Essays on Adversity

Every person on the Earth has talent, but not every person decides to show it. Many people are aghast at the thought of facing adversity and attempt to prevent it at all costs. Moreover, without adversity, a person will fail in their career, life, and their character. They will receive no learning, no growth, and no discoveries. In some instances it takes financial adversity, physical adversity, and adversity in work situations for a person to push themselves to grow in ways that ultimately make their lives more fulfilling and develop their character.

The first kind of adversity that can be encountered in the world would be where a person does not have enough money to afford a certain lifestyle and ends up in poverty. One of the best examples would be Tyler Perry. Tyler Perry ended up living on the street in Atlanta with no money because his play, I Know I’ve Been Changed, was a failure in 1988. Instead of wallowing in grief and depression, Perry showed the play to churches in Atlanta and worked various construction jobs and sales until he got his big break at the Atlanta House of the Blues. In 2011, Perry was the highest paid man in entertainment with a salary of 130 million dollars. Though Perry was forced to go through financial adversity where he had no money at all and was living on the streets, that adversity led him to being a highly successful businessman.

A physical disability or disease is the most obvious and well-known example of physical adversity. The quarterback who breaks his leg during the final football game and is now confined to a wheelchair is faced with a drastic change to his life with many challenges. Even less drastic types of physical adversity such as chronic pain, fatigue, or obesity can force people to go through challenges in their life that they must overcome. There are also many stories of athletes that overcome physical adversity to reach elite levels. One such amazing story is Diane Van Deren, a 49 year old ultra-distance runner who was diagnosed with epilepsy at 28 years old. In order to prevent the attacks from progressing, she started running at any time she felt a seizure coming on. At age 37 she underwent a lobectomy, a removal of a small portion of her temporal lobe, which eventually controlled her epilepsy. However, despite all of those physical challenges, in the dozen or so years since she underwent her surgery, she has become one of the the top endurance runners in the world. Using the tough periods in her life, she was able to become stronger and get through all of her countless races. She won the 300 mile Yukon Arctic Ultra two years ago, and has also become the first woman to finish the 430 mile version.

For a person to be successful in their work environment they must go through adversity. One example would be a pilot spending many hours training in a flight simulator to develop exceptional skills when then going in the air. At the same time, in the simulator, the pilot can encounter every conceivable adverse situation he may experience in the air and because of that, there would be no point to a pilot training for flying in only perfect conditions with no mishaps. Another example would be an exceptional sailor who has learned to master storms, fog, unfamiliar waters, and boat or equipment malfunctions through adversity. A successful and skilled sailor would not be able to learn if every day on the water was perfect with no challenges. The last example would be a surgeon who spends many years of training after medical school under the direction of a skilled specialist. A surgeon will not learn what to do when complications develop and procedures do not go as planned if the surgeon does not go through this process. Even at work, every person must go through adversity, so that they would be able to learn and become stronger in what they are specializing in.

There are many types of adversity that all people in the world will eventually face. Whether it would be financial, physical, work adversity, etc, adversity will happen to everyone. Adversity plays a Herculean role in the development of a person’s character and will bring out to light talents in a person that would have never been uncovered in prosperous or perfect circumstances.