The Road to Success by Carl

The Road to Success by Carl - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” The road to one’s accomplishments and success is always a long and dreadful pathway. However, not everyone makes it to their dreams and aspirations. In modern society, many individuals pursue their dreams, yet not all of them make it, proving that with great dreams comes the potential for even greater failure.
The road to success has never been easy for me. However, if I had to choose an accomplishment I’m most proud of, it would have to be my headstrong and stubborn attitude. These two traits have gotten me out of the deepest slumps in my life and have always given me an edge to keep pushing just a little bit further. You may be asking, “Are these really accomplishments? How does this even count as an accomplishment if these are characteristics which describe someone?” Sadly, there’s not much I can be proud of. I’m a track and field athlete who had a major improvement in his sophomore year. Visions of relays with the fastest kids on the team filled my head. My vision was completely blurred once I injured my hamstring within two weeks of my breakthrough. A whole summer gone to waste. This was when I fell into a slump, but I still had faith that I could come back during the regular season and bring glory to my school. However, reality has a funny way of kicking you while you’re down, because within a month of my recovery, I pulled my hamstring a second time.
The second time I pulled my hamstring, I fell into a deep abyss of sadness. It was completely my fault and I had no one to blame but me. It demotivated me to the point where I didn’t want to run ever again. I wanted to quit and never step foot on the track again. I didn’t tell anyone about this because it wasn’t their problem. I started eating unhealthy again and once I recovered, all my hard work over the summer had been for nothing. I ended the season slower than my freshman year and I was devastated. I let the stench of failure hang over me and I didn’t dare fight it in fear of falling flat again. However, one day I decided to listen to some motivational videos on YouTube in hopes that it would pick me back up. Listening to Eric Thomas and Les Brown changed me. They made me realize that just because I’m a failure now, doesn’t mean I can’t succeed later in life. So, I got up from my couch and started working towards my dream of being the fastest kid on the team again.
Now back to the question of how me being headstrong and stubborn is an accomplishment. Being headstrong and stubborn isn’t an accomplishment at all. Someone can already be headstrong and stubborn from the beginning. However, I wasn’t headstrong or stubborn when I came out of my mother’s womb. Even now, I’m not completely headstrong and stubborn. Because being headstrong and stubborn aren’t truly accomplishments, I must say the accomplishment I’m most proud of is the process I went through to become headstrong and stubborn. I could’ve given up after the second injury. I could’ve even given up before that. However, I picked myself up off the ground and I did what I do best. I ran towards my goals as fast as I could. To this day, I continue to put my blood, sweat and tears into what I love. Even though I’m not the best at it, I can still try to become the best. After all, what’s the beauty in sunshine without a little rain?