Consider the following comments on courage.
Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.
John Wayne
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
E. E. Cummings
The bravest thing I ever did was carry on with my life when I wanted to die.
Anonymous
Sometimes the loudest courage is the quiet decision to try again tomorrow.
We mistake recklessness for bravery, when often the braver choice is to wait.
Write a reflective piece in response to one or more of these comments. Your essay will be assessed on the quality of your thinking and the way you express it.
A way into this prompt
Consider reflecting that courage is rarely the dramatic, public act we picture, and is more often a private, undramatic persistence. Open by contrasting the cinematic image of bravery with a smaller, truer instance from your own experience or observation. Develop the idea that fear is not the opposite of courage but its precondition. A third move could distinguish courage from mere risk-taking or bravado. Caution: do not turn the essay into a list of inspirational slogans, since lived specificity is what makes a reflection on courage land.