Daniel Moazzami
English 111
Professor Williams
October 21st, 2020
What 13 Years Has Done To Me.
“You just do what you can and you have as much fun as possible” (Frank Ocean)
Throughout my life, I would say I’ve been too introspective. I took stuff too seriously. I
remember when I would get an 80 on some schoolwork and I would start crying because I
thought my academic career was hurt beyond repair. As I grew up, I realized you shouldn’t sweat
about stuff that you can’t change anymore. I feel like I have changed drastically since that photo
of me, and I would like to say for the better. My transformation as a person from a kid to a young
adult was an important one. Who I was, my priorities, and my beliefs had changed a lot between
being a kid and a young adult. Who I was as a kid affected me a lot.
When I was a young kid, all I would do was either go to school, play video games, or
read books. Going to school and learning to read books or memorizing the multiplication tables
wasn’t hard at all. During school, I would long to go on the playground during recess and play.
Then, I would go home, and complete any homework I had in about half an hour. I got a PS2
from my older cousin at around 8 years old and he got me The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
Video Game and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom to play on it.
When I was that young age, all I wanted to do was play those video games. Hundreds of
hours were spent on those specific games, along with a few more on other games I collected
along the way. I enjoyed them very much. There’s debate on whether video games cause a
decline in grades, but I didn’t really have any decline. My grades were all As and all my teachers
liked me. My parents didn’t set a limit to how long I could play video games, as long as I kept all
my grades at an A and slept 8 to 10 hours per night. Even now, I don’t think playing video games
impacts my grades or sleep too much.
My personal beliefs and outlook on life were the same as just about any young kid. I
thought life would be very positive without any negatives. I thought everyone was happy and
that everyone shared my own personal outlook. I would always take school seriously, too
seriously at times. I knew school would be important in my life to be successful, but I didn’t
think it would get any more difficult. I wanted to be a doctor since a young age because I love
helping people. I was a smart kid, so I would get my work done fast. I was playing video games
a lot, and I thought, “well, it doesn’t seem like it will be any harder than this”.
But it did. It definitely got harder. I still take school seriously and I still play video
games. Having a group of friends to hang out with has also taken up some of my time. I haven’t
had a hit in my grades, so I really haven’t needed to change my fundamental ways of
approaching school. As of late, I’ve been trying to fix my procrastination issues. Procrastination
was a big issue for me, but I would always pull through and get great grades, so I never had
incentive to fix it. I would say my biggest change is how I still take school seriously, but at the
same time, I don’t kill myself over it.
My current priorities are school, my family/friends, and my hobbies. I know school is
very important in order to get a successful in life, but I also know that family and friends are also
important. This is in order to keep a healthy and balanced life that isn’t devoid of joy.
Videogames are important to me because it is a way to interact with my friends, because you can
play video games with your friends now that the internet exists. Through the years, I have also
picked up the game of golf from my uncle. A couple of my friends picked it up and we play
together sometimes, and it relieves stress from doing school work doing the week.
As I’ve grown up, I’ve realized that school is very important, but I've also realized that
life isn’t worth it if you’re just stressing yourself out over anything and everything instead of just
going with the flow and just enjoying yourself the whole time, making great memories. Life is
too short to inconvenience yourself with small stuff. I’m in living in the present, and though I do
think about the future, I don’t let it control me like I did before. I’ve also realized that having a
solid group of friends and family to be around and support you, as well as supporting them, gives
you purpose on our short time here.
What growing up has taught me is that life is not all fun and games. But it also taught me
that life does have enjoyment that you can find for yourself, through friends and family, and to
me, I think that’s better than having a constant state of fun. It gets boring to always win. What is
life without its ups and downs? Its more enjoyable to fail and then climb back up to victory, than
to always win.
