Aikman 1

Chloe-Amelie Aikman
Ms. Starry
English 9 Honors Period 1
24 March 2016
Choice
Good morning. Im Chloe-Amelie and Im ambitious.
Ambitious people have a 45.5% mortality rate when compared to the rest of the
population, at a steady 30% (Crees). Being ambitious has life-shortening, even ending, potential.
When you take a closer look in the literary world, this statement is not only right but a
known truth. For example, Shakespeares Macbeth had a choice. He lay on the brink of two
possible outcomes: live as a contented General, loyal subject to the King or become the King. He
took the plunge and walked that crooked path until an all too soon death.
Macbeth. One of historys most famous victims of ambition; consumed by the promise of
success (a promise made by three bearded women) and left a mere whisper of who he once was,
delusional in thinking I am in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning
were as tedious as go oer (3.4.137-139).
Hes not the only example of ambition gone wrong I can give you take Gene from A
Separate Peace. He drove himself mad with suspicion that Finny was sabotaging him. Here he
says, I found it. I found a single sustaining thought. The thought was, You and Phineas are even
already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. . . . I felt
better... The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all (Knowles 45-46). His ambition didnt kill

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him, but it pushed what he cherished most down a tree and took some of his sanity with it. Hes
still visiting his old boarding school 15 years after the fact.
That is not okay.
While I can continue with how destructive, how disastrous ambition can be, thats the
adverse of what I believe. That would be the equivalent of stating, Guns kill people, when the
truth is behind the person pulling the trigger. It is my belief that ambition is an essential part of
human nature (and survival) that drives people to succeed. It can be just as positive as it can be
negative, but either way, it not only impacts the ambitious person, but creates a ripple effect that
impacts the people around that person significantly. This is true in the past, in the present, and in
everyday life.
Without ambitious people, the world of today would be significantly different. One of
historys most famous and beloved characters is Thomas Edison. Imagine a world where
inventors, struggling with their own metaphorical lightbulb, had given up and pursued less taxing
or simpler objects, had not said, I havent failed. I just found 10,000 ways that wont work.
The world would literally be a much darker place.
But how does ambition impact the people of today?
A modern, real life example happening as we speak is the whittling down of presidential
candidates. This ruthless game in which the contestants must claw their way to the top, each
hoping to outmatch the other, and each dreaming of the most coveted and desirable position in
the political food chain: President. Each candidate has the potential, if elected into office, to not
only change the lives of the American people, but other countries as well (via war, the building
of a wall, foreign relations, etc.).

Aikman 5
While this impending doom, when looking at who we have to choose from, is compelling
evidence of the inherent ambition that lies in our DNA, it does not address the common people.
This game is so out of reach and so perceptibly far away, that the gravity of this ambition is
almost surreal. Comparably, it almost belittles our ambitions. How can I even come close to
impacting my environment, my academic habitat, like them?
While it is hard to find an adequate example, and near impossible to say that a student
sitting in this classroom, in this school, in this city today can impact the world, my ambition has
actually already changed all of your lives. Maybe even so subtly that you were not aware that
your life was being changed. For me, sitting in this classroom every day and raising my hand and
writing our papers and reading the novels and taking exams is ambitious; in fact, it is one of the
most ambitious things Ive ever done. For those of you who dont know, or didnt know, Im a
high school imposter, an eighth grader in your midst. I knew ever since the beginning of middle
school, when a friend of mine, Zane Smart, was taking 7th grade math in the sixth grade, that I
too would excel in at least one class a grade above me. If not for that ambition, there would be
one less pupil in this class, and one less speech youd have to endure, thus changing your high
school experience.
In the end, ambition is not a choice for all of us, but a lingering quality in the human race.
It can be accredited to almost all of the good and all of the bad in history and the present, but it is
up to us how we utilize it. You can focus on either side, but one fact does not change: ambition
does not choose which way we decide to go, but only drives us to get where we chose.
Works Cited

Aikman 5
Byers, Dylan. How Donald Trump Broke Fox News Debate Rules CNN Money. Cable News
Network, 05 Mar 2016. Media. 05 Mar. 2016. <http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/05/
media/donald-trump-fox-debate-rules/>
Crees, Alex. Study: Ambitious People Unhappier, Dont Live as Long. Fox News. Fox News
Network, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 09 Feb.2016 <http://www.foxnews.com/>
Knowles, John. A Separate Peace. New York: Scribner, 1959. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
"Thomas Alva Edison." Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present. Ed. Brigham Narins.
Detroit: Gale, 2008. Biography in Context. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
<http://ic.galegroup.com /ic/bic1/BiographiesDetailsPage/BiographiesDetailsWindow?

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