I have overcome a lot of challenges in my life, but there are three that stand out the most.

I have overcome a lot of challenges in my life, but there are three that stand out the most. These three are learning to swim, learning to ride a bike, and learning to play football and basketball. It all started when I was about five years old, and my Mom had just signed me up for a summer camp down at the community center.

When I was five and I was signed up for a summer camp down at the community center, they had a swimming program every other day for 5 days of the week - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The first day was the most frightening because the swimming instructor wanted me to jump in the pool with no life jacket. She said she would catch me, but I was still scared. When I finally jumped into the pool, she did catch me, and I overcame my fear of the pool. Now I am swimming at the lifeguard level and will soon be one.

In the same year my mom had bought me a bike with training wheels. It was a blue, black, and gray checkered BMX bike. I practiced all the time and was so happy riding my bike until the time came when I had to take off the training wheels. I was scared, but I wanted to be like some of my friends with out training wheels. My older sister could already ride a bike without training wheels, so she was the one to teach me. She was an alright teacher, but the way she taught me was to make me sit on the bike and push me without any assistance.

This was the year 2002 when I first signed up for basketball and football. The first practice was hard and breathtaking, but it paid off in the end. Later on in Middle School I saw a sign up sheet for the basketball team. I didn’t think I was that good so I didn’t sign up. But when I made it to 8th grade, I signed up for it and easily made the team and got a good record in all of our games. The same year I signed up for football at the school I was always pretty good in football, and I was still kind of nervous, but I went; I played, and I over came my fear and beat the challenge and became better than ever.

In life when you have to overcome fears and challenges, just go for it. If it has something to do with a professional, and they say everything will be ok, just trust them.
It was hard for me to overcome the challenges in my life learning to swim scared me to death, the same with learning to ride a bike where I got some scrapes and bruises, and last playing football and basketball. These have all affected me in some way, but it was for the better.

By D. W., a middle school student