Lessons Taught

Lessons Taught

            Lessons taught to me throughout my life have impacted me tremendously and some of those lessons are hard work will get me far, treat others how you would like, and do not take what others say to heart.

One of the lessons I have learned is that nothing comes easy to anyone. If someone is good at something, sure there may be some natural born talent there, but if they are really good they combined that talent with hard work. I know for me it was always sports, I had the natural ability and talent to do well, but to get where I wanted I used hard work every day and still do to keep myself on the right track. Hard work really for me is most represented in my school work. Some subjects like math and English I have struggled with from a very young age, but the more and more I worked at being a better student in those classes, the better grades I would end up receiving. Nothing comes easy in this world. Everyone at some point in their life, especially me, has had to work hard to achieve their goals and that work never stops even when the goal is reached, because a new goal will come in to fruition.

            Treating others with kindness and respect is something that I have learned first-hand about. Not ever being the most popular person ever, I had to deal with some adversity growing up. Sometimes it was family life that was taking a toll on me and sometimes it would be my fellow classmates or teammates, but my mom would always tell me that I should be the bigger man and not respond to anything negative. Her favorite quote that she would always tell me is “If you have nothing nice to say then don’t say anything at all.” I think that holds great significance in my life for the simple fact of knowing when to bite my tongue and not say anything, whether it is in a face to face conversation with someone or on the internet through social media. Someone’s definition of being treated well may be different than mine, there are certain values we all have and expect.

            Do not let other people affect me, whether it is by trying to bring me down or control what I do. That is important for me. It is so easy to hear criticism or negativity in this day and age with social media, anyone can say anything at any time and they can pretty much hide behind a username. Many times in my life I was told that I would not be able to play college baseball that I was not good enough, and this was from my friends who are supposed to have my back. Maybe they thought I was just joking about this but now I am playing college baseball because I did not let their negativity bring me down, but used it as motivation instead to pick myself up and work even harder to get where I am today.

            These three lessons I think are very important, not only for me, but the world in general. If anyone reading this essay can take at least one thing from here to make their life better it would be a success. While others may have learned different lessons, these are some that makes me the man I am today.