Picking Myself Up!

Scooting by

My life academically, personally, and athletically has always been pretty easy. In sports, I was able to have a lot of success as a child in baseball. It came pretty natural to me, and even though I played catch with my dad all the time, I didn’t have to put a ton of extra work into it to be pretty good. Tennis also, came naturally for me. I picked up a racquet for the first time a month before the freshmen tennis season, and ended up making varsity. I have also been fortunate in golf to have had a fair amount of success. Now let me shift to academics, I have always been a pretty good student, but I confess at times in high school, I only did enough to get by. I was good in math, but kind of just scooted by in my other classes, not studying like I should have.

Starting College

Fast forward to college, my parents kept telling me I needed to study harder than I ever had in my life. I took those words to heart my first semester, and other than struggling in an English class, I ended up having an ok first semester. Then came my second semester. That semester I had a much more difficult load in classes, and also for the first time I had a few classes I didn‘t like really well. I also didn’t have really any classes with my friends, so I felt alone in my struggles. Sometime right after spring break, I mentally shut down. I had never done this in anything in my life, and frankly I have no idea why, other than I felt alone. As I fell further behind in a couple classes I began to feel like a failure. I should have reached out to someone: my parents, a counselor, my coach, or my professors, but I didn’t. By the time the semester was over I was in trouble, not only with my parents, but with the University as well. My dad looked me in the face and said do you want to stay in school? I said yes!!! That is when I told him I would do anything to get a second chance. It felt like the first time in my life that I needed a second chance, and I didn‘t plan on blowing it.

My Road Back

Last summer, I came up with a plan. A plan is the first step to overcoming adversity. I first self-examined what went wrong. The first thing I decided was that I had clearly had a lack of effort, when the going got tough! I quickly signed up for two summer classes. My goal wasn’t just to pass them, it was to make A’s in both classes. I took my laptop everywhere with me. I worked on papers in the car, on airplanes, and even in a coffee shop in Switzerland. The result of this extra effort was getting two A’s. I was on the road back. When I got back to campus in August, I had a little more hop in my step then when I had left. Tears were now smiles, but I wasn’t out of the woods yet, and I knew it. At this point I came up with more steps to overcome my weaknesses. Step one last semester was every Sunday I wrote down a schedule for the week. This kept me on a schedule that I felt would lead to success. The second commitment I made was to ASK FOR HELP. As the semester went along, I was able to get a little help from a family friend in one of my classes, to help study for a test. His help studying for a final made a difference for me to make my last goal, which I will tell you about next!

Success!!!

As the semester progressed, I realized that I had a chance to make Dean’s List, which then became my goal. Setting goals is another important part of working through tough times. In my example, I first set a goal of getting A’s in my summer courses, then raising my GPA to a 3.0 overall, and finally I adjusted my goal to make the Dean‘s List for the semester. I am happy to say, that with hard work I was able to achieve all of what I worked so hard for. I have continued with setting a weekly schedule this semester, and though I may not make Dean’s List…. Philosophy, can be a bit hard… I do still see the results of my efforts. My overall GPA is well above a 3.0 and I plan on keeping it there. Sometimes we have to hit bottom to realize the work it takes to get to where you want to be. This is true in sports, in work, in school, and in life. But when you do hit bottom, do what I did, have a plan, stick to the plan, set goals, and get on the right path!

REACHING MY GOAL