In any story and in any instance, conflicts constantly arise. According to David Grossman's "On the Stories We Tell Ourselves," I truly understood conflict on a new and deeper level. Although we try to avoid it, conflicts tend to be the peak of our story that hopefully lead to something else.
One hot summer night, I woke up to screams, “Fire! Get outside!” The moment I opened my eyes, I saw flames engulfing the rafters. In horror, I watched as a full-fledged fire spread before my eyes. Petrified, I jumped out of bed and ran for my life. Within four minutes, the fire expanded throughout the entire building. My friends and I huddled around each other and watched our home away from home collapse onto itself and literally burn to the ground.
The smell followed me around for months, as did several looming questions about what transpired that evening. No lives were lost that night, and no one was hurt either, but the destructive fire catalyzed a remarkable change inside me. My parents always told me “Life is precious, be grateful for what you have.” I never paid attention to these clichés until I watched my bunk burn.
I began to think about my life on a deeper level, and I became preoccupied with more existential concerns. The night of the fire, everything I had brought to camp burned, but I never lost a thing of value.
While I lost my possessions during the fire, in retrospect it’s clear that I gained one of the most precious gifts of all: perspective.
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