Don't Let Life Drag You Down by Alexandrea

Don't Let Life Drag You Down by Alexandrea - November 2018 Scholarship Essay

“Life will push at you, force your hopes and dreams down. But, no matter how hard it shoves it you, you can push back harder” is my quote I would choose for my senior yearbook quote.

Life can be hard. It always throws obstacles in our path, tries to push us back to the start, causes us to give up. Over the years I was having a hard time fighting against those obstacles. Through the 9th and 10th grade, life just seemed to turn all its attention on me and try every possible way to knock me down. I was an easy target at the time since my anxiety was becoming more overwhelming with each passing day, slowly turning itself into a wave of depression. The stress of school was the cause. I feared of not being able to make it as school got more overwhelming, putting more assignments and projects down on top of me. The fear of not being able to get that assignment done on time or not do well enough for a good grade terrified me, causing my anxiety to become overwhelming. I was scared of messing up. It was becoming more difficult to stay up on my feet and move forward with every passing day as the depression added weight on my shoulders. It was becoming difficult to fight back to the point I was ready to give up and let life take its win; let my demons consume me right up. Eventually, the easiest thing, and only road that was left for me, was to give up.

But, was it the right path? Was it right to just completely give up because life was pushing you right back to square one, preventing you from achieving your dreams? No. It wasn't the right path to follow. So, what did I do? I pushed back even harder.

I gradually built up my motivation, strength, and confidence day by day, building up the courage to fight against my demons that was made up of my anxiety. I took each day one at a time, each obstacle one by one, each assignment one step at a time, facing each one with the amount of strength it took to push through, pushing back harder than it pushed at me. It wasn't easy to do, it was challenging, difficult, frustrating, annoying, and aggravating. It was all of those emotions built up in to one big tower, piling up on my shoulders to try and weigh me down, force me to give in. However, I didn’t give in. Over the past few years, I built my defenses up, my courage up. Thinking positive and keeping an open mind became the two best things to help me get through life and continue on to achieve my dreams.

Life is hard and will continue to push at me each and every day. But, I will push back even harder with strength, courage, and confidence. I will carry everything that has helped me all the way to college, let it wrap around my shoulders and strengthen my abilities to fight back against life. I will always have my moments of doubt. Doubt is part of the mind that we all will feel at some point. However, we shouldn't let doubt weaken ourselves, it should motivate us to push forward and face life head on.