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Overcoming adversity
Surviving adversity
Importance of resilience in our wellbeing
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Running hurdles has proved to be one of my greatest passions in life. I love the fear, unpredictability, and brief feeling of flying over the hurdles, just barely hovering over the top of each one. Most importantly, I am infatuated with the feeling after each race: my heart beating intensely in my chest and the feeling of relief and accomplishment washing over me. Although I cannot say running hurdles has been the greatest adversity I have faced in life, I have found that my life has always been like a race, running from one hurdle to the next, always having to figure out how to get up after each fall or to overcome each obstacle in front of me. Like far too many others, cancer has posed as the greatest hurdle in my life. When I was twelve years old, my grandfather was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a rare and largely incurable form of cancer that proves to be immensely aggressive to the body of which it takes over. As fortunate as I was to live just down the road from my grandparents’ farm, I …show more content…
Because of what I learned from hitting this “hurdle” in life, I have decided to make the most out of the life I have been given. Overcoming the adversity of losing a loved one has not only challenged me, but has given me a perspective and wisdom that most people are only able to learn through challenges like this one. Life is unpredictable. Like hurdles, life evokes fear, strength, and courage. Life is often like a race, everyone is forced to face their own obstacles, however, like Nelson Mandela once said, “Our greatest glory lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Throughout life, everyone is bound to face their own set of hurdles, however, the important part is learning to get up, keep moving, and apply what was learned from the experience to overcoming the next
Pancreatic cancer has become a taboo topic that many people are afraid to speak out about. It looms over families like a dark cloud, and manages to destroy people in a scarily short amount of time. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most dangerous cancer in the United States, and the more we learn about it, the less deadly it becomes. This cancer begins in the pancreas, a gland behind the stomach, that aides in digestion and disperses hormones critical to keep our body functioning. While many people have a mild understanding of pancreatic cancer, most do not realize that “pancreatic cancer” is an umbrella term for many different types of cancerous tumors.
I have learned that if you believe in yourself you can do anything. Gertrude Simmons Bonnin was able to overcome so many difficult live changing obstacles only because she did not give up. I want to have her strength and courage to overcome all my problems in life I have right now, so that I can be successful in life. I am glad that I read this story so that I could have a better perspective on how hope and perseverance help you to become a stronger person. I know that I am going to see life in a different way now. I will see all my problems as a way to make me stronger by figuring out a way to overcome them. If you believe in yourself and do not give up you will be like a diamond made out of coal under good pressure (unknown
Nothing in this world angers me more than losing, that’s why I participate in track and field. Track and field is such a competitive sport, it’s a sport that requires someone to push themselves past excursion, which sounds pretty awful but the feeling of winning is worth it. After I win a race dopamine receptors fly through my brain going twenty-five thousand miles an hour giving me temporary high. This causes me to crave winning even more, I crave winning like a squirrel craves acorns. Winning races comes with a big price, temporary body pain everywhere. My body feels as if I was ran over by a semi going eighty-five miles an hour. Running has to be the easiest part of track, but flipping the positive switch on in your brain has to be the most difficult. The switch always seems to be weighed down by an elephant, somehow by the grace of God I turn the switch on. Winning to me is like someone listening
I ran faster than I ever thought I would. It was a regular Thursday meet, and I was running varsity that day as a freshman. I had never gone through this process before so everything that happened that day took me by surprise. The insane course, other runners, and the intimidating fans all made it something worth remembering. I saw everything from runner's fainting, the after race vomiting, and the crying from pain. That did not have an affect on me as I found myself gaining confidence every time I moved my feet. I kept passing other runners and my immediate thought was “did I go the wrong way?” or “did I miss a turn?.” I did not know that running came easier to me than it did to other people. Maybe it was the hard work I put in at practice
the only way to overcome this is by not looking back and giving up. In conclusion, having these circumstances throughout my life have thought me to be tough when I just want to give up on my dreams and
The start of the 2002 track season found me concerned with how I would perform. After a disastrous bout with mononucleosis ended my freshmen track season, the fear of failure weighed heavily on my mind. I set a goal for myself in order to maintain focus and to push myself like nothing else would. My goal for my sophomore track season was to become a state champion in the 100 meter hurdles. I worked hard everyday at practice and went the extra mile, like running every Sunday, to be just that much closer to reaching my goal. The thought of standing highest on the podium in the center of the field, surrounded by hundreds of spectators, overcame my thoughts of complaining every time we had a hard workout. When I closed my eyes, I pictured myself waiting in anticipation as other competitors names were called out, one by one, until finally, the booming voice announced over the loudspeaker, "...and in first place, your 2002 100 meter hurdle champion, from Hotchkiss, Connie Dawson." It was visions like these that drove me to work harder everyday.
