This week we did presentations on various inventions that affected society in one way or another. I chose to do my research on the invention of the lightbulb. I was surprised by many of the facts I came across and in awe at some of my final realizations. It surprised me to learn that there had been other working forms of electric light before Thomas Edison's famous lightbulb. I had just always been told in school and growing up that "Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb" and that was that. No one had ever bothered to unveil the many underlying stories behind and beneath that statement.
Thomas Edison spent years perfecting his incandescent light bulb and would not stop until it worked how he had imagined. It is easy to think of inventors and their grand inventions and feel as though their accomplishments are on scales so unattainable. They are often geniuses, but what really defines a genius? Thomas Edison could not just invent the lightbulb in one day and know all of the answers, he had to work at it. He had to believe in his own idea so fervently that no outside comment or opinion could stifle his faith and persistence. This is the part that is most admirable, it has less to do with his mind and much more to do with character. That is the true genius, because it is rare.
People with an unstoppable drive and dreams that soar upward and on infinitely are not born every day and probably cannot be taught to be that way. It is a sort of special light that some people possess by allowing it to exist. It is the people who never turned off their light when others confronted them with realities, it is the people who believe in every possibility- those are the people who create new realities.
No comments:
Post a Comment