“You have to fight through some bad days to earn the best days of your life.” Whether I am focusing on my academics, athletics, or helping in my community, one thing is certain: I always find a way to preserve. For as long as I can remember I have always been encouraged to never give up and have determination in order to fulfill my dreams. Growing up I had always admired my mom’s perseverance in every aspect of her life. Nothing could stop her from not only overcoming every obstacle in her life, but also helping others to find the strength to overcome their troubles in life. Most people would take a diagnosis of breast cancer as an opportunity for an excuse. An excuse to not work as hard. An excuse to only focus on oneself. An excuse to lose …show more content…
Regardless of the pain and suffering she was in, she refused to allow her students, players, and most importantly her family know how much she was struggling. I always go back to my final day with her when she was sitting on the couch in the living room. Even though the once marathon winner now needed a wheelchair and oxygen, she still seemed as strong hearted as ever. One of our final conversations was about living life to the fullest and never giving up and to this day I will always cherish that idea. Unfortunately on July 4th, 2011 she experienced her last breath, but her legacy is far from being over. Even though I have been through my days of mourning and hardships losing such an influential person in my life, I have found ways to cope in a positive way. One thing that has always allowed me to keep an optimistic outlook on life is through my faith and prayer. It allows me to have a sense of fulfillment to be able to have trust that everything will be alright. Knowing my mom is in a better place gives me a sense of …show more content…
On one side it said “In Memory of Pam Graver-Koenig” and on the reverse “Keep Running.” The term ‘keep running’ has been influential in my life, even when my mom was still alive. It means more to me than just overcoming athletic obstacle, but to also persevere in any hardships that fall my way, because there is always a solution and a way and if there isn’t one placed in front of me I can make my own. I wore this bracelet every day for almost two years until I finally had the strength to take it off. It wasn’t so much that I felt it wasn’t important, but rather it symbolized that I don't need a tangible representative of my mom to be persevere through life. Because of my mom I have always had an inspiration to help other throughout my community in addition to being the best academically that I can be. I work tirelessly to attain good grades while being in various honor classes, but I believe there is more to being successful than being the smartest which is why I spend so much time volunteering. I do different activities through Key Club, National Honors Society, and Teen advisory Group to hopefully inspire others to help. This school year I began to put my thoughts into actions by starting up Fellowship of Christian athletes at my school. Although it had been an organization about five years ago, no one had taken the role of re-kindling it. This summer my friend and I