Essay

Rebekah Quintana
Mrs. Boresen
Expos-P-6
Essay
2-3-09
“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit however, it lasts forever” (Armstrong, Lance). Pain is a word and it applies to everyone and in life humans have gone through pain. It may have hit mentally, physically, or even emotionally, but most people try to escape the pain although it somehow appears. Pain is a road block throughout the journey of life.
In the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, pain is defined as a mental or emotional torment or suffering; however pain as a noun is defined as a physical suffering or distress as due to injury or illness (891). When it comes to a verb, pain is defined as an action that causes (someone) mental or emotional pain; distress (Dictionary.com). As you can see, there are many different words and ways to define pain. However, pain I can define as an event or memory from the past or present that hurts you physically, mentally, or emotionally in anyway.
Pain as we all know is an abstract word, but imagine if we made it into a concrete object like a food. If a human would eat this concrete object they would be miserable. They would feel sharp pains all over there body and they would ache every day. Pain is not a pretty word and I am sure that if someone ate it would make them a depressed and unhappy person. The word would feel uncomfortable and undesirable. Pain would not be a fun word to be. If someone ate pain everyday they would need something stronger then Tums to calm there pain they are feeling. They would probably even need to go to a doctor because how miserable they would be. Nothing could cure someone if they ate pain because pain is such a strong word it would be hard to help the person feel better. Eating pain would make someone a depressed and angry person.
Teenage girls begin living there lives when they hit middle school. They have there friends, they join sports, and they experience many interesting things throughout there middle school years. Although, being a teenager is the best feeling ever, most teenage girls hit many road blocks to pain. This is the worst feeling ever and it is something everyone tries to escape. When I was thirteen years old, I hit my first road block to pain. I experienced something a thirteen year old girl shouldn’t have to. On July 2nd, 2004, I received terrible news that my cousin John-John was in the hospital because he got into a motorcycle accident. I didn’t think it was serious because I never thought I would have to experience what pain really felt like. Two days went by and on July 4th, 2004 at one thirty in the morning I woke up knowing that I lost my cousin. My world came crashing down and I knew I was experiencing pain. I go through pain everyday when reminded of his death. Although my cousin John-John past away five years ago, I get a shock of pain every time I am reminded of his accident. It is hard to go through life when you know that the one person you admired won’t be around anymore and you can’t see the one smile that made everyone’s day. Life is tough and filled with pain and all you can do is live life to the fullest trying to get past the pain and smile everyday while trying to seek your goals.
Pain has been around for centuries and has had many different dramatic shifts when it comes to the concepts of pain. During the late nineteenth century pain was described as a gift from God. Pain is not a single definition and when pain causes suffering it is a result of a sin. Sin is a sign of civilization and is attended through sensitivity. Although pain is a hard thing to go through, most Christians describe pain as in the hands of God. Physical pain however was described as taking shape in relation to other doctrinal argument as the pains of crucifixion or the sight of hell, (Wikipedia.org).
Although pain was described as in the hands of God, the definition has changed in time. In today’s history Pain is caused by emotional distress and is felt more deeply and lasts longer then pain due to an injury, (Wikipedia.org). Emotional pain has the ability to come back over and over again researchers have discovered. When humans participated in an experiment they discovered that emotional pain performed worse than the people thinking about a physical injury. “While both types of pain can hurt very much at the time they occur, social pain has the unique ability to come back over and over again, whereas physical pain lingers only as an awareness that it was indeed at one time painful. Why aren’t we always suffering pain by recollections of social betrayal and other forms of social pain? Because we are pretty good at keeping these memories at bay” (Dr. Kip Williams).
As I already mentioned, pain is a road block throughout my journey of life and there is no way I can escape it. So when humans hit a road block to pain don’t run and hide from it, just try and live through it and it will someday leave your side. I am going to leave you with the poem that reminds me of the pain I go through day by day. “For so long looking into the mirror I saw only a reflection of an image, a stranger looking back at me. When looking into my eyes, I saw only emptiness, a void. Beneath those eyes were many fears, fears of pain, fears of sorrow, feelings of no hope. How could I not know this face before me, as I stood looking at the image in the mirror? Where was this person that I used to be, why couldn’t I see? Turning again looking into the mirror, I saw my life one that had gone out like a candle being extinguished. All my pride, my joy, my hopes, my desire, my passion, all was gone. What reflected back from that mirror was a stranger looking back at me. Standing there feeling so alone, lost and confused, the fear set in, where was this person I called me? Walking away from that image, never wanting to look again, my life continued on. Over time I found myself looking in that mirror again. Yet this time when I looked, what reflected back to me was a face, my face, my eyes filled with hope, a burning love, a pride of being me, a passion for living. No longer a darkness did I see, for out of my eyes was shining, a reflection of me! For you see I was no a stranger to me! Yet there still is that pain deep within, that pain has taken on a new meaning in my life. Through the tears and countless hours of feeling alone, those hours I screamed out and no one heard slowly through that pain and confusion emerged the real me. It took all those disappointments and life hurts to make me stop and look at the real me. No longer am I just an image in a mirror I am a reflection of my life, those hurts, those joys, that hope, that burning passion, that endless love. I see now the true image the image of me! (Montgomery, Deb).