Where I Come From

We all have a different story behind us. Some of us were fortunate enough to be born into a great amount of privilege. Most of us, unfortunately, were not. We all come from a different background, ethnicity, race, gender, and family. Something that we all do have in common is passion. We all have something we are passionate about. It may be that we are different about what we are passionate about, but, passion is passion. As Frank Turner once said, "It doesn't matter where you come from, it matters where you go". Success is something I want to achieve in life. But, how do we describe success? Does everyone have the same definition of success? Success is different in every aspect.

One of the things I want to be successful is in school. Now, being successful in school is getting to class on time, doing homework everyday, studying everyday, and trying my hardest everyday. There might be other things that may interfere with school like, for me, soccer and work, but I try my hardest and give it everything I got. I think that education is the only way out of "the concrete" Andrade talks about so much. Education is what defines your future. Some people get lucky and become successful without education like Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, Harvard's most successful drop out who said "I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class... I did the best of everyone who failed". I'm not as creative as Bill Gates is, but I know that through education I can become successful. Education can help anyone achieve their dreams and pursue their future.

Another thing that I want to be successful in is soccer. Soccer has been a very important part of my life. I know I can have a career out of it. I've been exposed a lot through soccer with my club team. I also traveled to a lot of states because of it. It's perfect because soccer keep me in check when I tend to be lazy in school. I'd love to play professional soccer, it's one of my goals and dreams. It's really hard to be pro at anything we all know that. A lot of famous soccer players that got injured and were not allowed to play anymore didn't have anything to fall back on because they dropped out of school to become a full time soccer player. I don't want to make the same mistake as them. I want to have something to fall back on just in case I do go pro and end up with a career ending injury. "Education first", says my coach Tony Igwe, "You are all ambassadors of this school, but you all know you need to focus on your studies as well, get a degree". I know education is above all, If I didn't know any better, I would of dropped out of school and would of focused on soccer a long time ago. I'm lucky and blessed enough to have more than one plan though. iI just have to work hard and wish for a little luck.

Privilege and who you are is definitely tied together. Some are lucky to be born into a life full of privilege. Others, like me, can't complain. I can't sit and complain about how it sucks to be unprivileged as others. If I were to do that, I might miss the opportunity to become privileged. I can't dwell on it and try to find out with me out of everyone else, that would get me nowhere and make me look like everyone else. I want to tell stories to my grandchildren and explain to them how hard it was to grow up, but how I manage to get it all together and move forwards and not backwards. We all have the opportunity to move forward, only the lazy sit there and wonder when their time will come.