Sam Grant-Williams

When I hear the word philosophy many things come to mind. Sadly one of the first things is the
song My New Philosophy from the Broadway musical You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, though
considering I was a theater major in high school I guess this is par for the course. On a more serious
note what philosophy means to me is a very important part of my life as philosophy itself helps me to
understated and come to terms with my life. It is because of its impotence in my life, that I am taking
the Intro to Philosophy as I hope to lean even more things that can help my in life.

To me the word philosophy means the study and act of questioning things such as Truth, Good
and Evil, Love, Life, and Death in order to come to a better understanding of the world around us. The
act of pondering these deep concepts has had a major effect on my life as someone who has had to
question many things early on in their life. I am a person who has had to fight a major battle with
mental illness for a great part of my life. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety by age eight and
by age ten I was have suicidal thoughts. As a result of this my behavior was erratic and I performed
meany acts that were morally questionable and I was forced to really confront how I felt the way the
world worked. I eventually had to reevaluate my stance on what was good and what was evil or wrong
as I had a falling out with the Jewish faith of my birth.

Another reason as to why philosophy is a major factor in my life is because in middle school I
came out as homosexual and had to face to consequences of coming out of the closet at such any early
age. Although my family was very supportive of my sexuality I was still faced with ridicule and
prejudice from many of my piers and because of that I was forced to cope with it by questioning the
nature of human love and sexually. By pondering the meaning of love and acceptance I was able to be
proud of who I was. So to me this most important reason why I am take this class is because
philosophy helped me live a better live and love who I was.