Someone who inspired you and what the inspiraton was - Essay Example

Since I was a young boy, I have always looked up to my elder uncle Vincent, my father’s youngest brother, and drawn guidance and inspiration from him. He is a college lecturer by profession, and he has always been by my side when I had to make the most important decisions of my life. Despite the fact that he is much older than my father is, I tend to relate to him more than to my parents and have found it easier to confide in him whenever I had problems. He has influenced my life in many ways and encouraged me in times of indecisiveness and despair to keep fighting and follow my way.

However, the main reason I admire him so much is because I know from what my parents and him told me how extraordinary his life has been. Unlike my parents, he never finished college and had to do many menial jobs – something he probably regretted later a lot. I came to learn that his youth was a wild one, and he dropped out of college halfway due to drug related problems. At that time, he had sunk so low that he would disappear for months living in shelters for homeless people, and the sense of his life was the next dose.

Even his own family had given up hope on him; however, his struggle is something I can only describe as the greatest act of self-redemption I have ever heard of: he turned his life around, and today he teaches literature at a local college and has a PhD degree in the same subject. After he got rid of his drug problems, he worked nightshifts at a factory, and during the day did distance courses. No one thought he could keep this up, but to everyone’s surprise, he finished college in three years.

Having got his diploma, he worked as a teacher at a local high school teaching English to foreign students on a part-time basis to earn some extra money. By spreading himself thin in ways I will never come to comprehend, he managed to acquire a master’s degree finishing his education in a span of only five years. These days my uncle gives motivational talks to youths and homeless people as well as people with drug problems. Also, he finds time to talk once a week in a drug rehabilitation center that was founded by him and a few other sponsors.

His taking care of people in need, shows what an altruistic and understanding person he is; my uncle believes, like one of his role models Martin Luther King, that love has a redeeming power and can change the world. His massage to them and everyone else is that everyone deserves a second chance, and one should always take time to help those have lost hope and support. To me, he is a personification of the human spirit at its strongest, and he inspired me to help in some of his programs for the youth with drug problems and homeless people.

He come to the local church’s soup kitchen at least once a week, and whenever I go with him, I am overwhelmed by the extent of his love, kindness and his willingness to listen and take care of those whom the rest of society has virtually rejected.