Add dialogue to this: It was my first year of high school. I told myself, it's time to prove myself that I can reach my goals once in all and this year is the year. One of my goals was to make my Mom and Dad proud. I used to hate when they would get upset when I had bad grades so I reminded myself to do what I needed to do to succeed. For example, stay off social media, complete all assignments on time, and turn in classwork on time and on the exact date it was due. And that’s what I did for the first 5 weeks of school.

When my Mom and Dad saw how good I was doing in school, they were so proud of me. It's like a feeling I have never felt before. This is a feeling that I’ve been wanting to feel for years since starting school. I realized that if I set goals for myself, and I see myself struggle with work in school, it will make me get better. The only problem I had was I would sometimes get off the task for a little bit then go back to what I was working on. And that’s a problem I had for many years to come. And I always tell myself that do you want to fail or succeed and move on? I say. And I always said that to myself every day and it helped me get through all the tough assignments.

Then when Thanksgiving break came around everything was in good standing as far as grades and classwork are concerned. I thought about something for a second. Why haven't I done this all this time while I was in elementary and middle school? I said. And I saw why I wasn't doing great. It was because I wasn't putting in the hard work and effort to see good results in my work. I was doing so well that I had an A in literature the whole semester. And that was something that I was proud of because I never had that happen a day in my life

Coming towards the last 2 weeks of the semester, I did well on every single exam I had to take. I studied for the most time I ever took. And the results showed. When school was over for winter break. I checked back and looked at my grades. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I had all A’s and B’s in all my classes. And I never reached that goal ever in my life. I loved the smiles I saw on my Mom’s and Dad's faces. And that's when I realized, don't give up and keep grinding until I start to understand.

So to sum it all up, chase your dreams and never look down. I always remember that you only have 1 life to live, and we all don't know the expiration date of our life. So live your life to the fullest and don’t look back down because it's only up from here on out.