courage

Quynh Tran
ENGL C100
27 Feb 2015 Courage The root of the word courage is the Latin word cor, meaning heart. As a child, I was told a lot of stories about courage. Firefighters, policemen, and soldiers who did dangerous tasks were courageous persons. I understood courage was a gift that God granted them when they were born to be super heroes. Over time, this definition has changed. I realized that courage is not something we have or don’t have. It’s something we practice. Courage is someone who conquer themselves to overcome the fear. They have to be strong and think in a positive way. Being a courageous person proves that you are motivated to be the best you can be. I’m a shy person, and it prevents me from talking to new people or in front of the crowd. I remember last semester I had a presentation for “the instruction to theater” class. I had to talk about a play that I liked. Before the presentation, I had been so scared. I didn’t know what to do because I had never talked in front of a lot of strange people. I was going to quit it, but then I thought supposing that I could elude this time, so how about the other times? There would be a lot of upcoming times I had to talk in front of people. Could I elude forever? Would I be successful in my life if I kept hiding in my shell? On the date of the presentation, at the beginning, I was shaking, and my heart was beating fast. I couldn’t remember what to say first. Then I had to calm myself by imagining no one was in front of me and try to recollect what I had prepared. Finally, I finished my presentation. I didn’t get the highest grade, but I tried my best. Moreover, more importantly, I ultimately did a thing which I had always been afraid of earlier. I was proud of myself because I was courageous to overcome my fear. My aunt is rich, that’s why her only son just lived off her wealth without working even though he was old enough to earn money. He had spent most of his time throwing parties, gambling, playing games. One day, my aunt decided to stop supporting him and cast him out of the house to teach him a lesson. She hopefully believes he will be a better person someday. He is now living as a worker for money. Every single day, my aunt cries so much; she misses him a lot, but she can’t do anything. She can’t take care of him. She can’t touch his son, who now hates her and doesn’t want to meet her again. Those who are mothers must know this extremely hurts. However, she’s suffering from it every day. Some people wouldn’t see my aunt as being an image of courage, but there are many ways she represents that trait. I’m sure some parents can’t do that because they are afraid of seeing their children miserable. My aunt did the best she can to help her son. An admirable person who has inspired me a lot is Nick Vujicic. He was born with no legs and no arms. His disabilities used to make him be depressed and even decide to end his life by drowning himself in a bathtub. On the contrary, Nick then has overcome life’s challenges; He is now a motivational speaker, and he has shared a message of hope to million people. Despite his disabilities, Nick is living the best he can. He is energetic, optimistic, which to me, is the greatest definition of courage. If we notice, we will see courage every day. It’s not something that we can only see in movies, or just super heroes are courageous. A student raises his hands in class to say he doesn’t understand while he’s pretty sure the rest of the class do is courageous. We can also see courage in a person who tell the truth although he knows its consequence, or a couple who adopt an abandoned child regardless of being worried about they can love the child as their real child. We are all not perfect. Each of us has our own fear. Without courage, we would never know how best we can be. We would be afraid of being judged or whatever. We can only be inspired by the examples of other people. Somehow, courage is considered as well a factor leading to success. Moreover, courage makes us worthy of respect.