- Published: September 28, 2022
- Updated: September 28, 2022
- University / College: Concordia University
- Language: English
- Downloads: 31
Wadee AlzokariProfessor Kobie ColemonPhilosophy1/19/17Destiny to where? Aristotle once said, “ Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” The question here who am I? In solving this question I took in considerations two factors my past history and my current history. For instance beginning with the the formation of Earth to my extent of knowledge, it all happened with the Big Bang. According to BBC online, “ the theory states that about 13. 7 billion years ago all the matter in the Universe were concentrated in a single point, and it began to enlarge rapidly in a hot explosion, and it is still expanding today”.
After the explosion earth began to take form and the continents migrated across the surface, occasionally combining to form a supercontinent “ Pangea” and breaking apart to its configuration today. Then the dinosaurs ruled, mammals then came, hominids began to slowly evolve into the species we know as homo sapiens, and then civilizations emerged. Past the Paleolithic era, Neolithic era, and Industrialization era, boom I was born, in August 20, 1999 to a happy family.
In Southeast Asia in a country called Yemen, later me and my family moved to Brooklyn, New York when I was seven years old. Now this brings me to a question I have been asking myself. Why New York? Why in the 21st Century? I always tell myself it’s fine that I was born light skinned Arab, Skinny, with an average height of five feet eight inches.
I think it was already determined before I was born, that I was gonna to be this person today, because if some of the facts I said early about earth’s history didn’t happen the possibility of me not being born would’ve been altered, for Instance Ishmael son of Abraham starving to death. Then Islam wouldn’t have existed, and possibility of me being born wouldn’t have occured. Because from Ishmael prophet muhammad descended from him, and so do most arabs. The second factor is my current history, I could be a different person from the person I’m today. For Instance The way I was raised and the environment I grew up in, had impacted me greatly. Such as the way I talk and dress.
I was raised around people from the hood, and lets say if I was to be raised in a small town Upstate New York, I would’ve became a different person. On the other side my parents played a role in my life as every parent significantly does. My parents as immigrant always pushed me to be a great person, and have a better life. Now that I know, and have the knowledge of my history, and how it has impacted me as an Individual I believe that it’s time for me to choose my destiny. I’ve always had hard time growing up and socializing with people, it was a struggle trying to assimilate to the American society, and finding one’s Identity. Especially with you moving from a Suburban town in Yemen to a city in the U.
S. Now that I know that it was determined for me to grow up like this, I still believe that I have the freewill to change my destiny. What I want in this life is to help out those who have helped me, those who smiled at me and told me nice words. Those who’ve always stood by my side. In this life I want to be the best person possible, with the most success in the family. For instance My dad works as a cashier and my grandfather works as farmer, so if I was to become a Doctor, then I would considered it a big achievement, and I would bring pride to my family. What makes me think this way is my childhood.
For Arabs, family is the center of everything, but for my family I was the center of everything, they always supported me and had my back. I used to get praised by many of my teachers in elementary school in Yemen. Some foreshadowing me as a great person, which made me feel special from other kids.
I had desire for knowledge so I could go home and tell my mother what I learned to make her proud. In particular my uncle, the first in the family to go to college he was a great person, and he helped me with my schoolwork. He really had great personality, and I wanted to be just like him. On the other hand my dad always stressed the concept of hard work. I had to help him work part time during my school year and full time in holidays.
I began to see life’s social order and people chasing after their livelihood from selling drugs to working in offices. This made me more committed in doing well in high school and more desirable for going to college. I realized In this world money runs everything, money is like seawater, the more you drink the thirstier you become. I realized money is necessary for our living just like food and water. As I worked I began to develop some philosophical thoughts Thus we humans tend to do anything for the sake of surviving. We tend to work long hours sacrificing our time to earn money so we could feed and shelter ourselves.
Yet however with hard work comes experience, and from experience comes knowledge. This made me want to be a successful person, and also help people who had suffered like me. I want to fund those people in need for the money to go to colleges just like me. Through funding libraries, after school programs, and giving out scholarships, because these were the things I missed in my childhood. This brings me to my answer I was meant to be the person who I am today so I can be the cause for my grandkids existence, because if I wasn’t born the same thing to my grandkids would happen.
I believe that I was created for the benefit of my grandkids who would one day drive nice cars, and live happy life, and I could be proud to say that I was the cause of their happiness. On the other side, I could be a number in the statistics of soldiers dead in WW3 or number of civilians dead from an atomic explosion. Heart attack, Flu, Cancer, and etc… I believe that God has created me for a cause. I feel like that I was born in the 21st century and settled in NYC for a reason and I’ll try to make the best out of that reason. I feel like i’m blessed for living New York City, because there’s so many people out there who don’t have the same advantage as I have. I know some of my friends in the hood, very great people, very great leaders, but they don’t have somebody to guide them, and tell them to stay in school, similar in other places in the world.
Let’s look at Africa, India, East Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. All those Third World countries have corrupt governments, and ongoing wars, and the ones who suffer are the innocent people. So I as a person living who was determined to be born in the 21st century, and grow up like this, have took pledge to do as much as I can to help those in need. So as a person living in the milky way galaxy, planet earth, out of seven billion people living today I will try to be a positive influence at least in one million people lives in the world.