Facing obstacles is a part of life. Not surprisingly, that rule also applies to writing essays. When writing my thematic essay, my first hurdle came before I even wrote a word of my rough draft; I had no idea which aspect of human nature I wanted to focus on for the thesis of my essay. I could delve into the influence of guilt on our actions, but my original thesis statement was awkward and didn’t really have a coherent message. I could explore whether or not sympathy or empathy could change our moral values, but the evidence I used to support my point was weak and not particularly cogent. I could explain why reflection can help us better understand ourselves, but I wasn’t sure on how to tie in the theme of self awareness. Trying to decide which original essay to elaborate on was a process -- one that involved many outside opinions and a reflection upon myself as a writer. Eventually, I realized what I was doing was a form of self reflection, and afterwards, I came to realize that I should write my essay on self awareness. …show more content…
I learned that there are five different kinds of guilt (guilt for something you’ve done, guilt for something you could’ve done, guilt for not doing all you could, guilt for something you believe you’ve done, guilt for being better off than one you feel gratitude towards); I learned that there’s difference between sympathy, empathy, and compassion (sympathy is feeling of concern for others’ misfortune; empathy is the ability to feel concern for others’ misfortune from experiencing that misfortune; compassion is the ability to take action to facilitate those who you pity); I learned that I have experienced a moment of self awareness in my life (this matter is slightly personal and quite an eye-opener for