“Life is a box of chocolates”. A line made famous by Forrest Gump who defined life and its seemingly immeasurable unpredictability. Forrest Gump is known to have a very strong and rough personality. Ironically, there is an apparent sweetness in Forrest Gump’s definition of life. His words about life, somehow reassured people despite its endless rain of good and bad surprises. Could there be other things in this world that we can compare life with?
Personally, I see life as a box of clay. I don’t get to receive a box of chocolates every day in my life. Most of the time, I receive a box of clay instead. When I was a child, I remember my mom had to leave me for work. I don’t recall her trying to straighten my understanding of her surprising decision. All I can remember is that she needed to work for us. My comprehension of her statement didn’t seem to make sense and so I blamed myself because of her need to leave. Because of that, I had sleepless nights and endless tears trickling on my face every time she would leave the house. The picture of my mom bidding goodbye is so vivid that I would repeatedly smack my head, hoping that it would help me get rid of the painful memory. If Forrest Gump would have showed up in front of me during that time, he would have probably described the experience as a box of bitter chocolates and I would have probably refuted the statement and changed it. I would have said that the experience was a box of clay and that I needed to make something out of that unpleasant event.
As a child trying to find a place in the world, I didn’t exactly know what that experience was for. I thought it was intricately plotted just to make me feel bad. I thought my mom was punishing me because I was such a hard-headed kid. However, reminiscing about the experience sent me to a sudden realization. It was the very first box of clay I received. Without knowing it, I made something out of that clay inside the box instead of just crying over it. I molded the pieces of clay into something that I could hold on to while I was waiting for my mom. I created a piece out of the clays that strengthened my faith of positive possibilities. I made the box of clay into a superman figure which always reminded me to be strong and never let the bleakness of life take over me. I should say that it was my very first masterpiece. I learned to believe that wherever my mom was at that time, she was thinking about me and soon would find her way back to his little boy’s arm.
Life is defined by how we make of it, just like a piece of clay turned into a masterpiece. I could’ve made a gloomy statue of myself when my mom left me but I did otherwise. I did something that inspired me and motivated me to live every second of my life in the state of euphoria regardless of how enigmatic my situation was. Doing so helped me get my feet back on the ground and allowed me to enjoy my life as a kid. The molding process starts not from the hands but from the mind. The childhood experience I mentioned made me feel so hopeless causing me to cry a river of tears however, somewhere in that sorrow I found a way to get strength from my inner self. I was not aware of it when I was a child, but at the back of my mind I knew I had to live my life the way I should without my mom by my side. I would’ve lived a very sad childhood life and I would’ve thrown the box of clay out the window but I didn’t. Instead, I made something out of it.
Until now, I still hold on to my own view of life. It is a box filled with millions of clays that soon will turn into the grandest masterpiece. Life is defined by the actions we take and the decisions we make just like an artist who decides what should his art look like or what techniques he should use. I believe that we are all artists and that we have this box of clays in our hands. Is there a situation in your life today that you are struggling with? This is your box of clay. What can you do to mold these pieces of clay that will lead to your happiness? The choice is yours.
