The Road of Perseverance
By: Michelle Pacheco
What it means to have perseverance
Perseverance is when you get knocked down but come back stronger than ever because no one can take what you want away from you. When someone says you can't do something or you can't make it through, that should be your drive to prove them wrong.
Louis Zamperini: Forgiveness
Louis Zamperini experienced many adversities throughout his life. Not only did he persevere through them but he learned forgiveness. When Louis was a pilot during World War two he crashed into the pacific. After days of searching for him, Louis was listed as dead. This lead him to spending forty-seven days adrift in a life raft. Throughout these forty-seven days he and two other crash survivors fought off hunger,thirst,heat,storms and sharks while trying to avoid being shot down by the Japanese. Then they were captured. Louis and one other survivor was captured by the Japanese. They were imprisoned for the next two years. During this time, Louis endured a harsh imprisonment. Sadly, Louis was in the brutal hands of Mutsuhiro Watanabe. Watanabe was later classified as a war criminal for his mistreatment of prisoners of war, who managed to evade arrest and was never tried in court. Later on Louis was forced into slave labor. He stated "I could take the beatings and physical punishment. But it was the alternate to destroy your dignity, to make you a nonentity, that was the hardest thing to bare. Eventually Louis was sent back to America after two years in prison. When he was returned to the United States he became a victim of alcoholism. From the tragic time he went through while being imprisoned, he started having flashbacks and nightmares. With all this happening his wife almost ended up divorcing him. Soon he became obsessed with finding Watanabe or well known as the "Bird". Louis wanted to find him and strangle him to death to win back his dignity. One day his wife asked him to go to church with him because he needed help. He obeyed only this one time and his whole life was transformed. That night he found God and restored his faith. He traveled back to Japan, later to find out the "Bird" was dead. He had killed himself. Louis was struck with emotion. After all the cruelty he faced by Mutsuhiro Watanabe, he was sad. In earlier time he would've been delighted at the word of Watanabe being dead. But now he wasn't. He felt bad for the "Bird" living such a life. Louis came to Japan for only one reason and it wasn't revenge. Louis Zamperini came back to Japan to forgive him.
Even though the characters aren't real the perseverance is
Lina is character in Between Shades of Gray that had to overcome many adversities to experience triumph. Her father was taken away and sent to prison whilst her mother,brother and her have to board a train going to Siberia. After the train ride Lina and the fellow passengers are forced to do hard labor with only 300g of bread as a reward for their work. During this time the NKVD humiliates and violates them in the most inhumanly ways possible. It would range from beating them and touching them to burying them alive for fun. Eventually after months of hard labor they are shipped to somewhere with extreme snow storms. Now, all the people who were on the list to be shipped off have to build shacks with little to no supplies to survive the harsh winters. Lina later finds out that her father has died while being in prison. This didn't make Lina give up on her drawings to pass to on to her dad to help find him. Lina kept sending the drawings. Even tough she knew he was dead, there was a part of her that wouldn't believe it. And that part of her kept her going. Because of the cold, starvation and dehydration Lina's mother dies. Though she passes away her spirit helped Lina and everyone else in the shack get through their imprisonment. In the ending perseverance is shaken throughout her. After the Russians came to help with the medical emergencies because of the NKVD officer she despises, she felt as if anything were possible. She was determined to stay alive and make it through this war and find Andrius.
Gerda
This shows the adversities Gerda had to face because of being Jewish.
Jonas V.S Andrius
The diagram shows how Jonas and Andrius are different yet similar in an important way.
Girls and Education
Malala has many adversities she has faced but have overcome them well.
Raspberries
Gerda and her friend persevered with a raspberry. No matter how small it was it had meaning to it. Her friend could've eaten it but she kept it as a sign of hope and decided to share that faith with Gerda.
Forgiveness
Louis explains throughout his quote that hate is the ultimate self destruct button. He is saying that hating doesn't do anything but destroy yourself.
The ones that stay in the shadows
This is a quote from the book Between Shades of Gray. It explains that until someone good learns to use their voice for leadership the evil will not get rid of itself.
Lessons learned from perseverance
Perseverance doesn't necessarily mean you always win in the end. Even if you end up failing but tried and gave your full effort through the process thats still persevering. Perseverance also doesn't mean you start over. No one "starts over" in life. The people that do have a new beginning are the ones that have learned to accept what they have but make something valuable out of the process no matter how bad the situation is. Perseverance is believing in the impossible. You have to be ready to face the unexpected because when it hits you, it hits you hard. Those type of adversities will overwhelm you and encourage you to give up. But if your determined to get through those obstacles you will. You can't expect triumph if you don't work for it. It doesn't just magically come to you. You have to work for it to achieve your goals in life. The process of perseverance is long and hard, but in the ending you won't ever regret persevering.