When the Going gets Tough, the Tough gets Going

1) Perseverance is the ability to overcome the obstacles in one's way in order to finish the way that you started. One needs determination in order to persevere and get through whatever tough times lie ahead of them. Perseverance is never giving up. Someone with perseverance may also be thought of as stubborn and they may not take no for an answer. It is the ability to continue to be persistant and withstand discouragement no matter what is thrown in your path. Without perseverance many people would not have gotten to the point where they are today. The world we live in today would not have been built without perseverance.

2) In order to persevere you need to take on a character that is not brought down by anything someone would say. In other words, you need to be a rock. You need to be optimistic that the tough times will eventually end and life will precede to be more liveable and sustainable. Generally in order to say one has perseverance, they must have gone through a stage when a lot was against them. There must have been obstacles, discouragement, and/or difficulties that were necessary to overcome. If you stay optimistic enough to get through the difficulty and learn from the event that you needed to get past in order to make you a better person. Perseverance is naturally what got you through the tough times.

3) Many people would say perseverance occurs in a marathon when the runner finishes the race despite lack of breath and exhaustion. Who am I to disagree? Yes, this is definitely an event in which someone needs perseverance in order to finish. I personallly, could never finish a race, well maybe if I trained for thousands of years then I could. Yet perseverance could occur during a life tragedy, like a close family member dying or a divorce, or getting diagnosed with a deadly disease. Some lucky people never go through these instances, or are lucky enough to only go through a family member dying of old age (not that that isn't tough, but it isn't as much of a surprise.) These people still need to persevere in order to get through school or even a same in which the pressure is on them. I need to persevere right now in order to get through this blog.


4) I know many people that have had to withstand tragedy or tough times, yet the one person I know that has had to show the most perseverance is my little brother's best friend Matthew. When Matthew and Jack (my brother) were in third grade, Matthew started to feel sick and he just could not seem to get better. His parents took him to the hospital to see why he couldn't get better when they were told the devastating news that Matthew had the blood disease leukemia. These last three years have been really tough for Matthew and his family. He has been in and out of the hospital, chemotherapy and sometimes has to take steroids. I idolize the boy because you would never have thought that his life was on the line when you watch him play. He likes to play video games, play Harry Potter, watch TV and play football and baseball. Leukemia has made it difficult for him to play sports and just lead a normal life. Yet leukemia has made it hard for him to do what he likes. Matthew is able to persevere to get through this devistating time. Without perseverance he could have given up three years ago, yet he and his family are determined to get through this tough time. He has persevered this far, there is no turning back now. He has tottered back and forth between remission and being sick. The scheduled time to stop his treatment is 6 months, hopefully he can end this awful experience by then.

5) Perseverance is caused by the will to finish what you have started. If there was no perseverance in the world then nothing would be finished. Once people reached an obstacle they would just give up. There would be no medical advancements. Thus, many people would still be suffering from infectious diseases like Polio and Yellow Fever because people would have given up at the first signs of difficulty! Perseverance causes results and is the reason our society has reached the types of advancements that it has today. Perseverence leaves people with a sense of achievement after they have passed the obstacle and finished the job.


6) It is completely obvious that there is an enormous difference between the ability to persevere and to be apathetic. When you persevere, you care about reaching your goal. There is no such thing as backing down when you have the determination and mindset of someone who has perseverance. Whereas an apathetic person honestly does not give a crap when they finish or if they finish at all. They are undetermined and most of all lazy. Typically an apathy has a negative connotation. on the other hand perseverance typically has a positive connotation. I could persevere to finally finish this blog, or I could be apathetic and not care if I received a good grade on this or not.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE :) persevere and you can figure it out!