Courage is carrying on, or carrying out an action regardless of the influence of fear. Courage is the drive to keep moving forward even when things look hopeless, when it seems you’re killing yourself just to run in place but you keep going because no matter how slow, you know that you are making strides. Courage is standing up when the whole world wants you to lie down.

Courage is needed in order to excel in anyone’s life.

I remember I had to have enough courage to put an end to an abusive drug induced situation. I was 16 at the time and it was me and my mother living in an apartment. My mother was a long time drug abuser so it wasn’t uncommon for her to have strange, shady people in the house.

One day she brought a man over who, I found out, did not want to leave. The man was there for about three days being extremely loud and destructive. The first thing people would say is to call the police but because of some bad decisions when I was younger I had a warrant, and we didn’t necessarily have the right to be there ourselves. I was conflicted. I hated the whole situation but being a teenager addressing a grown man on whatever drugs he was on I was as nervous as i could have been, but one day I saw the stress my mother was under and imagined how she could have felt as not only a woman but one trying to protect her child. I had enough, so I told him, “You gotta cut. Right now.” Of course his reaction was “little boy stay out of grown folks business” I got angry and knew there was only was only one thing to do. I grabbed him and swung him towards the front door, he was lighter then i thought, a few punches were thrown then my mom steps in grabbing and swinging. I go harder we start wrestling, i can handle this, “open the door!” at the top of my lungs. She opens the door, I tackle him out of it, I’m on top, I let a little frustration out in the moment my mother grabbed me and we went back inside. We caught our breath and it was too quiet for too long, there is one more loud BOOM on the front door, had to be a kick. I checked the peephole and he was gone, for good.

This might not be the most uplifting or wholesome example of courage but it is very relevant in my life, and it did teach me that if you have a little courage and step outside of your comfort zone you can achieve goals that you never thought possible, you may be are stronger than you think, and the longer you let fear hold you back is the worse things are gonna get.