Armed with grit, we are determined to learn from our stellar past and the high ideals of freedom and equality that America represents.
But what gave me hope about Trammel was not just his grit in applying himself to learn new academic skills or the positive way that he overcame a very disappointing torn cartilage in his knee or even the goals he has for freshmen year to lose weight, stay focused and avoid negative people.
Grit, persistence and a willingness to learn are not qualities brought on by owning an expensive outfit or having a degree from a prestigious university.
For now, the combination of girls eager to learn, scholarships and grit of the community ensures that girls like 15-year-old Halissa Ado have access to education that they might not otherwise have.
These grit mongers are not turned off by that, instead they continue to learn and train and practice.
In my own life of discovery, I've been seeking to learn more about my capacity to be tenacious, to persevere, and to develop grit.
But basically it comes down to either gritting your teeth while a dotage-addled Hugh Hefner tails off in the middle of an anecdote about silicone, or gritting your teeth while Tom Cruise explains how very few hundred thousand dollars it would cost you to learn that we're all surrounded by alien spirits exiled to this planet by the galactic tyrant Xenu.
"These are all personality traits that make people better leaders, and they're all learnable," says Francke. "For instance, to develop grit, you need learn to overcome adversity; it's learning how to fail.
Still, I learned from Bruce that survival is not just about the skills; you need real grit to execute them in the face of terror.
The road turns from tarmac to potholed tarmac to grit to potholed grit.
Not just life, but the grit to keep on going.
