Harry Baker, The Poetry World Champion

Napoleon Hill once stated, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” From George Washington to Nelson Mandela, greatness is cultivated from adversity during turbulent times. Horace’s assertion is correct in view of the fact that adversity causes people to act, reveals vulnerabilities, and forces people to adapt.

Similar to a cactus’ bloom in the heat of the desert, through adversity humanity prospers and processes. Society, as a whole, has experienced, at least once, hardships in their lifetime, and through these trying situations people acquire compassion. Being familiar with challenges, people more readily accepts the distress of others and offer required assistance during times of difficulty. Although adversity is seen as the creator of contempt and hatred because of its negative effects on mentality, adversity fosters compassion through the creation of empathy, morality, and association in a person with others in a calamity.

When people go through something difficult it can change them. Making them who they are, it can change them for the bad or good. Therefore, hardships can greatly influence a person’s life by making them appreciate all the things that make life enjoyable.

It is what separates the strong from the weak. The weak are the people who choose not to do anything about it, and suffer for the rest of their life. The strong people are who choose to find ways of how to cope with dreadful events. One of the best things to when you are in a state of pain is to do something fun to keep your head straight, and yor mind sharp. Go do something that makes you laugh to help keep your mind off of that moment when things went bad. Many people can relieve stress just by laughing, or even just smiling once a day can change a person's thoughts tragic events.You could even just watch a funny movie that makes you laugh. Every little thing can help you overcome that pain, and you will be a very strong individual. The author uses metaphors to show us how much tragic events can bring people down.Althouhg these metaphors can be cruel like life itself, they can still be useful. That is why it is important to try to keep your head high so you are not one of the weak people. It is life's way of making joy and happyness in someones heart and soul. Laughing is a key to a person’s happiness because it makes the mind feel free from stress. Laughing is like a cure to sadness metaphorically. The author doesn't really talk about how the people of haiti coped with their pain, but this is what sounded like

Though the earthquake happened quickly, the lasting impact and trauma remained. In an article from the Wall Street Journal, Luhnow and Dugan stated that following the event many people went searching for psychological support and aid instead of physical (2010). After having buildings tumble and fall onto people, many suffered from PTSD and survivors guilt; children were the most emotionally traumatized, and there was a fundamental lack of aid for facing psychological traumas endured by so many (Luhnow & Dugan, 2010). As a society, an increase in crime and violence is on the rise; Haitians had no defined structure in communities, and most established norms

According to Marian Erickson, “Most of life is choices, and the rest is pure dumb luck.” Real people’s lives depend on this quote everyday, which leads to the outcome of each problem individuals face. In the passages, characterization of the main personas helps one understand the theme. Conflict and symbolism also help lead to the overall idea that life is not always guaranteed to be full of success. The book The Other Wes Moore, the poem “If,” and the informational text “The Art of Resilience” all share a common theme of how choices and luck contribute to the success of life.

On January twelfth 2010, a deadly earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit the coast of Port au prince, Haiti for 35 seconds, killing around 200,000 and leaving approximately to 1.5 million of the population homeless including kids who became orphans and vice versa in a matter of less than a minute. Before the earthquake, the way of life was not as bad as portrayed back at home, most of the news broadcasted in the mainstream media were exaggerated news, negative light and unfair tales to make Haiti look inferior.

One place where Horace’s quote holds true is in current events. In the national news there is misfortune and chaos seemingly everywhere. A first example of this is with Hurricane Harvey, hitting Texas and the surrounding area, in August-September 2017. This category 3 hurricane has been one of the worst and most destructive hurricanes to hit the United States. Texas and Louisiana flooded, causing billions of dollars of damage and nearly a hundred lives to be lost. Despite all of this, the citizens of the community came together to volunteer and help each other, and it revealed their spirit and resilience. Just like the quote, adversity brought out the best of Americans and tested their strength in a way that would not happen if Hurricane Harvey hit them. A second example is with the Vegas shooting which happened October 1st at a concert, leaving 58 deaths and 546 more injured, making it America’s deadliest shooting. Following the tragedy, it gave anti-gun activists opportunity to fight for stricter gun control. Also this incident, like with Hurricane Harvey, has brought the country together, supporting the victims and their families, and wanting to stop the violence and hate in America. It shows that misfortune can play a positive and influential role.

