Georgia State University Embarking On A Path To Success Achieving Academic Improvement From an Emotional Setting Alejandro J. Dorado Mrs. Nicolette Rose ENGL 1101 4 February 2021 Dorado 1 Alejandro J. Dorado Mrs. Nicolette Rose ENGL 1101 4 February 2021 Deepening Woolf's argument Virginia Woolf states his belief that a person's past is the basis of his or her creativity and authentic truth. In her work, Moments of Being, she describes how she is besieged by meaningful situations that have been the foundation of significant realizations in the course of her existence; as a child, adolescent, and adult. She also supports the claim that people tend to experience multiple "being" and of "not being" episodes in their life; defining the moments of being as the most predominant ones in our consciousness and those that are withdrawn from daily naturalness, contrary to what are the moments of not being, expressed in the book as the "Cotton wool" of our quotidian life. Thus, when we delve into Mitch Albom's work, Tuesdays with Morrie, we are capable of identifying the value that these moments of being have in oneself and others. Along with the warm and fruitful story of Mitch Albom and his favorite teacher, is exposed a child with ambitious ideals that achieves through numerous emotional and intense circumstances, a different conception, and a different approach to what's life's meaning. Albom, also reflects the settlement of a critical illness of a person who ends up assimilating it as a tool for others to learn from him, as is the case of Morrie; Morrie managed to implant a portion of his purpose in a lost Mitch; he managed to give him a purpose, and more importantly, he managed to give a meaning to his life. Dorado 2 Morrie described the meaning of life as follows: The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. (43) Essential phrase for the reader's understanding of Morrie's real purpose, even for Mitch's assimilation with his teacher's ideals, marking a before and after in the way Mitch approached his life. Therefore, we can emphasize how Morrie made Mitch experience a series of moments of being in which Mitch was out of his naturalness, and made him notably more conscious and reflective. Morrie Illustrates this when he requires Mitch's help to carry him to his wheelchair, in which Mitch realizes the critical state of his beloved professor, besides, he understands how his illness has led him to embody Morrie's ideals. Mitch finally sees life more broadly in terms of truth, realizing that having a person who fulfills him emotionally for the first time in his life has led him to appreciate what was once insignificant to him; family, love, having meaning in life, and not giving up on living life to the fullest. Here we highlight the influence and impact these moments have on our lives, where just one brief example of the various exposed on Tuesday with Morrie illustrates the great resolutions a human being can achieve in just a short experience. It also sets a relationship with Moments of Being, where Virginia Woolf finds herself in a dilemma in which she wonders why people have to hurt others, especially if it is a person they love, as is her case and that of her brother Toby. Virginia is emotionally delicate due to the beating given by Toby after she refused to do so. Consequently, finding herself staring out the front door into the garden of the vacation home, where for an instant sees a bed of flowers, Dorado 3 "That's the whole thing" (71), Virginia utters. Virginia found through an analogy between flowers and the earth something valuable, something she could re-explore endlessly and give it a different meaning that would nourish her as she grew. This simple "moment of being" gave Virginia the meaning she desired to later become a writer. Also, as mentioned above, Morrie gave Mitch many experiences similar to what happened to Virginia, in which his consciousness was finally fully activated and he was able to give a different meaning to the moment, leaving aside naturalness. Every person's life is full of these moments; each person gives them personal meaning as they grow and develop into an adult. In fact, my life is made up of small fragments of these circumstances, some more crucial and relevant than others. At times, I identify with Mitch's ideology and point of view towards the world at the beginning of the story. Perhaps this may be due to the lack of affection I have received from my father, the distant relationship I have with my older brother, and the limited communication I have with my mother. In short, I feel that my life is emotionally similar to Mitch's, and vice versa. Luis F. Dorado was my father's name; someone kind, hardworking and successful, someone who personified discipline and hard work. Together with his wife, Jenifer, they agreed on each other perfectly due to their rigorous way of operating their role at home, also by their particular way of representing what for them was a real education and pedagogy. Especially my father perceived learning as the most indispensable element in life, Luis told me recurrently, "Son, to be a successful and well-grounded person, you have to make an effort like your father and leave aside