Imagine yourself on a massive passenger liner. All of a sudden, you see a huge iceberg. The ship is going as fast as it can. You are stuck on the bottom level of this huge ship, looking at the iceberg getting closer and closer. You are not allowed to go to the top floor and have to sit there, trying to stay calm. You are also scared and must be brave to try to get to a top deck. Survivors feel many emotions but the most important qualities are calm, brave, and scared. 

Being brave is vital when surviving because, if not, people would not make it very far. Feeling fear is a normal reaction. However, when it comes to challenges, people must be brave to make it. According to Linda Sue Park in A Long Walk To Water, Salva Dut, a boy living in Sudan during the Sudan Civil War,  lost his family and home and was still determined to keep going. “Who will be my family?” (Park, 60). Salva kept going because he knew that if he did not, he would die like the others on the journey.  He had to make it to get water and safety at Ethiopia’s refugee camp. “But Salva knew both of them wanted him to keep going” (Park, 65). He also lived in a village with no resources so he needed to be brave to walk a long way. He also had friends that went with him along the way. If he was not brave, he would not have made it to where he is today.

Although being scared can bring you down, a healthy dose of fear is useful. Being scared can give individuals the survival instincts needed to keep safe from danger. It trains the body to react when in danger. According to Jewell Parker Rhodes in After The Hurricane, Lanesha was scared on a rooftop because there was a flood surrounding her which made her feel the need to look around and she found a boat that she got into after feeling scared. Also, being scared helped her to look around and hear better. “Overhead, I hear a helicopter”, (Rhodes). This shows that her listening skills went up. So, although being scared can make it look like people are weak, it can actually help the body be more efficient at the moment.

It is also vital to stay calm. According to Violet Jessop in her memoir, Into The Life Boat, she was petrified when the Titanic started sinking, but she knew it would just make things worse and she needed to stay calm and get into a lifeboat. This is because if she was just running around clueless and scared, then she could have fallen off or got hurt. So this is why it is important to stay calm.

Overall, being calm, scared, and brave is important when surviving. These characteristics play a crucial role in the human body, and feeling them is important. When surviving, it is important to at least have one moment with each of these feelings.

Cadence H. is a 7th grade writer at MMS.