The Test Of Courage

Fear. Probably the worst emotion any person could ever have to deal with. And ‘courage’ is the antonym that we give for it in the English language.
    What then, is courage? Is it the absolute absence of fear? No, my esteemed audience, it isn’t. It’s all about feeling fear, but refusing to give in to it. It’s about living, as opposed to merely existing. Courage is to seize life by its reins and shaping it, and not letting it shape you.
  Teenagers today have to face up to everything from peer pressure to parental pressure; from the desire to succeed to the desire to impress. It’s small wonder that, it has become frighteningly common to hear of a depressed teenager committing suicide; the result of a horribly illogical solution. Is that courage? No. On the other hand, you can also hear of people in the same age group who literally go through hell; and emerge stronger. That is courage. There are adolescents, children even, who hold back breaking jobs, but still have a smile playing on their lips.
  In fact, you don’t even have to look far to find examples such as them. The next time you’re out in the city, look at the unfortunately high number of child laborers who live here. They have a strength, a resilience that so many of lack.
  There is nothing poetic or glorious or courageous about death. I mean, if there is anything truly priceless in this world, then it is a human life- a living, vibrant human soul with limitless potential within itself. And taking one such life, be it your own, or someone else’s, would be a desecration of the greatest gift from Divinity bestowed upon us. Clichéd though it may sound, where there is a will, there is always a way.
    In today’s day and age, amidst all our obligations, societal demands and spoon fed dreams, we forget the single most important responsibility, or more aptly, the duty; to explore ourselves, to nurture our innate talents: whatever they may be. And it takes courage to attain that. It takes courage to be different, to break away from stereotypes.
    Refusing despair entrance to your thoughts forms the very basis of bravery. To quote Robert Frost, taking the “path less trodden” takes an incredible amount of courage that, although, all of us can summon, most of us don’t.
    Our society today has become freakishly obsessive. We obsess about the past, trying to figure out what could have been better; and then we obsess about the future , trying to make it as good as we possibly can. And we ultimately wind up rushing through our lives, forgetting absolutely the ‘here’ and ‘now’: the present. We forget absolutely to pause and appreciate what we have.
  Our parents teach us to be that way, and we subconsciously teach our kids to be that way- and this tradition continues generation to generation, slowly but steadily eating away at humanity like a maggot. We slowly lose our spontaneity; we lose the spark that defines us as being humans. And the process has already been continuing for a few centuries.
  One single change can have far reaching effects- it takes just one small cut to divert an entire river. But that one, ineffably important change takes up an incredible amount of will and bravery. Can we have it in us to do it? Yes, we do. Will we do it? That question remains to be answered.
      Believe in what you will: destiny, higher powers, or Paulo Coelho’s ‘signs and omens’; but live. Open yourself up to the love the Universe has to give; live every moment, with every breath that you take. See the World for what it is- beautiful. Honor the flame imperishable within yourself- only then will you find haven. Only then will you find courage. [654 words]