Adversity In Everyday Life

Everyone in their individual, everyday lives will face adversity in one way or another. Possibly as extreme as dealing with the death of a loved one, but some problems as simple as having to do a homework assignment. When someone faces a problem, they have a reaction, it’s simply human nature.. The way one responds to life’s natural adversity is what truly defines them as a person. The image I try to create for myself is one of perseverance and the classic, hard-nosed mentality that’s so respected in working-class. My father grew up in a small, lower class village in rural Iowa, with a population of roughly 700 people. One of those places where everyone knows everyone, and most kids live in the same house their grandpa grew up in, simply a …show more content…
He made his best effort to attend practice while moving between his chemotherapy, despite strong suggestions from his doctors to avoid doing so. Every time we saw Coach at a practice, the mood instantly became one of intense seriousness, knowing we had to impress him with our improvements since the last time he had been to practice. At this same time the players were so humbled knowing this man, while battling brain cancer, still cared enough about every one of us to come stand in whatever weather was present that day, whether it be the draining August heat or the biting cold of October. His battle, not without a violent fight, came to an end just after the season did, and a very bittersweet one at that. Coach Tietjen passed away shortly after the season ended, but not before coaching us to the first conference championship in almost five …show more content…
Before the service, my entire team, as well as a significant amount of alumni, filed into the locker room which every one of these men had once spent every day of fall in. Walking through the doorway felt like entering into a whole world of emotion, every feeling from my four years of football hit me at a single moment with a piercing wave of nostalgia. Every feeling was centered in my stomach, which became so heavy with feelings of pain, victory, and defeat creating what felt like a bowling ball inside myself weighing down my whole torso. I thought of every pregame and postgame speech I had heard from Coach and simultaneously my chest became unbearably tight from holding back every urge to break down and cry on the spot. I powered through the emotional adversity after about thirty minutes of exchanging of nostalgic stories. Eventually everyone regrouped to the main area for a few short speeches by various members. I had the personal honor of telling my father’s story to the entire group of men. I explained the scenario surrounding the first telling of the story to the team during that season, how the news sent the team emotionally staggering, looking for some direction to take the season in. The story helped us all realize what we had to do with this season was take the heartbreaking news and turn it into a motivational springboard sending us above and beyond what we would have accomplished