Courage Grows With You

Recently, I have been thinking about the meaning of courage and how it relates differently to different stages of life. The IDG course defines courage as, 

"Ability to stand up for values, make decisions, take decisive action and if need be, challenge and disrupt existing structures and views."

In pondering this definition, I started to think about how courage looks at varying stages of our lives. When we are young, we may confront playground bullies because they are mean to our friends. I am in my twenties now, and having courage looks very different now than it did at any of my previous life stages. For example, In my teen years, my ability to control my self-expression through how many ear piercings I got was worthy of me standing to my parents. However, now, I need to utilize most of my courage in advocating for my continuing education by putting my best foot forward and applying for master's programs, even though it scares me. What I valued in every stage of my life were and are equally impactful and vital to me. However, now, I see things through the lens of someone older and with more life experience and a better idea of what I want in my future. To summarize, the concept of courage stays the same, but our perception of the world and our values change; thus, what we must be courageous about also changes. 

Now, my question to you is: How has your courage changed? Can you think of an example of how you have grown your courage or what you find worthy of courage?