Glory Or Horror by Annmarie

Glory Or Horror by Annmarie - November 2018 Scholarship Essay

I don’t think that a person’s personality and outlook on life can be confined to a small arrangement of letters. Even though I stand behind that statement, I love quotes that give a different perspective on life. I like quotes that disrupt a person and make them reevaluate how they go about their daily life. My school does not allow senior quotes in our yearbooks, but if I was allowed to write one, it would not be a cheesy, bumper sticker like saying.
A quote that I find disruptive is a quote by C.S Lewis which says, “Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory or one of unthinkable horror.” The quote comes from C.S Lewis’s book Mere Christianity. When I first read this quote during my freshman year, I had to reread it multiple times. The quote made me second guess how I live my life. I thought, “I am being intentional to make myself a creature of splendid glory, or am I unconsciously becoming something of horror?” I was slightly taken aback at the thought that unintentionally I could slowly become the opposite of what I want to be. I strive to be a person who brings positivity wherever I go, and overall I thought I did a good job at that. But the words “each day” stuck out to me. Was I speaking and making decisions every day that improved myself, or was I slowly choosing to act in ways that would slowly begin to rot in me?
I would choose this quote to be in my yearbook because I think it reminds me that whatever you feed grows. When I continually think and act positively, that positivity grows. On the flip side, when I feed negative thoughts and actions- they grow too. I think it is important to remember each day, I am contributing to my character- in beneficial ways and ways that decay.