Comstock Life

Improved Essays
The life of an American student is fast paced and full of ambition. From a very young age, children are consistently questioned in regards to their future plans. "What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to study in college?" Adults tend to ask kids these types of questions before they even bother to explain what a college is or what it means to have a job. It seems as if I have been trained to consider only the future and never the present in order to work my way up to success. However, my introduction to a very particular rural area has prompted me to redefine my understanding of what a successful life should be. Comstock, Texas is a place my immediate family and I visit on a yearly basis in order to find peace away from …show more content…
I am baffled by how much happier they seem than a lot of financially successful people that I know. These people have helped me realize I should analyze and perhaps reevaluate my understanding of happiness and prosperity.
"Kiddos! Instead of going to (insert typical vacation spot) we are going to a town near Del Rio called Comstock!" What kind of gardening tool is a Comstock?
A few days before our vacation my mom took us to buy a few typical vacationing necessities and hiking boots. Hiking boots? Being a little kid in the
Information Age, I whined at the thought of being outdoors or anywhere away from my computer and video game consoles. I was not looking forward to any of that. The drive over to Comstock seemed never-ending. Looking out the window, I noticed that the environment was becoming increasingly rural. A few miles before arriving at the cabin we would be staying at, we stopped at a tiny restaurant called J&J Holley's Place for dinner. It was difficult to believe that anyone could possibly be happy living in such an isolated place, but the family that runs and lives in this restaurant showed me otherwise. Jim Holley, his daughter Julie Holley, and her two sons Chase and Carson were the
…show more content…
Chase and Carson, however, were very appreciative of what they had. They expressed more appreciation to few material belongings than my brother and I did to plenty. I realized that these two boys are happier because they know what they have. They know what brings happiness. From that point, I began to make more of an effort to be appreciative of my belongings and the people in my life in attempt to be a happier person.
You would expect that from living in such an isolated place, these boys would be significantly less outspoken and extroverted than they were. Conversations with them were so much more intimate than most of the conversations I have had with people from my hometown. These were the kinds of boys who could breeze through a job interview and succeed, with little consideration given to their credentials. The way they made me feel when talking to me helped me realize that people skills are an extremely valuable component when it comes to success and subsequently happiness.
After meeting them my family and I proceeded to go hiking, which was the time I spent reflecting on the family as well as my understanding of happiness and success. Over the course of years, public education had trained me to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Migration To America

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I was meeting people who had gone through hell and back to make it here while I got here solely because of my parent’s hard work. These people helped me explore my compassionate side by telling me their stories of exactly what it took to come here. I grew incredibly thankful for the opportunity to meet and help these strangers and began making constant adjustments to my own life based on their story’s incite. For example, starting sophomore year I started missing the school bus to stay after school and then walked 2.5 miles home every day I needed to. If I had to baby sit that day, I would probably walk them to school with me and turn the trip into a Pokémon Go quest.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This summer I got my license and took a little adventure. My two friends Cloe, Teya, and I were bored and didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to go to Maryville. We went to Workman’s Chapel, which is right outside of Maryville. Workman’s Chapel is an old haunted church and cemetery. The story behind Workman’s Chapel is that a preacher stabbed a woman in a white dress to death and hid the knife under the floor boards of the church.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Morning, guys,” I said as I greeted the small group of tired teens in the living room. “Morning. Are you guys ready to head out?” My friend Ethan asked the group he led out of their rooms. It was probably safe to ask this question at this time of day.…

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Brooks states “I’d say colleges have to do more to put certain questions on the table, to help students grapple with the coming decade of uncertainty: What is the cure for sadness? How big should I dream or how realistic should I be? What do I want and what is truly worth wanting?” to help young adults find their place in the future.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pittsboro Research Paper

    • 1269 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Twenty-two years ago, I was lucky enough to call Pittsboro, North Carolina my home for the first time. Unbeknownst to me, this small rural town would play such an enormous role in who I am today. From a first kiss to pig pickings, Pittsboro was full of life and opportunities. My family, farming, and the culture here consequently affected how I view the world today. Though I may not get to spend as much time in Pittsboro, my roots will always be in this town.…

    • 1269 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What am I going to do with my life? What am I going to major in? What do I want to be? Many people ask themselves these questions, especially students who are attending college for the first time. I was one of those students.…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    About six years ago I met a girl who was my age. We did not know each other, but our mothers did know each other. I had a good friend named Kesiah. She was just a little bit older than me. When we got together we had a lot of fun.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    College Education Causes

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Causes of Getting a College Education Completing a college education has become a requirement. Life styles are changing everyday. In the past it was rarely to see people with higher education after high school and they were very special people. However, most people want to complete a college education.…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Being American and Mexican, simultaneously, is harder than it seems. I had been living in the U.S,for ten years and for the first time, I was going to visit San Luis Potosi, Mexico, which is where my family lives. My mother always said that Mexico is known for being a poor country, even so I still didn’t imagine it would be any different from the U.S. At this point, I was arriving, taxis everywhere, people shouting to find their arriving families, it smelled like Mexican food, it was a familiar smell, like if it was something I was waiting to feel. Everyone looked like they just got a tan.…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cosmetology Career

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When I go to college or when I get into high school I want to be a Cosmetologist which means to paint nails do hair and even skin care . Being a Cosmetologist you would have to have a lot of focus and a lot of training, you would more than likely have to start doing nails when you are 10 or 11 to be really good at painting nails and styling hair. You have to do cool designs and the designs can be very hard if the person wants it to be . You have to be very careful to make sure you don’t mess up so you don’t look bad . If people were to give a bad review your company or your job would more than likely be ruined so be careful !…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    playing Tchaikovsky's Concerto in A to orchestral accompniment. These were the dreams that floated through my mind now. They were tempered by a caution that hadn't been there before, but they were there. For the first time since my sister's departure, I was acknowledging their presence. I had to, for it was these dreams that diluted the pure meaninglessness of my daily struggles in school and made me happy.…

    • 210 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    We get asked a lot from the time we are a little kid to when we are in high school what we want to be when we grow up but now it means something to be asked that because we have to put thought into it because in just a few years that will be a reality . so today we were asked to write a prompt on what we want on be. well in the next paragraphs i will explain. When i am an adult and out of school i want to be a welder or a cattlemen or i want to work with the PBR I chose welder because i love to weld and i learned to weld by helping my dad and grandpa when i was little and i am not half bad at it…

    • 204 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What would you do with $1,000,000? Would you use it to go to college? That would be a good way to not be in student loans. Not everyone gets one million dollars though, many people sit in student loans, which is around $27,000. You can get a side job like as a waitress to help pay some of that off, but is it really that important to go to college?…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Homegrown Narrative Essay

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Larissa Melo Kathy Kvinge English 1101 October 3, 2017 Homegrown Narrative Essay Growing up in America really influenced my music taste in ways I could’ve never imagined. I was brought overseas, from Brazil, by my parents at the age of two to start a new and better life. I was being raised in America but grew up with Brazilian values and customs.…

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    First dates can lead into lifelong romance, everlasting friendships, or even marriage but can be misleading as well. My first date was my last date. From the time I arrived and was greeted at the restaurants door to meeting family members that I had no idea would be present. I knew that dating was not for me. Despite the amount of effort that was put into preparing my flawless appearance, arranging my vocabulary, and rehearsing to memorize every piece of advice that was offered to me from my family.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays