I am writing a personal statement and my opening sentence is like this:
I am _______. Being resilient in the face of hardships and difficulties, my friends and class fellows would call me so.
Now looking for a suitable word for this blank. Something which shows a hardworking and flexible personality. Kindly help.
Edit: looking for an easy and short word
An exceptionally hard-working or zealous person.
- as modifier ‘she was a Stakhanovite worker in the field of female suffering’.
(ODO)
From Etymonline:
"characterized by energy, effort, and attention; marked by industry," from Middle French industrieux (c. 1500) and directly from Late Latin industriosus, from Latin industria "diligence, activity" (see industry). Of persons, "given to industry, working diligently," 1590s. It retains the etymological sense of the Latin word while industrial serves in the modern senses.
Stress-resistant comes to mind, but it might come across as overpraising yourself (to take away that sentiment you might want to add concrete examples to illustrate why you believe you are stress-resistant).
According to this publication in Stress from a (neuro)biological point of view (emphasis is mine):
"It is important to emphasize, therefore, that stress resistance does not imply the absence of the stress response. Instead, we suggest that high levels of stress resistance delays the “tipping point” from adaptive to maladaptive responses and increase the duration and/or intensity of stressor exposure needed to cross over. In other words, individuals with high levels of stress resistance are able to endure a great deal of stress before experiencing negative effects."
Attribution: Fleshner, Monika, Steven F. Maier, David M. Lyons, and Murray A. Raskind. "The Neurobiology of the Stress-resistant Brain." Stress 14, no. 5 (2011): 498-502. Accessed May 13, 2018. doi:10.3109/10253890.2011.596865.
You might do well with a noun alternative. How about fortitude?
From Dictionary.com
:courage in pain or adversity.
"she endured her illness with great fortitude" synonyms: courage, bravery, endurance, resilience, mettle, moral fiber, strength of mind, strength of character, strong-mindedness, backbone, spirit, grit, true grit, doughtiness, steadfastness; informalguts
Thus, your example becomes
I have fortitude.
I would go for Conscientious if I were you.
After your edit, I suggest this simpler word: driven, according to Oxford Dictionary Online:
(of a person) relentlessly compelled by the need to accomplish a goal; very hard-working and ambitious
In your sentence (I combined your two sentences into one):
I am driven: resilient in the face of hardships and difficulties, my friends and class fellows would call me so.
Attribution: "Driven | Definition of Driven in English by Oxford Dictionaries." Oxford Dictionaries | English. Accessed May 13, 2018. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/driven.
dependable TFD
capable of being depended on; worthy of trust; reliable: a dependable employee.
The closest I can think of to meaning "resilient in the face of hardships and difficulties" would be unstoppable. Other possiblities are steadfast, resolute, and determined, but for an opening sentence I like unstoppable best.
Of course, you may want to convey more than just resiliency, in which case another word might be more appropriate, but if that is the case you will have to elaborate on all that you are trying to convey.
