Mattie Stepanek

"Always remember to play after every storm" (Mattie). Mattie's personal philosophy displays his understanding of the world at a young age because of his brothers' death. Mattie was born in Maryland on July 17, 1990 and died on June 22, 2004 just three weeks before his 14th birthday. He was a "prolific writer, poet, public speaker, and activist for peace" publishing five books of poetry throughout his life. Mattie at a young age witnessed his brother, Jamie, dying so he was always aware of the value of life. Mattie had a philosophy, "Always remember to play after a storm". Mattie suffered from mitochondrial myopathy, which disabled him and confined him to a wheelchair. The mitochondrial myopathy was hereditary and was obtained from his mother; his siblings also had the disorder but had died much earlier than Mattie. He attended Mattaponi Elementary School in Maryland and soon raced ahead of his peers. His teacher remembers Mattie using words such as "ebulliently" while other kids were struggling to learn how to spell "cat" and "dog" (Mattie). During his short life, Mattie had five collections of poetry published by a small Virginian publishing company. But Mattie used the publicity from his books to speak about global issues; talking to Jimmy Carter about how peace could be possible in places like Bosnia and Africa (Mattie) instead of talking about his own problems. Mattie encourages others through his poetry, knows the values of life, and is determined to achieve his dream of peace.

Mattie Stepanek encourages others through writing, supporting people with difficulties in their lives. His book Heartsongs has been supporting the people who were or are going through hard times. "Mattie published five books in thirteen short years that were mainly about the philosophical view of life, and how Mattie has experienced grief and pain, but is also mainly focused on adults that are having some troubled times" (Carter). This quote shows that Mattie is using himself as an example for people to not be upset about their circumstances anymore. Mattie through Heartsongs, portrays himself as an example of having troubled times, but powering through it. He is indirectly communicating to the people reading the book to be happy, because he is happy; even though the circumstances of his condition would usually make one selfish. He encourages others through his writing also by: "public recognition and visibility as a result of his best-selling books and the attendant public appearances" (Carter). His public appearances would boost one's morale because they had met someone who had written a book to help others cope with their problems, while he was dying and fighting back his own problems. Mattie encourages others through writing his poetry that sends the message of "You go through many hard things in life but if you are confident, you'll get through it. You always have to remember to celebrate because that's what charges you up to get through another life storm".

At an early age Mattie knew the value of life because: "Perhaps because he witnessed [his brothers] death at an early age, Stepanek was acutely aware of the value of life" (MDA). His brother's death showed him the importance of life and how short it can be. Knowing the value of life has helped Mattie do many things such as: publishing five books, becoming a spokesperson for the MDA and becoming a Goodwill ambassador. Doing these achievements show that Mattie wanted to make the most of his life before he died. Another example of his knowing of the importance of life is: "Mattie has experienced grief and pain". He knows the grief and pain associated with life and found out about the pain at a young age when his brother died. He has had to suffer through grief and pain his whole life from his brother's death and pain from his mitochondrial myopathy. There are the days when Mattie could have felt completely useless but he felt like there was a bigger mission in life so he followed his intuition.

Mattie is determined to achieve his dream of peace, shown by: "public recognition and visibility as a result of his best-selling books and the attendant public appearances" (Mattie). This information shows that Mattie uses his public figure to wish for peace in the world, because war is just a disagreement on a larger scale, whether it's about politics, religion, and economics. Another way Mattie works toward his dream of peace is: "God, Jamie, Katie, and Stevie put ideas in my heart. Then it goes all the way up to my head and to my mouth. I let it out there" (Mattie). This shows Mattie is lead by his subconscious and uses philosophy to spread peace throughout the world. This also shows Mattie is a religious person as he was provided evidence from "God" and his siblings. Many other philosophers were deeply influenced by religion just like Mattie. In order to obtain world peace, Mattie determinedly utilizes philosophy to spread world peace.

Mattie Stepanek encourages others through writing, knows the values of life, and is determined to achieve his dream of world peace. Mattie was a hero because he encouraged others not to give up when they thought times were too hard on them. This is shown by his personal philosophy which is explained: "You go through many hard things in life but if you are confident, you'll get through it. You always have to remember to celebrate because that's what charges you up to get through another life storm". He is also a hero for knowing the value of life and how people can utilize life, either wasting it or using it efficiently. It is shown that Mattie has used his time efficiently by writing five books, becoming a spokesperson for the MDA and an ambassador for Goodwill. Mattie is determined to reach his goal of peace and is shown through his talking to former president Jimmy Carter about peace that could be possible in places like Africa and Bosnia. Through hardships, if you push through and persevere, you can achieve great things. I believe Mattie makes me a better person by being selfless in his acts, such as talking about world problems when he only has a short time to live, when he can talk about himself. He uses his "public recognition and visibility as a result of his best-selling books and the attendant public appearances" to communicate about peace that is possible in the world instead of being narcissistic. Mattie makes me feel as though I should be less selfish and do more things for the good of others.