#essayintro

Here is a draft for the intro to my personal essay.  As of now it is just about two pages long.  I have no idea where I’m going with it, mostly I’m just thinking about it as I go.

For the record, the Shrek line probably won’t stay in.  Honestly I only added that in my quick revision before posting.  Seemed appropriate for Tumblr.

Why do we enjoy stories as a human race?

Whether you believe in evolution or a man with a white beard, humans have always told stories and passed them on through every generation.  In fact, that’s how the stories about the man in the sky and the problematic son spread so widely and have been passed on generation to generation.  

To put it simply, we love stories so much because they are love, they are life.  Much like Shrek.  We tell stories to imitate life and all the things we love about it.  We tell stories to study the things we find interesting about nature as well as the intricacies of human life.  We tell stories to study the horrific things life throws at us on a daily basis.  To Study ourselves.  We love stories because they study our lives.  They study what our lives are, and what they could be.  Isn’t that one of the most important things we can do in life?  Study?  That’s what makes us human.  It is vitally important that we study ourselves.  To be happy, to improve our collective lives, and, most importantly, to begin to understand ourselves and how we work.

Studying ourselves helps us to think.  Which is also quite important.  Perhaps even more so than studying ourselves.  Without thinking, we are just surviving, not living.  Studying our lives improves our ability to think.  Not just about ourselves, but it gives us a much better understanding of our world and how the things around us function.  Stories are studies on how our world works as well, not just studies on ourselves.  In fact, that’s what most stories focus on.  The good ones take a close look at both us and how our world and society works.  

I feel it’s safe to say this essay will turn into a study on how we function in our environment, but I’ll do my best to stay on track.  It’s also safe to say I will go off on multiple tangents.  So be prepared for that and bear with me.

Why Should We Study Ourselves?

We study ourselves because we need to.  If we don’t come to understand ourselves, we would never be happy.  Or perhaps, some of us would find ignorance in bliss.  But for many of us, if we never gave a second thought to who we are and why we are that way, we would be majorly unhappy.  I know I would be.  In fact, I attribute a big part of being happy with who I am today to  when I began to think for myself when I was around seventeen.  I definitely wasn’t happy at that time and wasn’t for at least a couple years after that.  In fact, coming to terms with all my philosophies probably ultimately depressed me more than I was initially.  More realistically though, I don’t think that’s true.  I think what happened was I realized how depressed I actually was.  

With that said, I strongly recommend to think for yourself, or rather, think about who you really are and why you are that way if you haven’t already.  Bringing yourself down by realizing the truth is better than living in unhappy ignorant bliss.  Later down the line I can guarantee you’ll be happier.  You’ll probably even improve on who you are.  

Quite honestly, it’s not that difficult ultimately either.  Sure, it’s a process (with which I am still going through) that will take a number of years.  But getting started doesn’t take much.  And you don’t have to specifically continue studying these concepts for long after.  I recommend studying, or at the very least, asking yourself some philosophical questions.  

Write.  Dear God, please write.  Honestly that’s the most important thing.  Keep a journal.  Document what happens every day and how you feel about it.  Within the journal, think through and answer philosophical and psychological questions.