The First Question by Pablo

The First Question by Pablo - July 2014 Scholarship Essay

From the time that I was a child of about 11 or 12 years old, I would have existential crises of a great many things like the inevitability of death, the purpose of existence, the meaning of life if life had a meaning at all, etc., and found that with whomever I had talked with about these things, especially with those my age, there was no heavy consideration or appreciation for philosophizing about even the smallest of things. Even if I had the inclination to speak of these topics with those who were my senior, I was intimidated of them and what they might have said. Even so, death was a topic that few people wanted to face head on, life had a definite meaning, and morality was something that few even contemplated. Because of this, intellectually stimulating conversations with those around me were few and far in between.

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov is a short story that I have had the immense pleasure of stumbling across while rummaging through a used book shop, and it had been one of the most profound works that I had read as a freshman, as it contained within it many of the things that I had committed myself to ponder about since relatively early on in my childhood. With this story, my ideas were now given a new perspective.

Ironically, The Last Question became one of the first questions to ask my 11th grade AVID teacher, Mr. Guiles.

As I was discussing the story with one of my classmates early on in the year, Mr. Guiles had overheard the ending of our conversation. At the end of the class period, he asked me what exactly it was that my classmate and I were conversing about, and as I elaborated, he pointed out a major plot hole within the story, and after a brief discussion as to why that particular aspect of the book was erroneous, we both enthusiastically agreed to discuss more about the topic tomorrow, as I was going to be late to my next class.

The following day, Mr. Guiles walked up to my seat and we began or discussion once more. In that particular conversation, the things which I had so wished to discuss with someone flowed organically and intricately weaved themselves into it, eliminating any preconceived notion that I was the only person that I knew to be aware of my own existence. The following days, as I got to know Mr. Guiles more and more, my thoughts and conclusions were being given a new breath of life and appreciation until both he and I could gladly relay our thoughts and ideas to one another. Throughout the school year and as our discussions progressed, he had exposed me to many of the fantastic philosophers that I know of to this day.

The discussions that I've had with him are discussions that I won’t ever forget. Mr. Guiles has influenced my life in a way that I believe few teachers can, in a way that I believe few people can. The conditions of his classroom had appropriated themselves in such a way that had introduced me to the brilliance of his mind, which in turn influenced my outlook on a multitude of things, the most prominent of them all being education and autodidacticism. He was a guide in my quest for knowledge, a resource of information and outlooks that had never before crossed my mind, and of all of the great many things that he was, he was a person who encouraged my thoughts and revelations, a person who nurtured my introspections and reflections, a person whom taught me the importance of educating oneself, and helped to provide the resources and means to do so. The works of Plato, Aristotle, Boethius, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, Peter Kreeft, and of many others were not assigned readings set forth by a standardized classroom environment, but were works being encouraged by this man who knew so much about them and inspired me to learn more about this subject that I was once so blatantly ignorant of. He not only inspired me to learn, but inspired me to dream, to recognize that education will never die, as education is ignorant of time.

As I left his classroom for the last time as one of his students, his expectations of myself and of all of the things that he felt that I could accomplish were made explicitly clear in our final departing conversation of the year, and those words are words that still resonate and encourage me to continually better myself in both my studies and personal life. Mr. Guiles was the first person to introduce me to true education, an education of self-fulfillment and accomplishment not limited to constraints and limitations of the classroom.