James Greg

around in the woods and stuff," she told me. It sounded easy enough, so I decided to try cross country. I had always liked to run, so I competed in order to get in shape for basketball. The first few days of practice, I did what I normally did, I led. After a few weeks of hard work, Coach Brown, the cross country coach, moved me to the varsity team. The changes in my mind and body were nothing short of amazing. Finishing the season as the fastest freshman in the league, I was also the second girl on the varsity team.

That first season led me down a path that I would have not normally traveled. In my mind I thanked the soccer coach a multitude of times for cutting me from the team; anything I would have achieved on the a feeling that no drugs or substances could ever give me. This feeling is why I spend countless hours running on Sundays and every day at practice. I have learned that only through times of struggle, one can truly know herself as a person.

Success is a skill and it must be practiced every day so that when the real challenges and extraordinary opportunities arrive, one is prepared. Not making the soccer team was a true "blessing in disguise" because it molded me into a stronger young woman through times of misfortune. Now I see why my mother always says, "Things have a way of working themselves out for the best." In my case, they certainly did.