A Young Woman’s Perspective on Courage

Each month I create a preliminary schedule of potential blog topics, but there’s often an unexpected person, event or activity that grabs my attention that I write about instead. Such is the case today. While I was involved in a flurry of veteran activities in November, the person that inspired me the most was Shana Edwards. This petite, soft spoken high school student, the Arizona winner of the 2017 Voice of Democracy essay contest, was a speaker at the Veterans Day ceremony in Anthem, Arizona. Although I could barely see her from where I sat, her words rose above the crowd and made an emotional landing in my heart and head. As I reread the essay this morning, her words conveyed an even deeper meaning that applies to battles women and men are facing today.

What do you know about the Voice of Democracy essay contest? If you are like me, this may be your introduction. Established in 1947 by the VFW Auxiliary, this audio-essay program provides high school students an opportunity to submit a democratic and patriotic-themed recorded essay. Each year nearly 40,000 high school students from across the US enter to win a share of the $2.1 million in educational scholarships. A $30,000 scholarship is awarded to the national first-place winner and paid directly to their university, college or tech school. Each state winner also receives at least a $1,000 scholarship plus an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C.

Shana was a sophomore at Prescott High School when she submitted her essay My Responsibility to America and became the first state winner from her community. Now a junior, she is involved with the Future Business Leaders of America and is taking introductory medical classes at Yavapai College. This bright and talented young woman has a wide array of career options. Although her entry did not win the nationals, her words are still powerful and stirring. They remind us that we all have the capacity for courage and that we must be brave when faced with daunting challenges. Thank you, Shana for your words, wisdom, and convictions.

My Responsibility to America

A young newly widowed woman falls to the ground. Time seems to slow, her memory flashing back to that one moment, that one day, that she remembers her love, her greatest love, leaving her for the last time. Her body is wracked with sobs, and the entire world seems to shake beneath her pulsing body. She suddenly remembers her 4-year-old son, who stands 5 feet away, filled with an innocent curiosity, watching his mother. She stands up, wipes away the tears, and seems to draw all the little remaining strength she can muster. The little boy walks over to his mother, and slips his steady little hand into her shaking one, unknowingly giving her strength to move her legs and take that one step into the chasm her future has become. This young widow doesn’t know it, but her actions embody the spirit of America. Her courage, her strength, to be strong for her child represents the most important part of our country. This courage, this conviction, is truly every American’s duty to the country they live in. Not only to improve themselves or become the best, but for the widows, orphans, veterans, serving soldiers, and the dead, who mustered up their courage, followed their convictions, and took their own step into the unknown.

Courage, as defined by Merriam Webster dictionary, is the ability to do something that one knows is difficult or dangerous. This rather routine description of the word shows just a small window into the depth of the spirit of the most powerful ability in the world. This ability provides the possessor to own their convictions, follow their soul, and understand the very core of their being, their conscience. Some may say that this ability is common, a generality that every human has. In my little experience in the subject, I have noticed that every human has the ability to be courageous, but most choose not to, allowing courage to become something abnormal. This abnormality does not apply to soldiers, who learned to live through courage while fighting in the battlefields of Europe, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iran. They understand the courage and conviction I must uphold to fulfill my own responsibility to America.

Furthermore, these soldiers have known and experienced far more life. They have learned more about the savagery of men, than the average American will ever know in their lifetime. These soldiers truly know what courage looks like, smells like, tastes like, sounds like and feels like. Their sacrifice of their own ignorance, to provide a better world for all truly deserves a high amount of respect. That is to say, the disabled veteran sitting at McDonalds, reading a newspaper and sipping coffee, the one who does not look up when a young girl says, “Thank you for your service sir” still does not deserve any less respect. These dauntless men and women won’t attribute their deeds or action to some superhuman characteristic. Instead, they will tell you that they just followed their conscience and their gut, which inspired their courageous acts. Hence, I am therefore convinced that every American citizen has the qualities required for undertaking brave deeds.

So what can I do? I am a lowly, high school student, at the bottom of the social class. I am not a solider, corporate manager, business owner, or a celebrity. But, I have one advantage over all of these people. I am part of the future of this great nation. This great nation has required courage of its people in its history, in its present, and it will require courage in its future. I owe this great nation, the people who have fought for my rights, my freedom to stand here, talking passionately about a topic I believe in, I owe them this courage. I owe them this conviction, to follow my conscience into the unknown. The great part is, not everyone will agree with me. No one upholds the exact same conscience or has the exact same convictions. But everyone has courage, and I know that I must use my courage to better the world around me, to fight for what I believe in, to follow my conscience even if the consequences are dire. Others around me may also do the same, and that’s the spirit of America. This use of personal courage, to fight for what one believes in. So, this struggle of convictions becomes a great thing, a compound, which forms the true American heritage. John F. Kennedy writes in his book Profiles in Courage, “In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage; whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience each man must decide for himself the course he will follow.”

I decided to undertake the responsibility I have to America, have courage, follow my convictions, and listen to my conscience.

Reprinted by permission.

Shana congratulated by Roger Willis, Board President Anthem Community Council after her remarks.

Photos used with permission from the Anthem Community Council.