One person I have always looked up to in my life is my older brother for his constant persistence in handling adversity. Constantly, my brother has been assaulted and beaten down by some of the harshest difficulties that life has thrown in his face, but constantly he has gotten back up and persevered. Most of the challenges he has overcome have been physical, but it all started with his persistent mentality. My brother and I have been extremely close all of our lives and that is mainly the result of being the only siblings in our family along with being only fifteen months apart in age.
All throughout middle school, my brother set a great example in his academic work and his relationships with teachers. In hindsight, it almost seemed like it was my job to oppose the perfect student that my brother conveyed to teachers. My grades matched similarly to his, but to say that I was not a menace would be a complete lie. My brother was extremely bright and although I got all my work done with straight A’s, all work and no play makes this guy a dull one. I liked to have fun, goof around with my buddies, and didn’t fear the occasional detention at the risk of making a good laugh for everyone.
To contrast the type of kids we were, my brother won the Spanish award for excellence out of his entire grade and while I had an “A” in Spanish class, the teacher referred me to the lower level class for next year due to my “maturity level. ” Joke’s on you Senora Canici, as I would soon find out later that year, my life would make an unexpected turn based on the actions of my older brother. Since my brother was in 6th grade, he wanted to go to Bergen Catholic High School and not the local public high school.
This was mainly because he wanted to play lacrosse in high school and eventually college and Bergen Catholic had one of the best lacrosse programs in the state. One problem was that Bergen was very expensive and my brother being able to go there seemed like a bit of a long shot. There was one way, but it seemed highly improbable. To score a 97% or above on the admittance exam would mean automatic enrollment followed by a full scholarship. I watched my brother study for months like his life depended on it. I remember the day that the scores came out and I also remember not being remotely shocked at all that this kid had scored a 99% on it.
Fast forward a year and he is attending Bergen Catholic while I have already decided to attend the public high school to learn lower level Spanish. I took the placement exam for Bergen and got accepted as a safety, but I never intended on actually considering it. That is until my parents got a call saying that because my brother was such a high caliber student and athlete, I would also be accepted on full scholarship. Fast forward another year and my brother are side by side again during school, playing lacrosse together, and looking at colleges to play. My brother was on top of trying to get recruited and it started to really pay off.
He was getting looked at and had offers from the likes of Saint Joes, Brown, and Army. The summer going into his junior year he would tear his ACL and be out his entire junior season, lose all his offers and have to fight back to be on top again. This is where I saw my brother go from rock bottom, rehabilitation every single day to coming back his senior year and showing his perseverance. Indeed, he came back, and came back with a vengeance he did. Earning all-county and all-division honors his senior season along with captaining our team to the first state title in school history, he went out on top.
Soon he graduated in the top 10% of his class and currently attends the University of Richmond. After losing his scholarships and potentially having his career ended, he now is looking to the next challenge in his life. This challenge is walking on to a premier, top twenty ranked division one lacrosse team at Richmond. I know one thing is for sure: if anybody is going to accomplish this feat, it will be my brother. Passionate Art Growing up, I never had a real fascination or affinity for anything even closely related to school.
I would tolerate every day, put in minimal effort, and coast through the afternoon like I was in cruise control. My main motivation was bunkering down just long enough so I could be back home just in time for Tom and Jerry. As years passed and I moved from elementary school to middle school, everything seemed to stay neutral until a few weeks into 6th grade. I’ll never forget the enthusiasm and electricity that Mrs. Boggio, my 6th grade social studies teacher, displayed in the first few weeks of class. Her fire and passion really brought me to start investing in my academics and soon I took interest in something that I never thought.
The class started by learning about geography of the world and then looked at different at cultures in Europe, Asia, and the middle east. There was just something about learning history that really excited me. When my class learned about countries of the world, Mrs. Boggio always had some incredibly clever ways of using mnemonics to help students remember what country was where on the map. One corny example that I can still recall is how the country Moldova borders Romania on Romania’s northeast border because there can be “mold over Romanian lettuce. The same applies in Europe to the order from the countries Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania moving north to south along a map that create the word “FELL. ” Connecting with societies of the past, learning famous figures in world history, and delving into the motives of cultures were some features of history that are extremely fascinating to me. I started to really pay attention and since that defining year in middle school, history was considered the subject that I took the most pride in throughout high school.
