Examples Of Overcoming Adversity: Sonia Sotomayor

572 Words2 Pages

Overcoming Adversity: Sonia Sotomayor Adversity is defined by the Merriam-Webster's dictionary as, “A state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune.” The Supreme Justice Sonia Sotomayor has overcome adversity many times in her life. One of the first adversities she encountered was at the age of 7 when Sotomayor was diagnosed with diabetes. She soon realized that “She would not depend on the adults in her life to keep her alive. Instead she gave herself her own insulin shots”(Barnes). This shows that Sonia had little support from the adults around her. It also shows that Sonia knew that depending on others would only get you so far. Also Sotomayor overcame the limits of her cultural, social, and class background. A quote …show more content…

First, the challenge of diabetes. Sotomayor told Robert Barnes, of the Washington Post, “It drove me in a way that perhaps nothing else might have to accomplish as much as I could as early as possible.” What can be pulled from this quote is that she saw this disease not as something that would hold her back from her dreams but something that would drive her harder to her dreams. Sonia also told Barnes that she strived hard to reach her goals before age fifty because she was afraid she would die early. The drive of fear and determination really helped push Sonia to the finish line. Next, her cultural and social background. Sonia overcame this by working very hard: “Sotomayor bought grammar books and vocabulary texts and practiced each lunch hour at her summer job”(Barnes) He goes on to tell us that not only did Sotomayor get better at english and close the education gap but was awarded Princeton’s top academic prize. The video by Bio.com tells us that at school she was a quiet girl and was one of the smartest people in a school filled with smart people. Sonia worked really hard to conquer this adversity so she could go into law. Overall, Sonia Sotomayor has faced a lot of adversity in her lifetime but she has overcome it with great

Show More
Related

  • Sonia Sotomayor: Judicial Activist?

    2332 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sotomayor's 'wise Latina' Comment a Staple of Her Speeches - CNN. (5 June 2009). Featured

    Read More

  • Adversity In The Glass Castle

    897 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Struggle Of Building Adversity means difficulties or misfortune. When someone's dealing with things or a situation turns out to go against them, they face adversity. Adversity is something someone comes across in life, it's like being part of a person. Decisions and actions are influenced by a lot of things. Conflicts influence all kinds of actions and decisions, depending on the person.

    Read More

  • Overcoming Adversity: A Long Walk To Water

    1232 Words  | 3 Pages

    “All of the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me.” Walt Disney. The books A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, a fictional book, and Iqbal a fictional book, share the same theory. A Long Walk to Water is a book about the true story of Salva; a little boy that gets separated from his family because of the war in South Sudan and later becomes the leader of a group called the Lost Boys of South Sudan. This novel also includes a fictional story of Nya, a little girl that can’t go to school, because she has to walk to the water well twice a day, taking up most of the day. Salva helps Nya get a water well in her village years later by using his organization, Water for South Sudan. Iqbal is the true story of Iqbal Masih, a little boy that became a child slave, but was able to set himself and his friends free from slavery. This book is told in the point of view of Fatima a fictional little girl that was one of the children who was enslaved in the same factory as Iqbal. In each book, the characters grow stronger because of a cultural conflict. Cultural conflicts can force people to become stronger.

    Read More

  • Overcoming Adversity In The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

    656 Words  | 2 Pages

    Adversity can be defined as a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune. Many things in life can bring one adversity, however some are faced with more adversity in their lives than others. Overcoming this adversity can be one of the most difficult things that a person encounters, and at times, it may consume them. People attempt to persevere through adversity in many different ways. One of the most effective ways is to keep pushing through and to never give up. If one loses sight of what is driving them to persevere through adversity, it will swallow them up with no remorse. Staying mentally tough and focused on an end goal is how people not only persevere, but thrive through adversity.

    Read More

  • Unresolved Contradictions In Sonia Sotomayor's My Beloved World

    926 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...been racialized to maintain white supremacy and how they ignored until something out of the ordinary happens. The Bracero program may have played a part into the nurses accusatory tone because the Mexicans were only seen as manual labor to Americans in the 1940’s, so embedded into societies mind are still that Latino groups are only valuable to work low class labor jobs, not having a chance to climb up the hierarchy ladder by going to Ivy League schools. Her identity as an immigrant ultimately transcends all other identities at play, and makes her out to be unqualified for certain things in society. Sotomayor tries to prove her value by pursuing higher education at Princeton, but is labeled strictly as an “affirmative action” student who was able to gain access to the institution easier by being a racial group that has been historically excluded or discriminated.

    Read More

  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg

    539 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ruth Ginsburg, born March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York is a United State Supreme Court Justice and the second woman to become a Justice. The second daughter of Nathan and Cecelia Bader, she grew up in a low-income, working class neighborhood in Brooklyn. Ruth’s mother, Cecelia, who was a tremendous influence on her life, taught her the importance of independence and a good education, although she herself did not attend college but worked in a garment factory to pay for her brothers tuition, an act of selflessness that forever impressed Ruth. In Ruth’s later years she attended James Madison High School where she excelled in her studies. During her time in high school, Ruth’s mother struggled with cancer and passed away the day before her daughter's high school graduation. After high school, Ruth attended Cornell University and graduated first in her class in 1954. The same year Ruth married Martin D. Ginsburg who was also law student.The early years of their marriage were challenging as their daughter Jane was born after Martin was drafted into the military in 1954. Martin served fo...

