Community Contribution – “Cycle of Fulfillment”
Ke’Shawn Hess says he wants to help his fellow students “understand what fulfillment is, so they stay away from fake fulfillment, or things that seem fulfilling but really aren’t.” The 23-year-old ICC art student works as a substitute teacher for area high school students and recently penned a letter entitled “Cycle of Fulfillment,” which Harbinger Student Media has decided to publish.
“Being slightly older than the students, I have a more realistic worldview than they do,” Hess said in a recent interview. “But I’m also not so far away removed as a full-time teacher, so it gives me a unique position to help them understand the real world a little better.”
“I want people to take away [from the letter] that fulfillment is an emotion that happens on a cycle,” Hess said about his intentions behind the letter. “I believe that everything in the world happens on a cycle, so fulfillment is no different. I want them to take away the cycle of fulfillment and to really understand how that is and how it operates.”
Hess’s letter has been reviewed and lightly edited.
“Cycle of Fulfillment”
Fulfillment is described as a lasting feeling of pleasure and satisfaction with one’s life. This is something that is absent within our youth, and they often chase an ephemeral “high” through unproductive and dangerous acts. As a substitute teacher and coach for District 150, I’ve encountered many youths from various backgrounds. One thing consistently I have seen throughout my involvement has been a lack of longing for fulfillment.
Being only 23 myself, I have also struggled with fulfillment. I never understood what it
meant to be fulfilled, then I realized fulfillment is a feeling felt after achieving and accomplishing a major goal.
Achievement is something our youth struggle with, this struggle is rooted in not knowing what to achieve, or having a path to achievement. With no clear long-term goal in mind, activities are aimless, and there is no clear “how” to achieve. Before you can achieve, it is imperative there is a clear and solid aspiration.
Where does aspiration come from? Aspiration grows from the root of experience.
Experience is an event or occurrence that leaves an enduring impression. But how does
experience create aspirations? You must experience engaging in an activity, whether physical or mental, so much that you aspire to be great at it. But experience itself comes from living.
The term “live” has various meanings but in this case, it’s used as a term referring to
having a rich and vibrant experience. You must live and find that experience that makes you want to be fulfilled, that makes you want to achieve, and that makes you aspire. This is the cycle of fulfillment, and how fulfillment is obtained: Live, Aspire, Achieve.
-K.B.H.