My Struggle And How I Overcame Essay Sample

Sometimes in life we face major setbacks such as health issues, finances, loss of a job or death. I never really worried about any of those setbacks until I had to deal with some setbacks of my very own such as experiencing the death of my loved ones, my mother, father and sister. When they all died, my life was forever changed; things did not seem the same anymore and neither did life. With those setbacks, I experienced a wide range of emotions such worry, fear, uncertainty, extreme stress and bitterness; I felt like my entire world was turned upside down and everything in it was taken from me. At the tender age of 10, I lost my mother and it took me a little while to get over it as it would anyone. Shortly after that, my siblings and I were taken in by our aunt who was living in the projects at the time. She was the next in line to be our practical guardian considering that my father was constantly at work making sure we were always provided for, he worked 2 jobs which is why he did not seem likely to take care of us because he had his hands tied. Regardless of the situation, he was still in our lives and very much a part of it as well. To this day, I still stood by his decision to leave my aunt to raise us; it can be said that this is one of the ways he showed us he loved us. As I moved through the season of renewing myself, it was a little bit difficult because the high school I was attending made it so. What made the high school so bad was that the ugly segregation phase was still prevalent which I thought I never had to go through, it was awful. My school bus was horribly bricked, my kind was called horrible names, we were pushed around like we were nothing to those people, I eventually overcame that ugliness and I did not let it stop me from participating in various activities; I remained positive. I kept my head up until the day I graduated in 1984 and I got my first job as a bank teller, I enjoyed working there. I got promoted to supervisor after working there 2 years, I loved that job; I was there for 10 years maximum. I was happy for a little bit until one day it hit me, something was missing; my life was lacking adventure. That’s when I decided to join the Army, I knew that only by joining I would see things and places I never could on my own; the journey to the recruiting office was a worthwhile one. I joined the Army in June of 1994, I felt like I wanted to be a part of the something bigger and being able to be given the opportunity to see the world as well as different people in different cultures was definitely a good reason to join. I had other reasons for joining the Army such as doing it for educational purposes and what made me the happiest of all was that I found what I was looking for, that adventure, something that gave my life even more meaning. Joining the military gave me a chance to experience the most memorable moments in my life such as being able to travel to different countries such as Germany, Bosnia, Budapest, Italy, Spain, Thailand, Korea and Egypt. Being able to visit these countries was a dream no longer, I was living the life and meeting people of different cultures was a beautiful experience. The best part about my going to college is that I did not have to struggle to pay for my classes as others did. I later got married to a man I was in love with shortly thereafter, he was working a good job but the marriage was not a long one, it only lasted 10 years. The man retired from his job and took up drinking, there was a lot of fighting; I was not happy. I got into reading books like the bible as well as other positive material that really opened my mind, there was this one book that caught my attention called “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman V. Peale, chapter 7 paragraph 2 page 29 “I Don’t Believe in Defeat” really had caught my eye. After spending a few minutes reading this, I felt my determination to leave behind all the pain I suffered and all of the disappointments I was forced to endure was severely heightened; my willpower to this end also grew stronger. I restarted my life anew with joy and happiness, something I had few opportunities to experience throughout my life. In closing, life is all about relationships whether it is business, family or friends. The greatest lesson I ever learned was that you have to commit yourself to getting through all of the trials and tribulations with an open heart as well as an open mind, as long as you do not give up when the going gets tough then you will emerge from the fire.