Courage

A story is told .... that a college student was once assigned to write a 10 page term paper on an ancient Roman value. The point of the paper was to show the professor that they understood the value completely, by giving definitions and examples. This student chose courage as his topic and wrote his paper. The due date came, he turned his assignment in and hoped for the best. Later, his professor was astonished when he found his paper. There were just five words: the first and last name of the student and one sentence that read, "This is courage." 10 blank pages followed.

If only college were really that easy. I've been there. It's not! Writing 4 page papers (4 full pages) at 10 when the paper is do at 12... been there, done that, so over it.

Putting that aside, I think this story makes a good point. This student obviously understands what courage means. Turning in a blank assignment is committing GPA suicide. The average student would rather gable on about nonsense and get at least something, then turn in virtually nothing and risk a 0. No one would dare do it. Teachers know this too, and they suffer through the bad ones to give a student at least some credit. But coming across ten empty pages carefully stacked and stapled together must have shocked him, to say the least, for two reasons:

1) This student broke the cardinal rule of at least writing 10 pages of crap, and
2) he risked his entire grade on just five words, five words that were read in 2 seconds but generated enough respect that he passed with flying colors. That risk alone showed the teacher that he understood what it meant to be courageous.

I do not know if this story is true, but it is an example of courage none-the-less.

Courage comes in many forms: a courage to fight; a courage to stand down; a courage to defend the things you believe, at the chance of ridicule; and a courage to do hard things, at the prospect of certain failure.

Talk with an entrepreneur or a new business owner, and you'll find a person who now lives their life by courage. Consider first what it might be like to quit everything. Leave behind a financially secure job that pays the bills and builds your savings. Then consider pursuing a dream with nothing but the money in your bank account and a few people crazy enough to believe in your vision. I used to wonder why people do it? I think I've found the answer. They've found something that they love. They love it because it is either 1) their passion, or 2) not working for someone else.  Most people don't have the courage to take that step. Unfortunately, some don't even have the courage to find a career in their passion. Larry Smith thinks that this will make most people fail to have a great career.

C.S. Lewis said, "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." It is difficult to live a life consistent with our beliefs (whether they be moral, religious, secular, or a combination of them all), and everyone's virtues will be tested. For every person that believes that it is wrong to steal, they will be faced with a situation where it will seem the only thing to do. Every person that believes it wrong to have an abortion will will be confronted about their belief. And every person that believes in God will feel like they are left alone in their toughest trials.

Courage is the ability to stand up for what you believe in, in these situations. Do the right think and don't look back. A courageous person doesn't believe in the phrase, "I can't." They may have said it, but they don't really believe it. If you ask them if they've done something hard, they might say, "Not yet, but thanks for the idea!"

So next time you think you can't do something, ask yourself first, am I just too scared to do it? If you are, then reconsider how great it would be to accomplish it, then have the courage to do it.

P.S.A lesson on courage is touched upon in Veronica Roth's book Divergence. It is a very good book that I can only describe as Hunger Games-esque, with a dash of addicting.