Tenacity

Dear Cotillion Students,

I hope that you are having a wonderful spring! 

A few years ago, while working in my yard, I came across a valuable lesson on “tenacity”. We have sweet gum trees in our yard that produce ‘sticker balls’ as their seed pods. These are spiky little balls that the tree drops every spring in an effort to make sure that its species continues. They hurt if you step on them barefoot. They roll if you step on them in shoes. Their spikes hook into the ground and don’t want to let go even when they are wet. They don’t want to be raked up, they don’t want to be swept up and there are tons and tons of them! My sweet gum trees are tenacious!

Ladies and gentlemen know the importance of being ‘tenacious’ – hanging in there and not giving up when something is important. Today I would like to share the lesson I learned from my ‘sticker ball’ trees.

1. Have a goal and don’t lose sight of it. 

2. If something is important, don’t give up. Hang in there. Make effort, after effort, to accomplish your goal. Some things will take many attempts over a long period of time to accomplish. Consistency is key!

3. ‘Hook’ onto the things that you care about. Don’t let them be easily brushed aside or dissuaded. Storms will come, situations will not always be ideal, and there will be obstacles. Don’t allow these things to interfere with your goal. 

4. Have faith in yourself and your objective. You can do amazing things!

I hope that you will give some thought this week to the things that are most important to you, and to the things that you can do and need to do in order to accomplish your goals. I believe that you can accomplish great things!

Love,

Mrs. Achiu