Two mice fall into a bucket of cream. The first mouse succumbs to its inevitable fate, drowning without a struggle. The second mouse, not wanting to share a grave with its parter, tosses and throws itself, struggling to escape like never before. That poor mouse struggled so hard and for so long that it churned the cream into butter, and crawled out. 

At this very moment, I feel like the second mouse. Not because of my perseverance or wit, but because I have the fear tolerance and dumb luck of a primitive animal.