Life | Life Lessons | Self | Humanity | Essay

Life is One Big Lesson and We Are Responsible for These Lessons

Today is the day to live fully.

Your life is not my life, my life is not the life of one of a kind celebrity. It is something I have to make and I have to enjoy. The thing is that people make us believe that there is a perfect life after all. That this life you’re living is that you have to strive to perfectness. When you’re not striving to perfectness, you’ll become “a lazy person”, “a not hard working person”, “a person that will never work”.

People believe in the black and white version of life. It is that or it is this, not things in between. Life is like colouring your colour book. These people don’t believe in other people’s versions, but only theirs and their perfectness version of life.

When you have been through things, such as abuse, manipulation, bullying, you will have to give it space into your soul. The time at primary school and high school were just a hell for me. I was bullied and even manipulated.

At high school, adolescents do have an opinion the moment their classmates walk into the classroom. Probably that was the reason they bullied and manipulated me. I don’t want to be in self pity, but these events made me the woman I am today.

Opinion as characters

It is good to have your own opinion in life, your own values, your own style of clothes, but when you push someone else into your own direction, then you do harm to someone else.

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

I realize that lots of people don’t seem to see what these actions of theirs do and what others feel after they have been hurt by them. Some people hurt others intentionally and some people don’t hurt others intentionally. Those who hurt others intentionally need to learn what their harm do to the person.

Opinions do matter when you have a topic to be taken seriously. Think about political topics as your local green park with a playground, the mask regulations of your country, whether military should be in a war, or what you could do to help your neighbours when they are ill.

People will always have an opinion about your, your actions, your luck, your life, but they don’t have an opinion about their own life and actions. They don’t want to be responsible for it and blame others for that.

It is the opinion of people that shows their character! They have that particular opinion when they show their true character about the topic. Such as whether let in a military group in a country to fight, whether you want the arts gets more money for their freelancers during a pandemic, whether it is doing groceries for your friend who is ill.

All these aspects are your character. This shows who you really are, what you’re values and norms are and what you stand for.

Life is not black and white

You have to colour your life. Then I mean, you have to make something out of your life, in every situation you are.

You are responsible for your actions, your luck, your happiness, your mental health, and everything in between. That is what makes your life unique.

There is a lot of pressure from others in how we ‘should’ act in daily life.

What are the ‘boxes’ we have to live in? What are the norms and values we have to follow? How do we need to bring up our children? How do we have to say things that are not harmful for our mind? You have to think about these daily life issues.

People want us to act like we are adults. When we jump in the air like kids, people think we are not mature enough to be an adult and they treat us like children. They tell us everything what we ‘should’ do. They tell us the little steps. In fact, we are mature enough to think for ourselves!

We want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games, realize that it’s not just my way or the highway. — Barack Obama

I firmly believe in bringing out your inner child. With that you can think and act like a child again, but with the brain of an adult. Playing with (your) children; just like a small child in the mud, going back and forth on the see-saw, or maybe you like swinging the most! After that, you can use your adult brain again. You see things differently.

Beauty of your life

Children always know to be in the moment of what is happening now. The older we get, the more things we see in the world, the more things our parents tell us what is happening in the world or on a smaller scale — family.

The older you get, the more fear you develop for things you do; the things you do because of the events — negative and positive — that happened in your life. These become the trauma’s of your life.

Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvellously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones. — Thich Nhat Hanh

The fear we face, the bigger the wall around you becomes. The less things or people you let in your aura. This can cause the beautiful things you can do in your life, meet the lovely people you can interact with.

Think this way: keeping your eyes open, spreading your ears, the more lively you become to learn things you never thought you would like to do.

You own success

This Summer, I let fall a glass off my hands. I didn’t know what had happened, but I cried, I became sad, maybe angry with myself. Why did I let fall the glass off my hands? What was the reason for this? These things might happen, you think, but the whole week, I was tired, I was weak like a towel.

These actions were my responsibility. What happened when I was not tired? Did I reacted differently? I think I have reacted differently, but I was tired. I am responsible how I react when I let fall a glass off my hands, and I know what to do the next time.

At the end of the day, you are solely responsible for your success and your failure. And the sooner you realize that, you accept that, and integrate that into your work ethic, you will start being successful. As long as you blame others for the reason you aren’t where you want to be, you will always be a failure. — Erin Cummings

I have to accept that I can’t turn back to this moment, but I can learn from this moment and breathe before react further. This lesson I learned is something that comes with years, weeks and days. This will be my wisdom for life.

Wisdom of life

With all the events you have been through, positively and negatively, you become wiser. You learn the lessons you needed to learn. These lessons are precious to you. Each beach walk, each music lesson, each conversation with your neighbour, gives you the right lessons.

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us. — Socrates

In your life, your will learn about who you really are, you get to know yourself better each day.

Also, these moments teaches you the lessons about other people’s lives, the world around you, cultures, arts, and you bring them to your life. You implement these lessons into your life.

Today is what matters

Thinking about the past is fine, it is even necessary to move forward. You need the past to learn the lessons for the future. You are in the present, what you are doing now. That is what actually matters. You have what is now.

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life. — Eckhart Tolle

Today is what matters, you are in the now to see the beauty of what is in front of you. You have to make your life the best it can be and the life you want to live.

About the Author

Agnes Laurens is a writer. She writes for the local newspaper. Agnes lives in The Netherlands, with her husband and three daughters. You can find her on Vocal, Medium, Elephant Journal, HubPages, Music List. Writing is — aside from playing the violin — one of her passions since childhood. She is on Twitter and Instagram. You can subscribe to my mailing list, and you can subscribe to my Thoughts. Check out her books. Do you want to read more of my work? Get notified when I write something new. Love to see you there. She has an online web store, and she has a merchandise store. If you want to be informed about my online store and my merch, please follow this link.