I Want to Be a Good Egg
I believe in being a good egg. Yes, that’s right. An egg. A hard-shelled egg with a soft middle, and just plain good through and through. “I’m sorry, what?” most people say when they hear this description, but don’t worry; I’m always armed with an explanation. You see, ever since I was a kid, my mother told me that the most important thing in life was to, in fact, be a good egg.
Now what does this all entail? It means we each have a choice in life- a moral option set before us from the time that we (literally) leave the egg stage. You can be bad or you can be good. Of course, there’s a grey area, and so many things can affect your attitude towards life- but I truly admit to the belief that you have a right to choose what kind of person you are, what kind of life you lead, and how you affect other people.
Now what has made me come to this realization? It’s because many recent events in my life have inspired this idea- the college application, my grandfather’s death, and the leadership given to senior year in general.
First off, the common application asks you to write five words describing yourself. I easily chose four and was stuck on the last. It was between outdoorsy and I don’t know, something like joyous. But, in the end I realized that I could truly sum up everything I wanted to be with my mother’s odd expression- that I was (or hoped to be!) a good egg. Whether colleges will understand is question unto it’s own, but the idea I wanted to get across was the fact that I tried my best to be good- to be a good person, with a bright, sunny core.
The repercussions from my grandfather’s death have been sad but fantastic and wonderful. I have yet to meet someone who does not respect him to great lengths and not exclaim, “He was such a good person!” His life and even his death have taught me that to be good you needn’t be obedient- his life was hard, his shell of a mind tough to crack, and he started his own medical branch for god sake. From him I have learned that it was his soul, his moral decision to be an incredible person. By opening up and sharing his yoke full of goofiness, his irreverent soul, and his knowledge, he touched the lives of millions of doctors and geneticists across the globe.
Finally, in these first couple of weeks of senior year I feel I have learned more about myself and about opening up then ever before. It could be said that senior year is the year after we hatch and then soar. No really, in the chapel they have a banner symbolizing the upper school with little birds flitting around their nest. It is the last year- the year we can choose to peck our way out and then fly away, or, it is the year that we can have an impact and help the other grades- the first graders, to grow, and the freshman- to help them peck their way out of the shells.
We each have the ability to chose. We each have the ability to look deep into our cores and find who we truly want to be now and in the future. We can are all good eggs. This I believe.