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McNamara 1

Grant L. McNamara

Professor Watkins

Composition 1

7 September, 2018

Lessons From the Past

Throughout my life I have had many mistakes and many lessons help morph me into the

person I am today. A very valuable lesson I have learned is about addiction; around three years

ago I had a family member who happened to be my older brother Jack who was struggling

through some hard times. I watched my brother struggle immensely and overcome his addiction,

which then led to me learning a very valuable lesson which is that any individual can overcome

anything if that person has the effort and the willpower to do so.

To illustrate, there was one particular situation that sticks with me always and that was a

call at four in the morning about my brother who had been hospitalized due to a drug overdose;

Jack woke up to his family all around him praying he’d choose to get help after hitting rock

bottom with nothing left; at that moment Jack said to us he wanted to get some help to overcome

this disease. We jumped on it and got my brother the first plane ticket we could to send him to

treatment. Seeing someone struggle so much and have no faith in themselves ever getting better

is hard, but my brother decided to turn his life around and get some help; seeing his courage and

his strength struggling through these times was very difficult, but thats what has taught me

watching him fail and seeing Jack learn from those mistakes, and that reaching out for help,

having courage, and never giving up on yourself you can do anything in this world with those

characteristics.

The lesson that sticks with me the most is having willpower, strength, and the right
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mindset anyone can accomplish anything; watching him overcome this disease has been an

incredible life lesson. I'm blessed I was fortunate enough to observe and learn from my brothers

hardships, I looked up to my brother my whole life; he was a huge part in my childhood and

seeing him struggle the way he was, was a huge disappointment for me. As a result my brother

has now gone on to be sober for the past three years and it has truly showed me how much

courage can do when you’re going through tough times. His mistakes were my lessons and he

has taught me very well that I can do anything I put my mind to I just need to have the effort and

willpower to do so and I can accomplish everything this world has to offer.

As a result, learning lessons from my brother has been quite the adventure I've learned

that no matter what's going on in life there is always a way out on the other side if you have the

dedication and commitment to get there. In addition one of the major lessons I took from my

brother are that there are good days and bad days, but no matter the day if you have the right

attitude and have a positive outlook you can do great things. Therefore Jack has inspired me to

be a better person, not to judge, and to always have faith; my brother has shown me anyone can

conquer anything like he did with addiction, but no one's ever truly conquered addiction is the

thing you struggle with it on a day to day basis and he has learned great lessons on how to cope

with his disease and he taught me how to use those lessons in day to day life with other problems

that occur in my life.

Lastly, without learning and watching my brother fail time and time again I wouldn't be

the person I am today; those problems have helped shape me into the person I am and still am

becoming, and with learning those lessons it has helped me mentally prepare myself for the

problems I will have in life and how to overcome those and keep pushing on. Life lessons help

us as whole become better people. Lessons morph us into the person we want to be by using that
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lesson in a later problem, and while watching someone fail can be devastating; still applying

those lessons they are using themselves and then apply them to your life which is what I have

done in mine to become the person I am and will continue to grow into.

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