Life, life is described like this “the existence of an individual human being or animal.” We are born, we have our 1st birthday, our 2nd, our 3rd and so on. Each day we go to sleep not knowing if we are going to wake up the next day but that all depends on us. We all have dreams, things we are passionate about and there are always things we hate and some that we love. Im 13 years old, Based on my calculations, I have lived about 5025 days, I know its not much, but if there is something that I have learned and boy i’ve learned alot, is that it is essential to love yourself and accept yourself just the way you are. We are not perfect, but we have perfect imperfections. 

    People “the men, women, and children of a particular nation, community, or ethnic group.” Mean, nice, backstabbers, empatheic, friendly people have different characteristics, but deep down we all have a heart and we are all loyal. Words, words can be dangerous, or sometimes the best things you could have done. We think a lot, and say so little, but honey can those little words be bad. I’ve been called all types of things, but the two things that I hate the most being called are “Skinny” and “Weak.”

     Have you ever had one of those dreams that you never want to wake up, that you feel like your dream is so much better than reality? It was one of those dreams, everything seemed perfect and peaceful, until;
     “Euge, it is time to wake up now.” said my mom. I had gymnastics early in the morning, and then I had dance. I opened my eyes and saw the beautiful face of my mom. Her dark curly hair hung in front of her face. I could see her smile and it make me shiver. She pulled my hands, and now I was sitting in the corner of my bed with my eyes closed and my head looking down.

      “Mmm,” I mumbled. I could feel the cold breeze outside, it was a perfect day, but to every good thing there is something bad, and to every bad thing there is something good. I stood up, streched and walked over to my closet. It took me about 15 minutes to get dressed, i’m a girl what do you expect. There was something in me, I didn’t know what but I felt weird, very weird. The smell of coffee, fruits and waffles made me bittersweet. I had a blank mind, I wasn’t thinking about anything, I felt alone.

  “Come on, lets go,” my mom whispered. As I grabbed my things, I felt weak, what was going on?

    Drops of rain rolled down the window, I watched two and thought that they were racing each other, just like when I was little. I looked the other way, the big trees zoomed over, the faster we drove the faster I felt everything move. The chilly weather made me shiver and I could see me arm hairs arise. The car turned left, turned right and got straight into the parking lot. I could feel the rocks as the car drove over them, the car moved side to side and I felt my head move back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

      “Thanks mom,” I said as I leaned and gave her a hug. I opened the car, I felt the raindrops on my hands and I took a deep breath. I stepped in all of the puddles and got all of my feet wet. The more I was outside, the colder I got. All of the raindrops made me feel free, they made me calm down and they made me relaxed. I walked over to the gymnasium entrance the teacher said;

      “Hello darling, ready for a hard day of work?” I didn’t feel like answering, but I did. Her smile covered her whole face, from ear to ear. Her voice was as sweet as candy and her long dark hair was as dark as the night sky.

      “Yeah I guess.” Gymnastics isn’t my forte, but I always try my best. Gymnastics isn’t my favorite hobby, but I like to try new things. Gymnastics isn’t my life, but trying to be better is part of my daily routine. I felt like everything was bigger now, the bars well taller, the floor was bigger, maybe I was just hallucinating. I could hear girls talking, girls falling, girls laughing, girls crying. Everyone was feeling different things, and so was I. We started warming up. One leg, then the other leg, one hand, then the other hand, one side, then the other. I felt like everything was repeating, I felt like this was déjà vu, I had already felt like this before. Every exercise was the same old story, I wasn’t able to do it. My arms were not strong enough neither was my body.

    “Your hands are not strong enough because you are to skinny,” said Isabela. From the corner of my eye I could clearly see her straight brown hair and her skinny body laughing at me. I laughed they always joke around like that. Either way, I felt like I had to be fatter and had to please them and not myself. I was also confused because I thought that if I was fat, then I would be ugly and no one would want me.