friends and distractions that will keep you away from a great future", it was shocking for me, as I was constantly wondering about the same question. "What is a great future Dorado 4 for me. How do I find out? Unfortunately, I lacked my father's ideology regarding life and what education was. I was a child with a lack of dedication to study and school responsibilities; I only dreamed of being a soccer player, stating that study was irrelevant to play a successful role in life. I usually kept my grades at 75 out of 100 (equivalent to a 2.0 on the GPA scale) and was satisfied to barely pass so that my father wouldn't scold me or punish me by taking away the one thing I did put effort into, soccer. Causing my father a strong reaction towards me, we had endless talks where he would tell me why I was going down a path that was not beneficial to me; I never took those talks seriously, once he turned around, I was going to do the opposite of what I had committed to him. I ended up with terrible grades near the minimum passing grade and with a great number of teachers complaining about my performance. One day, the ninth grade report card was due, my father was on the lookout for a teacher's complaint, also focusing on the final grades. My father's hope vanished as fast as lightning, he saw the report card, I had lost five out of thirteen subjects, so I was practically losing the year. What bothered my father the most was that all the teachers and even all the people who knew me, told him that I had enormous abilities, marvelous capabilities that if I employed correctly, I could be the best in the class by far. Surprisingly my father did not say a word to me. We got into the car; there were still no words between us. I could not even take out my phone for fear that he would take it away from me; I couldn't even look at him. As soon as we arrived home, my father went to his room and I went to mine. It took him until about midnight to come up and talk to me. The moment I heard him come in, I knew something bad was about to occur; I stared at him with a dejected look on my face once he came in, and what happened next left me speechless for a Dorado 5 long time. My father was calm, but I could feel the sorrow in his brittle voice. He spoke to me for thirty minutes explaining the reason why he is so strict when it comes to education, telling me how my grandmother and grandfather had nothing to pay for his schooling and how his aunt had to respond with what little she had so that my father would not be left without an education, he suddenly burst into tears. It is worth noting that I had never seen my father cry; he was such a proud man that it was impossible to see him weak. I was quite astonished; I felt that what my father was telling me came from the deepest part of his heart and that he had a very personal story that I understood perfectly. Suddenly he said to me, "Son, all I wanted was for you to have the quality of education that I did not have; for you to have the opportunity to exploit your abilities, and for you to be a person full of values with a broad general knowledge of life... today I feel disappointed with myself for not having achieved what I wanted so much for you. I ask you to forgive me for that." I was in complete shock and stayed that way for several days. I had finally realized what my father wanted for me and the meaning behind it all. It was such a profound moment that opened my consciousness in a gigantic way, where I came to a complete resolution of my life when I saw the report card again. Underneath the coding teacher's signature, "We appreciate you so much that we demand you like no one else." was written. My father's emotional moment that shocked me was reunited with this moment; a situation where I too fell into tears and gave my life a boost to take advantage of what I have and what people attribute to me. The recoveries passed; each one of them was impeccable. I dedicated a massive amount of time to study that later placed me among the top five of eighty-five of my graduating class. My mentality, way of life, and academic purpose abruptly changed for the better, furthermore, Dorado 6 this change pushed me to be more outgoing; it made me generate study groups that later became my best friends and later the only people I talk to and consider part of my family. Once I was ready to enter college, I returned that "sorry" my father had told me; I told him to forgive me for expecting a shock to change my lifestyle and give me a new direction. I will always be grateful for what I once hated about my father. In short, Virginia's life, like all of ours, is full of moments when you have a life-changing resolution in the blink of an eye, even making you make a decision you never expected you would make. In the charming book Tuesdays with Morrie, we get to observe and analyze when these moments come into play, even establishing connections between the characters and me, where Mitch represents me emotionally and personally in this case. Dorado 7 Works Cited Woolf, Virginia. Moments of Being: Unpublished Autobiographical Writings. London: Hogarth, 1978. Print. Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson. New York: Doubleday, 1997. Print.
