The biggest lesson I have learned (A True story)

The world-famous writer Dale Carnegie asked Robert Moore “How did you conquer worry?”. Robert Moore worked as a technician in the American Navy. Then he started telling his experience.

“I learned the biggest lesson of my life in March 1945. I learned it under 276 feet of water in Indo-China sea. I was one of the eighty-eight men in the submarine Baya S.S. 318.

By radar, We discovered that some Japanese ships were coming our way. we submerged to attack. From inside the water, We fired three bombs at the ships but missed. The ships were approaching us. We were getting ready to attack the last ship, the minelayer. Our submarine was under sixty feet. Unfortunately, the enemy ships detected us. Immediately we went down to 150 feet, to avoid detection.

To make our submarine absolutely silent, we turned off the fans, the cooling system, and all electrical gears. Everything was silent. Suddenly six bombs exploded around our submarine. By the force of those explosions, our submarine was pushed to a depth of 276 feet. The Japanese ships were searching our submarine seriously by radars. One bomb was enough to blast us. But they had been continuously firing bombs for hours and hours. We had no chance to escape. We could not start our engines. We had no chance to move. And powerful bombs were aimed at us to blast our submarine. We could hear the explosion of bombs around us continuously. All men in our submarine were terrified. Our bodies were full of sweat.

The fans and cooling system were turned off, so the temperature inside the submarine was over a hundred degrees. And any time a bomb could hit us. My breathing became difficult. Some women were crying silently. Some men were praying to God. We believed we were going to die. We understood our death was guaranteed within a few seconds. We lost all the hopes. We were waiting to be killed by a horrible bomb blast. I was trembling with fear. I understood I was going to die. After some minutes, I accepted my death.

The attack continued for fifteen hours. Those fifteen hours of attack seemed like fifteen million years. In those 15 terrible hours, I remembered my past life.

I remembered all the small things I had worried about. I had been a bank clerk before I joined the Navy. I had worried about the long hours and the poor salary. I had worried because I couldn’t build my own home. I worried I couldn’t buy a new car. I worried I couldn’t buy my wife nice clothes. I used to hate my old boss, who was always nagging and scolding! I remembered how I would come home at night angrily and quarrel with my wife over trifles. I had worried about a scar on my forehead from an auto accident. I remembered my quarrels with my neighbours. I remembered how I worried when somebody scolded me and insulted me.

I thought these were very big problems. I thought these were great worries.

But when the bombs were exploding around my submarine, I understood that my past worries were nothing. I understood they were negligible. Many people worry about small things. They don’t know they are worrying about small things. Once they understand they are going to die, then they will understand how foolish and less intelligent they are. Then they will understand that they should not worry about small things. When you are going to die, you will understand how beautiful your life has been.

When the bombs were exploding around us, I promised myself then and there that if I ever see the sun again, I will never, never worry again. Never! Never! I Never!!! I learned more about the art of living in those fifteen terrible hours in that submarine than I had learned by studying books for four years in the University.

After 15 hours, the enemy ships stopped attacking. The ships were out of bombs. So they left us and went away.

I survived. I saw the sun again. After that incident, I understood the value of life. I understood how lucky I was. After that incident, I never worried. Being alive in this world is luck. When compared with this luck, all problems are nothing. Comparatively your every problem is insignificant. We are living wonderful lives with many facilities. We have no right to complain about anything.

You and I should be ashamed of ourselves. We are living in a beautiful planet with unlimited beautiful things. But unfortunately, we are blind to see them. If we want to be happy, we should count our blessings, not our troubles.

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Vocabs

Conquer (verb) = win

Submarine (noun) = a ship that can operate underwater

Submerge (verb) = go under the surface of water or liquid

Detect (verb) = discover or notice something, especially something that is not easy to see, hear, etc.

Detection (noun)= the process of detecting something

Expode (verb) = to break up into pieces violently

Terrify (verb) = make somebody feel extremely frightened

Trifle (noun)= something that is not valuable or important

Scar (noun)= a mark that is left on the skin after a wound has healed

Negligible (adjective) = unimportant

Insignificant (adjective) = unimportant