Definition Essay: What Is Courage?

What is courage? Most people say that most people that have courage are firefighters, police, or military members. These wonderful people risk their lives every day. These people have the mindset to face pain or doing hard tasks with being afraid. They don’t do it to attract attention to themselves, they focus on what is really important. They can’t get overwhelmed and let their feelings control their actions. You don’t have to be a firefighter, police officer or military member to be courageous. A lot of people confuse the word or don’t use it correctly. They confuse it for honesty or leadership. Honesty is telling the truth and not lying. Leadership is leading or guiding a group. They also confuse courage for just not being afraid but realistically

They risk their lives every day. They fight in combat against horrible people that are a major threat to our country. They risk the chance of getting shot, blown up, losing a limb, or death. They have no fear knowing all of this and still fight for our country. Police officers also have great courage. They put their lives in danger and are involved in a lot of risks. Foot and vehicle pursuits, arresting criminals, weapons, heatstroke, and stress. There are two types of courage. Physical courage and mental or moral courage. There is moral courage and there is physical courage. Physical courage is doing something of great bravery and strength such as I mentioned before about soldiers or marines in combat. Mental or moral courage is the strength to do what is right morally. A great example of courage that I find truly amazing is of Marine William “Kyle” Carpenter. Kyle jumped on a grenade in attempt to protect a fellow Marine and he survived. While on the way to the hospital in the helicopter he said that he had to be revived. He spent two and half years in the hospital and went through numerous surgeries. He was clinically pronounced dead three times and was fortunately revived every time. He had a collapsed lung, arm broken in thirty pieces, loss of his right eye, lost most of his jaw, and many other injuries. Kyle Carpenter received the Medal of Honor for his “courageous” and heroic actions on