Never Give Up!!

Earlier today, I saw a very inspirational You Tube video entitled, "Never Give up! A speech by a man with no limbs." Nick Vujicic, the star of this video, was born with no limbs and the doctors still have not found an explanation for his condition. Instead of taking his circumstances as a tragedy, he devotes his life to traveling around the world to deliver speeches that inspire people to stay strong and never give up.

In this video, he begins by entertaining the crowd with his ability to play a small drum with one foot. After the crowd's excitement, amazement, and laughter dies down, Vujicic purposely falls so that he is flat on his stomach. He then asks the crowd, "So, what do you do when you fall down?" Instinctively, many of the spectators join him in responding, "you get back up." Next he explains that sometimes in life, you fall down and you feel like you can't get back up. He relates this feeling to his personal experiences when he says that it's impossible for him to get up because he has neither arms nor legs. However, he says that he would attempt to get up as many times as he needs to in order to succeed because if he gives up, then he would never get up. He concludes by encouraging people to finish strong and find the strength to get up because it is not the end. Finally, Vujicic slowly brings himself to get up, showing the crowd that it is possible with effort.

This video motivates me to have a more positive outlook on life by striving to stay strong in the midst of tough situations. Everyone comes with their own struggles, obstacles, and disadvantages and some peoples' may be worse than others. Sometimes, I forget about these things when I am facing my own struggle, obstacle, or disadvantage. My first thoughts center around how terrible it feels to be in this predicament and how difficult it will be for me to overcome or improve it. In these situations, I have emotionally fallen down. At times, I can easily get back up. However, there are other times when I feel defeated. These instances occur mainly when I am constantly put down, or pushed down, to what feels like rock bottom. For instance, I lived my entire life visually impaired and sometimes, this can become very overwhelming. When I am constantly failing at a task, getting lost, or feeling that I am at a great disadvantage because I do not have something that others do, it is hard for me to find the strength to improve these situations. Emotionally, I am down on my stomach and I know that I only have to choices: get up or give up. By getting up, I will enable myself to keep trying at a task, keep searching until I find my desired destination, or find an alternative item that would be equivalent to what others have. But if I give up, I will allow these feelings of defeat to continue taking over and every time another situation like this occurs, I will only lose hope, or strength, and I will not recover, or get up. Seeing how Nick Vujicic handles these situations, even with his circumstances, shows me that the problems that I have could be a lot worse and that there is no need to give up because of small obstacles in life because it is not the end. I am striving to look at things a lot differently and address situations more positively because in the end, I want to finish the race strong.

Poetry

Poetry seems like a cure to me-
Allowing me to devise a stanza of lies and call it fantasy.
It's like my secret ecstasy.
I catch my poetic vibes when no one is next to me.
And willing, I let it take over me with a high,
That is so strong and so wanted,
Leaving me with fulfillment inside.
Because with poetry,
I can manipulate the situation when I write
And take my life's true struggles and sum them up in one night.
Poetry doesn't really make my situations any better,
Instead, it always seems to be the best of the weather.
Because when it's cloudy, poetry's clear.
And when it's dark, my sun is here,
In my pen
And in my heart.
Using my feelings as ink,
I just sit down and I start.

A Whole New World

The first day that I arrived here, I was overwhelmed by the drastic differences between what I was used to and what UMBC has to offer. To begin, I spent every school year attending small, Christian schools. I was accustomed to very small classes, to having the ability to know everyone, and to seeing my very best friends every school day. However, when I arrived at UMBC I did not know anyone and I knew that it was impossible for me to get to know everyone. I realized that there are a lot more people than I expected to be here when I participated in extreme socializing on the first night. I met many people that night, but sadly, I do not remember a lot of their names, interests, or majors and I am not sure if I will even see them again this year. Compared to the 268 students that attended my high school, UMBC's thousands of students was a huge change for me.

Also, my high school consisted of two small buildings and a church so I never was lost. On the contrary, when I came here, I felt that getting lost was somehow incorporated into my daily routine. There are many buildings and several ways to get to each of them. At first, knowing this information merely confused me. Majority of the times that I was lost, I was looking for different routes to places and in the process, I forgot how I got to where i was and I did not know how to get back. Luckily, I have been on this campus for two weeks and although I do not know where everything is here, I do not get lost going to the places that I do know. Just as I adapted to my small, Christian schools, I can adapt to UMBC in time.