sur·viv·al
–noun
1.the act or fact of surviving, esp. under adverse or unusual circumstances.
2.a person or thing that survives or endures, esp. an ancient custom, observance, belief, or the like.
3.Anthropology. (no longer in technical use) the persistence of a cultural trait, practice, or the like long after it has lost its original meaning or usefulness.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary,
© Random House, Inc. 2010.
"You must change in order to survive."
(Pearl Bailey)
Sonnet For The End Of A Sequence
So take my vows and scatter them to sea;
Who swears the sweetest is no more than human.
And say no kinder words than these of me:
"Ever she longed for peace, but was a woman!
And thus they are, whose silly female dust
Needs little enough to clutter it and bind it,
Who meet a slanted gaze, and ever must
Go build themselves a soul to dwell behind it."
For now I am my own again, my friend!
This scar but points the whiteness of my breast;
This frenzy, like its betters, spins an end,
And now I am my own. And that is best.
Therefore, I am immeasurably grateful
To you, for proving shallow, false, and hateful.
Dorothy Parker