Survival: A Chance or Choice?

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What determines your chance to survive or not? Everyone comes to a point in their life when they experience struggle. There are two factors that come into play during the struggle to survive. There is the acceptance of one's fate of being in that situation or the personal choices that are put forward. In dire situations one's survival depends not only on the initial chance of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, but also on one's choice to take the necessary actions needed to survive.

One's chance of surviving or not could be the problem of them being in a certain place at a certain time. During the Johnstown Flood, the dreadful thought of being there in that situation crossed many people's minds. For the people that chose to travel on the train that day, they got caught in the terrible flowing water. The train did not plan to stop on the tracks, at that time, on that day, in Johnstown. It was just fate for those who got stuck in the awful flood. It was also just pure bad luck for those seventy-five people who chose to stay at the hotel in Johnstown. They had no idea that there was going to be a tragic break in the dam (Johnstown Flood). On the opposite side of things, one's fate can be good. Only two people at the hotel in Johnstown somehow miraculously survived when it looked like they shouldn't have. The two survivors should practice the survival trait "Count Your Blessings" from Deep Survival (Gonzales 97). They were caught in a rough spot, but they were lucky to survive it. Each day they should live forward knowing the chance that they are still alive is a blessing. Some face this point in their life where their chance of survival was involved with consequences that they were unaware of.

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...s, chance and human action take place to ensure their survival.Therefore, one's survival depends on a combination of chance and human actions. If somebody has a chance to survive they should be thankful and fight with everything they have. Depending on the situation, survival traits or just pure luck could save one's life.

Works Cited

Gonzales, Laurence. Deep Survival. London: W. W. Norton &, 2005. 96-98. Print.

Hunger Games. Dir. Garry Ross. Perf. Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson. Lions Gate Home Entertainment, 2012. DVD.

Johnstown Flood Narrated By Richard Dreyfuss. Dir. Mark Bussler. Perf. Richard Dreyfuss, Patrick Jordan, Jennifer Lee Dake, Charles King (VIII), Matt Hutchinson (III). 2003. DVD.

NY Times Documentary of a 9/11 Survivor's Horrific Story. YouTube, n.d. YouTube. UMP Boss, 15 Oct. 2011. Web. 11 Sept. 2013.

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