essays of change

Essays About Life-changing Experiences: 5 Examples

Discover our guide for writing essays about life-changing experiences that combine three different elements: narrative, description, and self-reflection. 

Each of us has gone through life-changing experiences that shaped us into the individuals we are today. Because of how powerful they are, these events make for fascinating topics in writing. This subject doesn’t only let us tell our life stories, and it also pushes us to evaluate our behavior and reflect on why an incident happened.

Attract your readers by creating an excellent introduction and choosing a unique or exciting encounter. Paint a picture of the events that describe your experience vividly and finish with a strong conclusion.

5 Essay Examples

1. long essay on experience that changed my life by prasanna, 2. life-changing events: personal experience by anonymous on studycorgi.com, 3. my example of a life-changing experience by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 4. life-changing experience: death essay by writer annie, 5. a life-changing experience during the holiday season by anonymous on studymoose.com, 1. life-changing experience: defined, 2. the experience that changed my life, 3. life-changing events and how they impact lives, 4. everyday events that change a person’s life, 5. the person who change my life, 6. books or movies that changed my life, 7. a life-changing quote.

“Experiences can be good and sometimes terrible that results in a positive or negative impact on one’s life. Life is full of many unexpected challenges and unknown turning points that will come along any time. People must learn and grow from every experience that they go through in life rather than losing yourself.”

In this essay, Prasanna discusses her father’s death as her most challenging life-changing experience. She was cheerful, immature, and carefree when her father was still alive. However, when her father left, she became the decision-maker of their family because her mother was unable to.

Prasanna mentions that she lost not only a father but also a friend, motivator, and mentor. That sad and unexpected experience turned her into an introverted, mature, and responsible head of the family. Ultimately, she thanks her father for making her a better person, and because of the devastating incident, she realizes who she can trust and how she should handle the real world. You might also be interested in these essays about choice .

“In life, certain experiences present challenges that change the way people relate to themselves and their families. Certain life events mark life-changing moments that alter lives either positively or negatively. It matters how people handle their relationships at such critical moments.”

This essay contains two life events that helped the author become a better person. These events taught them to trust and appreciate people, be responsible, and value family. The first event is when their best friend passes away, leading to stress, loss of appetite, and depression. The second circumstance happened when the author postponed their studies because they were afraid to grow up and be accountable for their decisions and actions.

The writer’s family showed them love, support, and understanding through these events. These events changed their behavior, attitude, and perspective on life and guided them to strengthen family relationships.

For help picking your next essay topic, check out our 20 engaging essay topics about family .

“I thought it was awkward because he looked and acted very professional. In that moment I thought to myself, ‘this person is going to have a great impact in my life!’. I was very curious to meet him and get a chance to show him my personality.”

This essay proves that you should always believe in yourself and not be afraid to try something new. The author recalls when they had many problems and met an extraordinary person who changed their life. 

When they were in sixth grade, the writer had life issues that caused them to be anxious about any future endeavor. The author then says they don’t usually open up to teachers because they fear their reactions. Then they met Mr. Salazar, a mentor who respects and values them, and the writer considers him their best friend.

“When the funeral was over and he was laid to rest, I had a feeling I can’t even describe. It was almost an empty feeling. I knew I had lost someone that could never be replaced.”

Annie never thought that she’d go through a life-changing experience until the sudden death of her father. Her thoughts and feelings are all over the place, and she has many unanswered questions. She says that although she will never wish for anyone to experience the same. However, her father’s passing improved her life in some ways.

Her mother remarried and introduced a new father figure, who was very kind to her. Living with her stepdad allowed her to explore and do things she thought she couldn’t. Annie still mourns the loss of her birth father, but she is also grateful to have a stepdad she can lean on. She gradually accepts that she can’t bring her birth father back.

“This story as a whole has really changed me and made me an even better person in life, I’m so thankful that this happened to me because now I have a greater appreciation for the little things in life.”

The essay shows how a simple interaction on a cold day in December can completely change a person’s view on life. It starts with the writer being asked a small favor of an older man with Alzheimer’s disease to help him find his car. This experience teaches the writer to be more observant and appreciative of the things they have. The author was inspired to spend more time with loved ones, especially their grandfather, who also has Alzheimer’s disease, as they learned never to take anything for granted.

7 Prompts for Essays About Life-changing Experiences

Everyone has their definition of a life-changing experience. But in general, it is an event or series of events profoundly altering a person’s thinking, feelings, and behavior. Use this prompt to explain your understanding of the topic and discuss how a simple action, decision, or encounter can change someone’s life. You might also be interested in these essays about yourself .

For this prompt, choose a specific memory that made you re-evaluate your views, values, and morals. Then, discuss the impact of this event on your life. For example, you can discuss losing a loved one, moving to another country, or starting a new school. Your conclusion must contain the main lessons you learned from the experience and how it can help the readers.

Various positive and negative life-changing experiences happen anytime and anywhere. Sometimes, you don’t notice them until they substantially disturb your everyday life. 

To begin your essay, interview people and ask about a momentous event that happened to them and how it influenced their way of living. Then, pick the most potent life-changing experience shared. Talk about what you’d do if you were in the same situation.

Some life-changing events include common things such as marriage, parenthood, divorce, job loss, and death. Research and discuss the most common experiences that transform a person’s life. Include real-life situations and any personal encounters for an intriguing essay.

It’s normal to meet other people, but connecting with someone who will significantly impact your life is a blessing. Use this prompt to discuss that particular person, such as a parent, close friend, or romantic partner. Share who they are and how you met them, and discuss what they did or said that made a big difference in your life. 

Movies like “The Truman Show” help change your viewpoint in life. They open our minds and provide ideas for dealing with our struggles. Share how you reached an epiphany by reading a book or watching a movie. Include if it’s because of a particular dialogue, character action, or scenes you can relate to.

