What I wanted the most, was to make my family proud throughout my whole life. I would say it was rooted deep into me by my family tradition. Like many others, Asian culture has this idealogy about having to be the best, excel in every aspect of life, and honor one’s family legacy. Though I could not fulfill these high expectations, for the more I chased the goal of making my family proud, the farther away it became. This feeling got me thinking about wanting itself, making me wonder how really, really wanting something can sometimes actually make it harder to get. The perfect representation of my journey would have aspects from both the famous writing Othello, and the Mojave phone booth.

Wanting too much has major disadvantages since we don’t realize what we would have to give up in order to have what we want. For example, let’s say you are starting a business. You may sacrifice your relationships, happiness, and health in order to succeed. And let’s say it doesn’t work out, after sacrificing all those friends, all that sleep, and your overall happiness. You’re left with nothing. That’s why it’s important to always balance out your health and overall well-being when you are striving to do something. Your strong desire can be a powerful motivator for achieving goals, and chasing your ambitions and goals is important, but don’t let it control you.

In Othello, Roderigo’s intense desire for Desdemona makes him an easy target for manipulation, showcasing the dangers of wanting something too desperately. This is shown when Roderigo is manipulated by Iago when he is told all his money and gifts will be given to Desdemona, having her love him. This is not the case where Iago just ends up toying with Roderigo, only having him in this cycle of giving Iago more money. Evidently, Rodrigo confesses that he would “I will incontinently drown myself,” showing how the problem of wanting something so desperately would make you an easy target for manipulation.

Have you ever felt a gnawing ache deep in your chest, an insatiable longing that keeps you awake at night? It’s the wanting that consumes your thoughts, leaving you yearning for something that seems just out of reach. Everybody in the world has experienced this natural phenomenon. Such as Godfrey Daniels, as he found a phone booth in the Mojave Desert. This event of him discovering this phone booth would have him spiraling into this obsession with it. When he found this phone booth, it completely astonished him. He couldn’t imagine a reason for it being out in the desert all alone. What really hooked him is the perspective that it was “uncontacted will place it was kind of like if somebody was on the moon.” So what did he do? He dialed it every day in hopes of someone answering it. It came to a certain point where it didn’t even matter if someone answered the phone anymore, for the calling sound alone quenched that desire. He continued to do this for nearly a whole year furthering his obsession, even starting a website. Until he decided to finally go see the booth himself. Ultimately, he ended up finding the booth, broken and ruined. After all this time, he finally received the call he had been waiting for, and it brought him a deep sense of happiness and fulfillment. Many years later, people started finding the phone booth and it became a sensation worldwide. People started traveling to the phone booth itself wanting to call from inside it and answering other people’s curious calls. Then we faced a problem, Mojave National Preserve wasn’t happy about all the ringing and tourists the phone was getting, as it was disturbing the peace; so it was removed. In the end, for Godfrey Daniels, his long-standing obsession became an example of the consequences of wanting something too desperately, only to have it disappear.