Journal #21

I thought the quote by Emerson was really deep. The theme he's trying to convey is that good things come from hard work, and that you must go out and do for yourself. Accept what you have and work with it. Don't envy or imitate someone else, or what they have. Take what you have and make it into something good and amazing. It's true. If you want to be successful in life, you can't depend on someone else to do something for you. You can't try to imitate them, and don't envy them. Envy is ignorance because instead of being jealous of someone, be grateful to what you already have. Envying someone else is ignoring the good things you already have with you. Imitation is suicide because by imitating someone else, you are killing your own personality, your own character, and yourself in general. You are you, and imitation is when you try to do away with your personality traits. Be yourself and work hard for success. That is what Emerson is trying to say. Search for yourself rather than envy and imitate somebody else. Doesn't getting something done yourself feel better than having someone do it for you? Individuality is a beautiful thing.  This quote is very influential. Its a good philosophy to live by. If more people followed it, i believe more would be happy in life. In this day and age, everyone is trying to imitate one another because we feel like that makes us fit in. But we forget that uniqueness is just as important. I really like when he talks about tilling your own land. Everyone is given a 'piece of land' and the only way to get any thing good out of it is to struggle and till it until you get something good out of it. That's how it really is. We each have a choice. Till our own soil--our own life--and get something good out of it, or go out and try tilling someone else's or have someone do it for us and reap no benefit. Emerson is also trying to say you need to work for what you want. Work hard and struggle through hard times to make it your own.