So what does courage mean to me? If we look courage up in the dictionary, courage is defined as: the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, or pain without fear. While courage has many meanings too many different people; to me, courage actually means having fear. Your fear could take the form and many different things such as: physical, mental, failure, or even fear of embarrassment in front of your peers. However, having fear and being able to look it in the face and overcome it is the definition of courage.
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Without fear, there is no courage. I believe that Christopher Columbus is the perfect example of a historical figure that embodies what courage means to me. He had to overcome many different aspects of fear to venture off across the Atlantic Ocean to find his new trade route to “India. ” Regardless of your viewpoint of the achievements of Christopher Columbus, it is obvious that he overcame many challenges before and during his voyage. Before he even departed, Christopher Columbus faced ridicule and pressure from his peers and people of his time.
Many thought him a fool for attempting to sail west to find an alternate route to India. He also faced financial pressure trying to find the money to finance his voyage. Then there are the obvious risks involved with trying to sail across the Atlantic Ocean in the fifteenth century. Columbus had crossed many thresholds in attempting to reach his goals. One threshold Columbus had to cross was writing a letter to the Spanish monarch requesting money to finance his voyage. At a time when his peers thought he was foolish; making a request of the monarch was an extremely large step forward.
Columbus also stood up to the pressure from his peers by reaching for his goals and making a “successful” voyage. Finally, he faced all the physical dangers that were involved of the voyage across the ocean: sickness, mutiny, storms, and many other dangers. So, what does all of this mean to me? I’ve decided that courage can take on many different forms and means something a little different to each and every person. However, I feel that even though he lived 500 years ago, Christopher Columbus embodies many of the characteristics of what courage means to me.
