The Labyrinth

So in case you have not read John Green's book "Looking For Alaska," I recommend so. This essay is in the point of view of one character from the book, Alaska Young.

In the historical novel, The General in His Labyrinth, Simón Bolívar's last words went as follows: “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!” His words have played over and over in my head, and the inquiry that always follows is What is the labyrinth? What is this inescapable thing that everybody seems to dread as a whole? Is it life? Death? Maybe what people are trying to escape is the past, or possibly even the future. When Bolívar questioned how to escape it, he was not talking about living or dying, but the pain of both and more. The root beneath anything unpleasant in someone's life is some kind of pain and suffering.

Suffering is not just something you can put off to the side and deal with later. It is inevitable, universal. It is not something that pin-points to one race, religion, or lifestyle; everybody is exposed to it.

The problem with this, though, is that people are always faced with it, and because of it, they become immune to the pain. That may seem like a blessing to not feel pain, but it is only worse. It is just like hurting yourself physically. What would happen if you got badly injured, but there were no symptoms or signs? There would be no way of knowing what had even happened to you, but your body would still be beating itself up because of it. Without even knowing, you would become self-destructive. However, with more serious suffering comes more consequences.

If more and more people lose what it feels like to feel pain, it will start to not make a difference when the suffering varies. When it decreases, they won't notice, leaving them no happier than before. When the suffering increases, the pain will start to progress into something worse, and once they start to realize that they are much less happy with their life and doings, they won't know what to do; they'll have no guidance. There's not some handbook that teaches you what to do when your life becomes too much to handle �" at least not one accurate. So what is the first thing that people become when put under so much pressure? Impulsive, and when that happens, the outcome is not always good.

I have learned over time that when faced with all of the suffering in my life, I do become impulsive. My first instinct is to get out. I want to get rid of the pain as quick as I can, but unfortunately that is difficult to achieve with the many barriers and obstacles of the “labyrinth” getting in the way. And with those in the way, the only thing that most people can manage to do is wish for it to get better and for life to suddenly work out for them. People only use the future to escape the present. They hold on to that last shred of hope, but what many refuse to do is to actually make it better. Whether they are lazy, too depressed, or stressed, they do not put the effort they need to make them happy again. Instead, they wait it out until somebody else fixes everything for them.

Now, I'm not pointing any fingers. I understand that it is easier to just wait it out, because it is. If I could sit there and day-dream about a happy place, I would. But if I learned a single thing from my one friend, it is the last words of François Rabelais: “I go to seek a Great Perhaps.” I want to find my Great Perhaps, and everybody should.

With this kind of motivation and this kind of ambition, it would not be as difficult to go forth and achieve your Great Perhaps and to escape the labyrinth. Once you find this strength, you will be able to knock down all of the roadblocks you need to. Nothing will be in your way because your focus is to escape.

So how will we ever get out of this labyrinth? Straight and fast, that's how. Drive right out of the labyrinth and nothing can hurt you.

Author's Note

Once again, I recommend reading the novel. In it, this essay topic is appointed Alaska'a class, but before so, something happens where she is unable to do such essay, so I thought this would be a rough idea of what her essay would have been.