This past week, amidst everyone’s
negativity, I achieved a personal goal. The boy I babysit, a twelve year old
who prefers to play by himself rather than talk to me and his sister about her
latest love note, actually conversed with me! To the average person, this might
seem a small feat I have tackled as most twelve year old boys prefer video
games to love stories. However, this twelve year old has autism and he rarely
says more than “I don’t know” and giggles to me. After getting him to divulge
into his Christmas list and how thrilled he feels, I saw his eyes light up. I
could feel his pure bliss radiating all around him and felt the most excitement
in watching his reservations and insecurities melt away. In life, we tend to overlook the details,
glance over the small moments that seem like a mere blip on our radar of the
far more important and pressing activities in our lives. We sweep the everyday occurrences
under the rug and wait for something great to happen. This occurs numerous
times throughout The Great Gatsby as
all of the characters become absorbed in themselves and their love of glamour
and wealth. They become obsessed with other people and possessions that they
overlook what lies right in front of them as the glance towards the horizon of
their greedy desires. That aspect of the book made me seriously reconsider my
life’s motives and goals and I decided to conduct a self evaluation of what I
consider a priority. The results truly shocked me. Of course, as all humans try
to appear, I know that perfection will always elude my grasp as it does to
those in The Great Gatsby; however I
used this knowledge to better myself rather than murder random strangers. After
experiencing the boy’s openness towards me, I truly felt like I gained more
than anything money could buy. He opened my eyes to how excitement should feel.
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