Hard Work.

Talent can only get you so far, but not everything in life will be handed to you on a silver platter.
As a high school student with little time on her hands, hard and persistent work is the only solution to getting things done. I began diving in high school after I ended my gymnastics career. Flipping in the air was nothing out of the ordinary, but this year, I found myself hungering to be better and get my name out there. With only one more year of high school left, my time left to make an impact was slowly diminishing. I made a decision to not waste the precious time I was given and implemented the years of hard-work training from my gymnastics years, back when flipping was not always so simple. Despite the unbearably early mornings in the pool, I felt myself getting better. I continuously would remind myself not to procrastinate on homework because I knew my weekends would be filled with competitions and private practices. All those mornings spent shivering, all the air that was taken out of my lungs when a dive ended in a smack, all the water swallowed never hindered my drive for success when I could see the leaps and bounds I was accomplishing. During the most competitive part of my season this year I unfortunately had a series of illnesses, yet continued to dive which legnthened my recovery time and just when I thought that I was good to go for state meet I injured my back during warm ups and competed in a lot of pain. I was still able to place 16th at state though. Although the season came to a disappointing end, I was shown that my hard work did not go unnoticed when I was named one of the swimming and diving team captains for my senior year. If hard work has gotten me this far this year, I can only imagine the progress next year.