Week 12 Homework - Writing an essay

Some people believe that the best way of learning about life is by listening to the advice of family or friends. Other people believe that the best way of learning about life is through personal experience. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of these two different ways of learning about life. Which do you think is preferable? Use specific examples to support your preference.


People often contend that the most effective way to learn about life is by accepting others' advice.  It could be true in that advice of others can offer the new perspective of how to live or reflect the objective view about me.  Nonetheless, I believe there are better methods to learn about life than accepting advice, such as value of learning through personal experience. 

First of all, In the case of the advice, people are not likely to feel impressive about them because they are mostly based on the different lifestyle or way of thought. What’s more, the self-esteem makes people hard to accept other’s opinion because they try to persist their own way in life. In this sense, experience could be the best way to learn about life even though it may take long or be through the process of trial and error. The impression from experience is so strong that sometimes the lesson from a certain event changes one’s life totally in different way. For example, when I was on the verge of deciding what I was going to do in the future, my friends and family often told me to take the route that ensure stable income, namely doctor, lawyer, major company worker, basically jobs that make good money.  However, I always had a dream of working for God with all my life, and the experience I had in a one church service totally got my heart on the solid line and boosted my passion, which still is what keeps me passionate about my dream.  If I listened other’s advice and got a job that looks after the big money, I would never able to do what I really wanted to do. Thus, I believe that the experience is the best way of learning life.

In brief, I strongly believe that advice of others could be the best for somebody, but it is not always the best. Because the value of direct experience is truly effective to learn about life, people can change their way of life from just one small experience.