The Steven Thompson Memorial Centipede is a cross-country meet unlike any other. Each seven-member team runs as a unit, holding a rope for the first two miles of a three-mile course. At the two-mile mark, the team drops the rope and finishes the race individually. Each person’s time is, therefore, a combination of the pace the team kept and his or her own speed. A strategy used by some teams is to put the fastest runner at the front and the slowest right behind her. The goal is for the strongest runner to be near enough to speak words of encouragement to the slowest runner.
1. You can learn anything you want to learn. All it takes is effort and persistence. When was the last time you really had to try hard to learn something?
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2. What is the connection between the story and the quote by St. Francis Assisi?
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3. Persistence means not giving up. Have you ever felt like giving up? Write at least three sentences about a time when you wanted to give up on something.
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4. Think about the situation you described in question three. What would you do differently if you were in a similar situation again?
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