	Do you believe that one should learn to move on with their lives and continue to uphold a positive mindset, in spite of the hardships they have faced? Should an individual be forgiven for the wrongdoings they committed a long time ago? Do we take the importance of forgiveness for granted? All these questions have been lingering in my mind for sometime now, but after examining them in detail, I’ve come up with an answer. This is what I believe...I believe that seeking revenge is the wrong path to take, but rather striving to better yourself and not letting others continue to damage your self-esteem. By holding grudges, you will never be happy; in fact, by constantly pursuing vengeance, you will cease to remember the good things in life, only the instances that have provoked your pain and suffering. You shouldn’t let anyone dictate your views and beliefs, and belittle you into thinking that you will never succeed and never accomplish anything meaningful in your life. Well, they’re wrong; you have a lifetime’s worth of opportunities to succeed, it’s only the matter of how well you going about living it. For example, when I first moved to Ithaca, I used to be teased and made fun of for being different because I had difficulty assimilating into the American culture. However, as time progressed, I began to embrace my flaws and imperfections, and slowly I was able to see the light in forgiveness. Let the people say what they want about you, but by the end of the day, it’s the ability to rise to the occasion and brush aside all forms of criticism and disparagement that counts the most. The moments where you felt demoralized and disheartened will always remain a part of you, but forgiveness can lessen its grip on you and help you focus on other, more positive aspects of your life. Accept yourself who you really are, accept the offender for who they are, and learn to forgive him or her for what they’ve done. Take the Holocaust for example; in my opinion, even if we persecute former Nazi war criminals and apprehend them for the rest of their miserable lives, it still won’t change the fact that they’ve committed those crimes a long time ago. You can’t erase all the bad moments in your life, you just have to learn to live with them and simply move forward, or else you’ll find yourself swallowed by your own bitterness or sense of injustice. Forgiveness is a powerful medicine used to mend relationships and heal dispirited souls. As you let go of grudges, you’ll no longer define life by how you’ve been hurt, but by the moments you felt happiness and utter bliss. As a great man once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”. For these reasons, I believe in the importance of finding the freedom and liberation in forgiveness. 


Neil Kolhatkar

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