What exactly does it mean to have strength? When we hear the word we think physically. In terms of how much you can bench, lift, carry, etc. We also think in characteristics or activities. My strengths are kindness, soccer, writing, and trustworthiness. The lists go on. For me personally, I feel that the greatest strength would be endurance; stability or capability to bear something.
We often think of this strength to be situational. When someone goes through a difficult period of their lives, such as grief or maybe a test, but really it can be found anywhere. The greatest endurance exhibited would be situational, but even more than that, what if someone is enduring something everyday quietly. Then would it be situational?
If you were amazing at football, it could be a natural gift; a talent you picked up and you’re successful at. But there’s also the matter that you would’ve still had to work hard to get your position. You would’ve had to endure numerous tests that assess whether you were really worth adding to the team or not. You need to endure, no matter what, even if you find certain drills tiresome, things to be overbearing or maybe stupid. You need to endure it to get through. If you were trustworthy, you’d have to endure something to show that. Possibly a difficult secret, small fact that would itch you to tell someone. And yet you didn’t, because you were trusted with it and were trusted to not to tell. Regardless, the greatest strength is being able to endure.
The first person to come to mind to have the most endurance would be my mother. My mother lost both of her parents, my grandparents, within a little less of a year of each other. My mother has always been, to me, one of the most formidable people I’ve known. I could say this with bias, just as any doting child would, but she really inspired me in so many ways. She’s the first in my family to get her doctorate, the highest level of education any of us have, all while I was still a newborn and child. She refused to be easily pushed around, lest let anyone take advantage of her. Stories of her adult self on crowded bus rides in India to her pharmaceutical job warm me; stories of her swearing and cursing out people- strong willed and independent. That, to moving with my dad, newly married, to the United States (Ohio specifically) where she was back to 0, and unable to do anything, and yet worked hard to change that. And now, years later when she travels to India multiple times a year to visit her parents she only rarely gets to see, for reasons no one should hope to visit for. From the time between those two moments up to now, she has never let it bring her down. She remains persistent in her day, reminiscing about them often but continuing what she does.
Sometimes there’s endurance for personal, internal struggles. Sometimes you’re enduring yourself to get through something. You may hit rock bottom, or even a period where you can’t be yourself. You feel your mind spiraling, thinking irrationally. At that time you can’t get out of teh feeling but you’re enduring it. Letting it stay as you try to make it better, pull yourself out of a supposed slump. A temporary depression. You have to endure a difficult feeling, pressure, stress, being overwhelmed in order to persevere through it. Sometimes it’s temporary, disappearing in a day or maybe a week. Sometimes it’s not, staying for months, maybe years until something’s been solved.
With trivial matters, I’ve seen endurance. When my 7th period starts throwing marshmallows at each other given specifically for an assignment, and later discard the now wasted edibles. It was a mild level, but with the number of people and food wasted, their levels of not caring and behavior over this school year that I’ve been in class with them, I had to hold myself back.
But high endurance doesn’t always mean strength, truth be told. It can be fragile as well. Desperately clasping onto something small and refusing to let go, give up or in. In some situations endurance can show you holding on, sometimes barely, shakily to something keeping you down. Regardless, endurance is you holding onto what’s keeping you down to prevent being blown away by what’s stopping you. And yet, there are times where our endurance cracks. That strength runs out and we can no longer hold ourselves upright. Maybe we feel that hole, emptiness of a loved one muh stronger one day than another, or we feel so pent up we can’t suppress it any longer. It is then other strengths start to show. Not just from ourselves, but from others as well. Strengths of kindness or compassion shine through when someone helps you build yourself up again. Strength could be seen through someone understanding or being willing to listen, silently, unbiased and unjudging, impartial to everything as you just let it out. Strength could even be as expected, someone comforting you. Raising your spirits, humoring you and making you feel better. Somebody could have strength in peacekeeping, or preventing conflict. Maybe holding me back from snapping at those kids pelting marshmallows at each other.
Where do I find strength? Well, one I would say would be writing. I’m not perfect at it, but I am willing to continuously grow and improve my skills over the years so I can keep writing and excel in it. But where do I find the strength to endure? In reality I’ve struggled with that. I get overwhelmed easily, and it drives me insane. My strength comes from music. I enjoy listening to music, simply getting overtaken in it, or maybe even whenI’m not paying attention. It books things out for me, in a way that I can concentrate on myself and focus. Calm down even. I gain strength from my friends, peers who look up to me or rely on me. People who care about me and what I do. Then there’s my family; people who have supported me every step of the way, regardless of what happened, the biggest constant of my life.
In the end strength can be found in anything. You can have talent and excel in something you do, in terms of being active or doing something, or something you display and characterize you. But really, the biggest display of strength, and most importance would be endurance.
