And Still We Rise - Assignment #3

Assignment #3: Miesha: "My Talent is Perserverance"
*What is your talent/gift?
*What are you going to do with it?
*Compare your talent with Miesha's

Literary Connection: Jesus' Parable of the Talents
NOTE: In ancient times, a measure of gold was called a talent: There once was a master and he had three servants. He goes on a trip and gives gold to each of them. The first one spends it having a good time, the second one purchases a rug in the market place. The third one goes out into the fields and buries it. When the master returns, he asks them what they did with the gold. The first one says, "I spent it and had a great time with my friends." The master says, "Very Good." The second one says, "I purchased a rug in the marketplace." The master says, "Very Good." The third one says, "Master, you will be most proud of me! I buried it in the fields and here it is!" The master beats him and send him out of his house.

What do you think is Jesus' point? What lesson does he teach and how does it connect to you and Miesha? How does this story work on more than one level?

To be honest, I had a really hard time thinking of what exactly my “talent” is. But after contemplating for more than half an hour, I finally settled on “diligence”. Thinking back to my elementary school days, as a student I was far from diligent. I wasn’t interested in nor did I truly appreciate school back then; to me, it was just another thing, another chore that I had to deal with. Sure, I would finish assignments on time all the time, but I wouldn’t care about how well I’d actually done it (I just wanted to finish it and then play), nor was I very persistent; if I came across, for example, a hard math problem I couldn’t solve, instead of actually trying, I would just lazily give up and go to my mother for help.

But once I got to fourth grade, everything changed for me because of my teacher that year, Mrs. Ramirez. She showed me just how much potential she saw in me to do well in the future; that, if I chose to commit myself to my education, to want to do my best, to not settle for doing “enough” and instead strive for “more”, for “better”, I could make something of myself. And it was then that I changed my attitude and actually pushed myself when it came to schoolwork. She taught me what “quality” meant, and since then, I’ve always tried to put “quality” in my work. No matter what assignment it is or what class it’s for, I always persist to do my best and put as much effort into it as I can. I push myself to work hard, to never take the easy way out, and to always see things through to the end.

I know that my “talent” of diligence will help me with whatever I do in the future, whether it’s academically or dealing with my personal life. Being diligent has gotten me this far, to my senior year in high school, and if I keep up my focus, determination, and industriousness, I’m certain that it will carry me through college and towards my goal of becoming a doctor. Whatever goal I set for myself, I can use my diligence to succeed in achieving it.

I think my talent is pretty similar to Miesha’s talent of perseverance. Both diligence and perseverance involve seeing things through to the end and refusing to give in or give up, no matter how difficult or impossible it may seem. Though her situation is a lot more extreme than mine, I think we both share that characteristic of working hard and having strong persistence through whatever challenges we face.

When it comes to Jesus’ Parable of the Talents, I had to sit down and really think about what it meant. I won’t lie; at first I was really confused and had no idea what the point was. But I think that what Jesus was trying to get across was that God gives all of us our own talents, just as the master gave each servant a bit of gold. Our responsibility is to appreciate our talents by fostering and caring for them, by nurturing them and allowing them to grow. The master approves of the first two servants because they make use of their talents. But he admonishes the third servant for being foolish and stupid with his talent; I mean, come on, who goes out and buries gold in the dirt? Basically, the master scolds him for wasting something so precious and valuable, something that others would love to have but don’t.

The lesson to learn here is that you must appreciate and make use of the “talents” you posses, whatever they may be. It works on more than one level because it’s a lesson that everyone can learn from; it doesn’t just have to be about “gold” or religion. People who squander their gifts, whether it’s something physical like money or intangible like intelligence, will eventually find themselves with nothing in the end; they’ll end up nowhere, as a nobody.

The parable of talents connects to Miesha and I because our talents of diligence and perseverance are like the gifts of gold the servants received from their master; they are treasures, things to appreciate and make use of, not waste. In "And Still We Rise", Miesha wrote in her biographical essay, “The hardships that I have faced for the past year have taught me that I can overcome any obstacle in my life’s path. At the same time, I learned to be thankful for everything that I’ve been blessed with. God gives everyone a talent, and it is up to each individual to focus on that talent and perfect it.” (pg. 80) I think what she says here pretty much explains what the parable of talents is trying to get across to everyone: Make the most of yourself and what you’ve been blessed with in life.