During a recent ceremony at Unity Temple, two 15-year-old members of the “Coming of Age” portion of Unity’s religious education program delivered their personal creed, an exercise inspired by the long-running “This I Believe” radio broadcasts. The program’s Coming of Age facilitator is Amy Markley. We thought our readers would enjoy hearing some of what’s on the minds of our community’s 15-year-olds these days.
Paul Gage
I believe that we define who we are as human beings through our actions and our inactions.
I do not believe in the idea of an all-mighty universal god who has foreseen everything because I have seen no evidence to believe such a thing.
I believe that when people are born, they start with a blank page in a long book that is filled by their actions as they move through life.
Some people’s surroundings may be far more yielding than others. Some people might be born into poverty while some might be born into royalty, but I believe that it is possible for every person to help themselves try and be successful and achieve great things in their life.
Some people consider the future to be a certain thing; perhaps what you will do and have done has always been predetermined and set.
I do not believe this. I believe the future is more of a branch of threads.
When you say something or do something some paths may become faded, some new ones may open up, and some may close forever.
During my own life, I have seen how my actions have influenced my future.
In sixth grade I choose to take speech/drama/debate as an elective and this has led to gaining much more confidence and if I had not taken this class I would have lost a lot of opportunities that I gained through taking the class, and if I hadn’t taken it I probably wouldn’t be speaking to you now. This choice that seemed small to me then altered the course of my future.
The point I’m making is I do not believe that people’s fate is predetermined at all. I believe that destiny is a story that everyone writes for themselves.
I believe that if people tirelessly work and learn and strive, they can help influence their own future and help themselves be successful.
Harrison Steathen
What you believe is only half of what matters in life. The other half is how you came to those beliefs. I have not solidified my beliefs yet, and so what I have right now is the journey I am taking in order to figure out my personal truth. I do not believe that there is any sort of god. I also do not believe in souls, and so I do not believe in heaven, hell, or other forms of afterlife.
So what do I believe? I believe in people. The summer after sixth grade, I went to Marwood, a summer camp that you may or may not know about. The idea of Marwood is that the campers and counselors all provide unconditional love for each other.
At Marwood I learned that what I value the most is being cared about and caring for others. In a world without god, we have each other. I believe that even if I don’t know what meaning there is in life, or the universe, I can still appreciate the presence of other people.
The moments where I learn the most about life are the fleeting sunsets, the unwilling goodbyes, and the times that a cherished memory I am forgetting resurfaces. We do not appreciate the things we always have, and my journey to accept that will never end.
But I can still grow on my way to that unachievable point. And I believe that is the most important thing of all.