TURTLE RUN

RNIA • SUMMER 2021
Oak Grove Inquirer
Oak Grove School Student Newspaper
JOURNALISM ARTICLES • STUDENT ESSAYS • ART BY VARIOUS GRADES • OPINION • POETRY • FUN

“When we are faced with problems that block our path, by facing them we find a new path.”

TURTLE RUN
By Tess Schlachte '22
Somewhere, at the back of an open beach, a little creature is sitting looking out at her
future. She has just been born and has crawled out of her nest in the sand. Her little round eyes are searching, bright with possibility and fear. Ahead of her is a long dash(冲刺) to the ocean. There is a very large possibility she will never make it to the place where the waves meet the sand, for the beach is swarming(蜂拥) with fellow creatures hungry for her flesh – large birds, lizards(蜥蜴), and crabs(螃蟹). Her only chance for survival is to gather all the strength inside her, all her hopes and dreams and fears and to set all her convictions(信念) on one task. Run. This little creature is a sea turtle, who with all her hundreds of siblings, has to run for her life to get to the ocean. Only five out of every one hundred turtles will survive. This initial battle for survival across the beach that these animals face is much like our own experience as a human race, and the resilience these little creatures demonstrate is a skill we could all benefit from having.

In our difficult world today, resilience is even more important than ever. With a year in isolation due to the pandemic, millions of deaths worldwide, political turmoil(混乱) and violence, it’s easy to feel like giving up. In times such as these when the pressure is so intense, it feels easy to just collapse under it.

However, when we let ourselves get crushed by what happens to us, we cease to really be
living. Famous writer Maya Angelou said, “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” If the turtle on the beach simply refused to run and gave up hope, believing that everything was against her, she would never even have a chance at making it to the ocean. Nobody who refuses to stand back up again after a fall has a chance at seeing what they can possibly become.

When tragedy strikes, people often ask, “Why me?” World famous author J.K Rowling said, “Rock bottom became the solid foundation from which I rebuilt my life.” While tragedy changes us and breaks our hearts, when we learn to get back up, to move and grow with our pain, we learn things that we wouldn’t have otherwise. When we are faced with problems that block our path, by facing them we find a new path. The obstacle becomes the path.

The distance from the ocean the turtle must run becomes their journey. That’s their resilience. Whatever they learn through these obstacles becomes the things that they take with them through their life. That’s not to say that the obstacles are not painful or that you have to be numb and unaware to survive difficulties and pain. “Resilience is very different from being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going,” said Yasmin Mogahed, a writer for The Huffington Post.

“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving; we get stronger and more resilient,” said American writer Steve Maraboli. Because life is like a turtle run. We are the turtles. The birds, lizards, and crabs are never going to stop trying to eat us. We may even get eaten. But if we continue to stand back up every time, to let our pain change and shape us, we may find ourselves better for it. In our ability to persist, to consistently charge forwards along our path to the ocean, we find ourselves a changed and better person. And perhaps, in our silent persistence, we may affect our context. We may help one more turtle make it to the ocean. Make the beach better for someone else. “For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me, is half owing to the number of people who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs,” said English novelist George Elliot. The only thing that can save us in this life is resilience. And if we let our obstacles become our path, we just may make it to the ocean. And maybe leave a path for someone else.