While others use inspirational quotes for comfort and to avoid negative thinking, some find a quote that gives them the courage to make drastic changes to better their lives. For this prompt, search for well-known personalities who discovered a quote that motivated them to turn their life around.  Essay Tip: When editing for grammar, we also recommend spending time and effort to improve the readability score of your essay before publishing or submitting it.

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Climate change essay competition: A spark of change

Writing   Teens  

We’d like to share another chosen essay from this year’s Bahçeşehir essay competition, on the topic of climate change. There were many fantastic entries across grades 9 and 10. A huge congratulations to all finalists and every student who took the time to submit their work.

Bahçeşehir College is committed to increasing students’ awareness of the changing world we live in. This climate change essay competition saw many students submitting well thought out pieces of writing. These essays were marked on their format, creativity, organisation, clarity, unity/development of thought, and grammar/mechanics.

Asli’s essay

“A little spark you create might not be enough when on its own, but it also can turn into bright flames when combined with thousand others. What you can do is be one of those sparks.”

Please take a few minutes to read one of the five winning essays, supplied below.

A spark of change

“Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted,” says Aldous Huxley in one of his books. He perfectly summarises the biggest cause of the issues the world of today struggles with, the issues that are created by humans’ tendency to ignore the consequences of their actions. Water shortages, light pollution, desertification – all problems that you are familiar with by this point. People spend their resources like there is no tomorrow, not even thinking about how much harm their behavior might cause. What they fail to remember is that they themselves live in the very world they do not seem to care what happens to. Each year, more water is gone to waste, a bigger amount of meat is consumed, and the number of trees cut down keeps increasing. Some consequences are immediately noticeable; people can see how much smaller the Amazon forests got or how much water was used needlessly. However, what some cannot or do not want to realise is that there is another big threat creeping up behind the alarming scene, maybe not as flashily, but just as steadily: climate change. 

Environmental conditions are changing rapidly with the temperatures increasing, water levels rising, the glaciers melting – complications no-one had to deal with a mere two hundred years ago. [1]  The human race’s means of living is not only changing the climate, but is also transforming with it. The transformation is not exactly for the better, though, but the worse. Despite what few might be thinking, nothing about this transformation is adaptation; it is demolition on a large scale, destruction of the only place we have the privilege of living in. This has to stop; humans must start adapting and stop destroying if anything is going to be different. Just as Greta Thunberg stated, climate change is not only a threat; it is, above all, an opportunity to adapt and create a greener, healthier world. People have to define what exactly causes the seemingly little, but in reality, crucial environmental changes, develop methods to ameliorate their consequences, and find ways to raise awareness. Humans forget that they are supposed to be the protectors of the world, not the ravagers. How is the Earth going to survive, if the only species it has the chance to lean on turn their back to it?

With how often the media leaves you exposed to them, all the warnings and announcements about the danger us humans are in must be playing again and again in your mind – like some sort of a malfunctioning tape. And yes, while most people know everything they say by heart, no one actually takes them to the same place, resulting in a society that is knowledgeable but deeply lacks awareness. That is the root of all the threats the world is up against; everyone knows they have to change themselves to start change on a bigger scale, but they all expect some other person or organisation to light that match. The thing is, no good is ever going to happen when people keep standing on the sidelines. No results, positive or negative, come from doing nothing. This is why someone has to act up; someone that might as well be you.

All in all, the human race’s negative impact on climate and the environment is getting out control; the quality of life on Earth is decreasing, not just for humans, but also for all sorts of species. People have to fix what they have damaged, yet they fail to do anything in the fear of wasting their resources. What they do not realise is that with each day that passes without any action, the number of natural resources available also decreases significantly. [2]  Yes, there is a possibility that the efforts might be futile, but doing nothing is not going to help with anything either. Not enough people are willing to get out of their comfort zones for the sake of the world. It is not that difficult to turn off a switch, use public transportation when the opportunity arises, or eat a portion less meat than you normally would have. Those are the simple acts many thinks do not matter, but create huge differences when applied on a societal basis. A little spark you create might not be enough when on its own, but it also can turn into bright flames when combined with thousand others. What you can do is be one of those sparks. Maybe what you do will not be enough for the whole world to change, but it might as well be part of the act that leads up to it.

[1]  https://reporter.anu.edu.au/global-warming-began-earlier-we-thought

[2]  https://ec.europa.eu/clima/climate-change/climate-change-consequences_en

Bahçeşehir College  is a global education brand, founded by Enver  Y ücel in 1968. Bahçeşehir College is considered as one of the most prestigious private school chains in Turkey, with 142 campuses in 62 provinces.

If you enjoyed this essay, please take some time to read Özlem ‘ s winning essay.

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College Essay: Adapting to Change

I am wrapped warmly in my thin, soft, rainbow blanket looking up at my mother and father in a blurry haze. For the next 15 years, that rainbow blanket would be an object of comfort, home and family. When I was young, I never wanted to grow up and become an adult because reality was endless and full of possibilities. I was too afraid to leave the warmth of my home and step into the real world with aspirations of my own. But, the year 2019-20 has shifted my entire view, and I had to adapt to the changes that occurred when growing up.  

The elders always ask me, “Thaum koj loj los koj yuav dhau los ua kws kho mob, puas yog?” This translates to, “When you are older you’re going to become a doctor, right?” 

“Yes,” I quickly reply without thinking, because it is such a common question. For 15 years, I’ve set strict rules to achieve my goals. I had my whole life planned out–until I went to high school.  

Transitioning to high school was a steep, icy hill. There were many obstacles I had to face that reflected my determination. For nine years, I had spent my entire life with the same adults, peers and school, but it was time to step out of my comfort zone.   

