The Good and The Bad by Lauren

The Good and The Bad by Lauren - November 2018 Scholarship Essay

Lauren Stewart
Varsity Tutors Scholarships
November 15th, 2018

The Good and The Bad
From my first day of school to now, I have seen far too many quotes to account them all. There are a certain set of sayings that have made a mark and that have stuck with me throughout my seventeen years of life. A thought that has crossed my mind for as long as I would remember is, “When I am older, what will I make my senior quote?” I always wondered how I could choose from one of the millions of quotes that I have come across in my lifetime. Until one day, I found a quote said by an unknown person. That quote is, “Everyone wants happiness, no one wants pain. But you can't have a rainbow without a little rain.” I heard this quote when I was in the seventh grade and it has stuck with me from then on. In life, most people only want good things to happen to them and in all honesty, that used to be my mindset as well. If this were the case, people would not be able to appreciate the good times as much because they wouldn't have experienced the bad so they wouldn’t know how good that experience truly was.
When I first heard this quote, I was going through what some may consider a hard point in my life. It was 2013, I had just moved to a new town, started a new school, and my parents were in the middle of getting a divorce. Because of the combination of these three events occurring at the same time, it left me with a constant feeling of loneliness and sadness. I am a very outgoing and social person; however, when I am put in an environment where I am surrounded by others who I do not know very well, I tend to be more introverted and shy. This is what happened throughout most of middle school, leaving me to feel very alone. Eventually, I was able to open up to those around me and form close bonds with my new peers. Also, after making new friends, I found people to talk to about my at home situation and it led me to the realization that having divorced parents is not an uncommon thing and it isn't something that you should let ruin you.
Now that I am older and am able to look back at these experiences with more knowledge, it leads me to believe that this quote has a lot of significance in not only my life, but many others lives too. In life, dealing with good and bad situations is something that is inevitable and as humans we have to learn to live with. Going through hard times in life will only make us appreciate the good times in life that much more. Much like the ancient Chinese principle of Yin-Yang, in life there must be a perfect balance of the good and the bad.