Who Am I?

    In my Rhetoric class on Monday, my teacher told us to find a quote and relate it to ourselves in some way. This we had to present to everyone in the class on Wednesday (today). This kind-of startled me- I was never asked to define myself in terms of someone else's words. Sure, I always looked for quotes from famous people for my college application essays, but I never ended up using any of them. None of them were me.

    I was completely stuck. I started to make a long, rambling list of what I thought was representative of myself. Then, I went hunting for quotes online. It's harder than one might think. I didn't want to pick any, old quote and say that it relates to me when it doesn't. I would be explaining this to people I have never met before- I wanted to make a good impression and be truthful to myself and to them. Then I thought- I'm a big Harry Potter fan, why not look for a quote by one of the characters?

    Out of all of them, Albus Dumbledore strikes me as the most philosophical. Although he didn't say this in the books, the producer of the 3rd movie had the character say this:

             "Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."

    Now, I know that sounds sappy and all, but I believe in it. I believe that there is always something better to think of. There is always something better out there. You can always look past a "dark time" in exchange for something happier. And the dark time doesn't have to be super terrible as the quote makes it out as. It can be a low grade on the essay you worked really hard on (that would be me...). It could be something like a fight with a good friend. It could even be one of those days that nothing seems to be working out well for you. Call me an optimist, but you can learn from those situations. The lower grade could be an opportunity to improve your writing skills. The fight could lead to a stronger friendship once the argument is settled. The bad day could just be a bad day, but there's always tomorrow. And after tomorrow, there's another day. Life is full of so many opportunities that you just have to grab them and not let go.

    So maybe this quote by Dumbledore doesn't explain who I am completely, but it shows a good portion of myself. The eternal optimistic. In my opinion, happiness is always around, if you care to look for it.