essay on an ideal person in my life
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Human beings are not perfect. We all have some form of deficiency that deny us the coveted tag of perfection. It may be a character flaw or a physical disability. We all have something that we are not proud of. Something that makes us so uncomfortable that our confidence levels plummet to zero whenever we think about it.
When I talk about an ideal person, one person comes to mind- Mother Teresa. Her name has become synonymous with sacrifice and selfless generosity. People know her from all over the world, both in the religious and secular circles. Though she was not perfect, her life embodied what I would refer to as the ideal personality. One of her best qualities was piety. She was a very faithful and religious woman.
Mother Teresa was a staunch catholic. At the tender age of 18 years, she joined the Sisters of Loreto in Dublin and became a nun. She therefore dedicated all her life towards a religious and humanitarian course and never looked back. There were instances where she felt like God had forgotten her and even questioned whether God really existed. However, she never left her catholic faith.
She left behind a lifestyle of stability and opulence, took a vow of charity, chastity and poverty and then went to a foreign country to live with the destitute. During her life, she suffered from many illnesses and injuries, including malaria, pneumonia and two heart attacks. She also had broken collar bone. The several setbacks she faced however did not deter her from moving on with her course.
That was Mother Teresa. People rushed to her for comfort and assistance and she always found a way to help them. When she arrived in Calcutta, there was wide spread of diseases in the slums. She went to a medical institution, trained to be practitioner and went back to the slums to treat the affected. She also established various health centers to deal with the rampant spread of diseases, including leprosy that was wreaking havoc in the slums.
She was also very principled. She had her own set of beliefs that she followed to the letter and never faltered whenever she faced criticism or opposition. She openly opposed divorce, abortion and contraception. While receiving her Nobel Peace Prize for her unwavering service to humanity, she aired her critique on abortion without fear. She opined in her speech, “…I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war- a direct murder by the mother herself…” Although she received too much public backlash for her stance on abortion, contraception and divorce, she was unperturbed and made it clear to the whole world about her position.
In fact, she requested that all the money that was awarded to her after winning the Nobel Peace Prize be donated to the poor people in India. When Pope Paul VI saw the good work she was doing and decided to give her his white Lincoln limousine to help her carry out her work, She sold the vehicle and used the money to build a village for lepers.
As a result, she was loved and recognized all over the world. In her lifetime, she was honored with more than 120 awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian award in the U.S. She was also the first person to be awarded the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. Furthermore, the city of Calcutta was renamed to Kolkata to match with the pronunciation of her native language, Bengali.
Lastly, she was very intelligent and resourceful. Apart from her medical training, she was also learned in geography. She was a geography and catechism teacher at St. Mary’s High School, where she later became the principal. She could also speak five languages fluently- Bengali, Hindi, English, Serbian and Albanian. Owing to her resourcefulness, she was able to use her limited resources to help so many people. Sometimes she was forced to improvise. For instance, when she started teaching poor children, she did not have the necessary supplies that were needed to teach, such as pens and books. She however managed to educate her pupils by writing on dirt using wooden sticks.
Mother Teresa is an ideal person to me, because she had all the attributes of a good person, which made her very vulnerable and at the same time very powerful. How she was able to motivate people with nothing, but her faith is nothing short of a miracle. She gave out everything she had to the poor, including her skills, resources and her life. When she went to Calcutta, she had nothing and was forced to beg and the proceeds she got from begging, she still shared.
Although she is no longer with us, she will be forever be kept in the most precious place in our hearts.