We all have faced an obstacle in our lives or have been obstructed in some form. There was once a deterrent I can definitely recall that has hindered me immensely, which is the period of my life where I faced homelessness. Being homeless while being in school had both a negative and positive impact on my values. Mainly because it hindered my ability to focus, affecting how well I was doing in school. Nonetheless, I have come to learn that when I am going through a tough time it is imperative to highlight the goods that were in my life. Such as friends, family, and role models. However rare the “goods” in my life were, they were able to help me persevere and stay focused ... not letting my circumstance at the time further influence how I am doing academically, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Instead of viewing the situation as a barrier, I have come to see it as sheer motivation for me to do better so that I can overcome and be victorious in the end.    

    During the middle of my freshman year until the middle of my sophomore year of high school, my mother and I faced homelessness. This forced us to bounce around from hotel to hotel and eventually, a family member accepted us. It was such a rough time for us and the memories still haunt me until this day.  This brought on an abundance of stress to me and I was overwhelmed with balancing homelessness among my schoolwork. One of the two had to give and so I stopped focusing on my grades. It was a secret I kept to myself because the humiliation would have drowned me into depression. I regret being surreptitious because confiding in a counselor or someone professional about how unmotivated and stressed I was feeling may have potentially gotten me the help I was so desperately seeking. Perhaps then I could have stayed  motivated so that I could have done better academically and would not have slacked off as much as I did. 

Towards the end of my sophomore year my mother and I found a home and I was happy to finally have a place of our own but I was still feeling unmotivated and depressed because I wanted my life to be like my friends who were not homeless and seemingly perfect. I met my mentor around this time who helped motivate me and let me know that what I went through was not permanent and that I could do better than what I was doing academically. She gave me sense of pride and determination and thus I was ready to tackle  junior year. I was adamant on proving to myself that I could do better! Much much better than I had ever done, and I accomplished my own personal goal of being academically successful. While working a part time job approximately 24 hours a week I managed to make higher than a 3.0 gpa every quarter during my junior year.  I was exhilarated as I watched multiple opportunities present themselves to me.  I can honorably say that I even got  inducted into National Beta Club and National Honor Society. 

I was beyond delighted and thrilled of myself for overcoming my doubts and depression. Especially for achieving my goals and placing myself in a better rank academically and spiritually. This is an excellent example of an obstacle that  may have deferred me once but I am more than determined to not let anything as such stop me again.  There is a saying that I learned “Pain is temporary, pride is forever!” Obstacles are only temporary and I should not let temporary struggles disrupt my future.