Saturday, July 2, 2011

Perseverance


"In the confrontation between the stream
and the rock, the stream always wins
- not by strength but by perseverance."
- H. Jackson Brown 

Somewhere in my childhood I learned the value of perseverance.  I know when I entered high school I decided to make a change in my life.  Up through 8th grade I struggled with reading, writing, spelling.  My 7th grade teacher gave me a bad spellers dictionary because I spelled so badly I couldn't even look up a word I wanted to spell in Webster's dictionary.  (The bad spellers dictionary actually had psychology in the Ss.)  I joked that I wanted to have English as my second language.  Math was my first language.  Math was the only thing I was good at in school.  I entered high school and set a lofty goal of straight A's in every subject.  Then, I set to work on all the homework to make it possible.  I learned a quote from my mother, "To get a C do the work, to get a B do more work, to get an A study the teacher."  I spent hours on some of my subjects since I was poor at reading it took me longer to read assignments.  When I got stuck, I learned to talk to my teachers.  In algebra there was an entire chapter of story problems.  My worse nightmare for school work.  I had to read a story and make mathematical sense out of the swimming words.  My algebra teacher was also the chemistry teacher.  I remember day after day sitting in the back of the smelly chemistry lab making crude drawings of what the words were supposed to mean.  The teacher pushed.  I would get frustrated but I persevered.  I would not quit.  The test was tough.  I was ecstatic when I got 100%.  I knew to keep it a secret.  In the mixed up world of high school getting good grades was bad.  Still I worked each semester studying, asking questions and persevering through 4 years of hard study.  I graduated in the top 5% of my class.  My mother's only comment, "You are not smarter you just worked harder."  Part of my motivation was to please her with my good grades.  I was in shock when I realized it meant very little to her.  Those 4 years taught me 2 valuable lessons.  
1.  I could not please my mother.
2.  If I put my mind to doing something, I could do it through perseverance and hard work.  
The first lesson freed me to pursue my own dreams, the second made it possible to achieve them.  I just didn't realize then what type of road blocks I was facing.  Eight years ago, I found out I had PTSD at a severe level.  Translated into everyday language, for over 40 years, I functioned using multiple personalities to survive.  Perseverance was key to the integration process.  I did not give up on myself.  I would not quit.  Drop by drop water can dissolve rock.  

6 comments:

mulderfan said...

I once got 97% on a test in high school and NF asked what happened to the other 3%. He wasn't joking!

Motivation is the key. I've taught "slow learners" who outshone "gifted" kids. Why? They were willing to work for what they wanted.

You still have that drive, Ruth!

Hugs, P/M

Ruth said...

Thanks P/M,
I am so sorry that you know what I mean. How sad that he couldn't rejoice with you in your achievement. I suspect that your encouragement is one of the things that made the difference for your students.
Hugs,
Ruth

Anonymous said...

I commend your perseverance and I love that quote! :)

Ruth said...

Thank you Cheshire.

Laurel Hawkes said...

How did I miss learning to ask the teacher for help? I had to do it on my own, because I "knew" no one would help... oh, wait... story problems... If I didn't ask for help, then no one would know how stupid I really was... Because when I asked for help, for some reason, what people said to me didn't connect with what I was trying to work out, so I felt stupid. On more than one occasion, the tone of voice of the person trying to help me affirmed I was stupid for not "getting" it. Glad I've overcome that, bit by bit.

Ruth said...

I had already been told I was stupid so many times that I figured I had nothing to lose by asking for help. Getting to the point where you have nothing to lose can be very liberating.