Beginnings

My name is Paul, I am seventeen and a senior at a suburban Chicagoland high school. I am writing this blog as a student in my Sociology class.

I find it hard for one to define who they are. It is exceedingly hard, nearly impossible to pinpoint exactly what you are, and what makes you as such. I am a compendium of my life experiences. Everything I have gone through, every success and every failure, every friend and every enemy, every day and every night, have all come together to create the Paul that sits here writing this today. Tomorrow, I will have new life experiences, and will be a different, more accomplished person than I am now. The day after that, even more so. Life is a cumulative experience; the more you live, the more you learn, and the stronger and wiser you become.

My biggest influences are my friends and family. As a child, even through the beginning years of high school, I was extremely socially awkward. I learned what is acceptable about society: how to act, how to get along with others, etc. from the people that I met. This goes back to my opinion that life is a collection of additive experiences. If it weren't for these people, and the experiences they gave me, I wouldn't be as wise as I am today, and as a result, I wouldn't be me.

My goal in life is to make a difference. If once I'm gone, one person remembers me, just one person is left better off for my existance, than my life will be worthwhile. Of course, my goal is to make the world a better place for as many people as possible. I would like to do that through our government. I am hoping to go to college in Washington D.C., and wherever I end up, I plan on studying Politics. I want to get involved in government in order to fix our flailing society, and make the world the best possible place for the most number of people.