Endurance

Endurance is a skill you must work to obtain.  Depending on what you strive for, you may have running endurance, or the endurance to play an hour and a half concert.  A kind of endurance we don't think about often is to stick up for what you want or believe in.  This might be harder because it might feel frightening.  You might be afraid you'll be attached physically, mentally and/or emotionally.  But whatever challenges you face, it will be worth it in the end.

In my own neighborhood concerning an issue my family was involved in, everyone endured a problem that had a big pay off in the end.  It started with a city pool in my neighborhood.  I literally can stand in my backyard and see the pool, it is so close to where we live.  I took swimming lessons there, and because my birthday is in December (and nothing is open) we always celebrated my birthday during the summer at the pool.  Then four years ago, our city closed the pool due to budget cuts.  My family was devastated because we spent so much time there and it was so close to our home.  My brother and I were getting old enough that we could go by ourselves.  The City of Aurora said that they might be able to open it the next year.  However, the next year came and we were told they would keep the pool closed and not open any time in the near future.  So for four years we had an empty pool collecting leaves and tennis balls (from the tennis court by it).  This year, they said that they would take the pool down and put in a splash ground.  A splash ground is basically water coming out of holes in the ground.

This is where my family and our neighborhood friends really got involved.  For the past four years they spoke at City council meetings with no real response.  Then this year, they started contacting a City councilman and started requesting meetings with them.  Our first meeting was at the elementary school in our neighborhood.  My family hung posters in the neighborhood to tell everyone about the meeting.  We had a big turn out!  After that, we attended meeting after meeting, making posters for the neighborhood each time.  But eventually, the number of people that showed up were fewer and fewer and the chance for success became more and more slim.  We were looking at giving up.  Just when we were beginning to give up hope, we were told that there is a chance the City might open the pool and asked us to attend a study session.  That night, November 19, 2012, the council agreed to open our pool in the summer of 2013!  We were all excited because our hard work and endurance had finally paid off!

Now our pool will be open and it will stay open as long as we keep our numbers up.  I hope this inspires you to keep enduring whatever you are going through, for the reward at the end of the tunnel might be exactly what you hoped for it to be.