Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.
All life demands struggle. ~Napoleon Hill
Living in a poor town on a Washington State reservation, a kid seeks to find hope. This boy’s name is Junior. However, nothing can ever be easy. Junior faces countless challenges and adversity; moreover, he needs to find hope if he is to be able to overcome this struggle. I was similar in this way, as I needed to look at the bright side and push through annotating the book. Struggle, while a piercing blade poised to penetrate your heart, is dulled by the rigid stone of hope.
“Never lose hope. Storms make people stronger and never last forever.”
~Roy T. Bennett
Nothing great in life comes without adversity. For me, this meant being able to dive into new experiences. When I was all alone; the new boy at school, I had to push past the fear and overcome the adversity. It was my first day at a new school. I was starting the eighth grade, and didn’t know what to expect. All the other kids already knew each other from previous years, but I was a new boy. I had to leave all of my friends from my old school behind, and start a new chapter of my life.
“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” ~Aristotle
With many important things on my mind, reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, wasn’t at the top of my list. The book started slowly and I quickly wanted to stop reading the book and focus on my secondary school essays; however, as I continued reading the book, I learned many key takeaways from this book. Even though this book was a struggle for me to read, I locked in and finished the reading—a reading that explores the effects of poverty and difference in profound ways on a sarcastic, lively boy named Junior, growing up on a Native American reservation, and taught me to accept academic challenges in a more complete way..
Challenge is a plague to us all. The amount of times that I’ve done something without any form of adversity is slim to none. Whether I’m in the classroom, running in cross country or even just playing games by myself, there are hardships embedded within all of my actions. A reward will not be awarded until a challenge is overcome.
