Learning about Life through Personal Experience

[Yoga Taruna]

:question: Question :

Some people believe that the best way of learning about life is by listening to the advice of family and friends. Other people believe that the best way of learning about life is through personal experience. Compare the advantages of these two different ways of learning about life. Which do you think is preferable? Use specific examples to support your preference.

:idea: Idea :

There are many ways people learn about life. Some people find that they can best learn about life through the advice of family and friends, while the others find that the best way of learning about life is through personal experience. Each way has its own advantages.

Those who rely on the advice of family and friends find that they can save much time, energy, and money by not trying out themselves what they have never experienced before. What a friend of mine ever told me can serve as a good illustration. She told me, “Trying out something new can take much time, energy, and sometimes, money. Besides, there is no guarantee that what we are trying out will yield a good result as expected. Sometimes, we even have to take the risk that what we have tried out ends up in total failure or total loss. Therefore, if some time I have to deal with something new or unfamiliar, I think it is better for me to just ask and learn from my family, relatives, or friends who have ever had any experience with it. This way I can save much time, energy, and money, while avoiding any risk or failure.”

Those who prefer learning through personal experience find that personal experience gives them deeper and longer impression than does the advice of others. Take the statement of another friend of mine as an illustration. He said to me, “Trying out something new at first gives me new sensation, delight, and lesson I have never experienced before. It’s like making a new adventure or a new exploration of an unknown or undiscovered area. I realize from the very beginning that I have to bear the risk that my efforts will probably end up in total failure, but the new sensation, delight, and lesson that I derive from such efforts make the efforts worth making. If my efforts yield a good result, they undoubtedly double my delight. But should my efforts end up in failure, at least I can get a precious lesson and learn what I should or shouldn’t do in the future in order to maximize the result and avoid or minimize the risk. Imagine that if everyone is unwilling to try out anything new and only relies on the advice of others, there wouldn’t be any great memorable adventures or explorations, would there?”

From what my friends told me and from my own experience, I prefer learning through personal experience. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I never take the others’ advice into account. I always listen to, appreciate, and take the others’ advice into account, but I don’t rely much on it because I have found many times that their advice doesn’t always work for me or isn’t always of any use to me. By nature, every individual brings with himself/herself his/her own uniqueness which makes what is good for someone not always good for the others. It is through personal experience that I can really find out what is good or bad for me.

:)

(Note: Previously, I have made this essay appear in www.jurnalismewarga.com. Click here to see it.)

[tofelmax]

That is really a very good essay and would give you good score on the toefl.Keep up those nice essays and may you achieve your goals soon.BEst of luck.

[Yoga Taruna]

Thank you very much, Tofelmax, for your compliments.

You really really give me a great relief. I hope you will also get a very good score in your test.

:) :)