Lessons Learned Research Paper

Tragedies or Lessons Learned? Tragedies occur throughout many lives, but only the major ones stand out to the world. A tragedy is usually considered a despair, but in my seventeen years of living, I have discovered a tragedy is only a tragedy if allowed. I think of tragedies as lessons learned, not because they are not difficult, but because they teach me and have made me who I am. The world wide events that have molded me into the person I am today are Hurricane Katrina, by making me more aware; the Tupelo tornado, by making me more considerate; and the death of Harambe, by making me more open-minded to two sided situations.
From birth until I was eleven, I lived in Pascagoula, Mississippi, which is located on the Gulf Coast. My house …show more content…
CBS news stated, “The killing of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo in order to save a child who fell in its enclosure has sparked nationwide outrage” (Outrage). Harambe may just be a gorilla, and the child that fell into the exhibit probably could have been more supervised, but who decides who takes the blame? The world does, and during this event, the world decided it was the parents and the zoo keepers fault, but why? The parents may have been dealing with another child, or maybe he got lost in the crowd. I have always had a strange obsession with animals, big and small, terrifying and cuddly. People thought that I would say there had to be another way to deal with this situation, rather than killing this unique animal. At first, they were right. I immediately took the gorilla’s side, until my grandmother brought to my attention that the gorilla was slinging the three year old child, putting his life in danger. The two sides I had to take into consideration was the child’s or the silver back gorilla’s life. The dangered child had his whole life in front of him, however, Harambe was already seventeen and would only live to be about thirty. So technically, half of Harambe’s life was considered over. No matter how strong my compulsion toward animals are, I will always choose a human’s life over an animals. Personally, the zoo keepers were doing their job. Every single day they take care of the animals religiously, yet still they put the child’s life as their first priority. This ordeal was no doubt the hardest to learn from, but I did learn that you can not just take one side into consideration. From then on out, I have been much more open minded to two sided situations. Now, thanks to this ordeal, I acknowledge both the side I am leaning towards and its opposing