Unlikely success

“When the world says, “give up,” Hope whispers, “try it one more time.” When circumstances around you are not ideal, that is the best time to persevere.

This is quite possibly the most important thing I’ve learned in my short life. The best thing a person can do is use the negative around them to create something positive. I am a seventeen year old girl and student dedicated to taking care of myself and my education. I believe that I am an excellent candidate for a college education because although my life hasn’t allowed for much chance of me succeeding, I have come a long way to achieve my goals and to become a well rounded, above average person. Something in my life that shows my strength through undesirable circumstances would be the absence of my father. It would be wrong to say that he was never around because he was.

When he was around however, he was never a father to me, and he never stayed around for long. He was also never consistently a part of my life. I grew up with just my mother and sisters in a small, modest apartment. It was clean but crowded and left little room to grow. There were only two bedrooms for the four of us, this way, I never got much privacy.

Maybe had my father been a better husband, and hadn’t turned to drugs, there would have been two incomes in my household; therefore we could have a more desirable home. It was neither mine nor my mother’s fault that my father couldn’t live with us anymore. It wasn’t fair that I had to live without him. I only had the support of one parent, and though I am emotionally damaged as a result of this, I’ve always been my own advocate. I’ve learned to rely on myself because I knew that people could leave you at any time.

Since then I have had much success in my life and education because I took responsibility for myself and had no excuses. My father not being a part of my life was definitely an obstacle, but who’s to say it wasn’t also a blessing? I’ve learned to be a stronger, more self reliant person because of his absence. I know I could continue in my success and use my father’s absence as strength to achieve everything I want and deserve in life. Another reason my academic success is so impressive is because of my anxiety and self-image issues. Since I was a toddler, I’ve had major anxiety problems.

I can remember crying into my mother’s shoulder outside of our small brick apartment because I didn’t want to leave her and go to school. She understood what I was going through, however there was no way she could keep me home from school my entire life. No one without anxiety can understand how distracting and debilitating it can be to a child, especially during school. It’s an absolute wonder my grades have never dropped significantly due to the depression and obsession with self-image that can come with an anxiety disorder. I remember my mother saying “Kate, you know you have to go”, every time I would beg and plead for her to call me off. I knew what she said was true.

After a few minutes of begging and crying, I would pick myself up off the floor and tell myself that I could make it through the day. I knew, even at such a young age, that there was something better out there for me. I knew that I couldn’t have any excuses if I wanted to have the best life for myself. I didn’t want to leave my mother. I didn’t want to face the other students but I used my inner strength to overcome it.

I knew since then that education was something to value. Since then, things have gotten better because I made it happen. I don’t let my anxiety and my worries get to me as much. I have worked extremely hard to excel in school despite my overwhelming emotional disorder. I see it now as just a small obstacle, but not something that will ever keep me from what I want to achieve.

I deserve the chance to continue my education and do great things for myself and this world. I know that I deserve the opportunity to advance in my education because no challenge or obstacle has stopped me before, and I will not let anything get in my way from here on out. In my life I have learned that you are the only person you can truly rely on. When it comes to what’s best for you, you are the only one that can possibly know. I am different from other students because no matter what has happened to me, or how much I have let myself down, I never lose hope in myself and my capabilities.

I will never stop fighting for what I deserve, and I deserve a great college education.