Outlook on Life
Essay topic: Describe an experience that changed your outlook on life.
Answer:
Life, for me, had always been a neatly planned spreadsheet: straight A's, soccer captain, college applications color-coded. That summer, when I was seventeen, everything changed. There was this old beach house with peeling paint and an ocean that looked like a crinkled blue blanket. And Grandpa Ben, whose wrinkles seemed to hold stories from a life far from charts and plans.
Grandpa Ben wasn't one for schedules. He'd wake up with the sun, always holding his coffee mug, and stroll to the beach. He'd come back with pockets of seashells and tales of talking pelicans. He showed me surfing, not about beating the waves, but dancing with the ocean, learning its powerful unpredictability.
On the porch swing one evening, fireflies twinkled like stars. Grandpa Ben shared his life story, which was full of twists and unexpected storms. He once dreamed of being a doctor, but a motorcycle accident changed everything. Instead, Grandpa crafted a life with rough hands and a laughing heart. He found beauty in driftwood and wisdom in the wind's whispers.
Listening to him, I felt my spreadsheet crumple in my mind. My neatly ordered plans suddenly seemed so small against the vast, messy beauty of the world. Maybe life wasn't about the perfect grades and the shiny trophies but about the sand between your toes, the sting of saltwater in your eyes, and the stories gossiped by the wind.
That summer, I traded textbooks for tide pools and trophies for seashells. I learned to laugh at unexpected waves and to find joy in the unplanned detour. I discovered that sometimes, the most beautiful things in life are the ones you can't fit in a spreadsheet, the ones that come crashing in, messy and wonderful, like an ocean wave.
Leaving that summer, I didn't leave empty-handed. I carried a new outlook, a life no longer confined by lines and boxes. I learned that embracing the unexpected, messy, and unplanned is the only way to live truly. And that, my friends, is a lesson no spreadsheet can teach you.
Cite this page (APA 7th edition): Toplist Joint Stock Company. (n.d.). Outlook on Life. toplist.info. https://toplist.info/top/outlook-on-life-155260.htm