“YOU GOT INTO THE MATH AND SCIENCE ACADEMY!!” my mom screamed joyfully, as if she was the one  who had been accepted. However, I was nervous about attending the No. 1 public charter school in Minnesota.  

Regardless, I wanted to play for the volleyball team. I had practiced for weeks to improve my serve. It was toward the end of August and humid outside. My knees were shaking, and my stomach was quivering with fear. My head was dizzy and my throat was dry. As I walked into the building, I felt a rush of cool air overwhelm me. It smelled like new wood; everything was polished. I peeked into the gym and saw girls that were more than 5 feet tall. After half of the tryout, I made new friends. I was excited to play volleyball with them, and I soon got over the feeling of being an outsider. Since the student body population was small, I connected with teachers and students. I even joined clubs. I finally belonged.  

Then March 13, 2020, hit and altered my sense of belonging at school. I was finally happy and comfortable with the high standards of Math and Science Academy, but COVID-19 drastically impacted everyone; it was time to adapt.

I learn online curriculum, practice social distancing and participate in extracurricular activities online. As the oldest of six, I am responsible for myself and the care of the family.  I tend to my 1-year-old sister, Scarlett, and help watch my siblings. I give my rainbow blanket to Scarlett when she’s fussy. Now, my rainbow blanket is part of my family’s memories. I learn to appreciate and grow as a learner and daughter. I understand my parents, grandparents and siblings better than ever before. I know that my passion for helping people and seeing families united and joyful is my vocation. I want to become  a cardiothoracic surgeon to help families through hard times and give them the hope to continue on. We can only adapt to change.  

“Even if the desert becomes cracked, no matter who shakes this world, don’t let go of the hand you’re holding.” This quote is from someone who reminds me to continue making new memories while holding the past, much like my rainbow blanket. This blanket reminds me that when I pursue higher education and start a family, I will always have the strength of my memories that tie me back to who I am.

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Adaptability — The Importance of Adapting to Change

The Importance of Adapting to Change

• Categories: Adaptability Adaptation

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Words: 626 |

Published: Jan 30, 2024

Words: 626 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Understanding the need for adaptation, overcoming resistance to change, the benefits of adaptation, tools for successful adaptation, the role of mindset in adaptation.

• https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-psp26684.pdf
• https://hbr.org/2016/02/proof-that-positive-work-cultures-are-more-productive

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Climate Change Essay for Students and Children

500+ words climate change essay.

Climate change refers to the change in the environmental conditions of the earth. This happens due to many internal and external factors. The climatic change has become a global concern over the last few decades. Besides, these climatic changes affect life on the earth in various ways. These climatic changes are having various impacts on the ecosystem and ecology. Due to these changes, a number of species of plants and animals have gone extinct.

When Did it Start?

The climate started changing a long time ago due to human activities but we came to know about it in the last century. During the last century, we started noticing the climatic change and its effect on human life. We started researching on climate change and came to know that the earth temperature is rising due to a phenomenon called the greenhouse effect. The warming up of earth surface causes many ozone depletion, affect our agriculture , water supply, transportation, and several other problems.

Reason Of Climate Change

Although there are hundreds of reason for the climatic change we are only going to discuss the natural and manmade (human) reasons.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Natural Reasons

These include volcanic eruption , solar radiation, tectonic plate movement, orbital variations. Due to these activities, the geographical condition of an area become quite harmful for life to survive. Also, these activities raise the temperature of the earth to a great extent causing an imbalance in nature.

Human Reasons

Man due to his need and greed has done many activities that not only harm the environment but himself too. Many plant and animal species go extinct due to human activity. Human activities that harm the climate include deforestation, using fossil fuel , industrial waste , a different type of pollution and many more. All these things damage the climate and ecosystem very badly. And many species of animals and birds got extinct or on a verge of extinction due to hunting.

Effects Of Climatic Change

These climatic changes have a negative impact on the environment. The ocean level is rising, glaciers are melting, CO2 in the air is increasing, forest and wildlife are declining, and water life is also getting disturbed due to climatic changes. Apart from that, it is calculated that if this change keeps on going then many species of plants and animals will get extinct. And there will be a heavy loss to the environment.

What will be Future?

If we do not do anything and things continue to go on like right now then a day in future will come when humans will become extinct from the surface of the earth. But instead of neglecting these problems we start acting on then we can save the earth and our future.

Although humans mistake has caused great damage to the climate and ecosystem. But, it is not late to start again and try to undo what we have done until now to damage the environment. And if every human start contributing to the environment then we can be sure of our existence in the future.

{ “@context”: “https://schema.org”, “@type”: “FAQPage”, “mainEntity”: [ { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “What is climate change and how it affects humans?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “Climate change is a phenomenon that happens because of human and natural reasons. And it is one of the most serious problems that not only affect the environment but also human beings. It affects human in several ways but in simple language, we can say that it causes many diseases and disasters that destroy life on earth.” } }, { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “Can we stop these climatic changes?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “Yes, we can stop these climatic changes but for that, every one of us has to come forward and has to adapt ways that can reduce and control our bad habits that affect the environment. We have to the initiative and make everyone aware of the climatic changes.” } } ] }

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Framing Deep Change

framing deep change: essays on transformative social change (ISBN:9780982884508. Third Way Press, June 2010) features seven powerful essays and articulations of transformative social change by leaders in this emerging field. A short compilation from some of the most committed and compelling thinkers, shapers and articulators of what we’ve come to call Transformative Change. Essay authors including adrienne maree brown, Robert Gass, Staci Haines, Claudia Horwitz, Ng’ethe Maina, angel Kyodo williams and a collaborative piece from Movement Strategy Center.

