1. Perseverance
By Dustin Gee

2. What is Perseverance?
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, perseverance is the quality that allows someone to continue trying to do something even though it is difficult.
“Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.” –Thomas Carlyle
In my own words, perseverance is having a never quit, never give up attitude. It is the ability to keep pressing on through life’s challenges.

3. Rewinding Back
Back in the summer of 2009, I had just finished 6th grade and was headed off the middle school in the fall.
Around mid-August, I was returning from vacation when I got news that my grandfather had passed away.
He died after battling Leukemia for nearly eight years.
The only feeling I had at the time it happened was sorrow, as this was the first person in my close, immediate family that I had lost to a disease like this.
I kept asking myself why?

4. Our Relationship
My grandfather, was my mom’s dad, and my mom grew up an only child, so being the only grandchildren he had, he always was there for me and my sister.
Growing up in Northern Virginia, my grandfather lived only about an hour away in Maryland.
Ever since I was as young as I can remember, my grandfather would take me to every Washington Redskins home game, as it became a tradition for us.
He instilled my passion for sports in me, everything I know about sports is from him.

5. Leukemia
Leukemia is cancer of the body’s blood-forming tissues, including the bone marrow and the lymphatic system.
Scientists do not understand the exact causes of leukemia. It seems to develop from a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
Many treatments are given to people with Leukemia, including Chemotherapy, Biological Therapy, Targeted Therapy, and Radiation Therapy
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St Jude’s Research Hospital has spent more than half a century finding cures for cancer, and their groundbreaking research has helped push the survival rate from childhood cancer from less than 20% in 1962 to more than 80% today

6. How I Persevered?
When I attended my grandfather’s funeral, I remember one thing that my grandfather’s sister said to me that day.
She told me, “Your grandfather will never forget you and your sister, you two were his heartbeat.”
As I thought about what she told me, I realized that the only way I was going to persevere through the situation was by living my life to the fullest for my grandfather, living in his honor, carrying on his heartbeat.
I hope one day I can bring everything he taught me when it comes to sports into a career in the sports world.

7. References http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perseverance
conditions/leukemia/basics/definition/con