Are you a quitter? A loafer? Are you lazy? If you are, then have you ever actually accomplished something? Yeah, I am bringing up that (truly) old quote “Quitters never win.” At this point in my life, that quote actually means something to me, as I believe that persisting is succeeding.

Most recently, when guitar hero first came out, I was the definition of bad at the game. The first time that I had actually played the game was at a church party in Georgetown, KY. I (as a beginner) selected the easiest difficulty, otherwise known as “easy”. Missing almost every single note on one of the easiest songs, I became heated and angry. However, persisting in this subject, I later bought the game and spent countless hours failing at the songs that I had attempted to play. No matter how many times that I failed I had always tried again, leading me to become fairly decent at the game. I remember one time that I was playing a song that I had tried to beat so many times. Then in a sudden flurry of notes and finger spasms that special screen came up that states that “You Rock”. Swinging my guitar over my head and literally (but gently of course) slamming my guitar into the ground, causing my whammy bar to break. Failing over and over again is frustrating, but when you finally succeed it is just that much better.

Success following persistence is one the many joys in our world today. I have had many joyous times in my lifetime. Way back in 5th-6th grade, I was not a very musically gifted person. Alas, my parents made me start taking music lessons. Piano lessons to be exact. Because of my nature and my obsessive desire to succeed, I became enveloped in the piano. Teaching my fingers to work and to strike the right notes at the right time took many hours of failure and false steps. Finally I had somewhat managed to keep my fingers in tune. My first piano recital was probably a moment of great importance in my life as I had successfully played “The Carol of the Bells.” At first, I would have considered it a miracle that I would have ever gotten that far at all, but because of my persistence, I had caused the impossible to become a reality.

Causing the change from impossibility to change to reality is probably on of the biggest effects of simply persisting. Persisting is one of the biggest key factors in sports. Not too long ago, I was a little chubbier than I am now. Actually, I was kind of fat. I had not really done anything for a year and a half except for go to school and sit on the couch at home and eat. I played a whole lot of video games. One of my favorite games was the Madden NFL 2004 football game for the PlayStation 2. When I got news that we were going to move to Kentucky soon, I made up my mind that I was going to play football when we got there. During the early practices, I realized that all those video games were not doing wonders for my health. No, I could hardly run and constantly ended up in the final four on every lap. After enduring much physical and mental pain I began to see my speed increase and my endurance as well. Now, I consider myself an accomplisher of the impossible. My dream had become a reality.

Some people say that quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win and never quit are idiots. But I think that that statement is totally false, because I believe that as long as you never quit, you are a winner. The victories that you receive through hard work and dedication are oh so much sweeter than those that are so easily come by.