Perseverance
Underdogs
JK Rowling
Although many people know JK Rowling as being the author of Harry Potter, she faced many hardships getting there. First, in her younger years as a teenager, she struggled with a troublesome life; her mother became ill with multiple sclerosis and she and her father had a strained relationship. Then, she moved to Portugal where she met and married a journalist, which they had a daughter. About a year later, they got divorced, and during this time in her life she was diagnosed with clinical depression and thought about suicide. After all, as a single mother without a job, she signed up for welfare and began to write the very popular series of Harry Potter. This led to submitting her first novel to 12 publishing houses, who all rejected her and gave them no thought. Next, a small publishing house agreed to a little deal which soon caused the book to blow up. Within weeks, the publication exploded as well as the sales. Five months later, JK Rowling won her first award and went on to create a very popular book series which led her to become one of the most famous authors. JK Rowling was thought of as an underdog to begin with, having the very troubled early life and many publishers rejecting her novel, but this didn’t stop her from pursuing what she thought was right and she sure did overcome her adversity that she knew she would. She is known as one of the best authors in our world today and that happened because of the dedication she had in herself.
Jim Carrey vs Jaden Smith
Jim Carrey has become a great and very popular actor, but that didn’t come easy for him like it did for Jaden Smith. They have both become famous actors but in different ways. For example, Jim Carrey started his life as a homeless underdog who thought there was no future ahead of him as opposed to Jaden Smith who was born into a famous wealthy family which he had to do nothing to earn his fame. Also, Jim Carrey didn’t get his fame at such a young age and was forced to work for it if he really wanted it compared to Jaden Smith who everything just came easy for right away and he had to just live life as a normal kid. Although they have both became great actors, it just happened in two different ways; Jim Carrey beginning life as an underdog who was confident and dedicated in himself to become famous while Jaden Smith was given a gift that he did not achieve. They both are similar and different in many ways but the one that stands out is that Jim Carrey was homeless as well as hopeless and was able to overcome adversity while Jaden Smith was just born into being famous and required him to have nothing to do so. This shows how being an underdog can give you the strength to become better and persevere as shown in this article.
Chris Rock
Chris Rock is an African-American that him, as well as his family, grew up as underdogs in his community and weren’t liked by many people. The reasons for this are because Chris had an ill-tempered, loud, and easily paranoid mother Rochelle who most of the people in the community including Chris, were afraid of. Also, because of Chris’s younger brother Drew, who was more popular than him, Chris was hated by the kids in his grade because they thought his younger brother was cooler. Another cause for Chris being hated was having his spoiled and deceptive sister who he had to live with and his parents sure spent more time with her rather than him. The outcome of Chris’s early life as an underdog was it influencing a TV show called “Everybody Hates Chris” to be made. Therefore, the reason why “Everybody Hates Chris” was made, was to show how Chris was below average or an underdog in his early life and his life was plagued by disadvantages including being bullied by his schoolmates who had no desire to be friends with him. Chris Rock grew up as someone who was considered less than anyone in his family just like an underdog and this influenced things to be made about how people treated him in his early life but he became very popular later on.
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson was the first African-American player to be in the MLB which caused him to have to be brave, strong, confident, and resilient knowing that he was an underdog in the league. For example, he was considered to be a brave soul because of the pain he must have endured which didn’t stop him from continuing as a great player. Also, for instance, back then when skin color played one of the biggest roles in society, Jackie was the most resilient human being to encounter racism because of how he reacted when he was constantly heckled by millions of people and how he moved on not caring about what they thought about him.
Being an underdog made it harder for Jackie, causing him more and more stress everyday and that’s the reason he had to be strong which he sure was, to withstand the pain that he was given and not be discouraged by it and just think to yourself that you can’t do anything about it or else it would hurt more. Jackie needed to have many characteristics to be able to break the color barrier, such as being confident in himself. Jackie went into this opportunity knowing he would not be put down or changed by how people viewed him or thought of him which is one of the reasons he has become who he is today. These are just four of the many characteristics Jackie had which let him change from an underdog to an all-star. Being an underdog doesn’t give you limits but gives you the opportunity to become better than what is thought of you.
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was one of the greatest underdogs ever from having to go through very harsh racial discrimination that she persevered through. First, one of the problems was discrimination or segregation which she faced because the color of her skin or her being “black” because at the time “blacks” were considered much less than the superior race as well as her being a woman which was also not considered to be dominant like males. Another challenge she experienced was limited amount of schooling because her father left and her mother and grandma became ill which made her drop out of school to help her family and support them. Another dilemma was the fact that she was African-American and had a single mother, she was born into poverty which caused it to be a lot harder for her to get a job and grow up normally instead of with a lot of struggles. The last problem, the most important and well known one was Rosa Parks getting kicked off a bus because she decided to sit in a spot that was whites only and didn’t budge when people told her to move and this sure did cause an outbreak in the society. The main solution to most of these problems is that Rosa Parks decided to make a stand for the black community which changed everything including segregation laws that were completely unfair. She joined a group called the NAACP which fights discrimination and was able to change the law in a way that changed the country, by giving African-Americans more freedom. Rosa Parks went through a lot of adversity and made a difference in this world by demonstrating how an underdog can still have a significant impact if they have confidence in themselves.