Definition Essay: What Makes An Ordinary Person Courageous?

I used to believe that acts of courage were only demonstrated by heros; firefighters, police, men and women in the military. Almost 3 years ago, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. One minute life is normal, the next, your whole world is turned upside down. A question that lingered in my mind was, what makes an ordinary person courageous? After facing a life changing event, I learned that courage cannot be measured by the scale of its significance. Courage is often compressed into a single definition, but there isn't truly one individual annotation of the complex word. What makes courage so elaborate, is it’s different meaning to everyone. To someone, courage may be getting out of bed in the morning. While for others, it's public speaking, or skydiving. Courage can be defined merely by a person’s thoughts on the matter, since a definition for the word does not necessarily exist. However, courage is not limited to just actions; Courage is also finding strength in a difficult time. Fear is an aspect that is found in almost every example of courage. Stepping past a fear, and facing an unknown

It takes courage to be more than just ‘someone with cancer’. To continue living life as normally as possible and attempting to still enjoy it, while battling a life threatening disease. This is what my mom did. She got up every morning, and refused to let cancer define her. She remained strong, and kept our family moving forward. Simply having hope when the future is unknown, and facing the fear of that unknown, takes courage. But most of all, her strength, in a time that was challenging as well as frightening, is what made her courageous. Strength in the face of pain and grief, perseverance through hardship; this is what defines courage. It is what courage means to me. My mom is an inspiration, and her strength gave me