Honestly, I didn’t understand why Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner was so life-changing until a random conversation, two years after I first read the book. Unusual isn’t it - our favorite books typically stand out as soon as we read them. But the best books are the ones that you have to think about, the ones that mean something special - the ones that cause self-reflection. The time came to write another AP Language argument essay - this one was examining the morality of transcendentalism. I scoffed, “What kind of idiot would run off into the woods to ‘find himself’ rather than have a job, family, and dignity?” My essay glorified the importance of hard work and expressed my thoughts that those who adopted a self-fulfilling lifestyle were selfish and incompetent. I …show more content…
Not everyone thinks like you. We understand what’s up here,” pointing to her head, “without understanding what’s in here,” pointing to her heart. I shut up. She got off at the next stop. Reading puts me to sleep. That night, I read the only book that I brought on the trip: The Kite Runner. Hassan - the outcast - had only goodness in his heart. Assef - the bully - had only evil in his heart. It makes so much sense now. The way you interpret the world is not determined by the composition of your brain matter, but by the character of your soul, of your heart. So what does it say about my heart when I follow the crowd by judging those who are different than what we “should be?” It says something that I am not proud of. My new year’s resolution for 2016 was simple: stop picking out differences. When someone judges me, I want them to know that I am more than just a name. I am more than just a gender, ethnicity, or set of skills. I am more than just a GPA or a test score. The Kite Runner provided me with a lens to see the world through: not as groups of people who can be judged, but as