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About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1925)
The Chemawa American Printed at Chemawa, Oregon, and Devoted to the Interests of Indian Education J 3 Wednesday, October Vol. XXVII DO NOT QUIT Boys and girls, when things go wrong with you, when you lose out in what you have undertaken, what is your attitude? Do you give up, or push on, more determined than ever to win? We do not care much about what young people do when everything goes their way, when life is smooth; but we do want to know what they do next after they have had a serious setback in any undertaking. Defeat and failure mean very little to a resolute boy or girl. You cannot conquer them; you may knock them down, but they will rebound like a rubber ball; the greater the fall the greater the rebound. Our greatest glory is not in never failing, for every body fails at times, but in rising every time we fall. It is not the fall, but failure to get up that is defeat. That is the secret of the success of every brave and noble person that ever lived. Multitudes of people can stand almost anything but reverses, obstacles, dif ficulties. They get along splendidly when everything runs smoothly, when things are easy, but when hard things arise, temptations assail them, they are completely upset. They do not know how to meet the emer gencies, or any crisis in their daily living, and they become discouraged and quit. We have seen this many times right here at Chemawa—the quitter, the fault-finder, the disturber. It is the weak, backbone less, persons every where who are the first to fall when an emergency arrives. Real winners, students, never show the white feather. The finest type of manhood and womanhood is never overwhelmed or entirely dismayed no matter what comes. If the ¡dans or ambitions of a student of this type are thwarted, his spirit remains undaunted, his courage, his powers of resistance, and his self-confi dence are undiminished and he starts out again. Fail ure is the final and acid test of persistence. It either crushes the individual or so solidifies him that nothing can stand against his indomitable will. Obstacles nerve and strengthen the strong, but para lyze the weak. The winning student knows that every honest, earnest endeavor, whether it wins out directly or not, is a mental and moral muscle developer, a power builder, a force producer which will help to 21, MAY 8____ |____ • 1956___ ' No. 5 win in later struggles. It is not defeat that bothers us so much as it is the failure to get up and go at it again with redoubled efforts; that spells “yellow." There should not be a single student with aught but sincere loyalty for this great Indian school, and it should be shown not only in words but in action in every school activity. Some of our greatest living men and women have won their reputations by overcoming defeats which have followed them all their lives. Thes - defeats would have proved fatal to men or women * of less stern stuff, but the strong person turns everything into victory. If we are made of winning material all of our defeats will ultimately work to our good; if not directly, then indirectly. The persistent effort to win strengthens the entire character. The particular things which we do, the special efforts we make, often seem to fail; but it is the persistent, perpetual struggle, the everlasting trying, the constant pushing that counts and that develops men and women. All true success is won by struggling, and so it may be said that every thing comes to those who struggle. If we manfully and womanly struggle, stick and push on, things will finally come our way and we will be successful. It is said that defeat is nothing but the first steps toward something higher. It is really lamentable to see so many young men and women of superior qual ities in cheap, lowly positions, because they have not the education or training necessary for filling better or higher paid .positions. It is really tragic when we remember that the remedy lies in their own hands; that they play havoc with their lives when a little effort and stick on their part would have worked a rev olution in their careers. No person is beaten until he releases his grip on any life aim. No one is beaten so long as he works toward his goal, no matter whether he reaches it or not. So, students, let us conclude by saying that if any of you here are deluding yourselves with the belief that somehow, some way, something will turn up to improve your condition without any effort on your part you are making a tremendous mistake and losing pre cious time. Nothing will come to you except through your own labor, your own efforts, and it will depend on how you utilize your time right now. The better you work the better the results, the more you will receive, for the student who can grit his teeth and go it alone whether he receives encourgement or not, regardless of the approval of his classmates, who pushes ahead not back, is the one who gets there, it is he whom the world is after. It is the one with courage and determination who wins the prizes. Such young men and women have no fear of many rivals.
