The Question

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? “People should keep trying to reach their goals, even if they seem impossible to achieve.” Use specific reasons and examples to explain your position.

The Sample Essay

It is critically important that we have at least a few long term goals in our lives.  Personally, I believe that it is important to never give up on those goals, even if it seems like we will never achieve them.  I feel this way for two reasons, which I will explore in the following essay.

         First of all, we can learn valuable new skills as we strive to achieve impossible targets.  Even if we don’t reach our targets, our repeated efforts might help us to develop abilities that will pay off in other parts of our life.  My own personal experience is compelling evidence of this.  When I was in high school, my dream was to be a professional writer and to publish a bestselling science fiction novel.  As a result, I spent every evening writing new stories.  I gave a few of them to my teachers, and they provided feedback regarding my grammar, vocabulary and structure.  Even though I worked extremely hard, I never managed to get any of my fiction published.  However, I did manage to learn a lot about how to effectively and concisely express complex ideas in written English.  Thanks to these skills, I eventually found work as a technical writer at an engineering firm, where I have been earning a substantial salary for the past decade.

           Secondly, if we remain dedicated to our goals we can sometimes meet people who are willing to share their expertise and help us reach them.  This is because hard work and continuous effort often puts us in the orbit of experts who have actually achieved what we desire.  For instance, when my brother was young he wanted to be a computer programmer and work for a prestigious technology firm like Intel.  Given his lack of academic credentials and work experience, this seemed unlikely.  Nevertheless, he spent all of his free time writing his own software, and uploading it to his personal website.  Eventually, a senior manager at Intel noticed one of his projects and was really impressed by his work.  Accordingly, he gave my brother a job offer even though he lacked many of the formal qualifications for the position.

          In conclusion, I strongly believe that we should always try to make our dreams come true, even if the odds are against us.  This is because we will learn something new along the way, and we might be lucky enough to encounter people who will help us reach our targets.