The Resilience in High School

A strong quote by Alain de Botton is “A good half of the art of living is resilience.” To any who are resilient they know that this quote is quite accurate. Resilience can be defined as “toughness” or “the ability to recover from difficulties.” As can be further defined by author, Kendra Cherry, having resilience also means that you are aware, understanding that life has setbacks have what psychologists call an “internal locus of control”. Not looking at yourself as a victim, but as a survivor, knowing when to ask for help, possessing strong problem solving skills and strong social connections.

To be resilient is to also stand up after every time you get knocked down. For some people this could be as extreme as surviving on a raft like in a book called “Unbroken” by Lisa Hillenbrand, or it could be as simple as getting through the craze known as high school. While the story told by Lisa Hillenbrand is true about Louie Zamperini, it is an extreme case of resilience although a prime one. Something that is more relatable though for most is trying to survivor high school and graduate. For some, this is no biggie and is hardly a demonstration of resilience but for others it can a rough ride.

Having awareness is very helpful in high school, being aware of where you are in the long list of assignments or to do lists that school often requires is quite useful. While being aware can be a large help to getting through it all, having strong problem solving skills is another. For some it’s not as easy as writing a paper for English because maybe they lack the ability to make full connections or maybe even are a bit dyslexic. And thus bringing in the problem solving skills and in having determination to get through your assignments, no matter what is a piece of being resilient. Likewise, you should also consider knowing when to ask for help and not being afraid to part of your problem solving skills because sometimes asking for just a couple minutes of help can be the difference between passing or failing an assignment. Social connections between your teachers and yourself, or even other students can definitely be an asset in accomplishing what you need to.

Accomplishing what you need to can be hard without having what psychologists call an “Internal Locus of Control” which is being able to take control of a situation as much as you can from the inside without trying to push the blame onto external forces. Asking for help from others can be just what someone may need in order to prove their ability to not pin the blame on outside forces. In being able to work towards your goals of graduating in this case it also means you must take into consideration that setbacks do happen and they are a part of learning. They teach you that even if you get knocked down you must stand back up and try, try, try again. In the end of it all, demonstrating the 7 characteristics of resilience can land you a spot striding across that stage to accept your diploma and allows you to remember you are not a victim of high school but merely a survivor.

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