In the play, Antigone, classical Greek playwright Sophocles, the wise Teiresias wrote that “all men make mistakes” and he explained that “the only crime is pride”. This statement describes the hurt that pride can cause along with the correct path that one should try to follow in order to live a life full of contempt. Although pride, when in the form of growth and knowledge, can help one to reach their fullest potential, it can also lead to destruction and overconfidence in one’s self. Considering the downsides of pride, when one is too focused on themselves, it can lead to a false sense of overconfidence. This can be seen in a personal story that occurred to me about a year ago. On a simple Saturday afternoon, I was at a dance competition, ready to …show more content…
Everything went downhill when I got on stage and was so focused on trying to seem confident, that I forgot my entire dance. Although I was able to pick it up near the middle and I eventually solved the problem, this moment really defined what it means to be overly confident in my eyes. As Sophocles said, “A good man yields when he knows his course is wrong”. This represents my situation, and many others, in the sense that when one has ultimately made a mistake and needs to get on the right path again, it's necessary to do so without an obnoxious sense of pride. Similarly, during many moments throughout America’s history, the nation’s overconfidence has led to complete humiliation and destruction. This can be seen in instances such as the American Revolution when the United States decided to fight against Great Britain to become a free nation once and for all. This false sense of pride that the country was feeling during this time led to the death of thousands of men as well as their complete humiliation during the beginning of the