After the Storm by Melissa Moore

“Without struggle there is no progress.” (Fredrick Douglas) Nothing in life comes on a silver platter. Before you experience the beauty of walking you first have to crawl, before u make it to the top of the mountain you first have to climb, and before you can experience progression you then first have to overcome obstacles. There will be hardships, down falls, and mistakes made but that’s all apart of being human. I believe that when there are downfalls, just stand back up again, and when there are hardships just work even harder, and when you make mistakes…learn from them, but never give up on anything. “Opportunity follows struggle, it follows effort, it follows hard work, and it doesn’t come before”. (Shelby Steele)

No one can act or do anything perfectly. I know I don’t. Often times I compare myself to baseball games. I’m always the batter and life is the pitcher. Sometimes I miss, sometimes I hit curved ball, and sometimes I even get smacked right in my face, never once could I hit a home run. Sometimes I’m so close to winning I can almost taste it…then I loose. Not being perfect at things are okay, but not doing my best at something is completely unacceptable. Only Practice makes perfect. That’s why the one good thing about loosing is knowing that with just a little practice and dedication to the game hitting home runs would not be a problem. I like to compare these baseball games to my life because just like the game I make mistakes. Sometimes I win, sometimes I loose. There has been time when I felt like quitting, just giving up on life itself. There has been times when I would do really well, even stand out from the rest. My point is that nobody is perfect. There’s plenty of room for mistakes and plenty of room to fix them with just a little dedication to the game.

I’ll never forget my freshmen year of high school. Being at the top of my class in eight grade lead me to believe that high school was going to be a breeze. Little did I know, I was in for a ride. Classes were harder, and more homework was on my plate. I had a lot of things to keep balanced. Get all my homework done, maintain a good GPA, stay involved and committed to after school activities and still have a social life. School had become a struggle for me. So much of a struggle that I thought that giving up was my only option.

After I received my first semester report card, it was no were compared to my standards. My parents were very upset and surprised that I brought home such grades. Disappointing my parents hurt me in ways that I will never be able to describe in words. I realized that I could not let my parents down. More importantly I could not give up on myself. No matter how hard school was becoming for me, I had to give it my all. Whatever my struggle I had to continue to climb. Lacking in school made me realized that I was also lacking confidence in myself. I never gave high school a high school a shot. Never gave it my all. I was so worried about how hard things were becoming that I never even tried to overcome the problem before it even occurred. I was so scared of high school that I never even gave it my all. As stated by Marcus Garvey, “if you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life, with confidence you have won even before you started.” I had been defeated, but I wasn’t giving up that easily.

I had to gain my confidence back. I believed in myself, and know that all I had to do was try my best. After doing that, my grades became a lot better, GPA went back up and I had become dedicated and committed to all my after school activities. I had learned how to balance all those things and still hold on tight to my social life, and I still keep them balanced to this very day. Giving up wasn’t an option. After going through all those obstacles I had grew as a person. I gained strength. I know that in life sometimes we need struggle, going through life without obstacles is unrealistic. Struggle is strength. As Arnold Schwarzenegger stated, “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggle develops your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that’s your strength.” Me not giving up had made me that much stronger. “Success is sweet and sweeter if long developed and gotten through many struggles and defeats.” (Amos Bronson Alcott) To this day, I appreciate the progression that I have made in my high school years so mush, because I know the struggle I had to overcome