Question

Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

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Sample Essay No.1

Question: Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

We, as a society, are brought up on certain beliefs, which we naturally assume are the norm. This mental conditioning was also part of my thought process, in the matter of studying in schools where the medium of instruction is English, as opposed to those studying in schools who teach in the local language or vernacular medium.

I was privileged to be a witness to a young boy, a close friend of modest means, who did not have much of a choice, due to his family’s financial constraints. He completed his education in this format, and many peers thought that he would go through life with this language limitation, considering the global need of the current generation to communicate fluently in the English language.

Having said that, whenever he would meet me, he would try to converse in broken English, and always stated that he would try to attain fluency in English before he completes his college education. I would always encourage him while maintaining that it’s his ability, not the language, which will determine his success in life.

At every opportunity, he would visit public libraries and dive deep into books, even though it was difficult for him to comprehend. He never gave up, and would also watch numerous English television documentaries, rehearsing his English by doing voice-overs, understanding the grammatical flow, punctuations, voice stresses, among other things. This kind of effort really prompted my thinking and realigned my outlook from the traditional belief of scholastic success coming only to those who completed a convent or English medium based schooling.

Sure enough, as soon as he completed his school education, he took the bold step to enroll himself into an English instruction College, the initial transitionary period being particularly difficult for him. But then again, he never gave up on his dreams and aspirations and completed his base in economics and management. Thereafter, he applied for and successfully obtained admission in one of the premier business management institutes, completing his Masters in Business Administration with an honors ranking.

After that, there was no stopping him. He was immediately selected by one of the leading business corporates as a Regional Business Head. And now, everyone is really proud of his success, even though there was a time when everyone had believed that he would be part of the average employee class, with limited career options due to a communications barrier that could pull him down throughout his life. But he chose to break from the norm, reach for the stars, and achieved what most privileged students could not do.

Therefore, after going through his success story, it is a clear inspiration to one and all – do not get bogged down by traditional negative beliefs, there are people like him to challenge this way of thinking, and the outcome of that is clear for all to see and derive inspiration from. Keep questioning beliefs that do not have any factual merit, the result will probably surprise you positively!

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