What Matters to Me, Essay Example

As I consider the question of “what matters to me,” I begin to realize what a difficult question it is to answer. The first thought that come to mind are of family and friends, which most people probably think of as things that matter. And, of course, these things do matter to me. If I dig deeper, however, I begin to see why the important people in my life matter to me. It is, in the end, about the connections we make, and what we learn from, what we get from, and what we give to the people we meet that matters the most to me.

I have always been driven my intellectual curiosity, and I constantly strive to learn more about the world around me. I see meeting new people as an opportunity to learn from them and to benefit from the wisdom of their experiences (even if those benefits are not immediately apparent). In an academic context this may sometimes mean learning from others through the legacy of their work; in a social context it may mean simply getting to know people from different backgrounds and walks of life. I see education not (just) as a set of activities taking place in a classroom or lecture hall, but as the totality of life’s experiences. Life is about living and growing, and what matters to me most is that I remember to embrace that as my mantra as I embark on the next phase of my life.