People I Admire

Posted: August 12th, 2013

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People I Admire

In the course of my life, I have encountered or witnessed a number of people who have affected my way of living in a number of ways. Their influence on my life is based on their values, accomplishments, and personal characteristics. I am privileged being nurtured by numerous teachers that I respect for their intelligence and patience. Many artists have inspired me with their original creativity and talent. I regard a number of politicians as inspirations to my life through social contributions and drive to change how we live. However, among all these, three people stand out as the ones I admire the most.

The first person I admire is my father. As the lastborn in my family, it is typical that I received more attention and care from my father. Growing up, I considered myself fortunate to have a father since some of my friends and neighbors were without a father figure in their backgrounds. This enabled me to appreciate him even more. In all aspects of my life, my father has taken the role of pushing me towards excellence. I have always had a deep admiration for his open mind, hardworking and understanding character. Above all, I admire his steadfast conviction to achieve seemingly impossible goals. He always teaches that what I might spend overnight building may be toppled in the morning, but still build it anyone.

The other person I have deep admiration for is Oprah Winfrey. My admiration for Ms. Winfrey comes from her determination to achieve great feats despite having grown in a particularly stereotypic society against great women. Oprah is also very informative on relevant life aspects coming from her knack to venture into numerous fields in addition to being a global humanitarian. Oprah is known to have had that determination of becoming great from her childhood. When still a minor, she was molested consequently ruining her ability to have children. However, such devastating and psychologically traumatizing news did not stop her from graduating in high school and university specializing in speech and drama.

The third person who has my admiration is the former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela. In today’s world, many people have admiration for singers, actors and celebrities. Though not a bad thing, I feel it is important to be influenced by important figures and revolutionists such as Nelson Mandela. His life serves testament of a man who dedicated his fate towards achieving good for humanity. Mandela was born at a time of apartheid rule that held segregative rule in South Africa. Determined to achieve equality, he attempted to overthrow the government regardless of what it would have cost him. Consequently, he served a prison sentence of twenty-seven years. However, demonstrations and protests across the world eventually led to his release. Mandela would go on to be elected president of South Africa, and eventually put an end to minority rule.

I believe that life is about setting a good example for other people to admire and consider following in the same footsteps. From the three people I have discussed, I believe that their traits relate to what I stand in one way or another. Like my father and Oprah, I have values working hard and achieving my goals and ambitions. Regardless of what comes my way, I still strive to stay on track and not loose sight of what I stand for. Like Nelson Mandela, I believe in making worthy sacrifices for the greater good. After all, people with ordinary values and ordinary lives seldom receive admiration.