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101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think Paperback – November 7, 2018

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• Print length 448 pages
• Language English
• Publication date November 7, 2018
• Dimensions 5.5 x 1.01 x 8.5 inches
• ISBN-10 1945796065
• ISBN-13 978-1945796067
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Thought Catalog Books; First Edition (November 7, 2018)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1945796065
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1945796067
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.41 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.01 x 8.5 inches
• #2 in Medical General Psychology
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This isn’t your average science writing. Fellows share their personal struggles and their professional achievements to illustrate where we’ve made progress—and where we must continue to advance environmental justice and equity.

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Turning environmental justice research into environmental justice action is not a dichotomy: It’s an imperative.

Protecting Indigenous children means protecting water

We need to stop compartmentalizing the environment, family and culture as separate problems.

The global food system is failing small-scale farmers — here’s how to fix it

Maybe we don’t need Jamaican coffee in the middle of US winter.

Water injustice on display in the Southwest US

A Supreme Court ruling against the Navajo Nation is the latest blow to the tribe in a long-standing fight for water.

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Friday essay: ‘I know my ache is not your pain’ – disabled writers imagine a healthier world

Creative Writing Lecturer, The University of Melbourne

Disclosure statement

Andy Jackson received funding from RMIT University under their Writing the Future of Health Fellowship.

University of Melbourne provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

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There are many reasons why I shouldn’t be here. If you’d shown my ten-year-old self my life as it is now, he’d have been stunned, mostly because he half-expected an early death. My father, who had Marfan Syndrome , the genetic condition I have, died when he was in his mid-40s, when I was two, and the conventional medical wisdom of the time was that this was normal, almost expected.

Marfan is known as a “disorder of connective tissue”, meaning numerous systems of the body can be affected – the connective tissue of the heart, joints, eyes are liable to strain or tear. In my teens, I had multiple spinal surgeries, but there was always the spectre of sudden aortic dissection: a potentially life-threatening tear in the aorta, the body’s largest blood vessel. Like walking around under a storm cloud, never knowing if or when the lightning would strike.

If you’d shown my 20-year-old self my life now, he’d have said, well, I’m not disabled, not really, I mean, I’m not disadvantaged by my body, there’d be other people who really are. At that age, I felt profoundly stigmatised, faltering under the weight of other people’s intrusive attention, a different kind of lightning, that kept striking.

My sense back then was that disability was about impairment. They use wheelchairs. They’re blind or deaf. They’re intellectually disabled. Not me. I just had a differently shaped body, which was other people’s problem, not mine. As if I could keep those things discreet.

Back then, in the films, television dramas and books I consumed, there were disabled characters, invariably marginal or two-dimensionally pathetic or tragic. Their existence was functional, a resource to be mined. Their bodies were metaphorically monumental, looming over the narrative, yet somehow hollow, without the fullness of agency. I certainly didn’t know any disabled authors.

This is an edited extract of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature Patron’s Lecture, delivered at UniSA Creative’s Finding Australia’s Disabled Authors online symposium on Wednesday 25 September.

Becoming a writer within a community

My 35-year-old self would mostly be surprised at the distance I’ve travelled as a writer. From open mic poetry nights in Fitzroy and Brunswick, via publication in photocopied zines and established literary journals, onto my first book of poems (then more), grants, residencies, a PhD in disability poetics, the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry – and now teaching creative writing at the University of Melbourne.

These, of course, are only the outward markers. What’s most potent for me is the sense that, in spite of my ongoing sense of dislocation and marginality, I do belong within a net of support and meaning-making.

I’m part of a community of poets and writers. A community of disabled people and people with disabilities, people who know chronic illness, the flux of mental health, who know what it’s like to be othered. I also live as a non-Indigenous person on Dja Dja Wurrung country, whose elders have cared for their land, kept culture alive, and resisted colonisation and its brutal extractions.

An awareness of where we are situated, a felt sense of relationship with others like and unlike us, a consciousness of the histories and political forces that shape us, a hunch that our woundedness is not separate from the woundedness of the entire biosphere: none of this just happens automatically, though it emerges from a very subtle inner resonance.

It has to be attended to, nurtured with curiosity and empathy, within a community. Because disability – as a socially-constructed reality, and as an identity that is claimed – is not essentially a category, but a centre of gravity every body is drawn towards.

This may not be the conception of disability you’re used to.

Disability as human experience

The social model of disability is the idea that what makes someone disabled are the social, political, medical, institutional, architectural and cultural forces and structures. Stairs (for people using wheelchairs) and stares (for those who look, or move, or talk in a non-normative way, where normal is a kind of Platonic abstraction of what humans ought to be).

But disability is also a fundamental aspect of human experience, with its own magnetism or impersonal charisma. Disability is an unavoidable bedrock of being alive.

There is a tension here, of course. Between disability as a dimension of discrimination, which creates barriers we want to dismantle, and disability as an inherent aspect of an embodiment that is precarious, mortal and relational.

I am here because some of the barriers that impeded me have been, if not removed, then softened, weakened. Shame, stigma, an internalised sense of being less-than, abnormal, sub-normal: these things are being slowly eroded. Not, fundamentally, through any great effort on my part, but through the accumulated efforts and energies of communities that have gone before me, and that exist around me.

How can we best flourish?

In late 2021, the Health Transformation Lab at RMIT University announced their Writing the Future of Health Fellowship . The successful writer would be paid for six months to work on a project of their choice. The call for applications emphasised innovation, creativity and collaboration. It invited a Melbourne writer to address the question: what does the future of health look like?

I proposed a collaboration: an anthology of poems, essays and hybrid pieces by disabled writers. It will be published next week, as Raging Grace: Australian Writers Speak Out on Disability .

I applied for the fellowship less than a year after the devastations of Australia’s Black Summer bushfires of 2019. Loss of lives, homes and livelihoods. Billions of animals dead or displaced. Smoke blanketed the sky and the trauma of it blanketed our lives. Then came COVID-19, which would kill millions worldwide. Its overwhelming burden was on poor and disabled bodies.

