The Glasses of life by Alyssa

The Glasses of life by Alyssa - September 2021 Scholarship Essay

The first period of the week for French class always includes a debate. The teacher writes the topic down on the board and asks us to divide ourselves into two groups. Once we were divided, I looked around. Our group only had girls (and one boy) and the other group only had boys. Can you guess what the topic was? “Men should help their wives with housework.”

Growing up, I never even considered being a stay-at-home wife. I’m passionate about many things so I always want to study and work. So I know that after a long day (or a long week) of work, keeping the house clean alone is very tiring. Furthermore, I believe housework is not exclusively for women. However, most of the guys in our class thought otherwise. We argued that most women work too and it would take too much energy to do everything alone therefore it’s important that they lend a hand. They argued that women were made to do the housework and it’s “scientifically proven”. The debate went on and on with tons of arguments. However, class debates never come out with a winner. Each team would give a closing argument after 30 minutes of debating and we’d head to the next class. That day I debated with all the knowledge I had because I was very sensible about the topic. Therefore, I felt especially frustrated coming out of the French class.

That day, I didn’t learn whether women should be fully responsible for housework or not. I learned to respect opinions. Have you ever seen the image of two people looking at a number from 2 different sides? One person saw the number ‘6’ and the other saw the number ‘9’. You can stand to your values without forcing other people to have the same values. We all grew up in different families and different environments. I’ve known the guys in my class since they were about 6years old. Their moms are housewives who take care of everything for them: food, laundry, and so on… Therefore, their ideal wife would be someone who would do the same. Even though none of the girls in the class would fit that standard, I know many girls who would love to be that kind of wife. That’s why I call situations like this the glasses of life. Glasses don’t mean that you’re seeing things that aren’t there, they either help you to see things clearer or they protect you from the sun. Each one of us created our own glasses as we grew up. As we wear our glasses everyday, we find out that each one of us have different lenses. So I realised that it’s not really about figuring out who’s right and who’s wrong. It’s more about understanding that people can feel differently than we do and respecting that.