This is a story of how I became my own person, all because of one surprising piece of text in an unexpected place. It was the beginning of middle school, sixth grade to be precise. Just another depressing day in the life of Mohammed. I grew up not having many friends, or being too close with my family. My parents were your typical East Asian parents, they expected great things from me and wanted me to become a doctor, and always encouraged me to become one. That’s not to say they were bad or are bad parents, they loved me and always tried their best to make me happy, my father always looked serious and reserved but behind it all he’s just a really nice person and my mother is just radiating sunshine but both of them were usually busy with work. So, the one thing I did have besides just playing video games, were books.

Books were basically a form of escapism to me, being able to experience a world and happiness that I couldn’t find in real life. I essentially accepted that I was gonna live the rest of my life pursuing my parent’s dream of me becoming a doctor with no ambitions for myself. I was an empty canvas with no will for myself see myself in characters within books to feel a bit of joy. That all changed when I went to school during one of the first days of middle school and went into ELA class. It felt like another regular boring day, I wasn’t really doing much but the teacher told me we were assigned a book to read and I was slightly annoyed since usually the assigned books are boring to me. I picked up the book and was pleasantly surprised when I read the description of a book called, “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief”, the main character was the same age as me and he was going on a fun and dramatic coming of age story, something I could never have. As time passed I got more and more invested in the story, seeing the mystical powers, and the cool people Percy met along the way, until I made it to the one line of text that changed me forever. “If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself”. This transformed my perception of life, something so simple but impactful.

I never really thought of my own life really ever being my own life, like sure I understand that I’m living, breathing, and eating, but I never really viewed it as my life. I always lived and was a slave to my parents’ dreams. But, reading that line just hit me, what is the meaning of my life? To serve my parents and repay them? To become a doctor and be successful in the eyes of the public? Who knows, only I can truly give my own life any meaning, and for me to do that, I need to live it myself, following my own aspirations and goals. It was a small but huge step forward in my life that altered the course of my life; I started opening up to people about my problems and I started becoming my own person, not a slave to another’s dream. As time went by, I tried my best to keep down the path of becoming a doctor while also being able to enjoy it as my own choice, always remembering that one line, but the reality of it finally hit me in college. I genuinely didn’t want to become a doctor or anything that a predetermined idea gave to me, I wanted to make something of my life for myself.

After contemplating it for a long time and thinking about the meaning of my life, I decided on my own to follow my own path and change into a business major, often altering that quote in my head to fit with my situation, “If I want to be something, I need to follow and discover my own path”. One piece of literature led me to who I am today, it all started with one quote and a sense of familiarity. It was significant for me, I felt like I was programmed my whole life until I read that book, like I was unshackling myself from the burden of others. It’s honestly what led me to reading even more nowadays whether it be novels or comics, it gave me the motivation I needed to further improve my diction. I vaguely remember one of the chapters of the book talking about the difficulty in pronouncing words, so I searched up words with multiple syllables, the toughest being “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, and I actually learned how to say it. My diction was improving at an impressive rate and I was able to understand the text in different pieces of literature and apply it to my writing and get more points because of my use of difficult words. I was improving all because of one fateful book. Even now, even if it’s embarrassing to admit, the first Percy Jackson book changed my life, for the better and I’m glad it led to the person I am today.