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when I was younger would always want to play my basketball game. then I started to play Real basketball. my coaches would always push me to do the best I could do. my determination came from watching nab games with my dad who would practice with me. I accomplished my goal of paying but not bing good enough.

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I have always had a dream of being a teacher. It's just one of those goals that I have always had. I am determined every day to try and succeed so that I may accomplish these goals. That's is why every day I work so hard to make good grades. My determination comes from friends and family but most importantly It comes from myself. I am going to accomplish my dream.  I know that without a doubt. First I have to start out by being a regular school teacher but I hope to make it to the top of my goal. Which is to be a college professor. What also mainly pushes me to fulfill my goal and be more determined is seeing others around me being determined and accomplishing their goals.

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I have always wanted to do a front flip and I have tried for many summers on end. I tried and tried but it never worked but I achieved my goal yesterday. I nailed a front flip into the pool and I filmed it. I have played soccer for a long time and in middle school our team was very good so I had to work really hard to get good at it. One time I was fishing with my friend and he stepped on a moccasin and I have tried to kill it like six times but that slithery boy is fast. Like super incredibly fast

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I can't think of a good memory of when I had a lot of determination to accomplish something so I'm just going to give a small one. When I played tennis for Waccamaw in the 7th grade, I had a coach that didn't like me for some reason and because of that she ranked me number ten on the team at the beginning of the season. I wanted to show her that I was better than that so I was determined to move up to at least number 6 by the end of the season. I did challenge matches about twice a week and I practiced every day so I could beat whoever was above me each week. At about half way through the season I reached my goal of number six, but I didn't give up there. By the end of the season I was number three and had moved up 7 places. I was determined to achieve my goal from self-motivation and was probably also motivated by my coach's disbelief in me. I also won the award for most improved out of the JV and Varsity teams that year.

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One time, I went to the beach with my boys. Thomas and I saw some dead jellyfish. We scooped them up and brought them to our chairs. We saw that there were a few more down the beach. We fetched a bin to put them in. We filled the bin, but it was heavy, and it was a long walk to our chairs. We carried those dead jellyfish for about 10 minutes. I grabbed a boogie board and put the bin on top so we could drag it into the water and the bin would glide with ease. We went down the beach where twenty more jellyfish lie. We put as many jellyfish into the bin as we could. We were dragging it a long way back, when the cord we were pulling the boogie board by snapped. We were distraught. We weren’t going to be able to carry 20 jellyfish to the chairs. We thought we were gonna have to give up, but we didn’t. We took half of the jellyfish out, put them in the center of a towel, and made a towel sack. I slung it over my shoulder and carried it all the way there. Jellyfish jam dripping down my bare back, we made it. We ended our journey with about forty five jellyfish. We then buried them.

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Back in my prime (fifth, sixth, and grade) I was really into gymnastics. I wasn't even good at it but I tried to be cool. I knew I couldn't do any major flips so I went for an easier option: an aerial. Its basically a cartwheel with no hands. I tried for over a year to get it and I finally got it one day. I wanted to do it because all my friends would always show off their tricks at recess (I know so cool right) and I wanted to be able to do what they were doing. I would say I was self-driven as well as driven by my friends' successes. Later I gave up cheer and gymnastics so i'm now realizing how irrelevant it was to get that one trick. And no, I cannot do the trick anymore. I think that, for me, it was mostly about just being able to achieve a big goal I had set for myself. So for that, I am glad I was able to get some little gymnastics trick that I set my mind to although I was driven mostly by my jealousy of my friends.

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So I think everyone knows I am very short and I love a sport we’re you kinda need some height. So I play basketball all the time and I am always told wow your short you can play basketball everyone says that they can just push me around and I won’t be able to play. But I practice every day I try so hard at this game because it’s one of the few things I really care about so while people tell me Iam short I laugh and when people tell me they’ll push me around they have to try hard. But every person I know has made fun of my height sometimes they do it as a joke or sometimes they do it for real but I learned to ignore that. This basketball season for school we played against a team and the shorted dude was a little taller than Ross and they had some big dudes like real big dudes and one was tryna fight me and I asked him to punch me but he was to scared, and the whole game they were calling me names like one kid kept calling me pipsqueak it was kinda funny gonna be honest but what Iam tryna say is that people always make fun of me and it’s tough to play basketball but I try very hard at it and I think I can be good at it.

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I can't really think of the last time that I had an outstanding drive to accomplish something. with this being said, I do accomplish a lot of things that may take time or a lot of effort, but this doesn't mean that I am completely driven by the will of determination. this could stem from the fact that I hate goals and really don't like to only work towards something of that nature. I like to just follow the path and see were it goes not deviate from it with my own personal goals. while your working hard on that goal and have tunnel vision, I may have just noticed the best new thing around that you didn't because you have your heart set and don't want to stop and look around.

