"This I Believe"
Essential Question: "What Do You Believe In and Why?"
I believe that hard work always pays off in the long run; no matter whether it pays off in the moment, or later in time.
Hard Work Pays Off
Keagan Felker
I love hard work. It gives me the satisfaction that a reward given to me just doesn’t bring. An example of this, was when I was moving bales of hay and doing an array of ranch work for a family friend. I worked ten hours that day from 10 am until dark. Between the morning and that evening, it had poured rain, was windy, and was blazing hot. I grew up being taught that if you work hard, and are grateful for everything you have and receive, you can achieve almost anything you want. The famed inventor Thomas A. Edison once said, “the three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are: hard work, stick-to-itiveness, and common sense”. I believe that anyone can succeed by working hard. I’ve realized that there is a large amount of gratification to be found in a hard days’ work. I’ve learned that having to working for what I want makes me a more responsible individual; it also makes me more grateful for what I receive. I take a lot of pride in all of my workmanship; whether it is working with concrete, building, or just a day on the job with my dad. I’ve also done work such as work on the farm and doing yard work. I want my client or employer to feel like I’ve done the full days’ work, and I’ve completed it to their standards. Whenever I finish a day of hard work, I feel very accomplished; in the sense of knowing that I finished the job strong and hopefully satisfied my boss as well as myself.
In the event that I am referred to someone else by a previous or present employer, for any job, I feel a sense of pride and trust in myself and coming from the employer. I then feel obligated to do the best I can and work as hard as possible until the job is done. I’ve learned that even if it’s raining, the work’s not put off; you just put on a raincoat and suck it up…on some occasions. The same thing goes for working on a hot day; you’ve just got to sweat it out and keep digging, or mowing, until it’s done.
All in all, I believe that hard work is the back bone of our society; it supports our structure, and keeps us standing. Without the hard workers of any society, buildings would merely be a sketch in an architect’s book. We would get nowhere significant as a society without hard work and determination. We wouldn’t be able to fight wars without the passion and strength of our troops. We wouldn’t have the products we eat if it weren’t for the farmers and producers that work so hard to get it to us. We wouldn’t have even become such a successful country if it weren’t for the brave, determined, and independent individuals that wanted to break free and start something of their own.
I believe that hard work always pays off in the long run; no matter whether it pays off in the moment, or later in time.
Hard Work Pays Off
Keagan Felker
I love hard work. It gives me the satisfaction that a reward given to me just doesn’t bring. An example of this, was when I was moving bales of hay and doing an array of ranch work for a family friend. I worked ten hours that day from 10 am until dark. Between the morning and that evening, it had poured rain, was windy, and was blazing hot. I grew up being taught that if you work hard, and are grateful for everything you have and receive, you can achieve almost anything you want. The famed inventor Thomas A. Edison once said, “the three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are: hard work, stick-to-itiveness, and common sense”. I believe that anyone can succeed by working hard. I’ve realized that there is a large amount of gratification to be found in a hard days’ work. I’ve learned that having to working for what I want makes me a more responsible individual; it also makes me more grateful for what I receive. I take a lot of pride in all of my workmanship; whether it is working with concrete, building, or just a day on the job with my dad. I’ve also done work such as work on the farm and doing yard work. I want my client or employer to feel like I’ve done the full days’ work, and I’ve completed it to their standards. Whenever I finish a day of hard work, I feel very accomplished; in the sense of knowing that I finished the job strong and hopefully satisfied my boss as well as myself.
In the event that I am referred to someone else by a previous or present employer, for any job, I feel a sense of pride and trust in myself and coming from the employer. I then feel obligated to do the best I can and work as hard as possible until the job is done. I’ve learned that even if it’s raining, the work’s not put off; you just put on a raincoat and suck it up…on some occasions. The same thing goes for working on a hot day; you’ve just got to sweat it out and keep digging, or mowing, until it’s done.
All in all, I believe that hard work is the back bone of our society; it supports our structure, and keeps us standing. Without the hard workers of any society, buildings would merely be a sketch in an architect’s book. We would get nowhere significant as a society without hard work and determination. We wouldn’t be able to fight wars without the passion and strength of our troops. We wouldn’t have the products we eat if it weren’t for the farmers and producers that work so hard to get it to us. We wouldn’t have even become such a successful country if it weren’t for the brave, determined, and independent individuals that wanted to break free and start something of their own.
This I Believe Essay Project Reflection
This assignment was given in order for us, as individuals, to express something that we strongly or passionately believe and how it effects our lives and the peoples’ around us. For example, my essay ended up being focused on how I find gratification and respect for myself in hard work. The process we went through to narrow these beliefs down to one core belief, was a drawn out one. We basically began with some rough ideas of what we generally believe in. The first main assignment we focused on completing was the “credo assignment”. We could have begun it with a quote from either someone famous, or one of our idols that relates to our belief. My general belief consisted of a few rough ways of saying “hard work pays off”. To begin, I started with a quote from Thomas Edison, a common saying; “hard work pays off”, and a metaphor; “hard work is the back bone of our society; it supports our structure, and keeps us standing.” These three ideas were the options I gave myself to begin my credo. I ended up making my whole essay a sort of narrative about how I’ve learned that the hard work I do for myself and others pays off and makes me a better person in the long run.
