Unfortunate to Never Have Been Unfortunate...

Sooo, philosophy has been kicking my butt all semester but it really is an interesting subject and sometimes I overly enjoy it :)! Some of the quotes, questions, and material is post-worthy but I wouldn't kill anyone with my weird obsessions! I promise! This was pretty good though, a quote from an ancient (and famous) philosopher named, Seneca. The quote is:

"I count you unfortunate because you have never been unfortunate."

Below is my test, an essay test that we basically have to state if we do or do not agree with Seneca's quote. Enjoy! And excuse my grammor, I'm just a major, not a master. :)

I absolutely agree with Seneca's quote. Life is full of lessons, they'll never be written on a chalkboard or listed in a book, they will be experiences. Good and bad experiences which will challenge you to grow and learn and ultimately become a better person. Not everyone will take something out of experience, because depending on who they are and how they are due to their upbringing and development, they may not see that something can be learned. They see mistakes as accidents that were inevitable, when an action of theirs or someone elses may have caused the mistake which could have been avoided. Thus, knowing what action could have been avoied could prevent the same mistake from happening, rather than failing to see what could have been learned from that situation. When it comes to this quote, there are many sides. For one, it is extremely hard to realize how good something or someone may be if you have never experienced the opposite of that something or someone. For instance, a woman who has grown up poor would more than likely be content with a husband who is middle-class than a woman who was brought up in a middle-class or upper-class family. People who always prosper, who don't experience bad things, who have never faced any traumatic situations probably won't ever get to experience the real beauty of things, can they become wise if there are no situations or experiences to gain knowledge of life from? Can a person who has never experienced the death of a parent, counsel a person who recently suffered the loss of their mother? Can a person who has never been involved in gang activities convince a teen involved in a gang to change the way he is living? We hear the word credentials and we began to think of professional credentials, but life credentials also exist. What have we overcome? What hardship did we work through to be a stronger person? This has nothing to do with rich or poor, because illness/death/misfortune...it can happen to any and everyone. But how can we appreciate the valuie of something if we have no idea what value is?