Courage, bravery, and why your opinion is your own and everyone else can eat shit.

Courage- noun: the ability to do something that frightens one; strength in the face of pain or grief.

This word comes from Middle English (denoting the heart, as the seat of feeling): from Old French corage, from Latin cor ‘heart.’

Above we have the definition of courage. Lately, I have seen a lot of people on Facebook arguing what they believe courage looks like on a day to day basis. They also have been arguing the definition of bravery as well, so before I continue, see the definition for “bravery” below:

Bravery- noun: courageous behavior or character.

This word comes from the mid 16th century (in the sense ‘bravado’): from French braverie or Italian braveria, based on Latin barbarus.

Now, as you can see, these two words are linked, therefore, I only need to make one post/rant about this, not two. For those of you who don’t understand that last sentence…Bravery is an act of courage. Hopefully that’s simple enough for you, I mean, “courage” is right in the definition of bravery, so if it’s not simple, feel free to go back to middle school.

ANYWAY, I am writing this post, again, because so many people have been arguing what courage is, and saying that other people are wrong and that there are only certain ways to be courageous… This is not true, and the reason why is in the definition of the very word. “The ability to do something that frightens one,” this is the definition we will be focusing on as it is the main definition. Now, notice the wording… “ability to do something that frightens ONE.” The word “one” in this case is being used in the place of “one’s self.” Now, that means that something that takes courage for one person, may not take courage for the other. The perfect example, my boyfriend absolutely loves adventure and is willing to try just about anything. He even rode a bull once, a real, live, could totally kill you in one stab of it’s horn, bull. Now, he said it was fun and exhilarating. Where for me, that would take a whole shit ton of courage cause I am a little less adventurous. Something that is super easy for him, may not be as easy, and a little more scary for me.

Now, allow me to get to my rant. This is where I tell everyone to step back, look at your own lives, and SHUT THE FUCK UP. Because let’s be honest, for most girls, killing a spider takes more courage than getting a needle shoved through your belly button to look “sexier.” Whereas for a guy, shaving your balls may take more courage cause you don’t want to knick your balls where you have no problem going out and getting into a fist fight with some guys over a girl. EVERYONE’S DEFINITION OF COURAGE IS DIFFERENT AND THAT’S OKAY!!! It says it right in the definition for fuck sakes!!! So those of you who think that Caitlyn Jenner is courageous, congratulations! Your definition of courage is different than your next-door neighbor whose son is in the Marines and thinks he is the most courageous person on the planet. No two definitions are going to be alike (all the time). Everyone needs to get off their high horses and realize that not everyone has the same opinion as you, and your opinion won’t always be valued. So if you have an easily bruised ego (like most people who happen to be on my friends list) don’t post your opinion to Facebook for everyone to read, because as soon as you post it, there will be people coming out of the woodwork just to disagree with you and try to start an argument. But that is beside the point (although it is a good point and a rant will come from that later). Everyone who posts images like this can just STOP:

I’m glad that you, personally, think that soldiers are more courageous thank Caitlyn Jenner, but PLEASE don’t feel the need to shove that down EVERYONE ELSES THROAT. My version of courage could look like this:

These are my images of courage because in the face of EVERYTHING, good, bad, ugly, they have always pulled through FOR ME. Yes, soldiers do the same thing, and I thank them for that, but THESE people do more for me, in my opinion, more than anyone else ever could… We all just need to realize that just because our opinion isn’t the popular opinion doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. And just because someone doesn't agree with you, gives you the right to fight them on their OWN opinion...

EVERYONE’S VERSION OF COURAGE IS DIFFERENT! So what’s yours?

#courage #bravery #rant #hannah #popularopinion #stop #peopleneedtostop