I wanted to write a post about perseverance and persistence, and I had an idea to write another one about hope until I realised that the two for me are entirely connected. Without hope you will find it near impossible to persevere, no matter how impossible something seems, some small part of you is pretty much required to have hope to enable you to persevere and persist through whatever pain, test, or hard work is required.
So without further do a combination post of perseverance and hope.
Starting with my a quote “Hope is a little voice you hear whisper ‘maybe’ when it seems the entire world is shouting ‘no!”’
Amen to that.
Countless times we all feel like this, like something is just too much effort, too big of a challenge and everyone else thinks you can’t do it….so why even bother trying to prove them wrong…I mean maybe they have a point? My most prominent memory of this is my end of Y9 exams, years and years ago, my languages teacher was not my greatest fan and told my parents I would never be able to cope with taking German and French GCSE. Now I had no intention of doing this but the fact that she felt it necessary to tell me I couldn’t made me angry, and that anger made me study really hard, I think that I got A’s, I know that I got equally high grades in both and my teacher was actually forced to retract her words and conveyed genuine surprise to me about my results. But nowadays in fairness the challenges are a little bigger than a french grammar test.
But the principle is exactly the same.
That even when the world (thought one teacher grant it, is not representative of the world) tells you you cannot do it, as long as you have hope ( warning cliche coming) anything is possible.
Let me pose you a question. How many of you or how many people that you know would believe four teenagers could set up a charity, further yet one that actually could make a difference?
I would hasten a guess to say not many, and that’s not to be arrogant and say well we did so ha, because truth is I think for a long time we didn’t believe we could do it…..but we hoped we could. And that Hope was enough, for even on the days where we were exhausted and our meetings had gone round in circles getting us nowhere, even when adults told us that our plans didn’t make sense or were doubtful about what we were attempting, hope was enough to spur us on to persevere.
Hope is something, that I truly think is a necessity to life. Or another way at looking at it is “Hold.On.Pain.Ends”. Because a lot of the time lets face it that’s what hope is, it’s a desperate wish that these times of tests and trials will come to a close, and better times will come around.
And this quote emplifies that.
And it also is referring back to perseverance, you need to hope and persevere that even though what you want is not what you have right now doesn’t mean that it never will.
“Be happy with what you have whilst working for what you want”
And this is my challenge. I have talked endlessly about gratitude and happiness through the tough times. And I am committed to being happy with what I have right now whilst working hard for what I want….right now that being good grades to get me into University as it is for most my age!
And to do this, to achieve this challenge I need 2 things….
You guessed it. Hope and perseverance, hope that what I want is achievable, hope that I can finish my education next year with the grades that I want and need and Hope for what life post-a-level holds for me and for the rest of the team also! And for that we need perseverance, to work hard at school, to work hard on our charity projects and campaigns. To stick out the hours spent at our desks or staring at our laptops or notes. To preserve through the tedious, boring, and tough times, hoping for better. And trying to enjoy the ride all the same.
And so this is my final message as there will be a bit of a break from posting for a while. National Blog Posting month as come to an end and it has certainly taught me perseverance! Posting daily has been a challenge but it’s taught me to persist through the days filled with fatigue, the days of feeling just uninspired, the tedious and mundane moments. And its helped me to appreciate all the times I’ve laughed so hard I’ve cried, or held my sides for fear of them splitting, to appreciate the times spent with my family laughing at something ridiculous or the spontaneous moment of fun with my friends.
And I hope it can do the same for you, as the 30 posts from the month of November are in the archives for whenever you fancy a browse!
Thank you for reading and sticking with us through this month!
ANDYS BEAT! 