You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.
You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, 'I don't choose to go there.'
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.
“Oh, The Places You’ll Go” is an inspirational poem about becoming self-reliant. Geisel especially shows the importance of knowledge in the second stanza. He begins the stanza describing how one has all that they need in life, such as a brain and feet, to make decisions about their future. He then tells the reader that they are on their own in life and that they themselves are “the guy who’ll decide where to go” (Geisel 10). He then continues to write about how the reader will use their knowledge to make good decisions, and how they will be “too smart to go down any not-so-good street” (Geisel 14). In this stanza Geisel tells the reader about the value of using prior knowledge to make decisions. When one must make a choice, often they must only use what they know at that point to make that choice without the help of others. Even if one does not have much prior knowledge relevant to that decision, they must use it the best they can to go down the right path as they are on their own and cannot always rely on others to help them. Geisel also describes the need to “look [the streets] over with care” (Geisel 11). To be successful it is import to take time in decision making and look over options carefully with one’s prior knowledge before coming to a decision. The entire decision-making process is dependent on one’s knowledge, and using one’s knowledge poorly will lead to bad decisions.
The part of “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” that struck me the most is the line “You're on your own. And you know what you know” (Geisel 9). This hit me especially hard because I realized that as I get older I have to be more independent. Eventually I will not have my parents around to help me make decisions, and I will have to start using my prior knowledge all of the time. In the future, I am going to need to put my education and experience from this time to use, especially in decisions that have a big impact on my life, such as what college to go to or where to work. As an adult I will be completely on my own, and knowledge will become even more important in my life.
Over the summer I studied to test out of Chemistry. I prepared for the test out for several months, but I still could not be perfectly ready. I had to cover an entire year of material, and I did not know what all exactly would be on the test. I studied the textbook and homework packets that I got from previous Chemistry students, but several things I could not prepare for as the teacher covered them just in class. When I went to take the test, I knew the answer to the vast majority of the questions, but for the several I did not know I just had to take my best guess. On these questions I had to make use of my prior Chemistry knowledge to choose the best answer. The question I remember the most clearly asked how the mass of a particle affects its rate of effusion, the speed that it passes through a small opening. I already knew that lighter particles move faster than heavier ones at the same temperature and that lighter particles were also smaller. Using that information, I made the best guess that I could: lighter particles effuse faster, and I got the question right. This test was an important time when I had had to make use of my prior knowledge.