I rushed downstairs to the kitchen, where my mom was already awake, like always, ready with my breakfast.  Papsi on the other hand was hard at work preparing the heavy dark motor, which had sat ideally in the corner of the garage for over a year. Quickly, I gobbled down a quick bowl of Cheerios, and then went to the garage to see what I could help with. 

     “Don’t worry you go inside and watch some TV and I'll get the gear ready”, said my grandfather.  But I insisted in helping, even though I knew nothing about motors.  Together, we brought down our long fishing rods, enough for five men, his big old blue lifejacket which he has had for years and my brand new shiny reflective yellow one, his lucky silver lures which he claimed are the best ones he's ever used and has been using for almost as long as he’d been fishing on Lake Simcoe.  We loaded everything into the light aluminum boat, where the floor was covered in sticky spider webs and old leaves.  After some cleaning, arranging and rearranging, we were ready to go. My mom wished me good luck and gave me a long warm hug before we took off on the large and not so still blue lake.

      As my grandfather was steering the boat to his favourite spot where he promised the fish would bite nonstop, I could feel the strong wind whip against my face.  With all my strength,  I had to hold down my beloved blue Maple Leafs baseball cap so it wouldn't fly away into the vast lake. Soon enough, we arrived at the “our” spot, where there were countless other boats just like ours, also fishing. 

      I thought to myself, “why does everyone have to be fishing at the same spot, when there is many kilometers of open water to fish?”  Later that day, I would understand why.

      After setting up the two long black rods with Papsi’s favourite lures, we were ready to fish. We dropped the lures to the bottom of the lake which seemed like it could be a kilometre deep, but was only actually ninety feet. For over two hours, we got nothing.  Not even a nibble, as we sat on the burning hot silver aluminum seats. My patience was really being tested - afterall, I am only but a boy.  But, then suddenly I heard the reel go “rrrriiiiiii” as it started spinning. I had one on my line! 

      Quickly I jumped up and yelled, “Fish on!” My heart started beating as fast as a race car as I grabbed the rod with the biggest smile on my face. I started reeling in the line, one slow foot at a time because, I couldn't go five seconds before the fish would try to make a run for it. The fish pulling on my line, didn't feel like anything I’d ever caught before. I knew it was big. It was the one.  After 10 minutes of fighting with the monster, it was almost at the top of the water.  As Papsi was getting the net ready to land the fish, and get it in to the boat, it surfaced.

      The lake trout was humongous. Almost as big as my little brother at the time. I was so proud of it.  After admiring, oohing and aahhing, we decided that it was time to head back, so we threw the trout into the bucket and started the motor. The whole ride back I couldn't stop looking at my catch and how beautiful its silver skin was in the sunlight.

     That day in June 2013 will be remembered.  I treasure the time spent with my grandfather, and how being patient can be rewarding.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

In the second half of  “The Kite Runner”, Amir gets invited by his old family friend Rahim Khan to visit him in Pakistan, and with hesitation Amir agrees to go.  When Amir arrives at Rahim’s home, he gets told the terrible news about Hassan - that he has been killed by Taliban.  Amir is shocked and does not know what to say.  But Rahim also adds that Hassan and Amir share the same father, making them half-brothers.  He further tells Amir that Hassan had a son named Sohrab, still in Afghanistan.  Rahim asks Amir to make it right, and go find Sohrab and bring him to safety.  Amir reluctantly agrees, even knowing that he will face much adversity returning to Afghanistan.  With perseverance, he sets out to save Sohrab.  The first step for Amir to find Sohrab was to go back to Afghanistan, which was already a challenge as Afghanistan was mostly under Taliban control, putting himself at risk.  Amir perseveres through the long journey into the country by preparing and disguising himself as a typical Afghani.  ”I made a list that included exchanging dollars for Kaldar and Afghani bills, my garment and pakol---ironically, I’d never worn either when I’d actually lived in Afghanistan” (Hosseini 242).  After overcoming many adversities on his journey, Amir finally gets to the orphanage where his nephew is said to be.  He finds out that Sohrab had been taken by a Taliban official. Most people would be scared to go anywhere near a Taliban, especially in disguise. But Amir courageously persevered and continued with his mission, even though he was putting himself in real danger. Even with Rahim telling him that it's dangerous and not going with him, he still decided to go, which show tremendous amount of perseverance, “This is your business now” (Hosseini 286).  As Amir enters the building guarded by many Taliban, he knows there is no backing away from his plan. Soon enough he finds Sohrab but does not get him easily.  The Taliban leader Assef who immediately recognized Amir was Assef, the bully from Amir’s and Hassan’s childhood. Assef started beating Amir near to death, as once again he was not able to defend himself.  Sohrab grabs his slingshot and fires at Assef’s eye, which allowed the boy and his uncle to escape. After much perseverance and overcoming many obstacles including Sohrab’s suicide attempt, Amir gets what he came looking for, Hassan’s son Sohrab. Thus proving that if Amir had not persevered he would not have overcome all the adversities achieving his goal of getting Sohrab to safety and making it right again.

