Who likes to do homework? Well I know I do not because one day in fourth grade I did not do English homework and my teacher was very disappointed. She was mad because I never did my homework and never studied for test. Then I thought back to when I was in first grade and how I really did not do any schoolwork. I never did anything and my grades suffered. I had horrible grades and I would complain about not wanting to go to school. I believed that if I was bad enough they would get so mad at me that they would kick me out of school, so I would not have to go to school and I would not have to came back ever. My parents were also mad about my grades because they knew I could do better than I was doing. I had many tutors but I did not take advantage of them trying to help me. I felt that school was a joke and for dumb people only and I did not have to go. My parents thought otherwise and demanded that I went to school.
In fourth grade, I had a vision of me playing football, and I had good grades. I also saw me making a big hit to stop the running back from getting a first down, and this play won the game for us. I was excited to start playing football.
So the next day, I asked my dad if he could sign me up for football. I asked, “Dad can I play football?”
“Yes, I will sign you up tomorrow, but why do you want to play all of a sudden?” Dad replied.
I said, “I had a vision that I played football, and I had good grades.” In my vision, I saw that I was playing for a football team, and I had A’s and B’s.
The first day of practice, I thought I was going to die, and it felt like one hundred and thirty degrees. I could have cooked my lunch on the steaming sidewalk. I could feel the sunrays penetrating into my skin and sucking the life out of me. Then, practice had to start, and I was already drenched in sweat and not feeling so good. We started with some drills, they were easy, and I was now feeling good about football. There were more easy drills, and then, I thought it might be the end of practice. I was wrong. We still had to run, so we lined up on the line and started running. We would run one hundred yards at a time. Since I am big, I lose my breath very fast, and I would be gasping for air. I was so tired and worn out after I almost wanted to quit, but I did not. It was so hot and I became sore from doing all the drills. There was one thing my dad said to me it that morning that stuck with me. He said, “Ben, life is full of adversity and sometimes you have to man up and stare it straight in the face.” I would not understand what he meant until my first game.
That night I had another vision that told me one day I would play in the NFL. It also told me that I would win my first game. Then, three days later in our game we were down fourteen to seven. They had the ball and were going to score again. Then, on a fourth down I got a tackle. We stopped them, and it was our ball. As we drove down the field I could see my vision coming true. We had the ball at the one-yard line and the next play. “YES!” we scored the crowd was going wild. We had to go for two to win the game, so we lined up and ran the ball into the end zone for a score. We had won the game, and I was so excited as I knew my parents were too. I thank God for giving me the power to win the game. I feel I grew more in God after the game.
I figured out that God was the person behind all my visions and now my life. After I started football, I knew that God was going to be the person I could lean on all the time. As I improved my relationship with God, I was also improving my grades because I could lean on him to help me with school and on the field. God was helping me become a student athlete; he was the kind of person to go to if I ever needed help. As I leaned on him more, he would give me more answers and lead me in the right path. I came to a point to where if I did not have God I think that I would stumble and fall every day, but if I had him, he would be there to catch me when I stumble or fall. He still is very strong in my life and helps me with all my needs. As I focused on the football field he helped me transfer that focus to schoolwork. I learned not to doze off in class and to stay focused when I was in fifth grade I was falling asleep in class and I remembered that God was there and I could lean on him. So I got up and focus on class because I will not fall asleep in class any more. I realized that I love football, and it will help me with my grades and my faith in God. I have never loved something so much in my life, or at least I thought I loved it even though I have never played it.
As I did this I could see my grades rising until I had great grades, and my parents were proud of me. I have learned adversity will always be in your life. It just depends what you do with it that makes you who you are.