In Australia, 2020 was the year of lockdowns, social distancing and mask mandates, then vaccination, hope, resentment, disinformation, fear, fatigue. Quite quickly, it seems in retrospect, the talk was of “opening up”, “learning to live with it”. “The new normal” switched to “back to normal”. Everything felt scorched, fraught, ready to ignite again.

Those of us with experience of disability, neurodivergent people, those who live with chronic illness, depression, anxiety, trauma (I could go on) – we have unique and profound expertise on what health actually is, in the deepest sense, and what kind of environments allow us to survive and flourish.

The future of health, for all of us, I felt, depended on the health systems and the wider society being diagnosed by disabled people. It depended on us being integrally involved in imagining genuinely therapeutic futures.

‘An almost utopian daydream’

My fellowship pitch was an almost utopian daydream: collective empowerment and imagination in an era of crisis, precarity and isolation. What the project required was a community: diverse and open to each other.

I wanted a range of personal and bodily experiences, places of residence, cultural backgrounds, genders, sexualities and ages. In the end, a collective of 23 writers coalesced – poets, essayists, memoirists, thinkers, activists and community workers, but, above all, writers.

All of us in this project have first-hand experience of disability, neurodivergence, chronic pain and/or mental illness. The labels mean something, but we’re much larger than them. Men, women, non-binary folk; people of varying ages and cultural backgrounds, some First Nations, most not; queer, straight, cis, not; shy, vociferous, uncertain, confident, tired, in flux. People from many different corners of this continent.

Throughout 2022, we met in person and online. I called these meetings “workshops”. We looked at poems and essays together, thinking through the music and the bodily energies of the language. But these were really conversations: minimally guided, intensely honest and free-flowing conversations about what we have experienced, and what we know about how society creates and exacerbates disability.

We diagnosed the systems (health, bureaucratic, economic), and daydreamed utopian and practical therapeutic futures. In the process, across our diverse experiences, resonances and affinities sparked. Two people (or sometimes three or more) would begin to wonder what it might be like to write together with another particular person, around a certain theme or idea.

We wrote about the wild liberation of wheelchairs, the claustrophobia of shopping centres, the dehumanising tendencies of hospitals. We riffed on shame, ambivalence, love and sensitivity. We speculated about a future where consultancies run by people with autism and disability would help non-disabled people amplify their otherness, rather than the other way round. We interrogated the history and future of medical research. We thought together about racism, misogyny and eugenics. We sat beneath trees.

Sensitive listening and speaking

Every collaboration, for us, was a painstaking exercise in listening and speaking. This unpredictable, uncontrollable, expansive process determined both the process and the outcome. It was shaped by the energies each writer brought to the encounter, which were in turn shaped by preoccupations, traumas, aspirations, sensitivities, aesthetic inclinations and curiosities.

The most subtle, unforced collaborations sometimes resulted in poems in one coherent voice. The most intense, difficult collaborations sometimes led to two-column poems, with stark white space between them. This is as it should be. In any conversation, a burgeoning intimacy often makes our differences both more apparent, more significant, and yet also a little less obstructive.

I know my ache is not your pain, which is not their suffering. Why do I think myself alone? I am trying to quieten this murmur in my bones, so I can listen. – Gemma Mahadeo & Andy Jackson, from the poem Awry

In one collaboration, thinking of a spine that is not straight and a sexuality that is not straight, thinking of how we navigate public spaces differently and yet similarly, we each wrote a few lines of poetry each, until we had what felt like an entire poem. We then embarked on a process of editing, each time removing those elements of the piece that made it seem like two distinct voices. Our voices almost merged.

I extend my hand-cane hybrid towards the ground in front of me like a diviner – this path, this body, not the only crooked things… We yearn for the possibilities of another city, another body as we fall, knee-first onto the blunt fact of queer promise. – Bron Bateman & Andy Jackson from the poem Betrayal

In another collaboration, I was aware the other writer had experienced traumatic abuse, so I soon felt that when writing together – in a way that would not just be respectful but useful, for us both and for the poem – our voices would have to be distinct.

To dominate or erase another’s words, even with good intentions or under some pretence of “improving the poem”, would have been precipitous ground. The poem we ended up writing together was composed of two parallel voices, two wings. The air around them, and between us, held us up.

Assure child they are not at fault.   Refuse to be absolved of blame. Find the subliminal rhymes.   Broken as open. Other as wisdom.

– Leah Robertson & Andy Jackson, from the poem Debris

Rigour and care

Each collaboration had its own particular questions and dilemmas. Each one required rigour and care, patience and courage. There were many awkward little stumbles and pauses. Yet the process was also profoundly liberating. It felt like someone had opened a window, so that a stifling room finally had air and outlook.

My sense, too, was that with the windows flung open, those outside our world could see in, might begin to more deeply appreciate the innumerable ways bodies are marginalised. That readers of all kinds would see their own predicaments connected to ours. Disability as one dimension of injustice, a dimension that reminds us of the ground we share, flesh and earth. Disability as gravitational force.

There is something in the collective political and social atmosphere that suggests collaboration, working together, especially with people outside our usual circle, is either anathema or too difficult.

Think of any of the crises that are front of mind at the moment – the dialogue around the Voice referendum and the fallout from its defeat , the fraught process of ensuring a just transition away from fossil fuels , the long histories and cycles of war and revenge across the globe. You could even include your own intimate cul-de-sacs of unresolved conflict.

Corporate tech algorithms amplify our tribal attachments, assume and encourage our binarism, our quick, unthinking reactions. The blinkers are on, and are being tightened.

This is not, to state the obvious, desirable or in any way sustainable. Perhaps this is why, in the last five to ten years, there has been an increasing number of collaborative writing projects. Against the tide of hesitation and mistrust, a felt need to work together, within and across identities.

