“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” The great Roman poet Horace penned these words in the first century BC, and after almost 2000 years, they are just as true today. Adversity can cripple, but it can also show us what we have never known about ourselves, and through necessity we learn to be more successful than we ever would’ve thought possible if we hadn’t had a challenge to face. I’ve found the theme of overcoming adversity to be fitting to both my educational career and my personal life as well.
    In complete honesty, I can’t recall an age when I was an average or less than average performing student. In my early school years I’ve always been the student who got the best test scores, won all the spelling contests, and had the answers to all the questions. This pattern is one I’ve tried my best to uphold, not only to impress those who had faith in me, but because I knew from the beginning that it’s what needed to be done. My family was never wealthy, and very early in my childhood my father became physically disabled due to an accident on the job. We had virtually no income, because my mother was a freelance newspaper writer at the time. A severe emotional trauma about a year later caused my mother to slip into dementia, and from that point on, was declared mentally disabled, and unable to find work either. To this day, our living has been dependent on welfare and a single full time job held by my 19 year old brother, who now devotes his time instead of pursuing a college degree, to ensuring my parents have a roof over their heads. When the unfairness and uncertainty of today’s job market and welfare system had plagued my family, that was when I realized I had to work hard and earn anything I wanted or needed, because nothing was going to be handed my way for no reason.
    I’m glad I learned to work for what I got at such a young age, because I’ve found that I am much more realistic and diligent of a student than most of my peers. Throughout my education, there have always been a group of above average students, who naturally are smarter than their classmates, and always have been. I’ve seen this crowd slowly disperse as the high school classes got more challenging, and only a small cluster of dedicated students remained to take the valuable lesson of responsibility and commitment with them into college. I have taken the time and effort to accumulate a 4.23 grade point average and a class rank of 11. I made the best of my high school education by participating in a wide range of  activities: music, art and swimming to name only a few.
    One of the most impactful shortcomings of my senior year in high school was a result of our lack of state funding for education. Because my school couldn’t afford it, we could no longer have a marching band. As an enthusiastic musician and hopeful music major in college, this news came as a substantial disappointment to my dream of an ideal senior year, which included leading the band as drum major to the best competition scores we had seen in a long time. Instead of moping about all the hardships of life, though, I focused on a more important goal: always striving to be the best musician, student, and person I can possibly be.
    All aspects of life are going to cast hurdles at you. Some people can’t be trusted, the economy is unstable, your long term goals and hopes will vanish and change over time. However, despite these drawbacks, and the conclusion that many dreams simply do not live up to reality, it is crucial to note that an obstacle isn’t necessarily a failure, but rather an opportunity to pick up stronger than where we left off.