Essays on Adversity

The language used to describe disabilities throughout all societies has controlled how disability and the people who live with it are viewed by today’s world. The way people speak, the words they say, and what the words mean all come into play in terms of describing how language controls today’s view of disability. In “The Opportunity of Adversity” Aimee Mullins explains that “our language isn’t allowing us to evolve into the reality that we all want.” This even further drives home the idea ...

The Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) partnered with Kaiser Permanente in 1995 to 1997, to conduct the original Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. Adverse Childhood Experiences are traumatic events that can have negative effects on health and well-being as a person mature. Kaiser Permanente is a not-for-profit integrated healthcare organization. Over 17,000 participants complete surveys about their childhood experiences, current health status, and behaviors in the ACE Study. The ...

Growing up I always had the opportunity to be placed in a good sport's team. Where the talent and competitiveness were beyond mine, forcing me to push myself to become a better athlete. I always looked up to those players who gave the best of themselves in the field and would not rest until the last minute. They were players that would put all the responsibility on their shoulders and pull through the toughest situations. It was like this for most of my life until I got to my junior year. ...

Traditionally, when an individual thinks of the challenging adversities that shape their lives, it is seen as a negative concept that shapes their lives in a way that it lacks success and fulfillment. However, based on the poem “ The broken images,” as well as from my personal experience, I believe that an individual’s adversity help shape the person’s identity in a positive way and play a significant role in one’s life by giving them strength, and helping them find who they truly are. I ...

The choice everyone has to make is how they will let it affect them in the future. Though each hardship brings another stress to fret about, it also plays a part in shaping the identity adversity has on a person. It determines one's potential capabilities to confront hard situations and strengthens one's personal and moral values. To choose between your destiny or your family and childhood home is a painful decision at best. Divided into three parts, Chaim Potok’s novel My Name Is Asher Lev ...

Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, each character faces an adverse obstacle that hinders their life. Hawthorne writes about a woman named Hester Prynne, who committed adultery, and the struggles she and everyone involved face. Her daughter, Pearl, stands out from the other characters. Her adversity is something she is born with and has to live with, although it is not her fault. Growing up, she was looked down on by people because of Hester’s actions. She has very ...

Adversity often comes as a surprise to us, yet it is something we all will likely experience. During dealing with hardship, our personality develops and evolves to match the new circumstances. In Hamlet, Shakespeare examines the way in which adversity takes us through a range of emotions that result in our becoming more balanced individuals. In the play, we see how young Hamlet changes after his father’s death and meeting the Ghost. In particular, Shakespeare displays how Hamlet’s identity is ...

In numerous components of our lives we must overcome many difficult challenges such as financial and political hardship, danger, and misfortune. The statement suggested by the Roman poet Horace that adversity helps us build a better character that would not have been built otherwise, holds true and can be supported with evidence from historical figures and events including the Great Depression, Lincoln, Winfrey, Tubman, Douglass. One that has to undertake a financial hardship often ...