—Gavriella Grossman
I’m going to be honest here, when I first began reading The Epic of Gilgamesh I wasn’t very enthused by the piece. The old English and unusual composition had me a bit discouraged to read it. However, the more I analyzed the text, the stronger my appreciation for it grew. The epic holds many extremely valuable life lessons that could be beneficial to any individual. One lesson I learned from The Epic of Gilgamesh is that one cannot alter the inevitable. Gilgamesh was a character who had more self confidence than anyone I’ve ever heard of. Therefore, the fact that he wanted to achieve immortality was not a surprise to me. Of course, we see at the very end of the epic that he was unsuccessful on completing his mission of immortality. Although this concept is not literally applicable to the real world, it can definitely be related to many real-life situations. I’m a strong believer in shooting your shot and pushing your limits when something is important to you. However, an individual has to remember who they are, what they have and what goals are realistic for them. For example, I know what my strengths are and what my weaknesses are when it comes to school. Therefore even though my childhood dream was to become a veterinarian, I knew that it was not a smart idea to enroll myself in a college program that’s built for pursuing a future in the medical field. It took me a while to realize that yes, math and science may never be a strength of mine. But my brain is wired more creatively, and I can flourish with my strengths rather than dwell on my weaknesses. Gilgamesh was everything that I’d never want to be. He was a character who was extremely unhappy himself. The fact that Gilgamesh needed to become immortal to achieve a sense of “happiness” shows his lack of maturity. A great leader would grow old, look back on their life and say “wow, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished”. I’m grateful to have been able to read The Epic of Gilgamesh in class, I learned much more than I imagined and it’s definitely a “great work”.
