<p>Topic: Are people today generally too unaware of their good fortune?</p>
<p>From the old proverb "the glass is half empty", many people often dont see the good in their lives and view life in a largely pessimistic perspective. In literature, Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard demonstrates how people desperately cling on to the past and pity themselves for what they have lost. However, they are blind to how fortunate they are compared to the people around them. Moreover, even in my own personal experience, I have seen students feel distraught after scoring a 95 on a test or even after winning 1st prize in a contest, unaware of their good fortune. Thus, people today are generally unaware of their good fortunes and should take a more optimistic view of life since this is the only way for them to progress physically and mentally.</p>
<p>In Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, Lyubov is a protagonist who owns a large estate and hails from a wealthy, aristocratic family. Though it is unfortunate that the cherry orchard must be sold off, Lyubov still has financial support from aunts and uncles that allows her to live wealthily. However, all that she cares about is her orchard and feels that all hope is lost in the world. Compared to the characters around her, Lyubov is unaware of her good fortune since she can still indulge herself with luxuries as before. </p>
<p>This notion of unawareness is further illustrated threw my personal experiences. Because I come from a high competition school, I have seen kids complain about getting a 95 on "such an easy test", whereas I would be satisfied with just a passing grade. These same students would sulf over placing 1st in a science competition because their racer only reached 10 meters when they claim that it had reached more than 20 meters in their practice runs. Such demanding students dont realize their achievement and their good fortune. </p>
<p>Therefore, people are generally unaware of how good their lifes are and are unhappy over trivialities. Whether it be in literature or in my own experiences, the more prominent someone is, the higher the standards, and the more unware he/she is of his/her good fortune. Hence instead of seeing the glass as half empty, these people should see the glass as half full in order to acknowledge their good fortunes.</p>
<p>*******please note that I used personal examples and i know that some people were told not to us them because they are considered ineffective, but one of the sample 6 esssays on the collegeboard website used them so i decided to do the same</p>