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Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” My outlook on life and working hard has come from, for the most part, the things that I have seen and experienced. The most difficult time in my life came in December of 2000 when my mother was forced to stop working and go on disability. To go from being solely dependent and provided for, to not knowing where I was going to lay my head at night was the hardest thing I could imagine any ten year-old having to deal with.
Over the course of the next four years, I lived with different family members and friends, all of whom I have to thank for the person that I am and the success that I have achieved. It was during these trialing years that I saw that nothing in life is guaranteed. I decided then to strive for success. Knowing what it’s like at both ends of the spectrum showed me the life that I wanted for myself and, one day, for my own family. Rather than succumbing to the pressures of society to just give up and let life overcome me, I have persevered to maintain all A’s and B’s in school and keep my GPA above a 3.5.
Although many tough times have been thrown her way, my mother has always pushed me to do well in school. One thing she always tells me is to feed my brain now, and it will feed me later. She has also shown me the true meaning of success. No matter how bad things have been, I never doubted that she would provide for us, and she hasn’t once let me down. Seeing her struggle to keep a roof over my head and food in my mouth has given me a greater sense of pride in myself. Knowing that she believes in me and knows that I’ll succeed is the backbone of my hard work, because I know that I can’t let her down. I believe that for someone to call themselves successful, they must have had something to overcome; for someone to say that they are strong, they must...