Essay #17

Nolan B.

Mr. Salsich

English 9

4/11/11

Controller of Our Fates:

An Essay on the Book Julius Caesar and Our Opinions on Fate

Cassius says that people are "masters of [their] fates" in the book Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, which was believed by most in that time period. I can both agree and disagree with these words, making this a hard topic to discuss. I believe it definitely depends on what you are trying to control about your life. There are parts of your life you can control, while there is also parts considered uncontrollable in my opinion.

There are ways in your life that you can actually decide the outcome. Choosing where you work can potentially be your choice if you devote yourself enough. For example, if you want to become an engineer, you have to work painstakingly hard in area's such as math and science. Becoming an exemplary student in these subjects, doing every assignment to the best of your abilities, being an over achiever by doing extra work, are all ways to get you that much closer to getting your dream job. There are points in everyone's lives where they can choose between different things. This comes into play when you're determining the kind of car you want. It's in your own control to pick a car that you like, but that will also keep you safe. Lastly, I think that karma can be a deciding factor to your own fate, since I'm a believer in karma. Any good deeds done by you, like helping someone in need, will result in good things to come later in life. If I were to be callous to my piers, bad things would end up happening to me instead. You can keep control of your fate in only some instances of your life.

There are times where we can't manipulate what happens in our lives. Sometimes our fate can be put into other people's hands. When in need of some serious surgery, doctor's are put in charge of our fates instead of us. Any mistakes made by the doctor can potentially put our lives on the line. Sometimes I can't seem to decide something on my own, so I ask someone else to choose for me. I guess that could still be considered me deciding my own fate, but it also is letting someone else do it for me. I usually only do this with things not that crucial though. I believe that sometimes no matter how hard you try, you won't always be able to get what you want. I would love more than anything to be an amazing basketball player and go into the NBA, but that's impossible because I'm not big enough; I can't swish almost every shot; I can't dribble between each and every player on the other team; I can't be the high scorer in every game I play in. I practice everyday, but my chances are still extremely slim to go into the NBA no matter how hard I try because I wasn't born with the right genes. Whatever happens in our lives isn't always entirely controlled by us.

To be honest, I really wish I could decide my entire fate, but that's unrealistic in my eyes. I understand that you can in fact control what happens in your life based on the decisions you make, but you can't control everything. If everyone were able to control their entire fate, then everyone would be happy and have their dream job. This topic, in my opinion, is still very hard to discuss because it is based entirely on opinion.