<p>“Do you think that ease does not challenge us and that we need adversity to help us discover who we are?”</p>
<p>Character is the force within each individual that distinguishes that person from others. How we react to, and overcome, challenges is what defines our character, and moreover, who we are. There is simply no greater avenue of self discovery than the trials and tribulations of adversity.</p>
<p>In the short story, “Enemy of the People,” written by August Wilson, we are able to see a literary example of self-defining adversity in action. The protagonist, Dr. Stockman, is an acclaimed doctor who was schooled in the United States, but returns to his small hometown in rural Switzerland. Dr. Stockman soon discovers that the town’s main tourist attraction, volcanic hot springs, are spewing bacteria and making travelers gravely ill. His discovery is not met with praise by the townspeople, as they have invested their lives into the springs. Soon, Dr. Stockman is exiled from the town, claimed a heretic, and shunned by his family. Nevertheless, Dr. Stockman rises to the occasion and remains steadfast in his morals and ethics. He does not submit to desires of exoneration, but instead notifies the press that traveler’s lives were in danger.</p>
<p>I, personally, have felt the self-defining touch of life-altering adversity. During the summer of my Freshman year, I was diagnosed with a chronic illness which left me hospitalized and homeschooled for the remainder of the year. Albeit a memory which looms in the blackest depths of my mind’s eye, it was still an opportunity for grandiose growth. I found out who I was, as I sat there on a hospital bed, with dulled veins from the incessantly recurring IV pokes and prods. I still carry with me the sense of determination which assimilated in me during that year.</p>
<p>I suppose the old, cliched, adage holds true. “No pain. No gain.”</p>