Perseverance is necessary to overcome adversity, was demonstrated throughout “The Kite Runner” again as Amir relentlessly tried to gain his father Baba’s respect and admiration. Whether Amir was flying kites or writing stories and poems, he constantly aspired to gain Baba’s  appreciation and respect. Amir showed much perseverance; no matter how many times Baba showed his lack of appreciation and respect for his son Amir, Amir continued to try and would not give up. If Amir did not push through the adversity he would have never reached his goals and maybe never would have gained Baba’s appreciation and respect. Perseverance is directly related to achieving goals by overcoming adversity. “And that right there was the single greatest moment  of my twelve years of life, seeing Baba on that roof, proud of me at last” (Hosseini 71). That is what Amir said after he won the kite competition which was a direct result of his hours of training and persevering to become better even when facing adversity.  Amir shows perseverance even more with his writing. He constantly asked Baba to read his stories and poems, even when repeatedly Baba showed no interest, “Baba went on staring me down, and didn’t offer to read” (Hosseini 34).  Amir was determined to get Baba to look at his work and gain his acceptance, so he kept trying. He persevered throughout his childhood into adulthood, even when having the adversity of his father not being interested.  Eventually, with all his hard work, Amir achieved his goal and became a professional author, writing his first novel. Again showing that perseverance is  most important for overcoming adversity, and achieving your goals.

These examples of Amir being determined and overcoming obstacles without giving up, to succeed proves that, perseverance is the key to overcome adversity. Amir faced many challenges, but with perseverance he achieved his goals, as seen in winning the kite competition, becoming a writer, getting his father’s admiration, and ultimately finding Hassan’s son, his nephew Sohrab and bringing him home.  Persevering over adversity to achieve goals can also be seen in real life, including my own. When I started playing hockey I wasn't a great player but I did not give up.  I kept practicing and training, and now I have become one of the better players on my team. Proving that with anything that you do in life perseverance is always needed to achieve.

“Get you gone, you dwarf,

You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made.

You bead, you acorn.” (Shakespeare 3.2.339-341)

This also proves that at that time and society women were not much respected, and men were allowed to say anything they wanted and a women would not be able to do anything about it. Many times throughout the play it is evident that the women in the play are very desperate for any man who they can get, and do not care if that means getting harmed, 

“Use me but as your spaniel—spurn 

me, strike me.” (Shakespeare 2.1.190-191)

This kind of behavior and attitude nowadays would not happen, but back in that society the women were considered not as important as men, and let themselves be beat on.

Also in the play women do not have much say, as for example one time when Lysander and Demetrius both wanted to marry Helena, they did not ask her as normally people would do nowadays but instead they fought to see who gets her. Which proves that in the play the women were demonstrated as desperate, without a voice and not respected.

They agreed with me that and added that Amir feels very embarrassed but that he shouldn't just because Hassan is different.  They didn't think that it was right that Hassan treated Amir so well but not the other way. Also we all thought that later on in the story Amir will get karma for what he did and/or feel guilty.

They agree with me that Amir and Baba had a hard time adapting to their new life, but adding to what I said they believe also they are not used to the culture difference in religion, people, language, food, music and also how people act. Also they believe that there were no trust issues in Afghanistan because most people were friends and the competition for money wasn't as competitive as America where everyone only thinks about themselves.

My Group Answer:

They all agreed with me that the reason why Amir went out of his way to find Sohrab is because of a feeling of guilt from his childhood. They also said that I should have added at least one example from Amir's childhood where he is being rude or did something bad to Hassan.