What Does It Take To Be A Survivor?

                                                         
 What does it really take to be a survivor? What traits do you really need? Being a survivor doesn't take a lot. It could just simply mean that you have been through a lot and keep persevering.

 One of the most important traits to being a survivor is mental strength. Mental strength  is how you handle things and how you react. Do you take things and try to make them better, or do you just freak out and stop trying?  

The Show Survivors is a prime example of people and physical strength. This show shows how people use physical strength to win, but they still use some mental strength to complete the task.

Bullying, it is a major problem today. Bullying isn't something that can be played with. Bullying is something that you can survive; it isn't just just something that can be overlooked. Bullying usually starts when you become a pre-teen. This is the time when kids are starting to find out who they are. That was the case for Olivia Gardner.

 It all started when she was 12 years old and had a epileptic seizure in class. Kids began to make threats and call her names. Sometimes they would even beat her up! So she began to hide in bathroom stalls during class changes. She even had her book-bag dragged through the mud! Olivia went to school officials but no help was found. She started to become withdrawn and suffer from panic attacks, which led to her being home-schooled. Olivia tried to hide her fear from her family, but she secretly considered taking her own life.

 Finally, when Olivia turned to the media for help, she learned that this was already a wide-spread problem among teens. Two teens from a nearby school district heard about this and started their own letters of encouragement to Olivia. This story caught wind and Olivia is getting thousands of letters from all over the world!

Cecelia

Michigan Plane Crash

Michigan Plane Crash On August 16, 1987 -  In Romulus, Michigan, a plane crashed in a Detroit suburb. It was flight 255 headed to Pheonix. Cecelia was 4 years old when the plane crashed. She was found when a paramedic heard her moan and saw her arm twitch. Her mother, father, and brother were killed, but Cecelia made it out with a few broken bones and a couple bruises.

 People from around the world were fascinated that this little girl had made it out of the crash alive. They sent her stuffed animals and plenty of cards wishing her to get better. Although her grand parents kept her and kept her away from the media, she was still featured on the cover of a magazine. Cecelia is now married. She also shared her story for a movie producer!  

Forged By Fire 

Forged By Fire is a powerful book by Sharon Draper. In this book a young boy named Gerald is taken from his mother after he was left at home and the house catches on fire while he was playing with a lighter. The neighbor rescues him, and he is sent to live with his aunt. But when tragedy strikes and Gerald's aunt dies, he is forced to go back to live with his mother. His mother has had a daughter by her new boyfriend and Gerald learns to protect himself and his little sister (Angel). Gerald's mom's boyfriend was very abusive and even sexually assulted little Angel. Gerald is forced to help hold this family together through all this madness.

The most Dangerous Game

The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell,  is a book about a hunter (Zaroff) living on a island trapping sailors by wrecking their ships and hunting them. The main character is Rainsford. He was on his ship when he fell off. Rainsford swam to Zaroffs island looking for safety out of the water, but little did he know he was looking for way more than safety. Slowly but surely Rainsford start to figure out Zaroff's game, and when Zaroff challenges Rainsford to a hunt, Rainsford is forced to become the hunted for the first time ever. He learned to survive from using his smarts, instead of his supreme hunting skills. To Watch the movie for this book go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023238/.


 In all these survivor stories, all of these people are survivors! No matter how big or little the situation was, they are still survivors because they overcame something.

 While gathering information for this project I learned that being a survivor takes so much more than just strength. These stories really prove this! This assignment really opened up my eyes more to how people can be survivors. Also, this assignment really made me think more about the stories we have read in class such as "The Most Dangerous Game" and " Forged By Fire". They made me think more into details about how this happens everyday, and how these people are truly remarkable for what they have been through and survived.   For more survivor stories: http://survivorstories.tumblr.com/  

 Works Cited

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