Throughout time humans have evolved. We created our own language, discovered new things about the universe, and have created things that were once unimaginable. But, to me, the most impactful thing that humans have learned is how to overcome their challenges and persevere through them. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the whole world shut down. School became online, travel stopped, and restaurants were closed. Because of this, people had to learn to solve the problems that were caused the pandemic. The effects on the food industry from the past year and half is described in an article by Alex Beggs for Bon Appetit: “Restaurant delivery skyrocketed in the never ending months of lock down”. When the pandemic started, everyone thought that it was the worst thing possible. However, because of the pandemic, restaurants had the opportunity to better their delivery service. And even though they last a lot of money because of the restriction on dining in, they were able to make up for some of it with delivery. It also was a way to provide more jobs for people who delivered. This shows how restaurants were able to come up with a solution to the restrictions that the pandemic put on the food industry.

Another real life problem that teenagers face is time management. With school, sports, friends, and family, teenagers’ lives are busy. As a group, my classmates came up with the infographic below to help teens find a way to manage their time. I’m sure that at least a half of my class struggles with this, but because my group was able to create solutions, we can all become better. This shows how we are able to persevere and overcome the challenges that we face in our high school lives, and learn life skills.

Another story is about a guy named Doc Daniels who found a phone booth in the middle of the Mojave desert. He saw information about it in a magazine and found out what the number was. He then became obsessed with calling the phone booth “calling at least once an hour”. This went on for a while, and he even had some of his friends call the booth when they were at his house. Then, one day, he got a busy signal as he was calling. He called again and a woman answered. This led to a lot of people calling the phone booth from around the world just to talk. Doc represents perseverance because he could have stopped calling but chose not to because of one simple question he had been asking himself: “what if?”. It also shows how when we work hard, there is always a great outcome. In this case, it is connecting with people around the world.

Throughout our lives, we as human beings face many challenges. In the past year and a half we probably faced the biggest challenge in our lives with Covid-19. Teenagers have an everyday struggle with time and figuring out our priorities. But just like Doc. Daniels we are able to persevere and overcome these challenges. We will also become better and stronger because of them.