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Johanna's Revision of
If
by Rudyard Kipling

Johanna Charette's favorite poem is "If," written by Rudyard Kipling in 1895. The poem was inspired by a raid against the Boers in South Africa and has long been a favorite of Britons and others around the world.

Johanna was forced to memorize it, while a student at Peakie's Foundling Home, and adopted it as her own personal message from the powers that be. Kipling's poem ends with the words:
"And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!"
However, having no known family (and being a girl), Johanna changed the last line to suit herself.

The full text follows, with Johanna's revision.
If


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - what is more - your honor will be won!