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About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 1925)
THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN PAGE 4 THE PROBLEM (Continued from page 1 ) who have no “dare” in their natures, who are afraid to take chances, who shrink from hardships, from re sponsibility, must be content with very small achieve ment. Students, grit has enabled many a poor boy and girl to pay his way through school and make a place for himself in the world; it is more than a match for any handicap; it has won the greatest battles in history. No substitute has ever been found for the ability to stick to a thing, for staying quality. The great question is: Can you keep at it; can you stick; can you persevere after failure; have you grit and backbone enough to hold on, stick and hang on in spite of everything? Boys and girls, if you have this faculty, though some of you may be stupid in school, and dull of comprehension, you will win out in the end. You are more likely to succeed if you have this one great quality, even if you lack in other success qualities, than if you possessed great brilliancy with out it. The person whom we all admire is he who does not shrink back because of temporary defeat, but who comes up again and again and wrests triumph from de feat. After all the real test is what we do after we fail. What will the failure arouse in us? Will it discover in us new sources of power, double our determination, or will it dishearten us? How much is there left in you after you have apparently lost out? If you lie down then, young folk, throw up the sponge, you cer tainly are not made of the right stuff. There are varying degrees of persistency. Some boys and girls start with enthusiasm and zeal, butturn back at their very first defeat, at the very first rebuff they get after their arrival at school, while hard knocks and iron conditions serve to make others fight the more. Rebuffs call out their reserve sticking power and renders them all the more resolute. For some students every hard place means to “give up,” but there is no “give-up” in a boy or girl who comes to school with a purpose, who persists, who is never beaten. Those who never think of being defeated are bound to win. We all believe in the young man or woman who per sists, sticks, hangs on, when others let go. Tenacity of purpose gives confidence. If you stick to your pur pose through thick and thin, if you have the genius of persistence, you have the very first qualifications of an achiever. There may come a time in your life when you will have no idea what to do next; when you may not be able to make a single intelligent move, when you can not see any light ahead. Then is the time simply to hang on and refuse to give up. We are hammering this lesson at you students time and again because it is the very first lesson you should learn. We have seen hundreds, yea, thousands, of young men and women spoil their chances of success by not sticking to their jobs. Without this tena city of purpose, ability to stick, education and bril liancy, even genius, will not amount to much. With it any one of you here may succeed. The world owes more to persistency that never gives up than to almost anything else. A proof of your greatness is shown when you stick to your aim, can accomplish your purpose in spite of all embarrassments and conditions. Unless each one of you here is dominated by some aim, some fixed purpose, something definite, some plan, you cannot go very far in securing an education. The higher you go along educational lines the more successful you may be on account of the mental training acquired in seeking out, grasping and applying the principles be hind the various studies. So after all that may be said or done, you must have the mental qualifications to get ahead, which, together with grit and stick, will put you on the right road to success. We wish you all a most successful year in your task of securing an education. INDUSTRIAL ITEMS The farmers and gardeners are bringing in the pota to crop now. The plumbers are repairing roofs and gutters and sewer and water lines all over the place. The shoe and harness detail are ready for the 30 sets of harness that are to be made for the Indian sendee. A new floor is to be placed in the dairy barn by the carpenters, who will start work on the same in a short time. The tailors are few in number just at present, but the crowd will be increased when some more of the boys return. Carpenters have just about completed excavating for the basement of the senior D.S. addition. Forms will be placed soon for the concrete. The painters are preparing furniture, etc., for the fair. Some fine looking green roofs are in evidence as a result of this department’s efforts. The engineers have a big job ahead for this fall and winter. The water tube boiler will be reset, which will give valuable practice to all the boys of that de partment. The blacksmiths and machinists are preparing to re store the material that was in the old iron house. The new floor put in this building by the carpenters was completed in record time. The removal of the office of the Superintendent of Industries from the carpenter shop building has given a great deal of space to the carpentry department, which will be used for bench room and class room.
