Walking Towards Peseverance
By:Vela Sree
Spare Parts (Problem/Solution)
In the novel Spare Parts by Joshua Davis shows the true meaning of perseverance.This book showed how much adversity the boys went through , even though they wanted to yield themselves. The boys in the Carl Hayden high school robotics team went through a lot of difficulties trying to win the MATE ROV competition .The team included Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Oscar Vazquez, and Luis Aranda. The boys are from a bad part of Arizona and their school isn’t well funded like most other schools.This is the first time for all the boys to participate in the robotics team.The boys agreed that when doing the competition they would sign up for going against college kids because it would be expected for them to lose against them.They knew that there as no possibility for them to win.While most college teams had a lot of donations from different places ,Carl Hayden didn’t have all those donations.Even though they didn’t have all the donations they were still very persistence. They found different solutions to get all the pieces that might have been donated to the other colleges.In the end,Carl Hayden High School won with the MATE ROV competition and went back to their high school with a big triumph.
Words Failed Him, Until He Learned to Ask for Help (Cause and Effect)
In the text Words Failed Him Tom Harken has gone through a lot of Tom Harken was diagnosed with polio and was confirmed to an iron lung when he was younger.Since Tom had polio when he was younger it caused him to fall further and further behind in school. Tom tried but he couldn’t even recognize simple words and his teachers shattered his confidence.As a result ,Tom dropped out of school and depended on “an ability to talk good and work hard” which his dad taught him. After using this technique throughout his life Tom married his smart wife Melba. Melba didn’t even know he couldn’t write or read when he told her to fill out their application for marriage license.Tom worked as a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. When he made a sale he memorized all the clients information and when he got home he would repeat them to Melba who would write it down for him.When his sons would ask him to read comics to them , Melba would make up an excuse for him saying he was too busy.Tom had enough of not being able to read or write.It took him a lot of courage to just ask for help.He thought the best person to ask for help was his wife. Melba taught him how to read night-after-night.He sometimes would get frustrated but he persevered and worked harder.When Tom received an award called Horatio Alger Award he was ecstatic.After some consideration, he resolved to go public about his secret that he kept for so long.Tom Harken doesn’t regret his decision of his past because he said it revealed strength.
“There's no point having wishes if you don't at least try to do them” (Descriptive Writing)
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg vs. Caine's Arcade (Compare/Contrast)
Timeline of Oprah Winfrey (Sequence Writing)
Works Cited
Kersey, Cynthia. Unstoppable: 45 Powerful Stories of Perseverance and Triumph from People Just like You. Naperville, IL: Source, 1998. Print.
Nicholls, Sally. Ways to Live Forever. New York, NY: Arthur A. Levine, 2008. Print.
Salerno-Sonnenberg, Nadja. Nadja, on My Way. New York: Crown, 1989. Print.
Executive, Entertain. "Oprah Winfrey Biography." -- Academy of Achievement. Entertainment Executive, 2009. Web. 23 May 2016.