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About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1925)
XTzO • R 1 7 1525 I 3 MAY » I The ChemawaAmerican Printed at Chemawa, Oregon, and Devoted to the Interests of Indian Education Vol. XXVI Wednesday, March 11 1925 STIFFEN YOUR BACKBONE It is not unusual for parents or friends of boys and girls when they send them away to school, or out to work for themselves, to urge them to try and use their opportunities so that they may “come home some body”—amounting to something. Students, if you are made of the stuff that wins it does not matter whether you were born in a hovel, a mansion, or a tepee, or whatever your previous sur roundings may have been, you will “come back some body.’ ’ It makes a wonderful difference whether you go into a thing with clenched teeth and a resolute will; whether you prepare for it, and are determined at the very outset to put the thing through; whether you start in with the air of a conqueror, or whether you start in with doubt and uncertainty, with the idea that you will begin your education at school and work along gradually, and will continue if you like the school and do not find too many obstacles in your way. If you want to find an easy road to education and suc cess with no obstacles ahead of you, no stumbling blocks to trip you up and test your mettle, you are doomed to disappointment; and if you do not stiffen your back bone and resolve to win, no matter what obstacles show up in the way, you are beaten before you enter the game. There is a tremendous difference between wanting a thing, merely desiring it, and having a grim resolve to get that thing in spite of all that may come up to prevent—a resolve to pay the full price for progress, whatever it may be. The half trying, take-it-easy method used by so many students and observed in all schools, and else where, brings bitter disappointment. No matter how black the outlook for the future appears to any boy or girl if they are made of the right material thev will con tinue on with the struggle and succeed in spite of every seeming obstacle they encounter along the way. You will meet disappointment and numerous failures along the road, but when you fall down in your at tempts, instead of being discouraged, redouble your efforts and push on to accomplish what you have set out to do. Every failure in your career should strengthen your ambition to win out, so that what seems to be a mis No. 21 fortune will be turned to your advantage. You can not keep down a person with an unconquerable spirit. It is a waste of time toattempt to discourage him. You, who complain of your hardships, the trials, the things that come up to bar your progress, remember that every successful person, man or woman, in the world’s history have fought their way to victory through every sort of difficulty, defeat, in spite of disappointments and fail ures, and never gave up, but reached the goal through sheer force of determination. There is no easy route. Those indifferent, half hearted seekers after success have very little stamina or vigorous determination in them. They want to get all there is and have it handed out by an easy journey, ur on a silver platter. They avoid difficulties and follow the line of least resistance, falling back or dodging any obstacle in the road. On the other hand, no matter what opposes his passage, the winner in life’s race always follows the direct route and gets there in the end. But he must sacrifice his ease; he must work, think, and plan, make out his program and follow it. So, students, if you are satisfied to be a “nobody” all you have to do is to take the easiest route in sight; but if you want to be “somebody” make up your mind at the start that you will overcome all circumstances of an environment that have a tendency to pull you down, that you will rise above anything that tends against your advancement and prove to yourself, as well as to all others, that greatness is in the man and not in anything outside of himself. It is the insatiable longing and the determination to win, and the realiza tion of it, that moves the world. It it is the struggle to overcome difficulties that make the strong, forceful character that will stand any test. Last spring some new land on the school farm was planted to corn. The boys in hoeing the corn later on turned up some gold pieces which were on the site of an old shack that had burned years ago. It had been occupied by an old bachelor who was convicted of burglary and died in the penitentiary. Our smaller boys found altogether about $50, after digging over several acres. They had to be stopped or else the whole farm would have been dug up.