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Ruth Ginsburg

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    The tragedies Ruth Ginsburg experienced throughout her upbringing had a lasting contribution to her life today. In 1933, she was born to Russian-Jewish immigrants amidst the Great Depression. In the hardships of the Great Depression, she lost both her older sister and mother as a child. This time was one of great difficulty for Ginsburg; however, she withstood this adversity and gained invaluable life lessons giving her the opportunity to attain unprecedented levels of success. After coping with her losses, she left to attend Harvard Law School and later Columbia Law School, two world-renowned schools of law. At this period in history, however, both men who dominated this field and who ran the schools discriminated Ginsburg based on her gender (“Ruth Bader Ginsburg”). At one point during the school day, the Dean of Harvard Law approached her and said, “How do you justify taking a spot from a qualified man?” (Galanes). Despite this prejudice, Ginsburg continued to excel in her schooling where she later graduated as top of her class at Columbia (“Ruth Bader Ginsburg”).

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Monster And Frida Kahlo

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    Adversity is a time of trouble, problem or difficulty for a person. Adversity is a problem that makes a person struggle. Adversity also can affect a person in a positive or negative way. In the story of Victor Frankenstein, the Monster is a creature that Victor Frankenstein made. Once he took his first breath, he was being rejected by everyone which cause him to go through a lot of challenges. Similarly, in the biography of Frida, Frida was a talented artist who had a lot of difficulties in her life. The Monster faced more adversity in his life than Frida.

    Read More

  • Barbara Jordan Struggles

    1165 Words  | 3 Pages

    Barbara Jordan was a truly unique woman, seasoned politician, and a friendly and gregarious woman that spent her lively hood helping Texas communities. Barbara proved the point that it only takes one person to be a voice for the people, even against the most powerful issues she faced. She was not only influential but also inspiring to most people that felt lucky to know her, or even the ones who had simply just heard of her all of her great achievements. Barbara Jordan fought and eventually prospered against racial barriers and even over the own troubles she faced having a physical disability. Jordan's influence on Texas communities was shown in how she rallied minorities, and inspired ALL Texans to succeed! A single women, helped break down

    Read More

  • Struggle For Smarts

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everyone has a different viewpoint on what it is like to go through a hardship in your life. Some people view struggles in life as a strength and that they build character. Others view struggles as a sign of defeat and that they should just give up. For example, the hardest thing that a middle class, 17 year old girl might have had to endure in her life so far is a heart-wrenching breakup with her first boyfriend of three months. While a lower class, 17 year old girl has had to take over the role of mother in her house with 4 young siblings, no father, and a mother who is at work all day, barely breaking even at the end of the month. Both girls are going through a hardship in their lives, but one might view the other as less severe of a struggle

    Read More

  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg Analysis

    1774 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the 2015 book Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, authors Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik evaluate the significant role Ginsburg has had on United States policy in equality and women’s rights. The authors of Notorious RBG, present the structured internal initiative and personal influences of the Brooklyn native, Ginsburg, that contributed to her life-long achievement in academics and scholarly enlightenment. In order to reach her goals, Carmon and Knizhnik describe, Ginsburg in a light that explains how she juggled her professional aspirations and family life while continuing to present the legal world with arguments that aided in shifting popular opinion about female equality compared to males in our society. In Notorious

    Read More

  • How does Elie Wiesel change in response to his concentration camp experiences?

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everyday, we go through situations and experiences that affect us in someway, perhaps even change us. Different situations have different effects. The more difficult the situation is, the more of an effect it has on us. Those hard times can be called adversity. How do we, as humans, react to adversity? What are the possible effects it may have?

    Read More

  • Hardship Is An Essential Human Quality In 'Fahrenheit 451'

    2053 Words  | 5 Pages

    Statement: The ability for an individual to endure hardship is a testament to the endurance of human spirt. The ability to defeat hardship isn 't something everyone has but I assume that having that ability is something that should be an essential human quality.

    Read More

  • Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

    2637 Words  | 6 Pages

    Women’s equality has made huge advancements in the United States in the past decade. One of the most influential persons to the movement has been a woman named Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ruth faced gender discrimination many times throughout her career and worked hard to ensure that discrimination based on a person’s gender would be eliminated for future generations. Ginsburg not only worked to fight for women’s equality but fought for the rights of men, as well, in order to show that equality was a human right’s issue and not just a problem that women faced. Though she faced hardships and discrimination, Ruth never stopped working and thanks to her equality is a much closer reality than it was fifty years ago. When Ruth first started her journey in law, women were practically unheard of as lawyers; now three women sit on the bench of the highest court in the nation.

    Read More

  • How People Learn To Become Resilient?

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is stated in the article, How People Learn To Become Resilient “But the remaining third developed into ‘competent, confident, and caring young adults.’ They had attained academic, domestic, and social success—and they were always ready to capitalize on new opportunities that arose” (Konnikova). Although there had been children growing up in the same conditions there was a handful that became people you wouldn’t have thought they were capable of becoming. The children all had been facing the same adversity, so why did only one third become better people than they started off as? The answer is simple, they had the drive and capability to overcome the adversity instead of submitting to it. Instead of being content with the life they were given, they sought out to create opportunities for themselves and it benefitted them immensely. In the article The Deafening Silence Nancy Johnson states: “I dreaded speaking” and “Soon I’d drive home to take my place at the anchor’s desk or in the field…”. The two quotes are said at two points in Johnson's life; the first, when she was a young child and afraid to speak, and the second, when she was an adult with more confidence she thought she was capable of. The adversity faced may seem trivial to others, but the effort taken to overcome the adversity is exceptional. It may seem that she gained resilience from other people, but she gained her confidence from within, although it cannot be seen. Johnson could have easily succumbed to her adversity, but because of her will to achieve her dream, she overcame her fears and has fulfilled her wishes. No matter what the adversity may be, if the person has enough will, they can overcome and live a life they are content with. Although people have the ability to overcome adversities and be

    Read More

More about Examples Of Overcoming Adversity: Sonia Sotomayor

Open Document