Here I am, attending community college as a full time student while working two part time jobs to keep myself maintained. I never would've thought I would end up in a college classroom. I’ve never been much of a school guy, but when the time comes to put forth work and effort into a subject I'm doing, I'll be sure to give it my 100% each and every single time. We all have been through our own little hardships, with some being worse than others. With me, I’ve certainly experienced the rough end of the stick countless of times. A factor that contributes to hardships is the lack of ethics to complete a goal. The lack of ethics in people across the world, especially, in the time period we live in at this current moment, contribute to the idea that many of us will either succeed or fail, just over the fact of the experiences that happen to us. Throughout my years I have lost many people. Some had been family members that had been put under and others were friends. The person I wish I could see the most would be my brother Vinny. We weren't family-related but Vinny was a different kind of special. He was the first person to ever have my back and the first person to ever show me that someone can really care about me. When I was in 7th grade, I got into a fight with a few freshmen from Cienega High School. Vinny, without even knowing me, decided that if worst comes to worst, regardless of what the outcome would be, he would fight with me. I don't really know if he was being serious or not, but he ended up walking me home after school to make sure nothing bad would happen to me. I had never known anyone like that before. Someone that actually cared about my well-being enough to walk me home and make sure I was safe. After the incident with the Cienega freshmen, Vinny and I became close friends. When I was in middle school I had many friends, but no-one as close as him. Again, I never thought someone could care so much about a friendship before. I never thought that two people could be family without even being blood related. Their was another instance where Vinny and I were in Rita Ranch sitting in one of the wash’s. Vinny had an E-Cigarette (which was new at the time) and he told me “If we smoke at this spot, me and you will be brothers for life man”. In which I replied with “Only one way to make sure” with a determined look on my face. I took that to the heart. Although Vinny and I were about the same age, Vinny was an older brother I never had. I had my first drink with him, and got into my first fight standing right beside him. Yeah, we did have fights from time to time, but in the end, we were brothers, and it stayed that way. There was another time where Vinny stayed the night at my house and we snuck out so he could go see a girl. It was probably around 2 in the morning when we left, and she lived about half an hour away in walking distance. When we arrived, I decided to wait outside and Vinny snuck in through her window. An hour later, Vinny opened the window and dived through it. Apparently, her dad had heard Vinny making out with his daughter, and pounded on the door. Funny thing is, when Vinny dived, he completely broke her blinds so it was obvious that someone went in through the window. Aside from that, during my 8th grade year I switched schools and moved houses. I couldn't see Vinny as much but we would still plan to catch up and plan some things for the weekend. At the end of my 8th grade year Vinny and I got into an argument about something completely off topic. After fighting for a few days, it came the point where I wanted to fight him, and he wanted to fight me. This conflict didn't last forever, so in return we both decided to make up and actually make plans for next weeks weekend. Unfortunately, those were the last things I ever said to him. On an unfortunate Sunday morning (3 days after we made up), I had heard that Vinny committed suicide. Hearing this shattered me in a way were it was even scary to my parents. The next day I couldn't stop crying, and thinking about it really killed me inside. I truly wish for no-one to experience the pain I went through. A couple of days after that, I attended his funeral and saw him for the very last time. At the end of the day, this experience shaped my life. Depression hit me like a rock and I started to show signs of anger. I used to be a happy kid, but this experience determined who I was going to be in the future. This event is something that still follows me till this day. If you have someone you really care about, be sure to cherish them. Be thankful that you have these people in your life, because you never know when the world will take them away. After the incident with my best friend passing away, 4 years have passed. My senior year in high school is finally here, and I didn't know what to expect. When I first entered into senior year, I didn't really expect much to be honest. I just thought about it as another year where I have to start working on my school work again. After talking to a few friends, one of them implied I join the football team again. Knowing me, I agreed without a doubt. Since I was a senior, not that it mattered since I was already on varsity, I was excited to wear the helmet and the pads again. I felt superior to the underclassmen of the team just because I was older. I played harder than them, and put more effort into listening to the coaches. Anyway, we started the season off with a bang. We destroyed Flowing Wells 26 to 6. After that we steam rolled the other 5 teams we came across. With only 5 wins and 2 losses, we were for sure bound to make playoffs. At the end of the day, we came off with 6 wins and 4 losses. When we made playoffs, the momentum had died, and we were all ready to just go home. None of us wanted to actually go to playoffs, but unfortunately we did. The team we were up against, Casteel, had zero losses. They beat every single team with a 60 point lead. We stood no chance against guys like that, and we all knew it. When the time came to play them, not only did they beat us, but it was at their home stadium, again (We played them before and got annihilated). We put a good fight for about a quarter or so, but that's when they had their J.V kids in. When the real deal came to play during the second quarter of the game, our chances of winning went down the drain. We ended up getting blown out 56 to 7. After the game, none of us were really mad at eachother like how we would usually be. The outcome was evident as soon as we saw the brackets on who we would play against. In the end, we still came off the field proud of who we were, and the things we have accomplished as a team for the first time in Empire history. Football really gave me the incentive to work harder at the things I do. It really built me up and shaped who I really am. I learned to take control of my life, and complete whatever I have to do to be successful, not letting any past experiences bring me down. After the football season, my senior year was finally satisfied when the track season started. At the start of the track season, I was in the best shape I've ever been in. I started out as the third fastest on the entire track team, but I was getting even faster as every day of practice passed. When the first invitational meet came, I got 7th place out of 9. I wondered to myself “How could this happen?”. I knew from that day that I wasn't working hard enough, and that I never want to lose like that again. After that day, I worked hard at becoming even faster than I already was. After a few more invitationals of getting second place and first place, I became the second fastest on the team with a 100m time of 11.04 seconds. When state came, I was absolutely ready for whatever came my way. During the prelims 100m dash for state, I got second place. When the time for finals came, I ended up getting 4th place with the biggest smile I’ve ever had walking off the track for the last time. Keep in mind these are the fastest guys in the entire division of “D3”. I've never been so proud of myself after state. I worked hard, and receives a reward in return when the time came to it. Overall, I heavily enjoyed my senior year, with all the experiences I had, and all the new people that I met. After high school, Empire is always going to be in my memories and I'll never forget the times I spent their. At the beginning of my freshmen year I was struggling to keep up with my schoolwork, and struggling to keep up with my sports activities. Quitting multiple times along the way before I finally realized what needed to be done. My lack of ethics and previous history shaped my life, preventing me from being something great. Although we all experience things, either good or bad, we’re the judges on whether we become successful or not. Fast forward to my senior year and even now, I decide how I want to go through things, not my past. Many of us forget that just because we have horrible experiences, it doesn't give us the approval to use that as an excuse to fail. We must succeed.