Sweet are the uses of Adversity

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"A smooth sea does not make a good mariner."

This proverb makes it as clear as daylight that adversities are actually a blessing in disguise for us. I believe that we will remain buffeted by adversities as long as we resist them. If life is a ladder then the people at the top of it are the ones who embraced adversities and learnt from them. Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak carries with it a seed of an equal or a greater benefit. Just like fire brings out the purest form of a metal, adversities bring out the strongest and the wisest form of a person.


Good morning to one and all present here. Respected judges, honourable dignitaries, dear teachers and my fellow Nobilians. I'm standing before you today to present my thoughts on the topic, "Sweet are the uses of Adversity".


Allow me to tell you a story. A few decades ago, a boy belonging to a poor family of Rameshwaram saw the dream of flying in the sky. Always fascinated by the flight of birds, he applied for the job of a pilot in the Indian Air Force.

As fate would have it, he came 9th out of the 25 applicants in the interview but the Bureau needed only the first eight.

He was rejected and rejection was what he faced within. Woefully, he returned to Rameshwaram with his crestfallen heart to seek the advice of his parents. His father said, "Son, when troubles come, try to understand the relevance of your sufferings. Adversity always presents a chance for introspection."


Following his advice, this man rowed through adversities and became not only the missile man but also the President of India. This rejected candidate was Dr. Abdul Kalam.

You see, adversity is like the lead casket in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, which in spite of having a threatening and abhorrent appearance, contained Portia's portrait in it, i.e., a hidden lesson - a reward for us. On the contrary, enjoyment and all kinds of pleasures are like the Golden casket which in spite of having an enticing outer appearance, contains a skull in it, i.e, a long term pain - a life full of regrets.

The people who don't let their eyes fool them, embrace adversities and bloom like a lotus from the mud of problems, pains and dilemmas.

The founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, was fired from the company he started. He was broken and his dream shattered into pieces but in one of his speeches, he said that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that had ever happened to him. It was the adversity that allowed him to start from the scratch. He founded PIXAR, the biggest animation company of the planet and an educational company called NEXT. Thanks to the adversity that he was now twice as wise and experienced.

It is clear that adversity never leaves us the way it finds us. It always changes us. You see, COVID-19 was the worst adversity mankind had ever faced but it has now left us more knowledgeable and experienced in handling diseases that we were at the prelude of the pandemic. It taught us lessons, brought families closer, made us recognize our actual well-wishers, shattered the ego of the rich and made the poor grateful for what they had. But above all, it made us confront death and the importance of life which we would've never realized had COVID-19 not stepped into our lives.

It is the mistakes and not really the answers. It is the failures and not really the successes. It is the adversities and not really the good times that moulds a man and teaches him the priceless lessons of life. Someone had very rightly said, "Man makes mistakes and mistakes make the man."

Adversity is the test of character and willpower. People who abstain to bear the pains and shun adversities will end up being miserable and regretful.
If Buddha had not renounced the world, the truth would've never dawned on him.
When lightning pierces the clouds, only then do they rain torrentially.
When a lion is wounded, only then the jungle echoes his roar.
Similarly, when our soul is tested by adversities to the fullest, only then do great men unfold.

Finally, I'd like to end my speech by citing a few lines from a poem written by William Ernest Henley :

"In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I've not winced nor cried aloud;
Under the bludgeonings of chance,
My head is bloody but unbowed.

It matters not how strait the gate,
Or how charged with punishments the scroll;
I'm the master of my fate,
I'm the captain of my soul.
"

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⏰ Last updated: Apr 05, 2023 ⏰

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