In the end, I am Stronger

By:
C. Wood
Age 24

I never knew i would make it to where i am today without the support of friends, enemies, family and coaches. I say enemies because they are who made me the strongest. Every time i got bullied in high school, i knew that one day i would become more successful and happy then they ever would from the gratification they got from harassing me.

I wouldn’t really consider myself as any kind of stereotype. I played sports and wore sweatpants every day to school-even on picture day i wore sweat pants with a nice top-i was that laid back. I didn’t want to be the center of attention so i was sort of the “floater”. I had a couple friends but was more acquaintances with everyone. I spent most of the time by myself but i was okay with that. I was either 15 or 16 at the time. I was at the stage where my hair was long and had horrible highlights in it which came from out of a box, and i had braces to make it worse. You could say i was an ugly duckling during my first 2 years of high school. However, i knew that i could always get my haircut and my braces would eventually come off and those days would be over-so i kept on, day after day, taking the insults and rumors but only to later show them that i too could change and be “normal”.

During my first year of college, i went to Philadelphia, PA which is a very long non-scenic 8 hour drive to play lacrosse at LaSalle University. I was kind of forced to go there because i was running out of time with the recruiting aspect of playing in college, and most people were already getting into their first choice schools. In my case, LaSalle was all i had. It was all or nothing. I didn’t have a backup plan when i was planning for college so i chose to drive the 8 hours to only realize that i had made the worst decision after the first day of practice when we were required to run a mile in 6 minutes and 30 seconds. It was ridiculous. Not only that, i was the only person from Ohio so i didn’t know any of the girls and i’m not the most outgoing person so it was once again hard for me to adapt to my environment.

After that didn’t work out I came back to Ohio with no plans at all. I debated on whether or not to go back to college because of the bad experience I had at LaSalle but I did decide to go back and I went to Ursuline College to study social work so I could help people be better in all parts of their lives and to give back to society. During the year I took off from school I got a job at our local hardware store as a cashier and I loved it. Meeting all these new people and learning customers stories and everything that they have gone through and overcome in their lives and to sell them screw drivers, nuts and of course bolts. I started in 2010 and still hold my position when i’m home on breaks and during the summer even. The my co-workers really helped me become a better person because my boss made it mandatory that if I was going to work I also had to go to school part time which once again saved my life.

In the end, I have become a stronger person. Coming from a not so good birth family, it made me realize that there are people out in society who want to help and the people who were meant to be in your lives will enter your life at the most random but needed time just like Liz Ferro did in my situation, and I couldn’t be more grateful. I really wish she was around when I was growing up and was so insecure about myself, but I still lace up for a life of achievement.