Miracle baby. That’s all this young boy had heard all his life. He was indeed the miracle baby after being born at 22 weeks, and surviving through extreme conditions. From being in an incubator for 3 ½ months, to barely breathing with sleep apnea, to problems with swallowing, and deteriorating eyes. His parents even had the chance to terminate him. Yes, end him. He prevailed, with his natural instinct to fight through these gruesome conditions, his continuous perseverance and a streak of hope in his mind, as he remained as the one who survived. Survival of the fittest may not be all it takes to be a survivor, since a person can be deemed “unfit,” yet with a balance of probability they may survive. It is important to consider that instinct, perseverance, and hope are the three main factors that must be present in a person to be deemed a survivor.
In order to be a survivor, a person must have the natural instinct to do what’s best for their survival based on their situation. The father of a girl, who happened to be the only one out of 153 people to survive in a plane crash talks about how her natural instincts kicked in at the right moment and how her life was saved, “Mr. Bakari said that she was a timid girl and not a good swimmer, but that she managed to cling to floating debris for hours” (Erlanger). The story of this girl shows how a person who did not always have the physical and mental ability to survive in dire situations like these, managed to survive based on her instincts, to grab onto debris and float, which allowed her life to be spared. Being able to have the gut instinct to somehow survive like this girl, proves how a person must have the ability to adapt and know what is best in the moment in order to be a survivor. Having that instinct to survive is a very helpful characteristic to come out alive in intense situations, but a human should have the instinct of when to call for help in certain life or death scenarios in order to survive. Fourteen-year-old Bahia Bakari explains her story of survival and how she managed to call for help in the terrible circumstance of a plane crash and says, “ ‘I fell into the water and I could hear people talking around me. It was dark and I couldn’t see anything.’ But eventually she saw a boat and managed to signal it” (Erlanger). When her sense of vision was almost lost, Bahia still called for help because she knew her life depended on it. Her direct instinct to float using a piece of debris and then immediately call for help, shows how humans must have the gut instinct of calling/ signaling for help in situations like these, but must have enough judgment to know when to rely on help. In order for a person to be a survivor, they must keep in mind to call for help when needed, but must have an instinct to take steps that will aid them in their survival in extreme situations like these.
A survivor must have perseverance as one of their key traits and must use that grit when battling to survive. In the famous short story of the Scarlet Ibis, the main character, Doodle and his older brother, is pushing his younger brother to keep on trying to overcome a difficult task, which if gone wrong, could lead to Doodle’s death and encourages, “ ‘All you got to do is try. Now come on,’ and I hauled him up once more” (Hurst). Doodle must have enough perseverance to keep battling in order to survive in his crippled condition. This shows how at times perseverance can be the one thing that can help a person cross the finish line of the race to survive. In order for a human to survive, they must be persistent enough to survive and this could be the make or break to being a survivor. If one is continuously perseverant in surviving, and they do not fall into the trap of simply giving up, this could be a distinctive trait that will help them be a survivor at the highest level. Doodle’s older brother pumps up Doodle to keep going at it, and keeps being persistent enough that Doodle can survive and lifts Doodle, “ ‘Well, if you don’t keep trying, you’ll never learn’”(Hurst). The point highlighted here is that one must constantly try to stay alive, otherwise they may never be alive again. Perseverance is the motivating force for survivors and is vital for being able to survive in severe circumstances.
Hope is one of those intangible items that a human must have more than enough of to be deemed a survivor. Hicks, who is a terrorist attack survivor, talks about her story to hundreds as she mentions how even in the times when she could see the horizon of the light slowly dipping on her and death crawling from behind, she remained hopeful, which ultimately helped her survive and explains, “But in the lifting of the darkness, we were reaching out. We were helping each other. We were calling out our names, a little bit like a roll call, waiting for responses” (Hicks). If people can be able to have hope as a tool in their minds when facing death like Hicks, they can survive and be able to say, “I shook hands with death.” Hope is a crucial power when surviving and a person must harness it into strength in order to be a survivor. If hope is within a person, then they must churn that hope into power and use it to have strength as a survivor. Cancer survivor Jarvis had hope even when her body had let her down, and faced uncertainty like nothing had changed, but was able to do this because she had hope, which led her to being a survivor and she says,“Most of it is about feelings and faith . . . discovering strength and flexibility you never even knew you had. It's about realizing that the most important things in life are not things at all, . . . it's about laughing in the face of uncertainty” (Jarvis). This shows how a survivor must be able not only to grasp hope and cling on to it, but they must be ready for the long haul, and most definitely, use it as their strong suit in order to be deemed a survivor.
A true survivor is one who can have the instinct to act in their favor to be able to stay “afloat", persevere when least expected and know when to call for help and have the ability to have even the slightest amount of hope that will help them cross the finish line of survival. In order to stay in the game of survival, people must have perseverance and hope which will play into their mental mindset and ultimately sharpen their instincts. All three traits of survival work in unity and they all must be present to be deemed a survivor. “Life is like chess.” These words by Ben Franklin articulate that just like chess is the game of survival, the same concepts are applied in life too. From having the gut instinct to make certain moves in one’s advantage, to the persistence to beat the opponent, and to the hope that the opponent would make a mistake which could lead to winning the game. The consequences of having these three main characteristics will ultimately lead to surviving in conditions ranging from less to intense to extremely severe. The word must be spread that everyone should focus on having these traits of a survival instinct, a desire to persevere, and a way to have hope when needed, to not only survive, but help them tackle any problem that arises!
Works Cited
Erlanger, Steven. "152 Dead in Crash, and One Story of Survival." The New York Times, 1 July 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/world/africa/02plane.html.
Hicks, Gill, speaker. “I Survived a Terrorist Attack. Here's What I Learned.” Ted Conferences, May 2016, www.ted.com/talks/gill_hicks_i_survived_a_terrorist_attack_here_s_what_i_learned.
Hurst, James. “The Scarlet Ibis.” The Atlantic, 1960. StudySync, apps.studysync.com/#!/library/texts/4431/read.
Jarvis, Debra, speaker. “Yes I Survived Cancer. But That Doesn't Define Me.” TED Conferences, Sept. 2014, www.ted.com/talks/debra_jarvis_yes_i_survived_cancer_but_that_doesn_t_define_me.
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