I Shall Conquer

Marquis James

Professor Mary Louise Hill

“This I Believe” Essay

                                                                        I Shall Conquer

 

             I tend to try to live in the moment as much as possible, not to disregard the importance of the future, but to hold off unnecessary stress that may come with those thoughts. If I had to get a little more specific, I would say two of my creeds are determination and hard work. My reliance on these terms are what have helped some of my goals come to fruition. They both tend to correlate because if you’re determined to accomplish something, hard work is required.

            As stated above, Credos can be showcased and stem from different forms and fashions. In my opinion, tattoos tend to be the beliefs that are dearest to your soul because of the pain and permanency that comes with it. Someone that can be used as an example is NBA superstar Stephen Curry. Other than the supreme shooting prowess he displays to the world on the court, something that flies under the radar is how much of a religious man he is. Some would refer to him as a “Man of God.” He exemplified this expression by having his favorite bible scriptures tattooed on himself. I would think the right presumption would be that those are statements he lives by; day in and day out. Curry once said, to paraphrase, “Believing in God doesn’t make me a better basketball player, but does allow me the opportunity to show my work ethic and excel at whatever I do.” What I would take away from that statement would be that he believes that without God in his life, or even in general, he wouldn’t be where he is today and that his belief drives his persistence towards being the best at whatever he does. To further exemplify his beliefs, Curry turned down a Nike shoe deal because they refused to put his preferred bible scripture on the side of the shoe. If this doesn’t show how integral of a part your creed can play in your life, then I still may not know what a credo really is.

            Determination and persistence fall hand in hand. Each requires myself to shrug off all obstacles that may block your path to success or happiness and continue to strive for my ultimate goal. One example in my life that dug into the meaning of these words was when I was younger and loved to play basketball, but hadn’t quite honed in on the skills necessary to compete with others. This drove me to sign up for a basketball camp at Rush-Henrietta High School. At this camp, there were dozens of kids striving to get better. There were coaches there to go through tutorials for the fundamentals of basketball such as dribbling, passing and shooting form. To say the least, I came out of that camp with a tighter grasp on some of the logistics of basketball, but a fun experience with my peers that brightened up my summer. This summer would coincidently be one of the key reasons why I got to compete in high school on the basketball team. Knowing what I know now about the ins-and-outs of basketball all stemmed from my determination to learn the craft. The hard work part of it consisted of vigorous workouts and exclusive repetition on the different aspects of basketball such as passing and shooting.

             I stated earlier that I try to live in the moment, but a goal is something that obviously isn’t going to happen right way, thus causing you to be persistent and avoid being short-sited. These two beliefs are the main catalysts to how and why I’ve reached my current state and to where I’m headed.