<p>This is part of my brother's practice SAT essay. (He's taking the June SAT) He's extremely nervous about his writing ability, so I told him I would post this here and ask for opinions. Thanks in advance to anyone who replies! Here's the prompt and the opening paragraph for the essay. </p>
<p>Prompt: Many people believe that it is important to plan ahead and to work toward an accomplishment that may take years to achieve, even if doing so means giving up immediate pleasures and fun. To these people, the end result of such an achievement is worth making sacrifices for in the present. Others, though, believe that it is much more important to focus on enjoying the present because it is impossible to predict what will happen in the future and because life’s joyful moments are so rare.</p>
<p>Assignment: Should people focus on enjoying the present moment instead of following a plan for future achievement? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>(First paragraph)
Purpose is essential to human life. It gives us identity and allows for the development of our highest talents, our most advanced intellectual and emotional gifts. Through long-term planning and hard work, we can grow to become all our innate abilities allow. Although the desire to enjoy the present moment and to cherish immediate pleasures may initially seem more conducive to present happiness than long-term planning, this approach is actually counterproductive: without vision for future achievement, we begin to feel empty, as if our lives had no meaning beyond the present. Eventually, these immediate pleasures, far from allowing us to more fully enjoy our limited time on earth, become an escape from a painfully empty reality. We need long-term purpose in order to find true fulfillment. </p>
<p>He said he would go on to talk about how he got tendonitis after playing piano for years and had to stop practicing. He thought that the extra free time would allow him to enjoy life more, but he realized that he began to feel as his life was meaningless and how all he wanted was to play music again. He also wanted to use Betty Freidan's The Feminine Mystique to illustrate how housewives of the 1950s were denied long term planning and future achievement...</p>