Write an essay about an event that made you change your view of yourself or your world, explaining why you changed.

An Event that Changed My Life

I always considered myself to be a good friend . I was , I thought , a good listener , compassionate , kind and selfless . I believed that I put others before me . I didn 't have many friends , but those that I did have stuck around . But one day in high school , something happened to make me question whether I actually was the sort of person that I 'd always imagined myself to be

I got to school , and found one of my best friends in a real state of

shock . She was crying , pale , shaky and quiet . I asked what was wrong and she told me that one of her friends had died the day before . She needed a hug and a shoulder to cry on , I could see that . But here is where my eye opener came . I couldn 't do it . I couldn 't be the person that she needed to comfort her at that time . I just couldn 't bring myself to do it . I think , subconsciously , as I come from a family who don 't express their emotions , I felt people would have seen a physical gesture as a weakness in me . Anyway , at that point , my fear of giving a hug was stronger than my will to comfort my friend . So I sat on the stairs , and she sat on the stairs , the gap between us wide , waiting for our teacher to arrive , each one of us as miserable as the other for different reasons . The coldness of that step felt as cold as I imagined my heart to be , watching my friend in her absolute misery and being unable to comfort her

Was this my first experience of death ? No . I had had grandparents who had died . But it was the first time I had fallen into the role of being the person who had to be supportive to such a degree . And I realized that I had a weakness - the lack of emotion shown in my family had emotionally stunted me to such a degree that I could not give physical comfort when it was needed ! As time passed and I thought this through and through , I think it entered my subconscious that to be able to give a hug to a person who needs it is a far greater strength than being emotionally aloof is , and I 've been able to comfort friends and family since

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