Against All Odds: Persevering in the Face of Adversity

I had to overcome many obstacles in my life, but the most difficult one I had to overcome was people. I say this because sometimes certain individuals will try to knock you down or make you feel like you are less then what you are. My whole life I had many people who told me I didn’t have the ability to do something. For example many of my peers told me I was too small to play freshmen football three years ago. I almost believe them because I did realize that I only stood 4 feet 11inches tall and only weighed 83.5 pounds. Although my love for the game driven me to have faith in myself and I was going to prove to everyone that size didn’t matter and it is the will in the person that determines if they can play. I didn’t get much playing time freshmen year most of it was on special teams and probably got a hand full of downs on defense.
By the time junior year I came around people started to realize how hard I hit. All along I knew that I could because I had

been playing for about nine years now, but the coaches never gave me a fair shot because they though I would get hurt. Although I still wasn’t getting the playing time that I wanted. Sometimes when I was on the sidelines freezing to death I would ask myself should I just let football go. But for some reason a strong part of me refused to do it. On this particular game versus Mclean I would have everyone shocked. My coach calls me over and tells me that he was given me an opportunity and that if I messed it up then I wasn’t getting another one. I finally got a shot at running back for the first time even though it wasn’t my primary position I still was going to run the ball like it was my last down of football. My first snap I gained about 20 yards and then I gained another four. I got our team in scoring position and I got the ball one last time and this had to been one of my biggest highlights in my football career in high school. The quarterback tossed me the ball and I ran towards the pylon and just 5 yards away I saw someone about to hit me out of bounds, but I dove passed him and scored. Everyone slapped the top of my helmets and jumped on top me. That would be first time I would walk off the field smiling not because we won but because I finally did something to contribute to the win. I finally got respect and people told me that for someone that was small as I was I came a long way.
Young people can learn a lot from my experience and mainly Jackie Robinson because during his time people would put him down because of the color of his skin.

He had the ability to play baseball and some people were afraid of his talent. They didn’t want to see Jackie succeed because he was a black man and white folks didn’t like to see a black man on the rise. Jackie had to face people calling him the N word and threats, but he was focused on one thing and that was to be the best baseball player he could be. At the same time he had to deal with white folks who were trying to knock him down. Both Jackie and I situations are similar because we are two hungry black males who just wanted an opportunity and do what we love. We also had to deal with people who were trying to knock us off our game, but we managed to get through it by believing our self. Young people today need to realize that they can do anything they want to do as long as they have faith in their self and not let anyone tell you them

otherwise.