Student talks about perseverance
By:NiE
"It’s impossible!" James said. "Give it up," George insisted. "You’ll never win." Tom said in a matter of fact tone. But I knew better, I knew better than all of them.
Have you ever been looked down upon because of your size, your sex, or because of your race? Have you ever experienced a time in your life when no one supported you? Imagine walking down the hallways of a new school with a hideous pimple on your face. Everyone pointing, laughing, and downing you with insults; having no one there to walk besides you; just you against everyone else.
Hard to believe now, but I was once among the shortest kids in my class. Always in the front row for pictures, always struggling to see over the heads of my classmates, and always last to be picked for basketball. However, one particular year, I met an interesting friend. She was smaller than myself and yet she was into all types of sports especially in basketball. During recess hours, she would drag me along to the gym to play basketball, or occasionally tennis racket baseball. Over a few months time, I was surprised at how much my basketball skills improved. No longer did I find myself being the first "knocked out" in knockout games, and even more surprising, I would actually make a swoosh once in a while.
When baseball season began, I was not surprised to find out that my friend made the team. Rarely did a girl try out for baseball and our classmates all had opinions about it. Some were encouraging, yet others said cruel things to lower her self-esteem. I would have quit the team from all the pressure, but my friend did not. She was stubborn and soon won the respect of her teammates as well as her classmates. Little did I know then, but I would soon encounter a similar situation.
One day when my friend was not around, I went to the gym to play knockout. As I joined a line of guys, one stepped up and told me I couldn’t play.
"And why is that?" I asked.
"Cause it’s our game," he replied.
"That’s just your lame excuse," I said, "you’re just afraid I’ll get you out." That really did the trick. Actually I was surprised to hear myself say that, too. I guess hanging around one person for so long really rubs off on you once in a while.
"You’ll be the first one I get out!" the boy announced a few moments later.
"We’ll see."
The kid definitely pushed the wrong buttons. Never in my life was I so aggravated about a game. This game I was determined to win. When I was passed the ball I aimed and tossed. SWOOSH! I was simply shocked to see it fly through the hoop clean. When it was my turn again, SWOOSH! I was even more astonished to see it fly through the hoop again. SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH! It was a miracle! I had never made so many in a row, on the other hand, I had never actually been this worked up about a game before. Just before the whistle blew, I knocked the last kid out and won the game. I turned around and smirked at the boy who told me I couldn’t win. I had done it! I had proved to the kid, and to myself, I could do anything if I put my mind to it.
Later, my friend and I grew distant, but she had taught me an important lesson I would never forget. When you try, you will succeed, when you persevere, nothing can stand in your way. The biggest mistake to make is to give up mid-way.
~Connie Lin