The 400 relay was my best event. We placed in every meet and even took home some medals as the season progressed. As the track year rounded for the home stretch, we had only three more meets to compete in: the Tiger Invitational, regionals, and state.
March of twenty seventeen, my sister’s life changed. Her mother-in-law, Rose, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. For the first time, Vanessa saw her husband cry. Not only was Matt going to lose his mother, but Rose may not make it four more months to see her first grandchild. Due to the effect pancreatic cancer has in my family, I have chosen to research this type of cancer.
It's very hard to accept the defeat and failure in life but we have to understand that it is a way of path finder and director in life to move forward. We learn to find the other options and we might find the better choice than what we have had before.
Something that I have learned after overcoming this battle is that life is very unpredictable and it is up to the individual to rise above and choose the right path. This excerpt from the poem “Recovery” by Maya Angelou has given me encouragement and inspiration to move on with my life and become the best person that I can be: “A last love, proper in conclusion, should snip the wings forbidding further flight. But I now reft of that confusion, am lifted up and speeding towards the light.” I live by these words everyday because they motivate me to succeed and overcome the impossible.
Ever since I started running, I've never felt stronger than when being on the track. The track is where i found a new passion, where i felt like i belonged. I was told i was too skinny to play football, too slow to run distance, and not skilled enough to play basketball, but not track. Track, being a fast and mostly independent sport has taught me to be the adaptable and confident runner i am today. Some days, practice is a walk in the park
Have you ever had a time in your life where you felt like everything was just dumped on you? I did, and undoubtedly it happened just as I came to school at State University. That saying, “When it rains, it pours,” just seemed to fit me perfectly. Within a two week period one of my friends from high school committed suicide, my grandma went in the hospital, and my boyfriend broke up with me. Yet, from these experiences in my life, I grew, more than I have ever grown before. This is why I am writing about it. Although, everyone goes through hard times, there were not many people out there who related to me. That is why it was hard to get help when it was needed. Maybe someone can learn from my experience and be just as strong as I was.
When the power to strive for my best began to break down, and I was settling for mediocre accomplishments, running gave me the strength and perseverance to realize I could do anything, no matter how hard it was. When my
Robert Brault once said “where the loser saw barriers, the winner saw hurdles”. Ever since my junior year of high school this has been my modus operates in life and sports. My main event in Track and Field is the 300 meter, you guessed it, hurdles. However, simply devoting myself to live by this “code” was not enough; actions spoke louder than words in May 2015 when, leading my heat of the race, I clipped my trail leg on the second to last hurdle and was forced down into the track at 20 mph. I didn’t get up, I laid on the track in a ball of self-loathing, anger, and pain. I never finished that race, and to this day that is one of my only regrets.
I was having a weekend getaway with my cousins when, at midnight, we were told that we had to return immediately. I was unaware of the gravity of why I had to come back home so soon, but I knew that it was severe. When I arrived to the hospital, I found out my brother had suffered a heart attack and passed away. I was numb and didn’t know how to process that information. He was my guiding light on my journey going back to school and coping with the death of my first brother. Instead of crying hysterically, all I could think of was “situations like this need to be prevented.” It could have been easy to give up but perseverance and resilience were my only options. Giving up on my dreams had never crossed my mind but my fortitude grew stronger with every wrench thrown my