Intro to “Why do we enjoy stories as a human race?”
Here is a draft for the intro to my personal essay. As of now it is just about two pages long. I have no idea where I’m going with it, mostly I’m just thinking about it as I go.
For the record, the Shrek line probably won’t stay in. Honestly I only added that in my quick revision before posting. Seemed appropriate for Tumblr.
Why do we enjoy stories as a human race?
Whether you believe in evolution or a man with a white beard, humans have always told stories and passed them on through every generation. In fact, that’s how the stories about the man in the sky and the problematic son spread so widely and have been passed on generation to generation.
To put it simply, we love stories so much because they are love, they are life. Much like Shrek. We tell stories to imitate life and all the things we love about it. We tell stories to study the things we find interesting about nature as well as the intricacies of human life. We tell stories to study the horrific things life throws at us on a daily basis. To Study ourselves. We love stories because they study our lives. They study what our lives are, and what they could be. Isn’t that one of the most important things we can do in life? Study? That’s what makes us human. It is vitally important that we study ourselves. To be happy, to improve our collective lives, and, most importantly, to begin to understand ourselves and how we work.
Studying ourselves helps us to think. Which is also quite important. Perhaps even more so than studying ourselves. Without thinking, we are just surviving, not living. Studying our lives improves our ability to think. Not just about ourselves, but it gives us a much better understanding of our world and how the things around us function. Stories are studies on how our world works as well, not just studies on ourselves. In fact, that’s what most stories focus on. The good ones take a close look at both us and how our world and society works.
I feel it’s safe to say this essay will turn into a study on how we function in our environment, but I’ll do my best to stay on track. It’s also safe to say I will go off on multiple tangents. So be prepared for that and bear with me.
Why Should We Study Ourselves?
We study ourselves because we need to. If we don’t come to understand ourselves, we would never be happy. Or perhaps, some of us would find ignorance in bliss. But for many of us, if we never gave a second thought to who we are and why we are that way, we would be majorly unhappy. I know I would be. In fact, I attribute a big part of being happy with who I am today to when I began to think for myself when I was around seventeen. I definitely wasn’t happy at that time and wasn’t for at least a couple years after that. In fact, coming to terms with all my philosophies probably ultimately depressed me more than I was initially. More realistically though, I don’t think that’s true. I think what happened was I realized how depressed I actually was.
With that said, I strongly recommend to think for yourself, or rather, think about who you really are and why you are that way if you haven’t already. Bringing yourself down by realizing the truth is better than living in unhappy ignorant bliss. Later down the line I can guarantee you’ll be happier. You’ll probably even improve on who you are.
Quite honestly, it’s not that difficult ultimately either. Sure, it’s a process (with which I am still going through) that will take a number of years. But getting started doesn’t take much. And you don’t have to specifically continue studying these concepts for long after. I recommend studying, or at the very least, asking yourself some philosophical questions.
Write. Dear God, please write. Honestly that’s the most important thing. Keep a journal. Document what happens every day and how you feel about it. Within the journal, think through and answer philosophical and psychological questions.
Study stories, TV shows, movies, books, and classic literature. Think through the writing choices and why they were made. Write about the characters and why you love them or why you hate them. About how they interact with each other. Compare them to your own life. Take their situations and put yourself in their shoes. If you have the artistic inkling, write a story. Try writing poetry. Attempting to come up with these ideas from scratch is one of the best ways to study them. More than that I encourage to keep a journal, but if you feel the need, absolutely take a crack at writing. If you don’t have experience, it’ll be bad. But that’s more than okay. The only way to get better is to practice. And for the purpose of studying life, you don’t need to be good at it anyways. Most people would never do it or try and give up because it’s not good, but that is quite foolish, wouldn’t you agree? Trust me, I have been there. Hell, I’m there right now. The only way to get better at something is to practice it. There is no such thing as talent. What people perceive to be as talent is likely the fact someone started very young. Don’t be afraid of learning and being terrible at something. Enjoy the process and let yourself soak in it. If it helps, at first don’t learn it. Just do it and find a love for it. Then study how to do it correctly. If it means you’ll actually do it, don’t worry about doing it right. That part comes later.