The pancit noodles were staring back at me. Ew. Gross. I picked at it with my fork and thought, Should I try it? Bleh, maybe not. Then again, I might like it. My friend cheered that I should eat it, and it was an authentic Filipino dish. I held my breath and sucked in a small bite of noodles. Not too bad, I thought. I stuffed some more in my mouth and licked my lips. I told my friend how delicious it was. Now, I look back on this day and find that I am very glad I had been open minded and ate the pancit, because NOW it is one of my favorite foods. One should be willing to change one’s mind when circumstances change, because one will enjoy life more, learn more, gain more interaction with others, have more educated opinions, and have more experiences.
We often form opinions about people before we truly know them, so we must be willing to change those opinions. My aunt used to be quite racist, because everyone in her neighborhood was raised to believe that some ethnic groups were “better” than others. Soon, different races started moving in to the neighborhood, and, as the circumstances changed, my aunt grew open minded and talked to her next door neighbor who was a different race. They grew to be close friends, and my aunt learned that staying open minded can make you gain friends and enjoy life. As another example, when I was in Mr. Shah’s class, I didn’t like him at first. I gave him a chance, learned more about him like the fact that he made us laugh and enjoy science. He taught us a lot in science and said if you hug a cloud, you’ll end up hugging yourself to teach us about the water cycle.
Those who are too stubborn to change their minds when circumstances change miss out on learning, life experiences, and happiness. Being stubborn is definitely not good in the way that my sister is so stubborn she won’t change her mind about how learning takes too much effort. She refuses to do her homework and is so stubborn about it, she always has to do it in the last minute. She does it only because of the thought that the teacher would yell at her if she didn’t. My sister should not wait until the last minute, because it causes her to get stressed out, frustrated, and she loses sleep. When she gets older and much busier, she will learn that she needs to stay open minded and will study harder to keep from being stressed out. Another example of stubbornness is when my teacher only wanted the part of Little Red Riding Hood in a play she auditioned for. It was a musical, and her voice range was more fit for one of the princesses. She refused to change her mind and accept one of these parts, so she wasn’t even cast in the play in the end. My teacher had really wanted to be in the play, but her insistence on the one part made her not get into the play and miss out on the entire experience.
In some points in life, it’s okay not to change one’s mind about topics. Maybe pancit doesn’t taste good to certain people. They could always push it away politely instead of missing out in case they did like it. Maybe my chorus teacher would not have liked the princess parts as much, but she still should have tried it. She would have at least had a chance to be in the play. One should stay flexible and try new things even if one might not like them, because sometimes one will, and even if one doesn’t like them, one has learned from the experiences.
