Urszula Jurczakowska
Maddie, a sophomore in high school, stands backstage waiting for her performance. The music festival hasn’t begun yet, but the audience is filled. The girl can hear the crowd going wild for the start of the show. Her heart starts racing. She tries to drink some water to calm herself down. She isn’t able to open the bottle. Her trembling, sweaty hands are anxiously looking at her song lyrics, the paper soggy, and the writing melts off making her feel worse. She knows she’s good, yet she feels paralyzed, and her throat is aching. A technician specialist comes up to Maddie to tell her that the show was going to begin. "You can do this Maddie," the high schooler tries to convince herself to go on the stage and do her best.
The self-doubt gripping Maddie tightens as she grabs the mic and takes a deep breath. The curtains opened, but Maddie sees nothing and can only hear her heartbeat. She has fear in her eyes. "Relax," she tells herself. "You sang the song over 1 million times. You know it, you're brave, just find your bravery... bravery..."
Bravery... it is the word we often use to help ourselves or other people with overcoming their fears, but do we really know what bravery is? Is it always the same thing for everyone or different for everybody? Most of us wouldn’t call themselves brave or courageous because we don’t find value in the things that we do. In our eyes, the word “brave” is a synonym of heroism. That’s not quite true. We don’t need to save the Earth or sacrifice our lives for the good of the society to be fearless. In other people's eyes, we might be the most valiant person out there and we just don’t know it.
Bravery comes with overcoming your fears and stepping out of your comfort zone. For some, reading out loud might be courageous, while for others, it is a presentation or competing in sports. The spectrum of bravery in our daily lives is very broad. Sometimes, you don’t even realize that you’ve just done something special: a simple thing that we do every day, like going to school or showing our face, seems normal and not particularly brave, but for some people, it may be bold like for Auggie.
Auggie was an 11-year-old boy with facial differences and was scared to go to school and have his face revealed, so he'd come with an astronaut helmet over his head to ensure he’s fully covered. He didn’t bother to make friends because he was scared of other people's judgment. Even after being bullied, made fun of, and called names several times, he managed to overcome his fear with his new mate. Most of us wouldn’t even be able to imagine covering our faces all day long, yet for some, it’s reality. Auggie viewed other pupils as brave for having friends and not being covered up. The key to conquering your apprehensions is self-confidence. Courage defines us. Be like Auggie.
“…bravery…” Maddie hears the soundtrack. She stands there and freezes. She sees the confusion of the crowd, which makes her feel hopeless. Awkwardly, she starts to sing off key. Maddie takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, reminiscing about her singing that song alone in her room staring at a mirror. She starts to sing again, getting more confident each verse. "You’re good, act like it," she whispered to herself. Every second, the melody starts to get louder and more harmonious. The girl notices jubilant faces and owns the stage, finally brave enough to be the best version of herself. She has never been so proud of herself. After her five minutes of fame, people queued to tell the sophomore how good her performance was. In the eyes of the crowd, Maddie is a famous singer now but what’s more important is that she’s one in her own eyes as well.
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