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Andrew Tram

Mr. Garcia

English II Honors

5 October 2019

Imprisoned by Ignorance

My journey from ignorance to knowledge was about how I stopped following religion

specifically Buddhism. This belief had limited me in the ways I could see the world and what I

perceived as the truth. The journey I took would keep continuing until I ultimately set my views

of the world in order.

I practiced or at least followed the religion because my parents were the people who did

it around me. While they weren’t intense practitioners of faith, they still often pray, offer food to

shrines, and from time to time go to temples where they also pray. I kept this viewpoint

throughout my life until I was at the age of 8-10 where my views would start to shift.

Around that time I received my first device was a defining catalyst as I go on my

journey. As I had access to the internet, I discovered numerous things that altered how I

perceived the world. This knowledge to me was as big as the sea for there was nothing I couldn't

find on it. I learn about topics I was ignorant of and other things that kids my age would have by

now known. This showed how ignorant I was of the outside world and the various situations that

occurred around me. With the knowledge I was now constantly exposed to, my thoughts became

split like a rift over which to believe.

I stilled tried to latch onto my beliefs because during that time I still believed in and

follow the examples in what my parents did. I did briefly look into the topic of belief in religion

but stayed away from it for most of my years because it was a subject that my family never
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normally talked about. If people were to say “What religion do you believe in?” I would always

respond with “I don’t really know what I follow” because I felt that there was now a dwindling

connection between me and my religion. Through these interactions, it became more apparent

that I needed to make a decision on what I would or would not believe in and so I tried to expand

my horizons with other people's perspectives to create a new outlook on belief.

Flash forward to by the time I was 12, I had stopped following my belief altogether

because the combination of exposure from the internet along with other factors make it seem

implausible that my belief was the best view to have on things. As I came into high school. I

discovered a comedian that helped form my current views on life in general and his name was

Bo Burnham. The way he discussed sensitive topics helped me recognize a fresh new outlook

and around this present time I have also discovered another comedian by the name of Tim

Minchin who too makes many excellent points across various topics I had wondered about.

These comedians that I discovered through the internet helped shape me into the person who I

am today.

After that, I was in a state where I no longer followed any beliefs but had accepted that

other people had opposing views and that I had to accept such things. I never questioned anyone

in my family because I knew that if I were to ask they wouldn’t understand. I do understand that

as information becomes increasingly widespread and the world advances people’s views will

change and in the end, I am happy with what I believe is right to me.