Darkness symbolizes difficulty and the single stream of light an opportunity. Lastly, “the door” is success. Many people despair in times of hardship, and fear facing difficult situations. However, difficulty is valuable since it provides an opportunity, as the darkness is helpful in finding the door. Even the most depressing circumstances can change into amazing opportunities.
Desperate exertions change the impossible to the possible. When people are in a predicament, they concentrate on finding a solution. Nothing else is of their concern. As they fully concentrate on the situation, their potential abilities appear. The word “difficulty” makes people be talented to the maximum extent. As people try to find a way to escape the hardship with full potential, people will find the unexpected path to reach the “door”; the shortcut for the “arrival.” Admiral Yi Sun-shin’s strategy is a great example for this. At the moment when the Japanese navy invaded the East sea of Korea, only 12 ships of the Korean navy were left. Nobody expected his victory against the thousands of ships of the Japanese navy. However, he caught an angel of victory with his amazing strategy: Hak-ik-Jin (the crane wing formation). As this Japanese invasion was a great difficulty for him, he could hit on a strategy.
Furthermore, difficulty is an opportunity to reset a part of our lives. Even if a person lost everything in his time of difficulty, he still has an opportunity to be come a new person, to live a new life and to be successful. Even if we lose everything, we can build up again more strictly. Also, through the difficulty, people can find their flaws, so they can improve their quality of life after or during the difficulty. Therefore, “difficulty” is just a turning point that lets us start a new life. Briefly, through experiencing difficulties, I can be a better me. This turning point is worth being called an “opportunity.” In the case of alcoholics, they will stop drinking alcohol when they get ill. The sickness will be extremely difficult to the alcoholics. However, in the process of treatment, they will probably regret the past days and make promises to quit drinking.
Likewise, the well-known proverb, “in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” is always the right thing to say. “Difficulty” offers many chances for success and one can always learn something valuable by experiencing difficulties. However, people just try to avoid difficulty for their convenience. From now on, we should confront difficulties with passion and solve them by catching hidden opportunities. We should not be fools who chuck away great opportunities.
Im Ji-hyun
evoice@ewha.ac.kr