This I Believe response.
There are many commonalities and elements among the essays that I read. Some of the elements would have to be friendship, courtesy, well-being, and thoughts. The essay that stuck out to me the most that had to do with friendship and courtesy would have to be Eve Birch’s story. It talked about how she was poor and her neighbors, who didn’t mean anything to her at first, meant everything to her in the end. They gave her food, hospitality, and friendship. The main element I would have to say that is linked to all of the essays I read would have to be well-being. I say this because in all the essays I read, the people telling the story went through predicaments and hard times, but came through and survived. They have a strong well-being and are all good people for that. They all learned something important that they never thought they would need to or want to learn.
To explain the goals of a This I Believe essay, I would have to say along with what I said in the passage above this, I would also have to say success. Success is a very strong and solid word, but can mean many different things. I would link the word “success” to these This I Believe essays because in each short story, there was a success for someone or something. Like in Isabel Allende’s short story, she talked about how she thought nothing meant anything to her anymore after her daughter Paula died. She talked about how she didn’t want to do anything anymore and how she lost hope. Something sparked with Isabel and she became a better person. She realized that what you give, is what you get, and she loved giving, and not so much receiving. This to me would be considered success.
So if I had to explain to someone that was unfamiliar with the This I Believe concept, I would have to say that success is what this book of short stories is all about. Many stories have hardships, but something good comes out of the hardships and that’s where the people become successful.