Journal #21

I think that this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson has a lot of meaning about how people act. He is trying to portray trying your best no matter what. He says that everyone arrives at a place where they have to use everything they have been given, everything they have learned up to that point. They cannot depend on others for the answer anymore. That person has to just accept that they can only know what they have already learned, and cannot change that fact. This quote actually reminds me a lot of a certain predicament that I am currently involved in. In have a test in my AP Chemistry class today, and I wanted to make sure I studied a lot. So last night I grabbed my folder and my notebook and started to study. I then realized that all of my papers that had anything to do what the subject of the test was about was still my locker. I had placed them all in my binder, and I did not bring that home. I came to the conclusion that I was not going to be able to study for the test and I had to take it solely on the knowledge that I had already acquired. I go to the class next, and I know that I obviously cannot cheat, so all I have to go off of is what I can remember. Emerson was a very smart man, and really understood human nature. He also stated in his quote, "when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance". Emerson means that it is no use being jealous of someone elses work, all it does is make you not want to do your own work. When you are jealous of someones else's work, you are not able to do your own best work. Ralph Waldo Emerson knows that this is a very important thing for each person to understand about themselves.