There are many characteristics that lead to success. Intelligence, creativity and skillfulness are all included. However, the importance of perseverance outweighs that of all other characteristics combined. Even if success does not always befall those who are perseverant, their persistence will constantly push them to do something extraordinary and prepare them for the next chance.

A few months ago I read an article about Christiano Ronaldo. Then for the first time I realized the efforts a super star has to put before standing ahead of all others with all the glories. When Ronaldo was just a small boy he joined a soccer club some miles away from his home. Despite his passions, he was often ridiculed by teammates for his accent showed his origin of a humble Portugesian village. He also did not stand out with his lean body while playing in that small club. Apart from all these, Ronaldo was so determined in becoming an excellent player and therefore exercised much more than his teammates. Even once during his trips, he did some 3000 sit-ups in his hotel room and now what resulted is the most perfect body one will ever see. Thus even though Ronaldo was not outstanding with the finest skills at first, his perseverance made him what he is today.

Not only persistence keeps us constantly doing something to improve ourselves, it also can be so powerful in some extremely difficult situations, in which even we ourselves cannot believe we can make it.

The Qing Empire used to have the best cavalry in the world which enabled it to conquer many cities in the territory of the Ming Dynasty. While the Chinese general, Yuan Chonghuan, showed exceptional perseverance and determinations when facing his opponent’s formidable army. Just upon knowing no other armies were able to come help him and his was more than ten times outnumbered by his opponent’s soldiers, Yuan did not recoil and with a determination of fighting to death he decided to protect that small and so important city where all his soldiers and many folks stayed in. The outcome was then so unexpected and telling the story. The patch of ground surrounding the corners of the castle was entirely covered with thousand bodies from both sides, as the attacks from the Qing Empire were defeated one by one. When the smoke gradually ascended and hid half the entire sky, the Qing soldiers found this little city which they previously though to be easily razed was actually the final grave for many of them. While the situation inside the castle was also not that good with hundreds of solders starving to death. Worse still, suddenly someone in the city found they had almost run out of their entire ammunitions. The horrible stillness was once again over the entire the castle. However, a strange thing happened the next day. The soldiers realized that no longer their enemy was anywhere visible, that they defended the last attack and won the war. What the Qing soldiers did not know is that if they were to keep attacking, they would have won the entire war. It is the perseverance that kept Yuan fighting to the last moment and the lack of it that made his opponent lose the war.

Hence I maintain that persistence is more important. This is the most essential characteristic that will even nurture other abilities. Marvelous deeds will also be made if we are determined and perseverant.

More and more of us begin to think that students of today are far less diligent then they were a few decades ago, that more students tend to rather spend time partying with friends late at night than to study. Some then proposed that it would be helpful if we extend the months required in which one student has to attend classes in a year to force them pay more attention to their studies. For me, however, this is totally ridiculous and would not likely to take effects.

Extended hours for studying do not mean the enhanced efficiency in the first place. Students are more likely to get exhausted out than to have better efficiency. Instead of spending more hours, making good schedules and learning how to manage time are in fact more helpful. I have a friend who used to be very nervous before test days because he often failed to pass them. Then after a few times of failure he began to stay up late to cram for his weak subjects. At first it did seem quite effective in helping enhance scores, while then he became tired and efficiency began to descend. Even worse still he did not get rid of his bad habit of getting nervous before exams, so finally his efforts did not entirely pay off. On the hand, another of my friends started to evaluate his study plans when he realized the problems, and then adjusted them to make everything work the best for him to study. This finally proved to be much more important than merely studying longer. An eleven months’ requirement is intent to make students achieve better academic performance by spending more time in school. This is not likely to work in the same way because it fails to realize that time does not always mean efficiency.

Even if it does work to help facilitate school performance, this proposal is also not beneficial for students in other ways. A student’s life should not only focus on academy, but also on the development of personal interests and other abilities. Vacations and holidays are a good opportunity for students to choose to do things to enrich their lives and thus should not be replaced by school years. For me, it is a joy to travel on vacations. Through traveling not only I get great experience and relaxation, but also great exposure to nature. Some of my friends also like to join interesting clubs on vacations. One of them joined a ping-pong club last year and got a very good opportunity to practice playing ping-pong with a bunch of friends in a local club. For those students who want to improve themselves academically, vacations always provide good opportunities to learn more ‘

stuff. A classmate of mine, for example, did plenty of reading about history in the last summer holiday. These are good examples that students are able to use vacations to do meaningful things to enrich their lives, which further proves that the proposal is unlikely to benefit students.

From the examples of my two friends who wanted to improve academy performance, I realize that the best way to have better grades is by trying to enhance efficiency but not merely studying for more time. This is ignored in the proposal and so it would not likely to work but will very likely reduce great opportunities for students who want to improve themselves in different ways.

Simple questions sometimes are more difficult to answer also because there just does not seem to be enough reasons. This is quite true with my own experience. When I was just a very little toddler I found myself so in love with drawing. I used to take pieces of paper and fill them entirely with fanciful goblins and cool figures I knew from computer games. The lines were usually skewed and the colors discordant but I enjoyed them. As I grow up, I still maintain this little hobby as long as I have a few hours at night or an entirely free afternoon. It’s not understood well among my friends for whom schoolwork accounts for a large bulk of time and nearly every free minute is spent on video games. They also hate drawing, anyway. I once found that even I myself was not clearly sure why I was into this so much. Sometimes it happens so naturally that before I was drawing my favorite figures, I even didn’t decide to do it for fun. The reason for different personal interests is always far more elusive than I can grasp. Simple questions such as this one are also among the most difficult to answer.