My Turning Point
Not everyone is born wise. Instead, life experiences teach us how to be wise. At the same time, a person has to keep re-evaluating their life to decide whether they are on the right path. Sometimes, some people walk on the wrong path for a long time and nature is required to play its tricks to redirect that person’s path towards the right one. What I mean is there must be something in life that happens to push someone to the right path. Some may often experience this thing all through their life depending on their upbringings. However, others just need one shaking experience to properly change their course in life. The thing that is necessary to change a person needs not to be a good experience.
Reasons and Events That May Be Your Turning Point
Turning Points in Life | Description |
---|---|
1. Graduation | Graduating from high school or college can mark a significant turning point in life, as it signifies the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. |
2. Marriage or Divorce | Getting married or divorced can be a major turning point in life, as it often leads to significant changes in lifestyle, relationships, and personal identity. |
3. Career Changes | Changing careers or starting a new job can be a turning point in life, as it often involves a shift in priorities, values, and daily routine. |
4. Health Issues | A health crisis or diagnosis can be a turning point in life, as it can lead to changes in lifestyle, priorities, and relationships. |
5. Travel or Relocation | Moving to a new place or traveling to a new country can be a turning point in life, as it exposes individuals to new cultures, ideas, and experiences. |
6. Loss of a Loved One | The death of a loved one can be a turning point in life, as it often leads to a reassessment of values, relationships, and personal goals. |
7. Personal Realization or Epiphany | A moment of personal realization or epiphany can be a turning point in life, as it often leads to a shift in perspective, values, and priorities. |
My Turning Point in Life
Sometimes, a crisis of sorts is needed for the hard-headed ones to lead them to different paths or to make them stop and take notice. This is commonly known as a turning point. One person’s turning point is different from that of another’s. Turning points also happen differently in terms of time. Some experience their turning points at their early stages of development. Others experience their turning point in their early adult life, while still others experience their major turning points when they are adults, married, and have children. This turning point may be different for everyone but its major point is to make the crisis that has happened in an individual’s life worth it. Its point is to make the pain that one went through meaningful. As such, people are not supposed to allow their experiences to be wasted. Instead, they should use them as springboards for the changes they know that they need in life.
As for my case, one of the major crises that led to a vital turning point in my life happened when I was young. Another one happened when I was a teenager. Since the time I was born, I had been taking life easily. I can say that unlike most of my friends, I was born lucky. I had friends who did not have parents. Fortunately, both of my parents were alive. I had friends whose parents were poor. My parents, in turn, worked and we had money. I never used to lack anything and nothing used to bother me in my life. In addition, nothing seemed to be important in my life as I had everything that I needed. At that time, I did not understand the meaning of education. I did not understand the meaning of living life as if it was your last day either.
As for my education, I used to play around with it and I did not understand that my parents worked hard to be where they were at the moment. I had an older brother who was very different from me. He was always responsible and everything he undertook seemed successful. Because of this, he excelled in life and education. Most people would say that my brother was the one who took after my parents meaning that I was nowhere near my parent’s achievements and I was not like them when it came to matters of life. Even though I was their child and I was physically similar to them, my attitude was nowhere similar to that of my parents. Because I failed to put effort into my education, my grades were very low. However, this did not alert me in any way. I continued getting worse and my grades continued going down.
Just like any other parents, my parents used to worry about my attitude since to them, I was uncontrollable. However, their effort seemed fruitless and their advice seemed to fall on deaf ears. Some parents would advise them to make me undergo counseling. Others would advise them to beat me thoroughly in case of any misbehaving. However, no effort seemed to have a positive impact on me. Different counselors tried to mold me without success. My parents did not understand that change has to come from inside a person. I went to more than one school since my parents thought that different environments would do me some good. Yet, this did not work either. Instead, my parents ended up spending a lot of money on me because of my attitude. My parents were also afraid of having another baby since they thought the baby would be as uncontrollable as I was. In my comfort zone, I never knew that nature could play some tricks on me. I thought that I was prone to danger.
