words mean things

How one behaves in the face of stress says a lot about them as a person. Do you yell at service people? Do you break down and cry when things don't go your way? Is that crying anger and frustration or despair and hopelessness? Do you take a deep breath and move on to Plan B?

I have been all of those things at different times, based on overall stress level and emotional maturity. And I suspect if we were honest, we would all say the same. 

This quote is also the trope that drives much of popular culture stories - the archetypes in our best selling novels and big hit movies. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. The gas station attendant turned leader in all those zombie apocalypse stories, the reason why teenagers save the world in so many series. We need to see, in fiction at least, that we will step up out of our mundane lives and meet the moment.