hi tilia users :)

<name>
<teacher>
ECE
4 September 2019
This I Believe
	During my time spent working at the Connecticut Science Center over the summer, I was tasked with making an exhibit alongside about twenty other teenagers. When we were not using our time to work on our projects, we would often come up with various topics to debate about in order to entertain us and challenge our intellect. Typically, these debates were short, one-sided, and were never really thought about after it had been finished. However, there was one exception. The infamous hot dog classification debate was a very intense argument that had a large amount of supporters on both ends. Starting in the first couple weeks of the program, this topic would become one that was familiar to all who came to visit us in our work station. Even the CEO of the CSC had been asked for his input when he stopped by to greet us. Now you may be asking yourself what this “hot dog classification debate” truly entailed. In fact, it was quite simple.
	One side of the argument debated that a hot dog is a sandwich. The other side opposed this, claiming that a hot dog was not at all a sandwich. As a man who values the truth, I naturally sided with the former side. A sandwich is simply meat and other foods such as cheese or tomatoes between bread, is it not? Some may argue that it must consist of two pieces of bread, meaning that a hot dog would not fit the description. However, subs are considered to be sandwiches by everyone, despite it being one piece of bread with a slit cut into it in order to insert the filling. Why would a sub be considered a sandwich while a hot dog would not? To put it simply, these people were not ready for the truth.
	In any case, you are likely wondering by now why this is at all important to me and my life on a grander scale. The truth is that it is not being correct that is important, it is how you deal with the shortcomings of being incorrect. Despite many of my peers being on the objectively wrong side of this debate, they continued their lives. They experimented with science. They communicated with CSC patrons. They went back to school. Frankly, I was confounded. How could these people who had so strongly dedicated their breath and mind to an indefensible position find themselves being successful in other regards of their lives? I realized then that it was I all along who had been living my life incorrectly. My high-strung nature, my irritability, my incessant sarcasm were all coping mechanism to deal with the fact that I could not stand being wrong. Seeing as it was my one true weakness, I fought to protect myself from it in any way that I could. My peers had unknowingly taught me that it was okay to be wrong sometimes, as long as you were able to pick up the pieces and continue moving forward. Nowadays, I am able to carelessly and fearlessly accept that I am wrong. I embrace it. Instead of letting it weigh me down, I thrive in it. I use that energy to help me succeed in my school life and my personal life.
	I believe in being wrong.