    “Your hands and your legs are like sausages,” she said again. Isabela says things she doesn’t mean, she has a cold heart but I know she has a sweet side somewhere deep down. I laughed again, but didn’t see what was so funny about that.

    “I can see all of your bones,” said another girl.  I felt like being skinny was wrong and that I looked ugly and disgusting. I found that mean and rude because of the way she said it and her reaction towards it. This time, noting seemed funny. Chicken legs, skinny, weak, those words surrounded me, I couldn’t take those words out of my head. I felt a knot in my throat, I felt like crying.

    “Stay strong”, I whispered. This made me angry. I could hear everyone laughing in the background and they did not stop.

   “Chicken legs” another girl cried out. This was killing me, they thought it was funny, but it wasn’t funny for me.  I was scared of passing and trying to do something know. What if I fall and fail, they are going to keep laughing at me and they are going to make sun of me to. It was my turn, I felt even weaker. My tears were hidden but deep inside I wanted to explode.

“Show them that you can do this,” a voice inside my head told me. I could picture myself in a big green garden full or flowers were no one was there to judge me. I was doing flips all around and if I fell it was just so east to stand up and try again, but that wasn’t the case here.  I started to think, if I am determined and if I work hard, I am going to be able to have the ability and the power to do it and achieve my goal. Also, it also made me realize that I don’t have to proof anything to them, instead I have to proof things to myself and make me understand that I am beautiful just the way I am.

      “Ffffuuu,” I exhaled. Everything around me seemed blurry. My eyes started feeling up with water, then I felt like rain drops were falling down my face. I knew I could do this. “Weak” that world never left my head. I felt like that word was in front of me and I had to run over it and knock it over, and that was what I did. I got on my relevé, leaned forward and ran as fast as I could. Obstacles, those are things that you can’t control. Every single day you face a new obstacle, but no matter what, strong people like all of us are able to stand up tall, be strong and face them with a smile on our face. I fell, flat on the floor, I felt repentant, what have I done? I wanted to prove that I am able of doing things when I believe in myself and when I work hard. I wasn’t trying to prove them anything, this was to prove to myself that I am not weak, I am strong physically and internally.

           “HAHAHA,” I could hear all the girls giggling behind me, I didn’t move.

     “Come on Eugenia, try again,” I told myself. As I stood up, I could see a little girl who was watching at me and had shameful eyes. She smiled at me and nodded her head, she was trying to tell me to try again and that everything was okay. I took another deep breath and tried again.

    “Ran, cartwheel and fly!” I repeated. I did what I was told, run, cartwheel and fly. Without even thinking I threw myself back, put my hands on the floor, was strong, and tumbled back. Before I knew it, I was on my feet and I could see my teacher smiling. My friends were shocked, and even so some of them were cheering.

   “You did it!” screamed my teacher. She blinked, and blinked, and blinked. She never gave up on me and always made try harder, this made me gain self confidence and she knew it.

   “I did.” I was shocked, my face was still I couldn’t stop smiling. My hands were trembling, my eyes kept blinking, my eyes moved side to side, and then I looked for that little girl again. She wasn’t there anymore. I looked all around, she was nowhere to be found. I `had never seen her before, and never had since then. I never knew her name, and who knows maybe she was a sign from god that life isn’t about giving up, it’s about falling down 7 and standing up 8. This helped me push myself, and helped me understand that the important things are not things you can see, but things that you can’t see like things that are internally not physical.

Words can mean so much, actions can say so much, but thoughts are what mean the most. Sometimes, the people we less expect are the people that hurt us the most, but life is full of surprises and that’s the magic of life. People will say so much, but mean so little. It is important to forgive and forget. Nobody’s perfect and trying to be perfect will lead us nowhere. Knowing that we are never going to be perfect will help us understand that doing mistakes is the best way to learn. As I said, people say so much and sometimes the things they say are not the things they mean, but that’s okay. Things happen for a reason, and in my case the reason was to make me stronger. You are strong, never give up and learn that you are strong enough to do anything you propose yourself.