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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
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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.