my friend. I really liked the title and how it was a question. It hooked me into wondering what was so "cliche". Although I do have a few suggestions. One would be that in one line you had a small typo, and I think you wrote "gut" instead of "got" but that can easily be fixed by typing in an O. Another thing you could maybe work on would be the concluding paragraph when you talk about bumper stickers and magnets, it seemed a little random and unclear. Other than that, I enjoyed reading this essay.
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