What is courage? Courage, by dictionary definition, is "the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery." To have courage, you do not need to chase down a bank robber until he is caught; you do not need to shoot down an enemy place from a hideout on a mountaintop; you do not need to be an adult; you do not need to have a certain definition to be considered courageous. Courage can be holding the door open for a stranger. Courage can be a physically challenged person making their way down the street in a wheelchair. Courage can be going through a long day of work to provide for your family.
One huge example of courage to me is the firefighters that go into burning buildings. They go into those buildings completely selfless and with the intentions of saving innocent civilians, and they almost always come out having achieved their goals. Not only do they put their own wants and needs aside, but they risk their lives for strangers that they do not even know.
Another courageous field of work is police work. Every day they have the chance of getting shot at. They go out of their way to put their lives on the line, once again, for strangers.
However courageous these jobs are, you do not have to be a firefighter or a policeman to define courage. A lot of people in the spiraling economy have dead end jobs and are getting paid minimum wage. I can only imagine how hard it is to support a family with a low paycheck. The majority is suffering, and I think that all of them that can get through the days, cut down, and still maintain stability, and frankly, those people deserve some recognition.
Someone that I know personally that is courageous is my brother. My brother recently went through a tough break up with his girlfriend of six years. They had been through so much together, and as many times as he thought it could have been over, it was really over now. My brother and his then-girlfriend moved to Maryland about a year ago for my brothers job. Not only is it hard for him to keep up with the bills but he has to be away from his family, and he is making it by a thread. My parents try to help my brother out as much as they can, but my brother really doesn't like to take their help because he has enough pride to know that he can make it on his own. Now that they have broken up and she moved back with her family in New Jersey, my brother is completely alone and struggling. I am his little sister, and if it was up to me I would say that he should come home and live with us again. However, my brother's pride and courage are the two driving factors that tell him that he can make it and eventually he will be more than stable. He is courageous to me because he is in such a hard situation and he has gone through it gracefully and he never complains or tries to make anyone pity him. He is truly courageous to me.
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