In finishing up my preparations for the upcoming exam, I have had opportunity to realize that courage is not a trait of which I possess massive amounts. Maybe that’s the point, maybe no one comes by it easily. It’s a thing to be decided on and stuck to against your fears and against opposition. That’s what makes it, well, courageous.

But I also wonder if this isn’t a value which we hear about much less frequently in our generation and times. Authenticity, needs gratification, pluralism, and a bunch of other hyper-pychotherappy buzz words/values seem cool and acceptable, but courage rarely makes an appearance on the scene, except dressed in caricature as a reckless belligerent or fool. Courage seems gauche and, worst of all, insensitive. It dares to engage in non-PC acts such as being confident in the pursuit of an objective with which others might disagree. It dares to stop worrying about feelings, and to act according to conscience. It knows when to stop listening to the little groups of naysayers and when to make an advance.

Not sure what that has to do with test anxiety really, except to say that there’s no risk to courage. So why not be bold?

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 1:47 pm and is filed under From the nation of Indig. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.