Continuing my passion of learning history through high school, I would go on to take one honors history course and two advance placement history courses. The adventure took me from the early history of our founding fathers to the French Revolution, all the way into world war II. The experience not only brought out the fiery passion that I hold in history, but taught me some life lessons about the connection of cultures and how we celebrate them today that I do not think I would have learned in any other subject of school. Passionate Activity One thing that I have always been passionate about in my life is sports.
Since I was in elementary school, I grew up with a football in one hand and a lacrosse stick in the other. Nothing took up more time and energy in my life than the investment I put into athletics. My passion for lacrosse and football is not just a mere fascination with the sport, it’s a way of life. People start to play sports in their early years for a multitude of reasons, but to play a sport further and further on in one’s career takes huge commitment. The commitment and responsibility of athletics at a higher level filter people out and leave only room for those who are truly passionate for their work.
I take great pride in having played both football and lacrosse in high school and lacrosse in college for numerous reasons. One of these purposes is the hustle and dedication tied with playing a sport. Playing a sport and having passion is like going to battle every time the pads are put on and the sense of adrenaline and pride that comes with it is one of the most riveting feelings a person can experience. In addition to emotional ties of the game is the idea of a team. A team is a band of selfless players that band together for one common goal. Nobody is bigger than the team and nothing comes before the team.
The passion, sacrifice, and hard work that is expended throughout the process of playing bonds people. Relationships are formed during some of the darkest hours of adversity in one’s life and heat and pressure are used to form bonds that last a lifetime. The lessons learned from playing football and lacrosse in my life will impact the kind of person I am for my entire life. Bringing my passion through sports has taught me life lessons that I never knew and would never learn at any school in the country. It has taught me how to engage every activity in my life with an attitude that will never flinch or break.
It has taught me how a person’s word means so much and that loyalty is a two-way street. One last thing it has taught me is how to not be selfish and to sacrifice for the benefit of the guy next to me so that everyone may benefit. Morally Acceptable to Cheat or Lie The nature of acting morally is a characteristic that mostly everyone in modern society strives to have. Whether being morally or ethically acceptable is a result of following religion or believing in karma, people tend to naturally do the right the thing and act in the correct manner in most situations.
Lying and cheating are looked down upon and are seen as simply just morally and ethically irresponsible and unacceptable in life. With that being said, cheating is unquestionably intolerable to a morally just person in society. There has not been a single event in history where someone has cheated to gain an advantage and it has not manipulated someone or been an act of unethicality. While cheating is indisputably a pillar of immoral and unethical behavior, lying can be flexible and have some qualities of upstanding behavior in particular situations.
The idea of lying seems to generate a widespread opinion of manipulation, cheating, and having unjust moral and ethical character. Not many people consider the sacrifice that comes with lying in certain situations. Turning back the hands of time, people have lied countless times throughout history to protect the lives of others. In the early-to-mid 19th century, close to one hundred thousand slaves escaped to the northern United States and Canada using the Underground Railroad. This act could never be accomplished without the assistance of abolitionists and allies that were supportive of freeing the slaves.
These people would hide slaves and tend to them in their homes so that they would have a place to stay and hide while being searched for. If the authorities came to their door, they would simply lie and say nobody was hiding in their home to protect what they believed in. Lying employs people that strived to protect other’s human rights to act out and help these people. The unethicality of having or using slaves outweighs the unethicality of lying which is used to counter it. Another example of heroism that sits hand in hand with lying is seen about a century later in 1930’s Europe.
During this period, the Nazi party of Germany was hunting any minorities or people that did not fit into their category of social standard. Much like the tendencies of moral, sympathetic bystanders in 19th century early America, people in Germany risked their lives by lying to protect the lives of those being searched for by the Nazis. Civilians would hide Jews, people of foreign ethnicities, and people that were against the Nazi party, in addition to others, in their homes during the cleansing of society in Eastern Europe in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s.
Lying to public officials would save the lives of others in both situations in society. In almost every instance, cheating is morally and ethically unacceptable, whereas lying for the most part is unacceptable except when being utilized to protect lives and the truth. Lying to gain an advantage or manipulate others is generally wrong, but throughout history, lying has protected the lives of hundreds of thousands, even millions of people. In these instances, it becomes morally and ethically responsible to lie so that good-natured people can rise over the imperfections of society.
