Sinogba, Vincent Ivan Kyle P.

Ma’am Rowena Heradura

ECE 11 October 25, 2019
Reflection Paper on the Material Self

People have their needs, and people have their wants. Most of which are material
things, their possessions. Some they themselves traded their blood and sweat for, while
the rest, gits, that others saw fit to give them. These things are said to be an extension of
ourselves, that they can define us.

While it is indeed true that our possessions define us. We must carefully thread the line
between them defining us and them controlling us. It is a necessity to acquire or
purchase things, and what we acquire will reflect who we are, because we would only
buy what we will be using. It starts becoming wrong though when you compare what you
have to others. This is when it starts controlling you and you start leaning on material
things for happiness and aspirations. Money can never buy happiness; it can only bring
you ever so close to it. True happiness comes from contentment, when you are fine with
what you have, when you do not want to desire more, is when happiness come .What
struck me the most is the fact that very few people notice that they end up basing their
happiness and aspirations on material things. It is true even for me, there are some
cases that even I fall back to my possessions for happiness or success. That’s what
makes it scary, you only realize it when you already hit rock bottom. That is why a
majority of millennials go after experiences and memories, because they have learnt
from those that came before them. They’ve seen the perils of being materialistic. That is
why millennials are often described as dreamers and travelers.

There is nothing wrong with having possessions, truthfully and logically, they are
necessary, as they are literally a part of our lives. This also makes the fact that what we
have defines us undeniable. What we have to be careful about though is the time when
they stop being a part of our lives and start being our life.