<p>(I know there are factual inaccuracies, excuse those, lol. Especially the fact that the whole reason Byrd changed is inaccurate in my essay)</p>
<p>Prompt: To change is to risk something, making us feel insecure. Not to change is a bigger risk, though we seldom feel that way. There is no choice but to change. People, however, cannot be motivated to change from the outside. All of our motivation comes from within.</p>
<p>Assignment: What motivates people to change?</p>
<p>Essay:</p>
<p>Change cannot be force-fed. You cannot drown a person in change; nor can you inject them with the drug of change. They need to take that leap into the waters of redemption; they must take the needle and pour that spirit of reform into their bloodstream. However, change is not some hormone in the body that will activate wihout external influence. Three men - the Emperor Aurenzeb, Senator Robert Byrd, and Fahrenheit 451'st protagonist Guy Montag, prove that a mirror - that is, a great external event - must be provided for a person to see their true reflection and be motivated to change internally.</p>
<p>The mirror for the 16th century Mughal emperor Aurenzeb, who would burn children and men alive if they did not convert to Islam, was a life of committing tyranny only to be met with quiet defiance. As he killed Sikhs who would not bend to his will, their leader - Guru Gobind Singh - did not retaliate with only war, but with words. These words reflected to Aurenzeb the cruelty and hypocrisy of his deeds, and at the end of his life he repented. It took these words from without to cause him to look within.</p>
<p>Sometimes words are not enough. Senator Robert Byrd was a member of the KKK in his youth. He was raised in a racist environment, and it took an entire movement - the Civil Rights movementm to make him look internally. He changed deeply, becoming a public servant and proponent of civil rights.</p>
<p>And sometimes, all it takes is a solitary person to stir change in another. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag was a fireman who burned books and was numb to life. When he met a young girl who questioned his profession, his soul awakened and the way he saw the world changed. She was the outer catalyst for his internal change.</p>
<p>Thus, change is not something you draw out of nowhere. Nor is it something imposed upon you. It is a careful balance of the universe around you stirring the soul within you.</p>