Evading and maneuvering through obstacles, your feet pound rhythmically on the ground as you dash forward. Bolting hurriedly down the endless corridors lined with lockers, you spot a clock on the wall changing from 1:29 to 1:30. You begin to lose hope, and your mind starts to slip, becoming distraught by terrible thoughts that spiral and flit through your head: thoughts of detentions and attendance, thoughts of your parents punishing you for being tardy to a class. You hear a mighty, magnificent, metallic thunk as all of a sudden your head begins to throb. A gleaming and brilliantly painted surface fills your vision, seeming to laugh at you assertively. The delicate case of writing supplies you had been clutching to your side escapes your trembling grasp, slips to the ground, and opens, the contents from within spilling out onto the hard surface. You drop to your knees, rapidly shoving all the scattered utensils into the case from whence they came.

Another student runs by, examines the scene you have created, and shifts their attention back to the classroom door to their left. Rushing and fumbling, they attempt to open the door and succeed with the door creaking painfully and them rushing inside. Your worry increases, knowing that undoubtedly you will be marked tardy, and growing angry that you were ignored. But your troubles don’t last long, for yet another late student comes by, spots you, and comes to help you out. That person had the selflessness to give up their own time and help you, knowing well that they would likely go unthanked, possibly even to a certain extent penalized due to this selfless act of kindness. Yet, they still did it, and, at least to themselves and you, they chose the correct option. Selflessness has helped many people to be successful, myself being one of them. So, what is selflessness?

Selflessness is a character trait that encompasses the idea of making a sacrifice of something like time or energy to help others. This could be anything from helping someone clean something up to giving someone who is struggling with studying or homework some help. Selflessness is a very important character trait, too, for a multitude of reasons. One of these reasons is that selflessness has very close ties with kindness and is a form of kindness, so the world would be much more unkind and thus a worse place without selflessness.

How can selflessness be used for success and personal benefit? Selflessness can be used for success and personal benefit in many different ways. One way it can be used for success and personal benefit is by helping others, because, if you help others, others are more likely to help you. For example, one day, you help someone with his math homework. And then the next day, you are struggling with your social studies homework, and the person you helped the previous day with math homework helps you today with your social studies homework. It lightens the load for both sides.

Another way that selflessness can be used for success and personal benefit is if you are kind to everyone and make sacrifices for others, you will be less ridiculed and shamed for just being you because people will know that you are a good person. An example of this could be, say, you go to work. On your way inside, you see a young volunteer trying to lift a heavy crate inside. You see the time, and you’ve arrived late. Traffic was rough, and you’re still tired. Yet, you still take the time to help them lift the crate and place it in its respective area. The next day, you see a mailman struggling to make it up the stairs with his heavy bag of papers. You help him, of course, but this time someone sees you. Now, every day for the next week something along these lines occurs. Eventually, you become known as a great person; a hero. Once, you were a nobody who was shamed and ridiculed for holding such a disrespected position, and now you are loved. This great status was achieved by selflessness granting you it's a blessing.

For another example, myself. Selflessness is important for me to have because there are lots of situations in school where people make mistakes, especially when you take into consideration that kids are immature and make mistakes often and can be very clumsy - more clumsy than adults, usually. And mistakes can lead to slips and falls, and slips and falls lead to dropping held items. Thus, I have the opportunity to give my time and effort to help others when I am in school.

One specific way I have used and still use selflessness today to succeed in life is when I am alongside an acquaintance. One bright, vibrant Autumn afternoon, my friend, Josh, and I were thoughtfully working on an assignment in science class. This assignment showcased the effect video games have on the brain. Hands throbbing, arms stiffening, we had nearly reached the end of the assignment. I was farther behind in my work than Josh (we had started at different times), yet I still stopped when he asked for help. He wanted help starting a short answer paragraph, and though I hadn’t arrived at that part of the work yet, fatigued and tired as I was, I read the instructions aloud to help him out. I came up with a basic start for a sentence and talked it over with him for a spell.

Finally, once Josh understood, we both went back to work and finished that part. Next, we had to fill in a graph - a graph that I knew nothing about. But Josh did know how to work with a graph, so I inquired to him for help. He accepted and discussed the work with me, helping me to fill in answers along the way until I finally understood. We both gave our time to help each other, and we are still friends to this day. This is only one of the many ways I have used selflessness, but it is a good example.

Selflessness is an important characteristic to have. Selflessness will let you live life to the fullest. If we use selflessness in our daily lives, then we will live even better lives, and other people will have better lives too. Maybe the next time that you see someone struggling, try to help them out; you never know who might help you in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

-Caleb S.