I’m thinking of Woven , the anthology of collaborative poetry by First Nations writers from here and other lands, edited by Anne Marie Te Whiu. John Kinsella’s careful and ethical collaborative experiments with Charmaine Papertalk-Green, Kwame Dawes and Thurston Moore.

Then there’s Audrey Molloy and Anthony Lawrence’s intensely lyrical and sensitive conversation in Ordinary Time . And Ken Bolton and Peter Bakowski’s four recent collaborative books , which contain an array of darkly humorous fictional and fictionalised characters. This is only the poetic tip of the iceberg of recent collaborations.

Writers are one group of people who are tuning in to the need to go beyond the isolation or echo chambers. They know that the stories we are told – the need to be self-reliant and independent, the impetus to be suspicious of the other, or even that sense of inferiority that makes us feel disqualified from contributing – aren’t carved in stone. Or if they are, the persistent drip and flow of water can do its liberatory, erosive (and constructive) work.

We have, after all, only survived as a species and as communities through collaboration and mutual support.

Of course, we know there are countless collaborations currently being orchestrated by malicious agents: fascists, racists, misogynists, cynical corporate shills astroturfing against essential urgent climate action, even (to some degree) the reflexive social-media pile-ons. People are always working together in some way, deeply connected and inter-responsive. Collaboration in itself is not some utopian panacea.

Disabled collaboration

So I want to suggest that only a particular kind of collaboration can be properly transformative, humanising and grounding. It’s a collaboration of deep attentiveness and mutual exposure: a way of being together in which we set our certainties and fears aside, to be present to the other, to allow the other to be themselves, and to be open to the otherness in ourselves, an encounter which sensitises us to the complexities and bodiliness of injustice.

Let’s call it disabled collaboration.

Let me explain. As a disabled person, you are constrained, walled out of important social spaces: there are only steps into the workplace, the performance isn’t translated, or the shop is non-negotiable sensory overload. Even if you do manage to enter these spaces, it is made clear to you that you don’t really belong. They might stare at you, or signal their discomfort with silence or overcompensation. (And, yes, the shift to second-person is deliberate.)

Unless you give up – and which of us would not admit to giving up sometimes, or in some part of ourselves? – you spend a lot of energy proposing, asking, suggesting, pleading, demanding. You know what you need to be able to live a life of nourishment, connection, pleasure. You speak, in your own voice, out of your particular situation, from across the barriers.

Perhaps disability is really essentially about this giving voice. About constantly having to express what is unheard – or perhaps sometimes unhearable – by the broader society.

This isn’t about transmitting thoughts or ideas. This is essentially a cry for connection, for help. For solidarity, allyship, change. What you’re after is collaboration: two or more people bringing their resources to bear upon a human situation, which may have fallen heavily on one person, but hovers over us all. Disabled people know this territory intimately. We regularly share much-needed information, resources, concern and time with each other.

This kind of collaboration, by definition, cannot assume an equality of voice, mode of operation or capacity. It is predicated on learning about difference and then responding to it: whether through listening, care work, protest or support.

This collaboration acknowledges and resists disadvantage, isolation and enforced voicelessness. It’s the kind of orientation towards another person that, I want to suggest, is exactly what might help us respond properly to the multiple, intersecting crises we find ourselves in.

It’s a listening not only to the concerns and experiences of the other, but an ambition to adapt to their particular way of expressing themselves.

To be clear, I’m not saying disabled people have any special talent for collaboration. We can be as bitter, isolationist, selfish or stubborn as any non-disabled person. In fact, there are aspects to being disabled that can encourage suspicion towards others, a scepticism that at times affords you the space to assess risk.

Can I trust this person with my needs, my life? It’s a caution that is understandable, and useful, but it can also keep us isolated. The cycle of othering depends on those othered doing some of the work, thinking this is all I deserve , or the perpetual doubtful thought of “maybe next time”.

On top of that, there are intersections of injustice that are particularly resistant. They don’t dissolve in the presence of collaboration, but require immense effort to shift.

In facilitating this project, I found that the most stubborn dividing factors were class and race. There are individualist, neoliberal dynamics at the core of funding guidelines and in our lives generally. Writing and publishing remain fields still dominated by white, middle-class connections and aesthetics.

When we sit down to write or work together, these things do not disappear. When writers are paid for their work, it does not mean the same thing for each person.

Throughout this project, I have asked myself a number of questions. How do I, as a funding recipient, ensure that my collaborators are not exploited or taken for granted? What assumptions do I carry, invisibly, about the merits of particular voices? Should I step back to give more space to Indigenous writers, culturally and linguistically diverse writers, queer writers? How do we speak together within a poem or essay in a way that reaffirms common cause without diminishing the very real differences?

These difficult questions have not been resolved. Still, their intractability really only reinforces my wider point. We need to engage together in a way that is predicated on difference, exposure, vulnerability and mutual support. If disability is the imprint or shadow of bodily injustice, then collaborating in a disabled way, consciously, can radically expand our understanding of our shared predicament.

What happens within the process of disabled collaboration is akin to the words in Sarah Stivens and Jasper Peach’s poem, Crack & Burn:

Different bodies with the same fears, different aches with the same stories Our brains tell us that we’re alone, but we know not to believe them … When we gather in numbers it’s impossible to feel less than because all I see – everywhere I look – is raging grace and powerful repose.

The experience foreshadows, in a small but potent way, the future we wish to live in.

What might disabled collaboration achieve? The poem Coalescent, written by Beau Windon, myself, Michèle Saint-Yves, Robin M Eames and Ruby Hillsmith, suggests a hopeful answer:

overturning the old regime of normalcy for something strange / / something glorious / / something new

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When a Major Life Change Upends Your Sense of Self

• Madeline Toubiana,
• Trish Ruebottom,
• Luciana Turchick Hakak

Five research-backed strategies to help you embrace a new identity and move forward with confidence.

