<p>I wrote this today but I feel the essay is kinda weak. But all my SAT practice essays seem to be following this same pattern.</p>
<p>Prompt: We love best not what gives the greatest pleasure, but what comes through the greatest effort, because this effort provides meaning. A plastic medallion received after completing a marathon is not just a $2 trinket, but the representation of months of effort and sacrifice. The best things in life are not free, but come at the expense of hard work.</p>
<p>Assignment: Do we love things most that come at a great cost, or are the best things in life truly free?</p>
<pre><code>We tend to thoroughly appreciate and value the things that are garnered through great sacrifices because then and only then are we fully aware of the true value of those things. In comparison, we tend to handle things that are gained with minimum effort with utter carelessness despite however important those things may be. Thus, our sacrifices increase the significances of the end products in our perspectives, and we will go to great lengths to protect and preserve the objects of our love obtained from such means.
In the novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, a married woman, sacrifices her stable and respectable family life and leaves her only son behind for the love of Vronsky. She sacrifices her good name and respect she garnered in society by destroying her marriage of many years with Karenin to live with Vronsky who she considers to be her true love. Thus, when Anna finally obtains the opportunity to live with her true love, Anna becomes obsessed with Karenin’s love and guards it jealously. Preserving her love with Vronsky becomes Anna’s single purpose in life for she had sacrificed many things for the sake of their love. In the end, Anna proves how much she values their love when she commits suicide when faced with the prospect of a fading love between them.
The global community places great value on the abounding peace today across the nations because of the great sufferings and the sacrifices of countless innocent lives across the ages through the unnecessary wars such as World War 1 and World War 2. Thus, the United Nations was created by the international community at the end of World War 2 to preserve the international peace that came into place through great destructions and carnage during World War 2. Thus, the world nations spend a lot of money and put in great effort every year to ensure to continual success of United Nations in preserving the international peace.
When we have to sacrifice irreplaceable things, we become truly appreciative of what are achieved at the end through those sacrifices. Thus, we show our appreciation by carefully guarding and cultivating those things obtained.
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