Image provided by: Library of Congress; Washington, DC
About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 6, 1925)
i 1925 I-------------------------------------- - 3 -r MAV 8 r The ChemawaAmerican Printed at Chemawa, Oregon, and Devoted to the Interests of Indian Education Wednesday, May 6, 1925 Vol. XXVI OPPORTUNITIES Weak students wait for opportunities—strong stu dents make them. The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of the weak, changeable, or vaccilating mind. Every life is full of opportunities. Every lesson you have is an opportunity. Every examina tion is a chance in life. Every transaction is an op portunity—an opportunity to be polite, an opportun ity to be manly, an opportunity to be honest, an op portunity to make friends. Every proof of confidence in you is a great oppor tunity. It is the idle, lazy student, not the worker, who is always complaining that he has no oppor tunity. Some young people will make more out of the opportunities which many carelessly throw away than others will get out of a whole lifetime. Don’t wait for your opportunity. Make it. Whatever ycu do, both at Chemawa and after you finish, make any sacri fice necessary to keep in an atmosphere, an environ ment that will stimulate you to self-improvement. Keep close to those who will help you to make the most of yourself. This may make all the difference to you between a grand success and an almost com plete failure. Stick to those who are trying to do something and to be somebody in the world—people of high aims and lofty ambitions. Keep close to those who are dead-in-earnest. Ambition is contagious. You will catch the spirit that dominates in your envir onments The success of those about you who are trying to climb upward will encourage and stimulate you to struggle harder if you have not done quite so well yourself. There is a great difference between the chances of a young man or young woman who starts out with a thorough understanding with themselves that they are going to make a success of their lives, with a reso lution to win at all hazards, and those who set out with no particular aim or ambition, backed by no firm determination that they will make good no mat ter how long it takes, or how hard the fight. Students, it is pitiful to see so many drifters in our school and elsewhere; young people who would like to get on, but who have not the ambition or grit to com mit themselves to an aim to get an education and de termine that nothing will discourage them. Those No. 29 young people of loose aim and half-committed purpose see many obstacles. Your firm resolution to conquer will frighten away the bugbears which deter the faint hearted and unambitious student. Yes, a grim deter mination to do a thing will banish a lot of obstacles and difficulties. There is no use trying to keep back a boy or girl with a strong determination. Doubts and fears flee before resolute purpose. There is something fine in the very determination of a student to win at all haz ards, something grand in his resolution to conquer and not waver, that not only inspires our confidence, but wins our admiration and carries conviction. We believe that the student who can take such an attitude is a winner; that there is a great reason back of his superb self-confidence; the consciousness of the power to accomplish the thing he undertakes. So, right now, boys and girls—each one of you— resolve that you will take advantage of every oppor tunity offered you at this great school and that you will prove your resolution by being constant day after day, for we want to tell you that you have opportun ities staring you right in the face, which we urge you to accept, free of charge—opportunities such as any white boy or girl would be compelled to pay at least $800 a year for. Think it over and decide quickly—and right. Make your decision to fight for an education, and make such decision absolutely final, burn all of your bridges be hind you, and then when you know that you have com mitted yourself to the one task of securing an educa tion you will be careful of your time. Your judg ment will improve as you trust it, depend upon it, use it, and your progress will surprise you. So, again we say, make your own opportunities. Do you know that as a rule it has not been people favored with money, but the poor boys and girls, with seemingly no chance, who have really done things? There is nothing so fascinating to us as the story of how men and women who have brought great things to pass got their start; their obscure beginnings and triumphant endings; their struggles, their long wait ings amid want and woe, the obstacles overcome; the (Continued on page 4)
