TheBigQ Emily Schloesser

In the face of adversity, what causes some individuals to prevail while others fail?


Personal
1.) Adversity in life is completely inevitable. Everybody will face hard times at some point. The key to success and well-being through trials is perspective. The summer before my junior year, I moved schools completely unexpectedly. I moved houses that summer, out of Cherry Creek School District, with the intentions that I could open enroll and still go to Creek. When I went to register two days before school started, they told me that I could not come back, and I felt completely betrayed and hopeless. I had to move schools, to Arapahoe, a week after school already started. I didn't know anybody who went here, I had to completely start over. The first week, I was so bitter about the situation, and wanted to be absolutely anywhere else but Arapahoe. I wanted my friends, my school, my old life back. One night, I realized simply that I'm stuck. I can't change the circumstances, and what happened...happened. My attitude changed and I started focusing more on the positives of the situation, like the nice people, the awesome teachers, and a completely fresh start. From that day on, it changed. I started to like being at Arapahoe, and then I started to love it. I look at it as one of the best experiences of my life because it taught me how to roll with life's punches and become more of an independent person.


Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
2.) In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Janothan Safran Foer, Oskar Schell is a nine-year-old outsider elementary school boy who loses his beloved father in the September 11 attacks. This tragic event completely rocked his world, he lost his best friend, but more importantly the only person who feels understands him. When he finds the mysterious key in the blue vase that belonged to his father, he needs answers, and he would have done virtually anything to get them. He was determined to talk to ever person with the last name "Black" living in New York City, just to see if they knew anything about his father, or what the key meant. He was searching, but did not know what he was looking for. In the end, the key ended up being to Mr. Black's family fortune, something completely unrealted to Thomas Schell. Though it broke Oskar's heart, he still valued the experience. What he was expecting to find- some great secrets of his father's genius, or a fortune of mysteries, he certainly did not. He could have been completely bitter about the situation, given that he esentially wasted two years of his life; however, he was not. Out of his experience, he gained vast knowledge and met unforgettable friends. Though he can never bring back his father, he can do things in his memory to keep him "alive". The ending of this novel is especially touching, because everybody finds peace and cloesure.


Shakespeare
3.) In Shakespeare's famous play, "Hamlet", Young Hamlet also faces great adversity. His beloved father, the King, is murdered and everybody, along with Hamlet's mother, seems to move on and forget about The Great King. Since Hamlet valued and respected his father so much, this kills him. If things could not get worse for Hamlet, he absolutely despises the new King, his girlfriend breaks up with him, and his best friends turn against him. Everything in Hamlet's world is stabbing him in the back. Hamlet does not always have the best perspective on things. He becomes very angry, incredibly sarcastic, and seems to isolate himself into a state of deep depression. Though his circumstances are extremely unfair, nothing can be done about them. Hamlet chooses to focus on the negatives, which idolizes just how bad they were. What he doesn't realize is that the way he looks at things, only affects him. He brought most of his grief upon himself. The end of this play ends up tragically, with most of the characters dying in battles of hatred.