I will start out with one of my childhood favorites, Lion King's "Hakuna Matata." This song embodied everything that I wanted at this point in my life, the idea of absolute freedom, to have "No worries, for the rest of my days." This song was produced along with the motion picture in my early middle school years. This time in my life was not the pinnacle of happiness, to say the least. My parents had gotten separated when I was eight years old, and roughly five years later, finally completed the divorce. I needed to find something to get me through the pain. "Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase," too bad it does not work.

Sometimes I think my father lives by a song that is reminiscent of my childhood years, "Lage nom ai." This song has the same meaning as Hakuna Matata does, but is set to a more adult tone and tempo. My father has an attitude sometimes of, "Nobody else cares, why should I ," and this song supports that view. I pity him because he still has somewhat of the attitude in his 50's as I did in my teen years, thinking that, "life is just a game." My father had a large impact on my life and the way I viewed myself. Through his teachings I matured faster than most of my peers, and with maturity came love.

A person living with the idea of having absolutely no worries is living in a dream world. As much as I wished that I could live in that world, I knew that lifestyle was not beneficial. It was then that I realized that I did not want to be the kind of person that song was referring to. If a person lives without worries, I feel that he never really lives. I also realized this type of person was more like a lounge lizard, who does not take responsibility for their actions. I tried to take responsibility, and it was not working. I found myself in troubled water and tried my best to swim through those distressed years. Then soon enough I was graced with a chance to cross a bridge in my life and put some of my hassles behind me.

"A Bridge Over Troubled Water" had presented itself to me, things were starting to look up. I started gaining more friends by the minute and the quality of my schoolwork had increased a great deal. The growing number of friends became a "bridge" to get through my parents divorce and all the other pain that I was enduring. Each friend was like a small span in a large bridge that I was able to slowly cross. "When pain is all around," I found a helping hand in my friends to pull me thr

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1231
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)