Reflection Essay Sample about Wants and Needs

Everyone in life has something that they have to have.Food,water, and shelter we have to have and what we as humans call a need. We also have things we would like to have but don’t need. Phones,computers, and expensive cars are not needed and what we call a want. Mama Odie from “The Princess and the Frog'' once said “Y’all want to be human but you're blind to what you need”. That brings a bigger question: how do we decide what we want and what we need? We decide whether we need it if it's essential to survive, or develop as a person.

The news article “Ads May Spur Unhappy Kids to Embrace Materialism” highlights how TV and computer ads may contribute to the idea of materialism in children. The article states that TV and computer time should be limited unless educational. That statement infers that TV and computers aren't needed because they don’t benefit the human unless they are used for educational purposes.

Another example of how we can decipher a need based on if we need it to survive or develop is in the short story “The Necklace”. In the short story a woman is not very wealthy and wants a beautiful,expensive necklace for a party. She thinks she needs it. Later in the story she realizes that she doesn't need it to survive or develop so she realizes that it isn’t a need and other things are more important.

Even in my own life I have learned how to decipher a want and a need. About 8 months ago my mom started giving me money each week. She would say to me every week “Only use it on stuff you need first, then you can spend it on what you want”. The first week I spent all of my money on an expensive pair of new shoes. The whole week I didn’t have any money for gas or water. I later realized that I couldn’t get anything to drink when I went out and was thirsty or dehydrated. I realized I needed water to survive, but not the shoes. Survival was more important than buying a pair of shoes I didn’t need. 

As you can see through those 2 articles and through my own life experience that we decipher wants and needs based on if we need it for survival or growth. We as a society have been bad about getting things we want before the things we need. I think all of us can rethink and focus on more of what we need and less on what we want. So we can survive and grow as a society and as individual human beings.