274. It has often been said that Life is a journey, not a destination.

Tell about an important journey (physical, emotional, or spiritual) that youve taken.

Life is a journey, not a destination. Life will inspire and guide us to the right path toward happiness and peace. Life is a journey that makes people unique in their own way. With every step we take, we create our one-of-a-kind personality. Sometimes life may test us and place us in a cross road that puts us in the circumstances which we have to make difficult decisions. Theres no right decision, only the one that we are most content with. Even if we arent satisfied with the outcome of the first decision, it s not the end of the world, and the new opportunities probably are just around the corner only if we have the courage to make decisions or attempts again. What s more, the fun but also scary part about life is that well never know what s waiting ahead of us. Life may lead us to a bumpy road that makes us living like hell, it s not trying to beat us down but to push us to the extreme to show ourselves how much more potential we havent discovered yet, and that we must have faith to achieve greatness. Inevitably, everyone makes mistakes. Life teaches us a lesson that it s not our first priority to prevent making mistakes, but to actually learn from the mistakes. Each person differs from how we react to different things. When encountering a hard task, whether to give up or to keep working and looking on the bright side change a persons life entirely. One of my all-time favorite movies, Freaky Friday represents the statement Life is a journey, not a destination perfectly. The generation gap between Tess Coleman and her daughter Anna is evident. Tess works as a therapist while Anna is a high school student. Tess tends to lead her life in a strict way while Anna does the opposite way. Ever since Annas father passed away, the relationship between the two of them is tense. They both cant accept each other s preferences and values, so they argue all the time. Anna thinks her mother doesnt support her band and keeps doubting her dream. She also thinks her mother is so hung up with her new boyfriend Ryan that she doesnt care about her at all. According to Annas actual words, she thinks her mother is ruining her life. Tess then thinks Anna isn t responsible enough to be her younger brother s role model, and all she does is being rebellious against everything that concerns the family. Since Tess is a therapist, she is supposed to be good at reading peoples mind, but somehow she cant read her daughter s? As for Anna, she blames her mother for everything bad that has happened to her. One night while having dinner at a Chinese restaurant, Tess and Anna get into a huge fight again. Anna wants to ditch her mother s wedding rehearsal for a band audition, but Tess considers Anna showing her resentment for

her future step-father Ryan. Then an old lady walks toward them and hands them two fortune cookies. Their world is about to change without them knowing it after reading the fortune inside the fortune cookies. The next day, the two of them wake up trapped in the body of the other s. To their astonishment, feeling desperate to have their body back but are told if the fortune comes true, then they can go back. As the fortune says A journey soon begins. The price reflected in another s eyes. When what you see is what you lack and selfless love will change you back. They have no choice but to put up with living in each other s bodies. Daughter in mother's body has to pretend to be a therapist while mother in daughter's body has to go to school, and play electric guitar in the rock band. They literally learn what its like to walk in each other s shoes. After switching bodies for some time, they begin to realize and understand each other. Tess stops thinking that Annas dream as an artist is a waste-of-time, and that all the detentions she gets is intentionally forced by the weird teacher. Anna then discovers it s really hard for a single mother to take care of two children and handles everything from work to household, and she shouldn t had been so rude to her mother before. What s more, her future step-father Ryan does care about her and really wants to get along with her. At the wedding, they switch back after Anna makes a toast about how she loves her family and shes more than welcome to have Ryan as part of the family. Through this physical and mental journey, Tess and Anna sort the problem out of them living under the same rooftop but acting like total strangers or even enemies, shortening the distance between the two of them. Another movie I love is Coach Carter. Comparing to Freaky Friday, Coach Carter has more depths and inspires people to a deeper aspect for it is based on a true story. Ken Carter accepts the job as the basketball team coach of his old school, the Richmond High. He shows the team and the principal he has the ability of leading the team to win the nationals on one condition that all players need to sign a contract. The contract includes a dress code and participating in every class. The players sign the contract right away, thinking the new guy must be kidding. As what Coach Carter promises, the team makes it to the national competition. While the whole town is cheering for the team, Coach Carter cancels all team activities and locks the court. He claims not until the players have made academic improvements will he let them be back on the court for basically every player flunk every course. The town is furious, especially the players parents. The parents believe basketball is all the students have left of gaining the sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, so why does the coach have to take basketball away from the kids. Coach Carter responses that the adults are sending the wrong message to the kids that they make the kids believe rather than studying, playing basketball well is all that matters. It s crucial to find the

balance between school and basketball. At first, the team is reluctant to obey Carter s order, he points out the small percentage of how many students go to college and the high percentage of students becoming criminals and are locked in the prison after graduating from high school. And the statistics belong to the lack of stressing the importance of studying. He says, Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. The team does study a lot and makes evident improvement. The team comes in second place in the national competition. Though the team doesnt win, what they gain from the process is more than a mere trophy. What the students arent aware of that the moment they sign the contract, their future will be entirely different. Coach Carter saves them from becoming another lost kid selling drugs on the streets. The majority of the players go to college, and some even get the scholarship. I wonder whether I will quit or I will stay like the team does if I encounter the same situation. The students decision of staying creates the journey that makes them leave their comfort zone, putting effort on studying which they never think they can. At last, I want to talk about my journey which is probably the first time for me to say it. After graduating from elementary school, I gained weight like crazy in the summer vacation. As I entered a whole new class, I wasnt able to talk to my classmates casually, and I would get extremely nervous. At that time, if someone looked at me, the idea of me looking ugly would automatically pop out in my head. I was seriously unconfident. Though some close classmates of mine convinced me that I looked fine, I still wasnt satisfied with myself. Then I made a stupid decision of feeling desperate to lose weight. I stopped eating, and only drank a lot water to keep myself from feeling hungry. The longest time I had last was three days. Though, since I had practiced the diet, I lost a lot of weight indeed, but Ive learned my lesson after passing out at home one time. Fortunately, my mother found me, and I told her the whole thing. I stopped the bad behavior immediately, but I wasnt as healthy as before, and I would get ill and easily feel dizzy all the time. Although my weight gained back after stopped drastic diet, I felt more confident than before. Now, I know Im not perfect, but at least Im satisfied with myself. I still need to work on practicing appropriate diet and exercise to be healthy again. Through this journey, I will never do anything bad to harm my body and make the ones who care about me worried in the future.