Courage, what a small word for a big thing.Courage is something you subconsciously and sometimes consciously have to do everyday just to continue on. The word courage means facing something that frightens you and the strength to face pain or grief.The origin of courage comes from the latin word ”cor” which means “heart” this word correlates with the saying “ you have the heart of a lion”. It takes courage to go on after the loss of a loved one. It takes courage to move away from friends. It takes courage to not see your parent in the military as much as you may want to.

A memory that stuck out in my head is a string of bad experiences in 2021 from October thru November. Every one of those days felt like they were funerals. Because most of those days were funerals, one after another my grandparents fell like flies in a trap. First was Grandpa Danny from my Dad’s side, he died from cancer on my Aunt’s birthday, then it was my Great Uncle Jimmy who was Danny’s brother and also died of cancer ten days after Grandpa Danny.Then it was my Grandmother on my Mom’s side, her beautiful flower garden never grew again after she died. The last one who died was our old dog Lucy Lue who died sitting near the couch during a game night listening to my family’s happy cheers and laughter that wafted from the table. Going to all those funerals was hard and I had no real time in between to mourn and the courage to continue to go to them was hard.Moving away from friends is difficult, you don’t know if your friendship will be able to last long distance or if you’ll move apart in your friendship, like how you’re moving to a different place. The fear of being the new kid and not making friends in the new place or even the thought that it would be pointless to try and make friends in that new place because you are just going to move again, eventually. In the end, even if you don’t want them, because you might move soon, friends will just come to you or at least that’s what I found. The courage to make friends and to be new is actually very big and not many people let themselves be vulnerable enough to try. In my case it’s my father who is in the military it takes courage because they end up missing out on parts of your life. When I was younger my Father was barely around because of his deployment overseas. But now that he works as a Chaplain at the nearby hospital I get to see him every day and I am old enough to understand when he has to leave for a while, my courage has matured.

I speak from experience and observation when I say every day takes courage. Having courage is a state of mind and a constant choice to do, it can be small and unnoticeable to anyone but you, it may even go unnoticed by you. From big to little, from mundane to extraordinary courage is there. Courage is in every act in every step and in every living thing.everything takes courage and everything has courage it’s just up to us if we see it or not.