I’m not sure how I grew as an individual through this project, but I do know that this project let me tell how much I think I’ve grown as a person through working hard and pushing myself so that I can reach my full potential. A Habit of Heart and Mind that has helped me grow the most in my work especially, has been perseverance. Whether I’m working on school work, yard work, or ranch work; I always work as hard as I can until the job/work is completed to my best capability. A specific example of my perseverance would be whenever I’m working for someone on a job, for example, loading and unloading hay; it began to rain on us while we were working in the field. That wasn’t a major problem because my boss and I both kept the work going so that it would get done as quick and well as we could. So no matter what life throws at you, you should always try to work through it as best you can; it will pay off whether it’s in the moment, or later on.
What I’m most proud of in my essay is the fact that I can inform people about how much pride I take in my work and let people know that I do what I love and I do it as best I can. I feel that I met the requirements for the “Authentic Voice” category. I feel I achieved this because if anyone who didn’t know me read this, they’d hopefully get a feeling of what kind of person I am; and for the people who do know me, I hope that they’d be able to tell that this essay really does reflect who I am as a person. I feel like I have also met the “Communal Relevance” column because I think that I was able to make my writing relevant to a larger group of people. I’m meaning in the sense of everyone being able to connect to my idea of “their hard work paying off” at some point.
I feel like after reading my essay aloud to my family and friends who know me well, and after hearing their feedback, I feel like I’ve refined my essay as much as I can. The feedback I got on it basically consisted of everyone commenting on how much it actually reflects my personality. So after making some minor adjustments, I feel that I ended up with a solid, truthful essay that I can be proud to call a submission for NPR. Since I am in Honors Humanities, I did end up having to publish it, although I had planned on publishing it anyway; even if I hadn’t ended up in Honors. I hope everyone who reads it will be able to get a sense of how hard of a worker I am in addition to how well I get the job done the best I can.
Defining and sharing my belief has expanded my knowledge of myself and how people see me. For example, through my work, I hope that more and more people will end up seeing me as a more responsible, hard-working young adult. That is who I really hope I portray myself to be in our real world; a decent young adult that gets respect from other adults. I feel that seeing myself in this way, and making sure other people see me the same way, will in the future, draw more respect from myself and others.
This assignment was given in order for us, as individuals, to express something that we strongly or passionately believe and how it effects our lives and the peoples’ around us. For example, my essay ended up being focused on how I find gratification and respect for myself in hard work. The process we went through to narrow these beliefs down to one core belief, was a drawn out one. We basically began with some rough ideas of what we generally believe in. The first main assignment we focused on completing was the “credo assignment”. We could have begun it with a quote from either someone famous, or one of our idols that relates to our belief. My general belief consisted of a few rough ways of saying “hard work pays off”. To begin, I started with a quote from Thomas Edison, a common saying; “hard work pays off”, and a metaphor; “hard work is the back bone of our society; it supports our structure, and keeps us standing.” These three ideas were the options I gave myself to begin my credo. I ended up making my whole essay a sort of narrative about how I’ve learned that the hard work I do for myself and others pays off and makes me a better person in the long run.
I’m not sure how I grew as an individual through this project, but I do know that this project let me tell how much I think I’ve grown as a person through working hard and pushing myself so that I can reach my full potential. A Habit of Heart and Mind that has helped me grow the most in my work especially, has been perseverance. Whether I’m working on school work, yard work, or ranch work; I always work as hard as I can until the job/work is completed to my best capability. A specific example of my perseverance would be whenever I’m working for someone on a job, for example, loading and unloading hay; it began to rain on us while we were working in the field. That wasn’t a major problem because my boss and I both kept the work going so that it would get done as quick and well as we could. So no matter what life throws at you, you should always try to work through it as best you can; it will pay off whether it’s in the moment, or later on.
What I’m most proud of in my essay is the fact that I can inform people about how much pride I take in my work and let people know that I do what I love and I do it as best I can. I feel that I met the requirements for the “Authentic Voice” category. I feel I achieved this because if anyone who didn’t know me read this, they’d hopefully get a feeling of what kind of person I am; and for the people who do know me, I hope that they’d be able to tell that this essay really does reflect who I am as a person. I feel like I have also met the “Communal Relevance” column because I think that I was able to make my writing relevant to a larger group of people. I’m meaning in the sense of everyone being able to connect to my idea of “their hard work paying off” at some point.
I feel like after reading my essay aloud to my family and friends who know me well, and after hearing their feedback, I feel like I’ve refined my essay as much as I can. The feedback I got on it basically consisted of everyone commenting on how much it actually reflects my personality. So after making some minor adjustments, I feel that I ended up with a solid, truthful essay that I can be proud to call a submission for NPR. Since I am in Honors Humanities, I did end up having to publish it, although I had planned on publishing it anyway; even if I hadn’t ended up in Honors. I hope everyone who reads it will be able to get a sense of how hard of a worker I am in addition to how well I get the job done the best I can.
Defining and sharing my belief has expanded my knowledge of myself and how people see me. For example, through my work, I hope that more and more people will end up seeing me as a more responsible, hard-working young adult. That is who I really hope I portray myself to be in our real world; a decent young adult that gets respect from other adults. I feel that seeing myself in this way, and making sure other people see me the same way, will in the future, draw more respect from myself and others.