Whether we like it or not, change is a fact of life. Unfortunately, especially when a major change feels like it’s been forced on us, it can be easy to fall into identity paralysis: a feeling of stuck-ness in which your sense of self fails to keep up with your new role or situation. The authors conducted hundreds of interviews with people who had gone through various kinds of positive or negative identity shifts to explore why people experience identity paralysis and what can help to overcome it. Based on this research, they offer five tactical strategies to help anyone let go of the past, embrace a new identity, and move forward on a path towards growth.

Human beings have a complicated relationship with change. While it is both inevitable and essential for growth, change can also be deeply uncomfortable — especially if it feels involuntary, or out of our control.

• MT Madeline Toubiana is an associate professor and the Desmarais Chair in Entrepreneurship at Telfer School of Management at University of Ottawa. Her research program focuses on what stalls and supports social change. More specifically, she examines the role of emotions, entrepreneurship, institutional processes, and stigmatization in influencing the dynamics of social change.
• TR Trish Ruebottom is an associate professor at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of social innovation and organization, specifically exploring the ways we organize to create social change. Her recent work examines the role of entrepreneurship in stigmatized industries.
• LH Luciana Turchick Hakak is an assistant professor at the School of Business of the University of the Fraser Valley. Her research interests lie in the distinct but often complementary fields of diversity in the workplace, work-related identity, and stigmatized work, and she has specifically investigated these issues in the context of how immigrants fare in new work environments.

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Stages of Behavioral Change Analytical Essay

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Introduction

Reference list.

In our day to day interactions, we encounter people and circumstances that require us to change our behavior. In other cases, we ourselves want to change our own behavior for personal reasons. There exist no standard procedures for behavioral change that can be used to govern the process through which individuals change their behavioral trends.

However, some people have argued that individuals change their behaviors when the cost of not changing a particular behavior exceeds the cost of changing that behavior (Fieger, 2009). Through our own understanding of individual functioning, we can choose to change our behaviors without waiting for the negative impacts associated with the behavior to motivate us.

Psychologists have developed various models and theories in attempt to describe various stages along a behavior change continuum (FHI, 2004). The process of self behavioral change involves various stages as outlined by DiClemente and Norcross (FHI, 2004). The precontemplation stage involves individual’s recognition of an existing problem in order to make a decision to change the behavior (FHI, 2004).

Contemplation stage is the stage where the individual acknowledges the problem and seriously considers changing it while preparation for action involves individual decision to change the specific behavior within a specified period of time (FHI, 2004).

Finally, the action stage constitutes the ability of an individual to display consistency in the new behavior and maintenance which requires the individual to display the same consistency for more than six months (FHI, 2004). This is the general process through which individuals abandon undesirable habits and acquire new behavioral trends and it is also the model that forms the basis for therapeutic behavioral change.

After having uncovered that I spend approximately 3000 minutes talk time on my phone every month, I realized that I needed to change my behavior regarding phone use since my monthly phone bill was very expensive and my mother kept insisting on the side effects associated with cell phone use.

In addition, I spent considerable amounts of time on my phone consequently promoting time wastage which negatively impacted on my school work. The radio frequency energy from electromagnetic radiations emitted through the antenna of mobile phones is believed to affect the brain and other head tissues (NCI, n d).

Numerous studies conducted to investigate the relationship between cell phone use and the risk of brain tumors reveal no increased risk with increase in call duration in some incidences while some studies suggested slightly increase risk for certain types of brain tumors as a result of increased cell phone use (NCI, n d). This perceived cancer threat was the major factor that motivated to change my behavior.

Although I was reluctant at initial stages of the process claiming that the side effects of cell phones are non existent and if they were, my phone was adequately secure, extensive research on studies conducted on the side effects of cell phone as well as the need to reduce my monthly phone bill heavily influenced my decision and determination to cut off on my cell phone use.

After acknowledging that excessive use of my cell phone was adversely implicating on my finances and may affect my long term health condition, I decided to undergo an eight week behavioral transformation process after which I would cut down my cell phone use by half.

To ensure successful outcomes of the process, I sought information an advice from people who had a similar problem from where I acquired problem solving choices (FHI 2004). The people suggested the methods that they used to reduce the amount of time they spent on their cell phones which included the use of e mail and other social networks such as face book and myspace to interact with people rather than making phone calls.

In addition, other people preferred sending text messages while others utilized face to face communication whenever it was possible. This information considerably promoted my behavioral changing process since I applied all these strategies through out the process and successfully managed to cut down my phone use significantly.

Through out the process of behavioral transformation, I encountered various challenges that significantly hindered my ability to cut down on my phone use. Numerous interaction incidences required immediate feedback hence I preferred calling people rather than sending emails or messages to them as this may take them a longer time to respond.

Further, my friends with whom we used to communicate for long durations of time using cell phones continued to call me for long hours and it was difficult to convince them to similarly cut down on their cell phone use. In addition, since I had been used to the habit for a long period of time, the urge to make unnecessary phone calls persisted during the process and proved very difficult to fight it.

At the end of the eight weeks period, I had managed to cut down my phone use by a considerable amount of time. Although I had not managed to achieve my target of reducing my phone use to 1500 minutes per month by the end of the period, I achieved an average 40% reduction in calling time upto 1800 minutes talk time in the eight week period which I intend to reduce further through continuous implementation of the strategies that I applied during the period of behavioral change.

Since behavioral change is a continuous process, I am optimistic that through dedication and commitment to change my behavior, with time I will be able to achieve my target and reduce the amount of time I spend calling on my cell phone for the safety of my health as well as financial status.

Behavioral change is largely motivated by an individual’s core beliefs which constitute the ideas that one believes to be true about him as well as the world as he conceives it to be (Fieger, 2010).

