Hardships and Challenges Life offers many routes and pathways. Some of those roads demand more effort and energy than others. Humans often choose a certain path to walk based on their emotions, instincts, and desires. The author Jefferson claims the best way to go through life is to choose paths involving the fewest amount of enemies and calamities; however, he is only partially correct because there is much to be gained from taking on the aggressive dragon-filled challenges life offers. In order to live a life full of satisfaction and euphoria, one must avoid misery, Jefferson asserts. Jefferson brings up that in order to achieve happiness, one must avoid the paths that cause one to suffer. “The art of life is the art of avoiding pain…”(Jefferson). For instance, if one desires pleasure, they may cheat on their spouse; whereas, if one wishes for both pleasure and avoiding physical and/or mental suffering, their own reasoning won’t authorize lechery. …show more content…
Suffering-- unfulfilled hopes, dreams, or expectations-- is unavoidable; one can try to minimize suffering, but it may have the opposite results since one has to become a shut-in: one has to shut themselves away from the world and keep social interactions to a bare minimum all to avoid being hurt. A lot of these shut-ins, including Oreki, are depressed and suicidal. Therefore, avoiding pain will just lead to pain--a catch-22 situation--; however, pain is essential because without experiencing pain one will never understand the true meaning of happiness. In fact, taking on challenges is a big learning experience. For instance, if I didn’t take English Honors, I probably wouldn’t have become a better writer. Even though there was suffering to this challenge, I obtained new experiences that I wouldn’t have experienced in a regular English class. To sum up, experiencing new challenges should be valued even if it leads to temporary