Endurance and Perseverance leads to success

 Perseverance is not a long race, it is many races one after another  -  Walter Elliot

What's perseverance?...

Perseverance is the quality of those who persevere and continue to do or try to achieve something despite difficulty or discouragement. Perseverance can also refer to the act of persevering, as in only through hard work and perseverance will we be able to achieve our goal and it will not be easy. Steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles and discouragement. 

The idea of perseverance is nothing new. We understand it at a basic level, yet many of dont's persevere. We give up too easily because we haven't mastered the art of perserverance. I name it as perserverance art because it needs a creative mind to come up with the answers to all the negativity, rejection and no's you  are going to get when pursuing your goal. Without perseverance, your mind defaults to " Time to give up mate; you're not cut out for this."...Hence,without blowing the trumpet, one should diligently master the art of perseverance. I believe that perseverance can be used to achieve anything you desire.  

Life is interestingly funny sometimes... it's always testing us, challenging our resolve, while pushing us to the edge of what seems impossible. Many look at these setbacks as insurmountable obstacles...on the other hand, many others, who come across such problems asking: Why not me? Why not now?...These are the people who believe that no matter what life throws their way, they will persist and persevere and eventually attain their goals and objectives. What follows is a real-life story on perisistence and perseverance of an young man, that I think everyone will be able to relate to on some level. 

Mr. Palanisamy 

As promised above, here's the story for us to understand the importance of perseverance and endurance. The young man in the pic above is Mr. Palanisamy, a visually challenged by birth...and the captain for the volleyball team of Tamil Nadu Visually Challenged VolleyBall Association. 

Mr. Palanisamy, born on Dec 4th, 1987 (33yrs old), in Siruvathur village at Kallakurichi district, Tamil Nadu. He was grew up among 4 other siblings, an elder brother and sister and an younger brother and a sister, with himself in the middle, along with his parents. Father was a farmer, which wasn't very flourishing due to economical reasons and his mother a homemaker. His older brother, now a farmer himself has partial vision, and his other siblings has no known disbilities. 

One can imagine the plight of growing up with disability in a small town with less facility, in spite of that, he was a good student and never gave up on his education. During his school days he was always inclined towards sports and his school teacher, the physical trainer encouraged him to do beyond his best, for which he is always thankful. One of his school senior Mr. Sathish, who happened to be visually challenged sportsman has always been an inspiration and role-model for Palanisamy. Sathish led him towards his goal to achieve in sports. 

During 2005-2006, under the advice of Sathish, Palanisamy started getting trained for Adopted Volleyball, by YMCA. At those time, YMCA was only organization, specialized in training Adopted Volleyball, specifically designed for visually challenged. This training gave him the confidence and move towards his goal in faster pace. YMCA gave him opportunities to play tournaments and prove his worth. 

Unfortunately, in his first year of his college days, he lost his father to lung cancer, due to his excessive alcohol drinking and smoking habit. Even under this situation, he didn't give up on his mission, actually this made him realise his strength even better. He thrived to be more independent and achieve his motives, so he can support his family in every possible way. Hence after graduation, he prepared for TNPSC competitive exam and got a job as a Junior Assistant, Group 4 level in the Public Health Dept of Tamil Nadu. 

Junior Assistant as his day job, he continued with his volleyball games and started volleyball games event management for Tamil Nadu Volleball Association for Blind. This association does more than training visually challenged in volleyball, they support for the education and also help with training for competitive exams too for the deserving visually challenged players. 

Mr. Palanisamy, very humbly conveyed his gratitude Lit the Light, non-profit organization exclusively for the visually challenged for supporting his association, and sponsoring for their team during previous year(s) tournaments. He solemnly recalled the organization's timely support and conducting the event with no glitches for which he was very thankful. 

Mr. Palanisamy is certainly a humble human to get aquainted and get inspired. He has many good value to add to this society and his confidence is indeed contagious and his contacts will certainly vouch for the same. He is a wonderful citizen to this country, a responsible son to his parents, a caring sibling, a loving husband for his wife Satya, who happens to be partially blind... most of all an affectionate father to his little princess - his daughter. 

Well, a person with such perspective and attitude, Mr. Palanisamy deserves our support and applause. Let's all make every effort to give back positivity to this society and make our Planet a better place to live for our Future Generations.  

Gathered & Scripted by, 
Chandra Viswanathan,

Volunteer, Lit the Light

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Just for reference...

The origin of inclusive volleyball specifically for blind originated in Japan about 40yrs ago. In Japan, visually impaired people can play and enjoy volleyball as a ball game sporting event for them then. It was invented by physical education teachers in school for the blind about 40yrs ago and the tools and rules of volleyball were modified so visually impaired people could play by themselves.