One morning, I woke up just like any other usual morning. I did not smell danger as many say that a dangerous situation is smelt right from the bed. My friends and I decided to go to a nearby forest to play. My parents would often ground me and I was not allowed to go far from my home. Partly, this was done in the hope that I would learn from isolation. However, a large part of the confinement was made to keep me away from trouble as I was known for creating trouble. Personally, for a long time, I thought that nature had declared war against me. This is because, on top of my ignorance and bad habits, some of the things I used to do were not my fault. On the contrary, I used to find myself in danger for no good reason or without much effort from my side.
My friends and I decided not to tell our parents about our whereabouts. Because of this, we had to go to the farthest point of the forest to keep off from being noticed. This was freedom to its maximum. We climbed trees, swam in the lake, played hide and seek, and other types of games that we could not play at home because of the lack of space and natural playground as was offered by the forest. To our little knowledge, the forest had some dangerous snakes. While playing on one of the trees, a snake bit me. Since I was on top of the tree, I fell. I knew that that could not end well. I did not know why the snake had to bite me instead of any of my friends. As narrated earlier, it is me and not others who were always in trouble. Sometimes, it was not by choice, but by accident. This time, the snake and the tree conspired to take my life or to make me suffer. Some of my friends who were not far from me noticed what had happened and took action immediately. From the zoo and geographic TV programs, we knew that this snake was poisonous and it was a matter of time before the poison spread to my whole body.
Thanks to basic first aid tips we had been taught at school and from what we had learned from TV, my friends gave me some first aid before anything else. After that, they carried me in turns until we reached somewhere we could get a car. By this time, I had gone unconscious. From what I was told by my friends, it took them more than one hour to take me to the hospital. By the time I reached there, my body was swollen from the snake bite on my leg. Because of that, I needed special care. When I woke up, my parents were by my side and no one could console my mother. Because the problem was serious, I had to remain in the hospital for a long time since my leg was infected. My mother had to take a leave from work to watch me and visit me in the hospital.
As seen earlier, I never battled with life and death when I was a small baby. I had never faced a bigger challenge than the one I was facing at that moment either. For once in my life, I missed my home. I also missed my schoolmates. It took me two weeks to fully recover from my sickness. Because of this, my education was adversely affected and I became the worst student during that term. However, I had learned my lesson. First of all, I was afraid of death. Secondly, I pitied my parents, especially my mother for what she had to go through. Because of this, I made a personal decision to change for the better. I also decided to keep out of trouble and study hard so that I could improve my grades.
This incident happened to be my first turning point in life. The incident was a steering wheel that directed me toward the right path since I had been following the wrong one for a long time. To achieve my goals and to properly walk on the right path, I had to change my attitude towards everything. Therefore, I had to live each day as if it was my last day. I also had to help out my parents in whatever way I could to make up for the lost time during the period of my ignorance. Just as I had anticipated, nature stopped waging war against me. Since then, I have never found myself in trouble for no reason again. I have understood that God awakened nature to help me move forward in the right direction. Since then, I have not doubt that there are two paths in life; the right path and the wrong one. When following any of these paths, God is always by our side to see our progress and push us to the right path. However, whether to walk on the right path is a personal decision no matter how many challenges are to be faced to make us choose the right way.
Today, I still remember that day and I fully understand what happened on that day. I also remember why it had to happen. The whole incident happened to steer my life in the right direction. Since coming out of the hospital, my life has changed tremendously. My grades started rising. Now I believe the sky is the limit. I have passed through other challenging events in life. However, this first event helped me in dealing with other events in my life. It also helped me in noticing when I am on the wrong path. Because of this, I am always quick to rectify my errors since I am not void of mistakes as a human being.
In conclusion, some events or tragedies that happen in people’s lives happen so that they can change their lives completely. In most cases, such experiences are painful. However, a person who can understand the role of an experience can turn it into a success. In most cases, turning points are not similar. Instead, people go through different situations, which mark their turning points in life.