Yesterday, I shared this quote with my students and had them write about its meaning. It is from Theodore Roosevelt’s famous "Citizenship in a Republic" speech given in 1910 at the Sorbonne in the Grand Amphitheater of the University of Paris. In it, he emphasizes his belief that the success of a republic rests on the quality of its people. This famous passage is known as "The Man in the Arena." It is also the passage that inspired the title of Brene Brown’s book, Daring Greatly. It is the standard by which Roosevelt measured himself and others.
We live in a world where all we see is the end product, the perfect Instagram life, the highlight reel, but we often know nothing of the struggle; the vulnerability it takes to put oneself out there repeatedly and still persevere in the face of criticism and the wake of failure. Brown says not to ask the infamous question: "What would you do if you knew you could not fail?" but rather, "What is worth doing, even if I fail?" Being willing to try even if you fail is vulnerability in its rawest form. I tell my students that writing is like this; creating anything and putting it into the world to be seen and critiqued is like this.
Brown says that vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change. It “sounds like trust” and “feels like courage.” It is not a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of strength. It is the emotion…
