Personal Essay

I may never be a famous author whose works of literature will stir the emotions of its readers long after I am gone. I may never be revered for standing up against a great injustice. But I have read about those who have and they have inspired me through their work. I have seen their world through the books I have read.

Mohandas Gandhi is one of those people who have inspired me through his actions. Gandhi strongly believed in non-violent protest to get across his message he would preach, “an eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.” He had been physically beaten and dragged to jail by British Soldiers stationed in India. He stayed strong he still believed strong in his message of non-violence even after he saw his followers suffer the consequences for their non compliance with British laws. He didn’t he waged his war against Great Britain and eventually he won with out firing a single shot back. Gandhi has inspired me to be more tolerant of others and stay strong even when things look bleak.

Henry David Thoreau is my favorite transcendentalist writer. He wrote about what he believed was right in life. Thoreau believed that humanities greed was corrupting the world except for Nature.   He saw Nature as the purest form of life he wrote, “ Thank god men can not fly and waste the sky as well as the earth.” Which will always remind me that we must watch how we walk through life. It is human nature to always want more but we must be thankful and not waste the immaterial like the beauty of a sunset or a soft breeze moving through the leaves and the branches of a tree. Thoreau was so taken by Nature that he left civilization and became a hermit in a forest where he had very little human contact. Thanks to his books I have noticed the subtle beauty in all things from the ripples in a pond to birds soft song in the quiet morning air.

I know that I am not an honors student, an artist or even a musician but I under stand the deeper meaning within an author’s...