Road to Perseverance
Jaylin Adame - May 2016
The True Definition of Perseverance
Perseverance can mean many things to different people, but there is only one way it can be described. Perseverance is to never give up and continue to walk forward, even when it's hard to beat an obstacle. One should allow courage to enlighten and guide them in the times when they are blind, and darkness has engulfed them.
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Jackie Robinson and Eleanor Roosevelt (Compare/Contrast)
Both Jackie Robinson and Eleanor Roosevelt faced many adversities in their lives.
↓Jackie--------------------------------------------------- vs --------------------------------------------------Eleanor↓
The tier 2 words that are used in this are persistent, triumph, and resilient. Persistence is continuing a task despite opposition until a goal is reached. Triumph is a successful event that may be celebrated with much rejoicing. Resilience is the ability to recover from difficulties or change.
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Eleanor Roosevelt (Problem/Solution)
Eleanor Roosevelt had many problems in her life, but also many solutions.
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Jackie Robinson the Baseball Player (Cause/Effect)
Jackie Robinson was forced to deal with many issues in his life because he was a black baseball player. However, many of these issues resulted in positive outcomes. Jackie had to be strong when in the locker room and playing out in the field because of the harmful abuse that came from other baseball players, and taunting from racist people in the bleachers. Jackie became hurt physically and emotionally, but he had prepared for this because when he was hired for the baseball big leagues, the coach had explained to him that he had to learn how to deal with the pain, which he did. He can show one how important it is to keep hanging on and stay determined. Jackie was able to release the anger, frustration and hurt that had welled up inside him by allowing his feelings to fuel his actions, like hitting the ball or running across the field. His actions spoke eloquently, and because of this, he was able to play exceedingly well, winning for his team most of the time. Since Jackie was one of the best baseball players, he was able to break the color barrier in sports, causing him to gain many fans. More and more colored people gained the rights they deserved as more and more people stood up and spoke their thoughts, like Jackie. Although Jackie had great achievements, they all took place a long time ago. Many people today have forgotten the importance of his actions, and there are still racist people that remain all around the world. Since people have forgotten about him, there are sports players unable to learn from what he did. If young sports players have no one to look up to, they will have no motivation and not play their best. Young sports players need to look up to athletes like Jackie because he helped do something important that impacted the world, he helped colored people earn their rights in the U.S. by breaking the barrier between white people and colored people in sports.
The tier 2 word included in this paragraph is eloquent, which is used to describe something that's forceful, clear and fluent.
Jackie playing baseball for the Dodgers.
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Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (Chronological/Sequence)
Nadja disliked the thought of becoming a violinist as a child, but at that time she had not opened her heart to it. As she grew older, she got better at playing the violin and once she hit adulthood she knew there was no going back, she had to make smart decisions. First Nadja started attending Juilliard, a school specializing in the musical arts. In addition to joining came great fear, the fear of trying and failing. Once she heard students the same age as her and younger playing violin during class, it discouraged her. They all played way better than her and she felt shame for not being as good as them. Then, suddenly, music pieces became harder and harder to play. It worsened the more disheartened she got. Eventually Nadja yielded by not playing her violin. It became a habit of her to "forget" her violin, and, in time, she never brought it to class again. Because she stopped playing completely, her teacher, Mrs.DeLay, threatened to kick her out of class. Nadja thought she was joking, but realized she was serious. She started practicing violin everyday, pushing herself further before and after class. She was feeling confident once she was better at playing, and so she joined a violin competition. In addition to that, though, Nadja had been letting go of her health, and had to give up practice time to get back in shape. Finally the day of the competition arrived and she found out that an old friend from Juilliard was also competing, motivating her to do her best. Weeks passed as the competition went on, eliminating more and more people until only Nadja and her friend remained. She was a nervous wreck, and was really stiff, a bad condition to play violin in. Then she realized how far she came in this competition and knew that she had to win, which helped get rid of her stiffened position. Just before the competition day arrived she worked out a strategy:play her weaker piece first, and then amaze everyone with the easier one to do. It worked and she had won over the judges in the finals. Only now did Nadja truly realize her passion for playing the violin.
The tier 2 word used in this paragraph is yielded. Yield means to give up or stop.
A picture of Nadja preparing to play violin.
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Tom Harken (Description)
Tom Harken was a very sickly child. He was constantly in the hospital and confined to a iron lung ever since he caught polio, a dreaded virus in the 1900's. Once he was released from the hospital he got tuberculosis, a bacterial infection, causing him to stay in bed for almost a year. While the other kids in the neighborhood were learning how to read, he was stuck at home fighting for his health's recovery. Because he missed school a lot, he never learned how to read. When he was finally able to properly participate in school without worrying about his health, problems started again. One time in class he was asked to read a passage in his textbook. Of course he couldn't read so when he didn't recognize the simple word, cat, his teacher started mocking him. Enraged, sad and shameful, he dropped out of school. Was this just a curse he was living, always having bad luck? As he went into adulthood, got married, had kids, he was still illiterate. Long years passed and his children grew up. He couldn't take it anymore. All this time Tom's wife had helped him by reading papers he needed to fill out, reading stories to their children, and many other things. His kids didn't know he couldn't read, so he felt guilty when he turned them down when they were little and wanted him to read to them, which lead to one choice:learn how to read. Tom was ambitious and strove to learn how to read, with the help of his wife. Eventually he did it, and around that time his kids had found out about his illiteracy, which made them proud of him for finally learning. They're a happy, complete family now. His story began spreading, and he was soon giving speeches to people, both illiterate and not, about persevering. Tom Harken is a great and inspirational man to look up to.
The tier 2 word used in this paragraph is ambitious, the strong desire/determination to have power or success in something.
There are no pictures of Tom Harken, so above is a picture of what an iron lung looks like. They were specially made for people that had polio, but are no longer needed anymore because of the polio vaccine that was discovered in the late 1900's.
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Lessons Learned From Perseverance
There are many lesson to be learned from perseverance. For example, Jackie Robinson didn't let racist people get to him and so he was able to break the color barrier by being one of the world's best baseball player. It can be learned from Eleanor Roosevelt that it is possible to turn adversities into triumphs. Perseverance can save people's lives and make them figures to look up to. There is much to be learned from people who have persevered multiple times, and it should be one's goal to gain that knowledge.