If you had different hardships in your life would you be a different person? The answer is most likely yes. A person’s character is based upon the experiences they have been through. “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant,” –Horace. In “And Still We Rise” by Miles Corwin, Corwin shares the lives of inner city kids who still strive to succeed and go to college although the circumstances they are dealt with have told them otherwise. Some of the kids that dealt with bad hands were Toya, Olivia, and Willie. The struggles that they went through are impetuous. Growing up, Toya never knew her biological father. Instead she lived with her mom and stepfather. Toya would often see
In the end it’s up to you,” Olivia said one day in English class (Corwin 43). Unfortunately, Olivia didn’t always make the right choices. She was caught forging a check, but because she does not have any parents she was sent to jail to serve time. This all happened during Olivia’s senior year so she couldn’t take her AP exam but was allowed to finish high school. She was released from jail in time for college and went. She is now doing extremely well and helping kids in group homes every Saturday morning. Through hard times, good times will shine through. These kids were given such difficult lives and it was their decision to do what that wanted with their lives. It is a lot harder to succeed when you have so much hate around you, but a lot of these students decided to persevere and make a better life for themselves. “Remember the past. Cherish the present. Conquer the future,” (398). Those were the encouraging words of Danielle, who was the valedictorian, during graduation. If everyone could just remember that saying, it would be a better world and all those hard trials would all be worth