Meaningful Event Essay, Research Paper

At about four o clock on a Tuesday evening I arrived home after a rugby practice. I was idly kicking off my shoes as I noticed a letter sitting on my kitchen table from Queen s University. Not knowing what to expect, I opened it greedily. What I read caused perhaps the most disappointing moment of my life. Dear Mr. Newell;… I regret that your application has been received too late to be considered at this time. The time on my stove clock was exactly 4:12, it s permanently embedded in my mind. I thought that everything would always work out. I didn t think that consciously, it was just something that I accepted as fact. This was now changing. I had made an error that was not only irreversible but could change the path of my life. It had been firmly in my mind that Queen s was the place I would go next year. I immediately sat down on my kitchen chair and reflected. A single question plagued my mind along with an indescribably feeling of angst. Why had I been so stupid as to miss the deadline? . I could blame the outcome on the fact that I had sent an application and it had got lost in the mail. It didn t matter. It doesn t matter who s fault it is. The fact is that the application didn t get in. It was my job to get it i. Therefore I didn t do my job. A simple syllogism negates everything except the fact that I ad messed up.

I I think now the hardest thing to do is truly take responsibility for your own life. Often events sweep us along or we are carried by people around us. That day was a blow to the way I saw the future. I would not go so far as to say that it marked a new starting point, but something like that. I now realize the severe consequences decisions and actions can have on my life. Responsibility is certainly hard to except yet it without there is no chance for improvement. I now understand Jean Paul Sartre when he said Man is condemned to be free