EPTAn obstacle or tribulation is all the more daunting the closer it is to home. A personal misfortune can be devastating, while the suffering of others can be simply brushed off. Thus, our focus can at times be egotistical, and we are prone to forget that others have been through much worse. And not just that! Many men and women before us have been through worse AND triumphed. Not simply triumphed, but triumphed in unimaginable and impossible ways. I urge you to step back and look beyond your own life and take to heart the toil and victory that these men embraced. The best part is...that they are not so different from you and I. They are of the human race, to which you belong. Never forget that.
There was once a time when the burdens of society weighed heavily upon my shoulders. The demands and proper protocol that strictly governed my way of life, was the great leviathan that encompassed my soul and tempered my breath. Oh how I wished to escape these machinations of mankind and attain the God given potential of humanity that was my right. I desired to walk, talk, breath, think, and take action with sincerity, and not simply to appease overbearing peers. My name was there, my body was there, but my mind was afar in the distance. There was once a time when the tribulations, obstacles, struggles, and hardships I faced stood before me as Goliath. My courage wavered, my palms were doused in sweat, and I was stricken with a faint of heart. The tasks that lay before me, the standards and satisfaction of others, clouded my dreams and barred my path. I am but a single man, in what miraculous way could I ever overcome these things? I surely lacked hope as I was being dragged hither and thither between two worlds; hope being crushed by the smallest of setbacks. I tell you the truth, my failures felt as if the great city of Rome had fallen. I was a victim’s victim, justifying my shortcomings on the world and blaming society for rainy days. I longed for freedom and the culmination of true potential, but no light shone through and nothing could rescue me from my demise. Or so I thought.
For how can I complain of trivial obstacles when others before me have truly done the truest of impossibles? If Hannibal Barca, was as weak-minded and sullen as I, could he have surpassed the dangers of the Pyrenees and the slopes of the Alps? After his father was slain in cold blood, after Carthage had abandoned him in Rome, when his attempts to scale the walls of Rome were fruitless after 17 years, he never gave up until his dying breath. Hannibal Barca went down in history as one of the greatest military leaders to ever grace this earth. The trials and tribulations he faced never deterred him from putting up a smile for his men, facing their hardships, sleeping and eating alongside them. The odds were against him and yet he forged a fighting machine from the force of his will. The Carthaginian army was a rabble of mercenaries and forcefully recruited arms. And yet, his men followed Hannibal to the gates of hell and he accomplished the impossible.
And what of Napoleon Bonaparte? Was he found guilty of running helter-skelter to his mother when all the imperial armies of Europe banded against him? Ha! From the battle fields of Rivoli, Marengo, Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, Auerstadt, Eylau, and Borodino, the rare genius calculated the defeat of his enemy with ultimate precision. One, two, three, four, five, and six, six times a coalition of Europe’s finest contested supremacy with Napoleon. It took 6 coalitions to finally bring down the Emperor. When he lost it all in on the plains of Leipzig to the 5th Coalition (1813), he was exiled to the island of Elba. But a million muskets, much less the sea could thwart his ambition and self belief. He would return for another bloody engagement for the mere chance of eternal glory. There was no hope for Napoleon, but who needs hope when hope is created from within?
In the culture and tradition of my country, Korea, there lies a story of a man immortalized. He was an admiral of the West Fleet during the Japanese invasion by Hideyoshi, the Imjin War. During the peak of his fame and victories against the samurai, this man was taken by the intrigues of the royal court and the scheming of a rival general. He was stripped of command, humiliated, and nearly put to death, even after winning numerous naval engagements against the Japanese. Korea rewarded the admiral with nothing but chains and a cage pulled on an oxcart.
Could you even fathom how that must have felt? He worked tirelessly and faithfully for Korea and the king. There was not another man who could have held a candle to his loyalty to the state and love of country. Nowhere, in Korea was there a military man who had done more for Korea; singlehandedly holding off complete Japanese victory. And then, to be betrayed by a fellow general, to have his own master stab him in the back, to become humiliated by the ones he saved, and then nearly put to death for all his efforts. How could a man not become bitter and hateful after such an event? It would have made monsters out of most men!
But when Won Gyun, the rival commander, lost Korea’s entire naval force in the disastrous Battle of Chilcheollyang (immediately after he usurped the position of supreme commander), Korea shamelessly asked for the help of the condemned Admiral. Won Gyun lost 169 ships that day, 169 ships that The Admiral had painstakingly built up during all the years of the Imjin War.
Thus, the convicted state prisoner was reaffirmed as commander of a nearly non-existent Korean fleet...he had 13 ships left (12 of which survived the Chilcheollyang catastrophe). Bull shit. The cards dealt to The Admiral are from Satan himself. How was he supposed to defeat the 1000+ ships of the Japanese navy with 13 ships of the line? And why should he risk his life and reputation for Korea when she had treacherously betrayed him and took from him everything?
This is the story of Korea’s greatest hero, The Admiral Yi Sun Shin. This was his battle.
+ Show Spoiler +
Battle of Myeongnyang
13 Korean vessels versus 133 Japanese warships and over 200 Japanese support vessels. Admiral Yi would go on to win this battle without losing a single ship. Only 5 Korean casualties occurred during the entire fight and the wrath of Yi Sun Shin inflicted 12,000 casualties on the Japanese.
13 Korean vessels versus 133 Japanese warships and over 200 Japanese support vessels. Admiral Yi would go on to win this battle without losing a single ship. Only 5 Korean casualties occurred during the entire fight and the wrath of Yi Sun Shin inflicted 12,000 casualties on the Japanese.
When the world turns it’s back on you, when everything is crumbling down, even though you are in the dumps, though the world encourages you to give up, and when the going gets tough...never give up. Know that there is a path to hope and from hope...glory. Believe in yourself and the limitless potential of humanity. Because now you know that those before you have trodden the path that you find yourself trapped, and they have ever so walked upon it gloriously.
