No Success Without Struggle

Corey Jackson

Writing 121

Essay #1

2/6/14

There is no success without struggle. We must view adversity as a building block, a step forward or an inclination towards achievement. This culture takes commonly follows the opposite train of thought, viewing adversity as a hassle or a problem rather than a valued experience or learning process which can be used to handle future conflicts. I often relate adverse feelings to the active process of physically conditioning the body. In order to get stronger you must feel the resistance of muscles tearing apart to make the body more concrete. The process hurts, makes the body from being pushed to it anatomical limits, but the end result is motivating and healthy at the same time.

Drawing from past experience, reflecting on first year of college reminds me of dealing with my enemy, math. I hadn’t taken a course since my sophomore year of high school and to make it worse I didn’t remember a thing about Algebra. My thoughts about math were, “I’ll never use this in a common experience throughout life, so why worry about it.” The first couple weeks were extremely difficult. Dealing with algebraic expressions seemed foreign, somewhat like rocket science. However succeeding was the only option.

Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it sure does make improvement. Knowing this made it easier to weigh out the options of either sacrificing free time to study with tutors in the math lab, slaving to understand each section of every chapter or procrastinate till failure. Upon the realization, I simply went for it and implemented the time and focus. The outcome was uplifting. Hurdling adversity in sense gave me a boost of confidence. There is something simply motivating about accomplishing tasks which may have seemed improbable in the past.

Have you ever thought about the old saying “if it was easy, everybody would do it.” Well it hits home after you realize the meaning behind the cliché quote. It means that nothing you strive...