Theme and message

Theme: Finding a path in life

Part of your essay should focus on how Sarah Persinger reflects on finding a path in life in “It’s Perfectly OK to Not Always Be Perfect”. This is the main theme of the text.

In the article, the writer begins by presenting her experience as a student gymnast with the purpose of showing readers the challenges that one might encounter in finding one’s path in life. Even if the writer knew from an early age that she wanted to be a gymnast, this did not imply that it would be an easy path: “Some of my earliest memories include on-the-spot choreographed floor routines on the appropriately blue carpet in my childhood home. Beam routines challenged my bedtime nightly because I wouldn’t rest until Momma scored me at a perfect 10.” (ll. 210-216)

In time, wanting to be a perfect gymnast created unnecessary pressures and burdens for the writer. At first, she felt she was not good enough, then she had to accept only contributing to a team rather than being the best. She also had to learn to accept that sometimes all she could do was support her team, such as when she was ill. Ultimately, she also had to accept her failures— that she is not perfect and she does not have to be perfect.

These experiences made the writer reflect on how striving too much for perfection and putting oneself down make it harder to follow one’s path in life: “Don’t keep yourself from succeeding just because you have an ounce of doubt that likes to creep into your head at the most inopportune times. Don’t keep yourself from succeeding just because you have deemed yourself unworthy.” (ll. 162-167)

The writer’s experiences have taught her that finding one’s path in life is like finding a “mountain to climb” (ll. 220). It is not always about achieving success but about learning from failures and moving on:

Reaching a point of self-actualization is not always ...