Reflection on "The Power of Grit" by Kathleen Calderwood

The article "The power of grit: Why hard work is more important than talent" by Kathleen Caldemlood is about why professor Angela Duckworth believes grit counts twice as much as talent. Grit is defined as passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. It's being resilient and hard-working with deep conviction, determination with direction. In my opinion grit is about having the stamina necessary, grit is staying with your future, day in, and day out and working really hard to make that future a reality, To me the most shocking thing about grit is how little we know about building it.

The author elaborates on why you need to remain ambitious. In reality, majority of the people are afraid to fail, I agree with Calderwood when she said, "practice is key to continuing success," because the first thing to do is to at least try something you‘re not already capable of.

You have to put in your best efforts because when you find a reason why you need to change your life, that is more powerful than the opinions of anyone else, you will truly become limitless.

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I had personal experiences before relating to this topic. my first personal experience was when my uncle died, I was really close to him we always went places together and I remember how we always sat on his porch to drink his special lemonade he always had done for me. We were practically best friends, the hardest night was when he left me.

when he died. I was heartbroken, I didn't want to eat or talk to anyone, so I didn’t for an entire month I lost so much weight and | just felt so unhealthy. After that month I knew I had to get myself back together, so I got myself more emotionally stable, more conscientious, more self-controlled, and more dependable, I knew my uncle wanted the best for me, so I’m doing it all for him.

I motivated myself. and pushed myself up. I continued to go to school, and volunteer at hospitals. I don't seek pity and play the victim I believe that we are dealt the hand that we’re dealt for a reason. After my uncle died, it was very difficult to even talk to people or make friends again, but I kept going for him that’s it. This personally didn't happen to me, but it did happen to a loved one, my brother. My oldest brother was a high school dropout everyone stopped believing in him, they all called him dumb and stupid for dropping out. He started believing it himself. he stopped believing in himself, he was depressed for years and he would always appear to be angry or aggressive instead of sad, to my family and his friends. You wouldn't be able to even talk to him in a normal way, because he will just start yelling at everyone around him, I tried talking to me, but he wouldn’t say anything all he said to me was “Zeinab never make the mistake and drop out of high school please don't, always believe in yourself, don't ever let people talk you down" I will never forget his words because I saw the pain he was going through and how much he really regretted it.

My dad knows exactly how it feels to not be educated because my dad himself was not educated and still isn’t He doesn’t want my brother to go through the same struggles he went through. Right now, my family is financially stable, when I say that I mean my dad comes home tired every single day with back problems because he’s a truck driver, but he still makes it work for us. Of course, no dad wants his kids to go through as much pain and struggle like they went through, so my dad had a sit down with my brother. he told him the struggles he's going through and how he doesn't want him to go through the same. A few months later, my brother started homeschooling to get his diploma, then he started attending college, and of course we were all there to motivate him.

Now my brother is a pharmacist living his own happy life. My brother Mahdi still thanks my dad every day for being there for him, for believing in him. Last but not least Other things that lead me to believe that hard work pays off is me working hard at school. In all my classes I’m having to work my tail off to attain the grade that I want. I work hard so at the end of my high school years I can attend the college I wish. Back in high school I tried my hardest to put in all my effort, but I was still receiving low grades which caused a low GPA. My parents weren't happy with my grades so instead of motivating me they brought me down because they always pressured me to get good grades, when I brought home my report card I was more terrified than ever. My parents were really disappointed when they saw it, but they sat me down and talked to me they told me how ‘it's more important to have grit than to have talent' and that's why I related to this article a lot.

Overall, I related to Calderwood’s statement that Grit counts twice as much as talent. The author really elaborates on how hard work is a great deal of effort or endurance. In other words. pushing yourselfjust a little bit more for a profitable outcome. Hard work has led me to achieve greater things that I thought was impossible, such as getting good grades and attending a good college, Real world examples allowed me to better defend my belief of hard work paying off as they defeat the challenges in their own lives. Which is why I believe that hard work pays off So. Calderwood’s article supported some of my personal life experiences because I have encountered failure many times in the past 4 years, but I always believed in myself and I have got something good out of it.