Being a high school student, how I applied the Secret may be different to a lot of you who have seen the movie or read the book, but I thought I’d share with everyone how I have understood the Secret and the use of gratitude.

All my life I have been grateful for one thing above all – that one thing is my parents. Even though there have been times where they have got on my nerves, they are by far the two greatest beings in my life. For a time I lived on the idea that everything I learn and do is so that I make money in the future, and I had this thought and feeling run in my head over and over again. That was until I discovered the Secret.

At the time my greatest obstacle was to get good grades in my London Ordinary Level examination finals. As cliché as it may seem it was my goal, and I’m sure a lot of people you know may have a dream of achieving high at some sort of exam. At first I worked with the idea that I need to get good grades here or I won’t be able to get into a respectable profession and make money to survive. But out of the blue I was introduced to The Secret, and I realised something. I had a feeling that was so much greater than the one in my heart and my mind… I realised the massive, inexplicable amount of gratitude I feel towards my parents. I suddenly looked at the world around me and realized everything I have been given. I have everything a teenager could possibly ask for, from something as simple as clean boxer shorts, to a high tech computer. I have it all. It wasn’t until now that I was aware of how I have all these things. And it was all my parents. All the hard work my parents have put in for me over the years. The clothes I’m wearing and even the hair cut I have is because of everything they have done for me.

It is only then I realized what i really want in life. And by realize, i mean I felt it in my heart and every cell in my body. I realized what I truly wanted above all was to make my parents happy. I truly wanted them to be proud and happy of the son that they have poured their sweat and blood into. I truly and with every fiber of my being wanted them to be unconditionally happy.

So I changed my way of thinking. At the time I was a slob of a student. No amazing grades. Frequent detentions. Complaints from teachers. And so on the problems arose. And every time I felt horrible inside, but I had no idea why. I had no idea until I finally realized that it was gratitude and love for my parents. It was the pain I felt when I saw a tear in their eyes. From then, my thoughts were not towards getting a good job in the future with better results, but to make my parents happy.

To me, what happened in the next few weeks was amazing. Probably not as amazing as most of the stories on the site, but it was truly magnificent to me. My grades suddenly picked up. I was working well. I was doing my homework. I was not getting detentions. And this made my parents so happy and it made me feel on top of the world.

Finally I sat for the exam, and came out with the results I had in my mind. The results that I knew would make my parents happy. And I got those EXACT results. The one thing I will never ever forget for as long as I live is the look on my mother’s and father’s faces when I handed them the result sheet. The look in their eyes. The look of unspeakable happiness. They were speechless and all they could do was look at me with boundless love in their eyes, and I thought I was in heaven. That feeling of making the people that made my life as plentiful as it is so happy, took my breath away.

As simple as it is, it was one of the BEST feelings of my life that I will treasure forever, and it was because of the Secret. And if you’re reading this and you know someone who is sitting for some sort of exam and can relate to me, please pass this message on:

“FEEL LOVE AND GRATITUDE FOR THE ONES YOU LOVE AND THAT WHICH YOU HAVE. YOU WILL GET SO MUCH MORE IN RETURN”