This I Believe

I believe in the individual's ability to achieve anything if only he or she has the courage to say “I can.” Fifth grade is a trying time for most eleven-year-olds who have just realized after entering puberty that the opposite sex actually does not have cooties. As a result, one will often fall victim to the dreaded “awkward phase” in his or her life. I was no exception and was never one of the confident, overachievers, making this time in my life that much more difficult. I had a hard time with my self esteem and figuring out what I was truly good at. I was cautious about everything I set out to do and my motto seemed to be: if at first you don't succeed, stop trying. However, in Mrs. Duffin's fifth grade class, I learned to say “I can.”

In Mrs. Duffin's classroom, there was a “reading ladder” on her wall in which different levels of reading could be achieve throughout the year and the students could move up the ladder by continually reading more challenging books. If there was one thing I was sure about in fifth grade, it was my thirst for words and the escape that stories provided into my deepest imagination. By the middle of the year, I was engrossed in the books I was reading and focused only on what lay ahead. After seeing my love for reading, Mrs. Duffin encouraged me to write my own story. The rest of that year I spent most of my time invested in developing a story whose characters were based on my friends and me. Writing a book however, no matter how simplistic the storyline, is still a trial. Often times I felt hopeless and wanted to give up. With each roadblock, Mrs. Duffin would take me aside and ask me “Kara, do you want to write?” and every time I would reply “Yes, but I just don't think I can. I can't do it, it's too hard.” Even though I doubted myself, Mrs. Duffin would say “You CAN Kara. You can do anything if you set your mind to it and believe that you CAN.” A year later, my first novel was complete. Even to this day, whenever I feel as though all the odds are against me, I close my eyes and say to myself “I can.” Just repeating those two small words create enough belief in myself that I feel as though I can achieve anything.

Just having the belief in yourself can make any goal seem attainable and any dream worth reaching for. What truly makes the difference between those that struggle to achieve and those that achieve greatness is that the ones that believe in themselves and say “I can” always have a head start and the confidence to make their dreams come true.

Kara Krawiec

Kara Krawiec