When I first came to RHP, I struggled with a few obstacles. The first was the decision to even transfer to a new school. When I first learned about this plan to go to a new school, I was not ready to embrace this transition in my life, it felt as though I had been taken out of the driver's seat and placed in the trunk. At the time I only saw this as a decision that wasn’t made by me, but rather by my parents who were only working within their own interest. It wasn’t until I was older that I had realized what a fool I was to believe such a statement. My parents made a decision that day not because it was what was best or easiest for them, but rather because they saw that had I stayed in the driver's seat, I would have probably gone off the side of a cliff.
When seventh grade started, I tried to approach this new world with an open mind, so once I started to get out of my shell and interact with people on a daily basis I saw that I wasn’t losing anything but rather gaining a great deal more. While that was my first struggle I had to come to terms with, my next hill would probably be the greatest. After a while, something in the back of my mind kept me back from what I was trying to achieve. I soon found that every now and then I would hear that voice in the back of my head tell me that not only did I not belong here, but I wasn’t worthy of the opportunity that had now been given to me. No matter what I did, this voice would do nothing but try to keep me down, and pretty soon after that, I would hear that voice in everything I did whether it be sports, academics, or even hanging out with my friends and family. It soon became a competition between me and the negative thoughts in my head to prove who was stronger. So for the next few years I just put my head down and tried to push my way through the jungle of negative thoughts in my head. That was a mistake. For a while it felt like my solution was working but for every small step I took, it put a greater distance between me and this issue and didn’t actually solve anything.
Pretty soon my problems would catch up to me and eventually force me to confront them with a more head-on solution. So I sat down with some people, And I finally started to talk to those around me about what was going on. Through these conversations I was able to learn a very important lesson, that being, no one makes it through life on their own, and there's a reason people come and go in life. I also learned that sometimes it’s ok to stop and take in the time that you have, not only to clear your head, but to also give you a break so it doesn’t feel as though you are burdening yourself. So now, if I’m ever feeling stressed or anxious about something, not only do I know that I have people I can go to, but it's ok to take a break and just pause for a moment.