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About eight months ago I really, really wanted to make the sectional cut in either the 200 fly or the 100 fly. All during the short course season I trained as hard as I could and pushed myself to my limits for the majority of the practices we had. I only missed a few practices for necessary things outside of swimming. At every meet that season, I swam the 200 fly as both a way to track my progress and to be sure I was working hard enough. My drive came from my own head, but others helped motivate me, as well. I really wanted the head coach to notice me so he could move me to the older group, where I would get a practice more suited to my needs, and if I got a sectional cut, he would notice for sure. I also wanted the experience for the experience itself and for help with future sectional meets. I had two types of outside encouragers: the ones who really did silently hate me (even though that sounds fake), and the ones who supported me and provided a motivation; I was not only doing this for me, but also for them. After a lot of training, good meets, bad meets, and a few arguments, the state meet came up. I swam the 200 fly in a 2:22.42 (I think) and made it to finals. I hadn't made the sectional cut yet, but I told myself I would get it at finals. I returned that evening only to get a 2:20.56 (ish), nearly two seconds away from the cut. I decided to do a time trial the next day, and made the cut in a 2:18.24.

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Ok, this isn't a triumphant story, but I think it's kind of funny so listen up. I think 2 years ago, I was so freaking sick of wearing glasses, so I wanted to start wearing contacts. We went to the eye doctor when they had my prescription so I could try them on and see if I liked them. I was honestly terrified of shoving something into my eye, so it took me an hour and a half just to one contact in. But, I got it. This determination came from my brain telling me to grow the frick up and wear contacts. It also came from myself being tired of looking like a rat (I also had braces and didn't understand the concept of "bad hair days" so my hair always looked like the rat's nest I lived in). But, 2 years later, I wear contacts and I still look like a rat.Yes, I did accomplish it, obviously. Ok I have 5 minutes left. This has absolutely NOTHING to do with what Jerry did because you don't risk your existence while putting in contacts or the first time. Also, I'm sure I have other goals I've tried to achieve, but I can't really think of anything else because I don't know why.

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In 6th grade I was really behind in math and had to finish in the summer and my brothers told me that I wouldn't be able to do anything fun that summer because I had to finish my math book. So I decided that I would Finish my math book by the 4th of july so i can have a month and a half of no school work, james and peter thought I couldn't do it but i finally finished the book the day before the 4th. my determination came from my brothers saying I couldn't finish my work by july.

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I was in 5th grade on my volleyball team playing jv and varsity. Varsity were all older girls and a 6th grader. Somehow I made it to varsity and I honestly don't really know why, I guess it was because I was good at passing. All of them had there overhand serves or there jump serve but I didn't. I didn't really play a lot but one day I got the courage up to ask my coach how I can become better and play more. He said to get my overhand serve. For the rest of that year I went outside everyday because I didn't really have a busy life and I practiced serving over hand trying to get the ball to go farther every time.  Somehow one day I made it over the net. I started doing this every practice and everyday. I learn how to control my serve and where to spot to. Somehow I went from not even being able to serve underhand to jump serving in my volleyball games because of my determination. I wanted to be as good as the older girls I saw and now I am even closer. I finally never set on the bench this whole year because of my work I put in.

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When I was about to have my 3rd knee surgery, I had to work extra hard to keep from going into physical therapy again. My first surgery, I was in so much pain that I couldn't move my leg, so I kept it stiff. That led to. many issues later. I had to do physical therapy for 2-3 months to get my full range of motion back. It was awful. I got the nickname 'peg leg' from when I would run down the basketball court. It was really bad but also really funny. Now this year, I have just been given the clear to start swimming again. I'm so happy! I hurt my back pretty bad during this last basketball season and I was told that I may never be able to play basketball again. I remember saying goodbye to my teammates after our first basketball game. I knew then that I had to do whatever I could to get back to possibly playing again. I started swimming again but then I got neuritis in my shoulder which led me to not swim for a while. So I guess you could say that I'm just a medical mess. During my time off, I wasn't allowed to run, swim, shoot free throws, or anything that wasn't walking. It was horrible. I just recently got cleared to get back in the pool after the neuritis in my shoulder has almost gone away and now that my foot has almost healed from when I dropped my water bottle on it. I started swimming again this past weekend. One thing that I should never do is, swim for an hour and then have to drive an hour home. It's not a good idea because my legs were so tired. I've been swimming about an hour everyday and I'm so happy to finally exercise again. I've started to have shoulder pain again and I really hope it isn't neuritis coming back again. I'm going to my doctor soon about my shoulder again. My mom has been pointing out for a while now how good of shape I was in when I was swimming. I'm hoping that the swimming will help me get back to basketball soon.

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Around 7th grade, my father told me he dropped out of college, my mother told me she had only gone for her associates, and the three oldest of my siblings had then dropped out and joined the working force. My goal is to be the first in my family to go to college for a bachelors degree or further. I have always been the academic sibling (I know, shocking) and my parents do not exactly have the money for college right now. I am working for scholarships and applying to jobs to be able to pay to go to a good school. I wish to go to Penn State to continue what my father could never finish. I hope to emerge with at least a bachelors in world literature. My first choice is NYU but I have the work ethic of a deflated balloon and I am somewhat moronic so I have little faith in that dream.