A few words can change your life

Stephen A. Bruno

English 200/ Professor Hill

“This I believe” Essay

21 September 2016

A Few Words Can Change Your Life

                    During my senior year in high school, I figured out what was meant when my track coach said very powerfully “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”. Those words to me mean that no matter how talented somebody is, Hard work will always prevail because you actually have to work for it, it’s never given to you.

               My beliefs are simple and stem straight from my coach’s wise words. That is that anything is possible to achieve once you start using words such as the ones I live my life by. Those are Motivation, Dedication, and Determination. Once words such as these are used as assets in your life; you won’t ever let something with true meaning to you slip away and given up on. You never truly lose sight of the goal big or small if it has true meaning to you and you definitely won’t lose grip of the future you so clearly see once you start to live by what you believe in.

              My beliefs weren’t always what they are now. The words dedication, motivation, and determination weren’t anything I saw clearly at a young age and until I cracked my wrist and damaged my back in my third football game of my senior year of high school football; I thought talent in the sport I loved would get me anywhere I needed to go. Well, let me tell you I was dead wrong and I was going to have to work hard for what I wanted to achieve in life.

             Starting with my health. Being big was all I ever knew in life and my position I played in football kind of called upon being an immovable object. A change in living arrangements soon after my injuries was the final straw for me. Watching what my uncle goes through, struggling with diabetes wasn’t anything I was looking forward to in life and weighing in at over 300 pounds it was the path I was ironically “Sprinting” towards.

              I say ironically because perhaps my greatest decision in life up to this point was joining my high school Track and Field team. Track not only gave me another chance to be somebody in life, but opened doors for me that I never saw coming. I was more Determined, dedicated, and especially motivated then anybody in my school and it was seen and awarded. I went from the 303-pound kid with nothing going for him to a 179 pound “Student Athlete” with nothing but a bright future. I lost 120 pounds within my final six months of high school and honestly can’t say that’s possible if I didn’t live my life by the words I stated above.

         I educated myself on everything health related and now am pursuing a degree in sport management to one-day help in a bigger way then just speaking.

           More often than not you hear people using these strong words as excuses. The best one being “I’m not motivated enough”. That’s just a sad way of saying no I like where I’m at. There is always room for improvement and nobody has the right to think otherwise. Nobody does by watching, one must go out and fight for greatness.

         One must learn to reevaluate their life before they can ever make improvements upon it. Adding a few strong words to your vocabulary will change your life tremendously, I am living proof that a few simple words can go along a way.