“Character is a diamond which scratches all other diamonds”, were the words echoing in my mind while I sat to write this. But then as something struck me like a pin being pricked-I didn’t know exactly what a character is. What exactly could I write when I didn’t know the core meaning of the main word?
One dictionary defines character, as "the complex of mental and ethical traits marking a person." In another dictionary, character is said to be "the stable and distinctive qualities built into an individual's life which determine his or her response regardless of circumstances. As an oblivious teenager, I got gist of the second definition only. My mother always says that regardless of what the situation is, regardless of the tough examination God is taking of yours, you have to choose what is right, choose what you truly believe in- that is the main character aspect, to believe in anything from your heart and going with your heart, rather listening to what the ancestors had left us to follow. Make your own trail.
Abraham Lincoln said, "Reputation is the shadow. Character is the tree." Our character is not just what we try to display for others to see, it is who we are even when no one is watching. Good character is doing the right thing because it is right to do what is right.
Many people around me have indulged in activities which are morally not correct, and no matter what those people say about the honesty winning; these people have found their way. But I know that when they get up in the morning and face themselves in the mirror, they can see their skin mottled with patches of disgrace, of cowardice, and the biggest of all what they can see is the coal like blackness hidden in their soul all because they didn’t listen to their heart, they didn’t do what was right, right for the humanity, and right for themselves. A bad character may bring you things which a good character cannot initially but at the end world would come to know what lies behind you, whether good or bad. Being a drug addict might seem cool now, but after two three years no one, not the people who had encouraged you onto doing this, or the people who thought you were too cool, would have to suffer, but it would be you. So, a good character saves no one else, but you.
Character is just like a wall we build all around us, which protects us from the external negative energy. A person with good character skills would never find it hard to adjust with others because they know and would always do the right thing, and someday you would be able to win the hearts of the people. For example, throughout you’ve been a good student and one day your teacher gets you in brawl with another student although it’s not your fault. But the teacher might not punish you, knowing that you are a good child, and you don’t deviate from your path of doing the right thing. Character is not what we only we can feel and know, but others also know your character and the actual person behind you. A good character would always save you and no matter what even when once you’re not happy being always right and not doing tempting things, later on you would see for yourself the fruits it bore you. You would never be punished for what you haven't done, and if your character and inner self is pure.
At last, I would like to leave you with a famous quote by Martin Luther King, Jr., with the same incandescent hope burning in my heart-“I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
~Shubhi