In life there will always be those moments that we most value and those that we wish to avoid. Misfortunes are the situations or events that we wish to vanish from our lives because we view them in a negative way. However, what many choose to avoid is actually something that defines who we are. Misfortunes develop one’s character and it identifies us as a person. Everyone goes through different situations and because of that each and every person develops their own unique character based on those misfortunes. The essays “Flavio’s Home” by Gordon Parks, “What I’ve Learned From Men” by Barbara Ehrenreich, and “Common Decency” by Susan Jacoby all explain to us in detail the situation that a particular person is going through which in the end reveals how the person’s character was developed by that misfortune.

The 21st century for America so far includes two major disasters, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. David Eggers documents the Zeitoun’s struggles during Hurricane Katrina in his book Zeitoun. Choosing specific details, Egger’s purpose is to juxtapose Zeitoun’s humanity before and during Katrina to the cruelty Zeitoun was given after, and how Americans should reflect on those disparities.

Pitts has a very important argument that the people of Haiti learn how to recover quickly from their tragedies. Perhaps it is because they have experienced other weather problems in their past. Since they have been through this before, they know better ways of building themselves back up to their previous standpoint. Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands have lost their live to the multitude to storms, floods, and earthquakes. However, we watch this happen from afar and never experience these ourselves. Pitts mentions that we pray, but that’s it. We cannot possibly fathom what it is like to go through such a devastating event, let alone how to recover from it.

The earthquake of 2010 altered the way the people of Haiti looked at everyday life, as well as, it caused them to be deprived of all hope on creating a new beginning. On Tuesday January 12, 2010, the Haitian society knew that their world would never be the same. Having killed over 300,000 people and wounded more than 200,000 people, the magnitude 7.0 earthquake was demoralizing to the Haitians (“The 2010 Haiti Earthquake”). To make matters worse, following the magnitude 7.0 earthquake there were twelve aftershocks containing a magnitude larger than 5.0 (“Earthquake in Haiti”). The outcome of the earthquake was devastating to the extent that the minority of people who survived stood on the remains of their churches, grocery stores, and even their own homes. Corporations like Merlin USA and others around the globe are contributing in various ways to help try to rebuild Haiti’s nation. Working to repair Haiti’s demolished society, Merlin tries to bring appropriate health care to all susceptible associations in Haiti (“Haiti”). Strongly, Merlin continues to put in a great effort and they have tended to around 47,986 patients merely in Port-au-Prince (“Haiti”). Sorrowfully, people are constantly dying from Cholera in Haiti; nevertheless, it seems to them that nothing the world can offer will be able to cure the adversity they have encountered.

In America, we are privileged to have freedom. We can say what we want, and we have a voice in our government. We are extremely blessed to have access to that freedom, but it comes at a cost. In the Revolutionary War alone 650,000 US soldiers were killed, and that was just the beginning of our nation. Because of these sacrifices, we now have the freedom that is available to us today. Sadly, not all countries are as fortunate. Edwidge Danticat describes in horrific detail the struggles that Haitians face on a daily basis to obtain freedom for themselves and their children in her book, Krik? Krak! Her book contains several short stories, giving us perspectives from Haitians from past and present generations, and how they

Edens has participated in the Carroll Outreach Team since he was a sophomore and has traveled with the group to Haiti, Ecuador and now Uganda. While traveling with the group, he has witnessed some of the most impoverished communities on earth. Edens recalls his experience while passing through Port-au-Prince in Haiti, “Its just people living in filth with no electricity, and no clean water. Some of them don’t even have clothes. We saw a lots of people walking around in basic rags.”

Sir Thomas Wyatt was born in the year 1503. The son of Sir Henry Wyatt and Anne Skinner, he went on to attend St. John’s College in Cambridge. He first took a place in the court of King Henry VIII in 1516. In the year 1520 he was married to Elizabeth Brooke at the age of seventeen. His son, of the same name, was born in the year 1521. Wyatt’s marriage to Elizabeth was miserable and the couple is believed to have been “estranged by the second half of the 1520s” (Burrow). Thomas Wyatt and Elizabeth Brooke were separated in 1525 when Wyatt accused his wife of adultery. Much of Sir Thomas Wyatt’s poetry is reflective of his love life. His personal relationships served as inspiration for a notable amount of his work. In his poem “Blame not my