My Hero Joan of Arc

In my life there are many ups and downs, there are good times and there are bad times and there are in between times. When you feel that you have hit rock bottom you have to pick your self up off the floor and keep going no matter what. I have had a lot of good experiences in my life that I think have helped form the person I am today, I was loved at home and I was taught to be moral, honest, and non-judgmental towards others. I have also had some not so good experiences, which brings me to the point of this paper. There have been many times in my life where I have needed to stick up for myself and I haven't had the courage. One of my biggest down falls is lack of courage, so naturally my person of choice was Joan of arc.

Joan was and extremely courageous girl, she led France to victory against England in the battle of Orleans at only 16 years old. Even in Joan's early years she was know for being extremely obedient to her parents, her religious passion, goodness, unselfishness, kindness, and generosity towards others. She came from a poor family in Domremy, and was only a peasant girl. Her friends say that even though they were poor Joan would always give up her bed to whatever beggar came to her fathers door that night. Joan claims to have started hearing the voices of god telling her to be good and attend church and that god would help her. They also told her to go into France and raise the siege of Orleans, and direct the Dauphin Charles to Reims for his crowing and drive the English from the land.

On February 23rd,1429, Joan set out on her mission of god. She traveled to the city of Chinon where she stood in front of the dauphin and told him that she hears the voices of god and they are telling her to take control of the army and take him to go and become the crowned king of France. That must have taken a lot of courage for her to go in front of him and say that because most people would probably have been scared that he would laugh and think that they are crazy, but not Joan, through her tremendous courage and faith she stood her ground and said her part. It is said that the dauphin believed her because she told him about a private prayer he said to god that no one could possibly know.

Joan was put in charge of the military and she was phenomenal. She cleaned up the camps by eliminating prostitutes and alcohol and actually making her men train for war. She was provided a suit of armor that fit exactly to her body and she fought right along side her men the entire time, which is another reason I think she was courageous. She was only 16 years old and a woman yet she still fought along side her men. She ends up leading her men to victory then taking the dauphin to be crowned king, completing her mission.

The part of Joan's life where I think she is most courageous is sadly the end. She is captured by England and put on trial. The English had no witness against her except for herself, so they tried to trick her into saying something that might be used against her, but Joan wouldn't budge. Even after being threatened with torture and burning at the stake she held her ground. The English eventually won the trial and sentenced Joan to death. Even her enemies say that her state at the time of her death was enough to bring them to tears her faith allowed her to call out to god even as she was burning. In my life there have been many times where I have needed courage, whether it was to stick up for my self or something I believed in, but I could never quite find it.

When I was two years old I probably had more courage than I do right now. I was an outgoing, talkative, happy little girl. When I was 2 years old I went on a train to montana with my parents and on the train I got up out of my seat and introduced my self to every single person on the train with the phrase "Hi! I'm Cori Morgan and im two (holding up two fingers) years old. What's your name?" My mom told me that she was always worried that someone was going to snatch me because I was so cute and friendly.

There was on particular time in my life when I really needed courage. My brother was into a lot of hard drugs and was a totally different person, he treated me bad and constantly called me mean names, and he even hit me a few times. I became severely depressed because I hadn't told any one about my brother or the things he did to me. I became so depressed that thoughts of suicide were a common thing on my mind.

I with drew myself from everything my friends and even my parents. I hid in my room and read books, I must have read over 75 books in the year. I read one book titled 'cut'. It was about a girl who had problems similar to mine but the way she dealt with her problems was to cut her wrist with razor blades. In the book she said that it made her feel relieved and it was some way to deal with the problems. I wondered if what the girl did really did work so I decided anything was better then suicide which I had been thinking of, so I decided to try it. Amazingly after I did it I felt some what relieved to me