The Ability of Influence to Change

Influence is all around us, and when people talk to us they can often feel the influence that has been left. Influence comes in many forms, from the people we surround ourselves with, to the way we speak is even picked up from the community we grow up in, and the way we dress is often to the tune of what we think looks good on others and then we try it on ourselves. We allow ourselves to be influenced by people because the life that they lived and their experiences have a moving effect on you; that it makes a person want to reinvent themselves to become closer to those they are motivated by. Being influenced by an individual or an event is something that is allowed, often individuals are influenced by those they respect or by a situation that they wish they could have changed. 

In the excerpt, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, he talks of the way that the Apollo mission changed had on him as a child. He says that “I knew then that pretty much anything was possible,” he also says that “inspiration is the ultimate tool for doing good.”  The author talks of how the billions of dollars used to send the men to space was not a waste, but beneficial to the world in inspiring the minds of young people and showing them anything can be done. The author is attempting to explain to the listeners the exact event that made him want to become a scientist and wants to create a similar event for the people who are listening to him speak. He is giving his last lecture and wishes to have a profound influence on the people listening, he himself believes that the power of influence is the strongest tool for doing good; that is why he wants to be able to influence as many people a possible and inspire them with to fulfill their dreams. When an individual has seen the type of effect that can come through influence, they will wish to replicate that for those that they encounter later on in life.

Being an influence on someone is often a big ordeal and the choices that you make will change how that person thinks and feels about certain topics. In A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean, we see the influence that Jessie had on Norman in the scene where he is offered a job in Chicago but first asks Jessie is she will go with him, and once she said yes only then does he tell his family.  Norman´s father, in the beginning, asks him what he wants to do and he does not know how to answer. Through the film, Norman is trying to impress his father and when he is offered a job at the university he instead waits and tells Jessie and depending on her answer decides if he wants the job. Jessie’s influence on Norman is so abundant that he was willing to not tell his father of the huge opportunity just so he could be with Jessie in Montana. If Jessie had said she does not want to go to Chicago it can be expected that he would have not told his father or said he is not going to take the job. When an individual falls under the influence of someone the choices they make will be in the attempt to gain the favor of those they like.

Through my life, I have been influenced by many people and the choices that I have made and will continue to make show the impact that they have had on me. In the summer after grade 8, I found out the harm that mental illnesses can have on individuals and the people around them when I found out that people I loved had been suffering from depression. Some family members and even friends at school were suffering from this disease, but the stigma surrounding mental illness did not allow them to come out about it and get help. My inability to help these people was what lead me to want to become a psychiatrist and be able to identify those that needed help and be able to get them out of there depressed state. The influence that these people and my lack of experience blocking me from helping them made me take classes that I knew were going to be a challenge but through working hard I was able to pass the classes with the marks needed. The impact that others can have on a person may change their entire view on life and want to make a difference in the lives of others.

Individuals who are influencers have power over their listeners and have a responsibility to lead them down a path of doing good and helping others. Being an Influence means that you are the type of person that others wish to be like or want to be close too. Being influenced means that you are in need experience that can be shared, and one that will change the type of person you are or what to be. Like Randy and Norman I too was influenced by the people I hold dear in my life, and through what these people were going through I understood the path I needed to go down. 

Comfort is a sense of ease that comes through many factors, such as where an individual is born or who their parents are, but it is most of all comfort is something that all people struggle for. Comfortable people are individuals who do not need to worry about their safety or survival, they are able to be extravagant with their earnings and live their life anyway they want. Being comfortable is what comes to mind immediately when someone looks at the picture of the water park in Mumbai. Our eyes are immediately drawn to the man who lays relaxed in the shallow end of the pool. While on top of the mountain is the Hindu god Krishna, who seems to be looking down at his people with bliss. The tranquil individual who looks like a beached whale is wearing rings, sunglasses, and chains, seeing a man, decorated in his gold naturally implies his wealth. That is why he is able to come to a water park where they do not conserve the resource that is so scared in parts of the world and instead they lounge in the commodity. Their god smiles on them and seems pleased with his people’s leisure, and they, in turn, feel blessed with the ability to lay motionlessly in the sunbathing in a resource that men would kill for. Experiencing the luxury of comfort is something that all people long for. If or when they are introduced to the feeling, they cherish its warm embrace and will wish to never leave its grasp, and see it as if a blessing has been cast upon them. In a city as rich as Mumbai it makes sense that the people are able to relax and wastewater, with the majority of the population, grew up living abundantly.

Being born into a comfortable life is what many individuals are exposed to, though there is still a large portion of the world that does not have access to it on the same scale as the rest of the world. They are forced to work with what they have, even if the risks are high the must take a chance so that they may survive.  What draws people into the visual is the lady from Ethiopia reaching into the dirt to get water that is so murky no one can know what harmful sediments lie inside. What else is alarming is the volume of water that the earth has yielded, it is safe to assume that she is gathering water for her family. This woman is spending her day gathering water so that her family may live, even though they risk infections from the bacteria that are in the water. This is a troublesome picture, seeing the lady doing what she must to survive, but at the same time, we must ask ourselves if there is a point to such unnecessary risks. The lady in the picture is very clearly not in a comfortable situation, she wears no shoes, she spends her day gathering dirty water, and at the end of it, she must bring it to her family for consumption. That is the life of those who lack comfort in their lives. Having comfort in the day to days of an individual is one of life’s great pleasures, but the lack of it can make the standard of living for a person almost intolerable.

The two sources can be compared in the standard of their living, in the first we see the families lying in the pool exposed to a plethora of water. The next is the woman struggling to get even a bowl of water for her family. The visuals are meant to show the comparison of how the people born with comfort are able to live in bliss while those who were not struggling to even get clean drinking water.