Huang Shiqi, Class 13, Senior 2, Shenzhen Xin’an Middle School Instructed by Tang Ying

First of all, let’s define adverse circumstances. According to a free online dictionary, they are harmful or unfavorable situations that stop people from doing the things they need to do to achieve their goals. In my point of view, adversity is not conducive to people’s growth.

In terms of growing up, we can simply classify the nature of growth into physiological growth and psychological growth.

As for physiological growth, take poverty, for instance, a common adversity in the world. People who are trapped in poverty need to save money, therefore they cannot afford to buy nutritious food, leading to health problems.

Have you ever heard of the famous photo of the hungry Sultan? He is suffering from “famine” in Africa, and millions of people are dying on account of it. Do you still believe the adverse circumstances will do any good to them?

If adversity is really conducive to the growth of people, why are students always eager to go to study at top universities? Why have we built the Project Hope to help people in adversity? Why not expose them to adversity so that they can grow better?

Our human nature seeks for advantages and avoids disadvantages. It is just like two students with similar intelligence, while one is in an elite school and the other is in an ordinary school. Under different learning environments, generally speaking, it is more difficult for the latter to make progress in his studies.

In fact, few people are able to break through adversity, and their achievements are constantly amplified by the media to inspire people. On the contrary, those who failed in adversity are rarely mentioned.

All the above gives us a wrong impression that adversity is good for growth. However, there are countless people who are shrouded in total darkness, crushed by desperate adversities. Who notices their pain and silence?

Although inspiration is important, it cannot transcend objectives and generalize reality.