Further, an individual’s attitude, which is the focal point through which he views the world, is highly informed by his values and principles establish the foundations of the individual’s identity and his conceptions of ideal behavior (Fieger, 2010). This is clearly evident in the process of my behavioral change which was highly influenced by the desire to live a healthy life and to manage my time and financial resources efficiently.

Since I value my health very much, various health risks issues associated with cell phone use motivated me to reduce my cell phone talk time in order to diminish chances of developing such ailments. In addition, the general prevalence of time and resource management in the contemporary society further prompted me to change my behavior in order to conform to the society’s desirable values.

FHI (2004). Behavior change- a summary of four major theories. Web.

Fieger, H. (2009). Behavior change: a view fro inside out . New York: Morgan James publishing.

NCI (Not dated). Cell phone cancer risk . Web.

• Vision as a Psychology Practitioner-Scholar
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• Structural Family Therapy
• Cognitive Behavior Therapy in Children With ADHD
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, June 24). Stages of Behavioral Change. https://ivypanda.com/essays/behavior-change/

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IvyPanda . 2019. "Stages of Behavioral Change." June 24, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/behavior-change/.

1. IvyPanda . "Stages of Behavioral Change." June 24, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/behavior-change/.

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NEW JERSEY HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCES 2024 ESSAY CONTEST AND ARETÉ SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS

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Sep 26, 2024, 13:35 ET

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NEWARK, N.J. , Sept. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- In keeping with their commitment to inspiring, educating, and motivating youth and students in our state, the New Jersey Hall of Fame (NJHOF) and the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) announce the winners of the annual student Essay Contest and the Areté Scholarship Fund.

Lyla DiPalma and Eliana Matera won the 2024 Who Belongs in the New Jersey Hall of Fame essay contest. Essay Contest winners receive a $500 scholarship to pursue their chosen camp, program, or extracurricular activity.

In the middle school category, Lyla DiPalma , a fifth grader at Charles G. Harker Elementary School in Swedesboro, New Jersey , won for her essay on Tobin Heath , born in Morristown, New Jersey . Lyla's essay focused on Heath's acclaimed soccer career, activism for women's rights and equality, and her use of art to initiate community-wide change.

Eliana Matera , a tenth grader at Bergen County Academies in Elmwood Park , was selected in the high school category for her essay on former New Jersey Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver . In her essay, Eliana described Oliver's dedicated service as the first woman of color to serve in statewide elected office in New Jersey and her devotion to her state's citizens.

"The NJEA is honored to present the annual Essay Contest and Areté Scholarship awards in partnership with the New Jersey Hall of Fame," said New Jersey Education Association President Sean M. Spiller , who is also a high school science teacher in the Wayne public school system. "The financial support provided through these awards has contributed to the successful educational journeys of many New Jersey students and allowed them to see that fulfilling their dreams is possible with hard work and determination."

The Hall of Fame also announced Rchin Bari and Gabriella Stewart as the winners of the 2024 Areté Scholarship Fund, a $5,000 award granted to two graduating high school seniors who exemplify the ancient Greek concept of actualizing one's highest self with moral excellence of character regardless of the circumstances or adversities one is likely to face on the path to greatness. The scholarship recipients must demonstrate academic engagement, moral character, a commitment to their community, and a sense of Jersey pride.

"Together with our sponsors and supporters throughout the great Garden State, we are proud to applaud this year's Areté Scholarship and Essay Contest winners," said Jon F. Hanson , Chairman of the New Jersey Hall of Fame. "Supporting the next generation in pursuing their highest potential is a vital component of the Hall of Fame's mission, and it's an honor to continue the tradition again this year."

Rchin is graduating from Essex County School of Technology's Newark Tech Campus. He plans to continue his Cancer Research apprenticeship under the Army Educational Outreach Program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology . Rchin's dreams of becoming a medicine practitioner began after learning about incurable diseases and volunteering at a local hospital. Rchin hopes to achieve his Areté by focusing on academic excellence, personal growth, and community impact, primarily through his continued volunteer work and research projects.

Gabriella is graduating from Franklin High School in Somerset, New Jersey . She will attend Howard University to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a minor in Media, Communications, and Film. Gabriella aspires to participate in activities that align with her personal goals, promote diversity through the arts, and encourage inclusivity and change within her community.

The winners of the Essay Contest and the Areté Scholarship Fund will be honored at the NJHOF's induction ceremony later this year.

Changes to the award structure for both contests will be implemented in 2025. These include expanding the number of scholarship recipients to seven (7), three (3) Essay winners, and four (4) Areté winners and adding tickets to visit the New Jersey Hall of Fame at American Dream to their award packages. The 2025 application window will be October 1, 2024 – April 1, 2025 .

For more information on the Essay Contest, visit:

https://njhalloffame.org/essay-contest/  

For more information on the AretéScholarship Fund, visit: https://njhalloffame.org/arete/ .

ABOUT THE NJHOF:  Because everyone needs a hero, the New Jersey Hall of Fame (NJHOF) honors citizens who have made invaluable contributions to society, the State of New Jersey , and the world beyond. Since 2008, the NJHOF has hosted induction ceremonies for more than 240 notable individuals and groups in recognition of their induction into the Hall of Fame. Through the  New Jersey Hall of Fame at American Dream  and its many satellite sites, the NJHOF endeavors to present the public, especially students, with significant and impactful role models to show that they can, and should, strive for excellence. The NJHOF is thankful for the support of its many  sponsors , including Hackensack Meridian  Health , without which none of our endeavors would be possible. For more information, go to www.njhalloffame.org .

Eliza Rosenthale , Princeton Strategic Communications, (609) 558-3330, [email protected]

Aimee Brooks , Princeton Strategic Communications, (917) 881-3849, [email protected]  

SOURCE New Jersey Hall of Fame

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