In the year of  2023, Elisa was going to leave this planet. She didn’t want to live anymore, she felt like there was no point to life. She had anxiety and was diagnosed with depression at the age of 13. People would constantly be telling her that she wasn’t good at this, at that. Elisa came to a breaking point and was like I’m done I don’t want to live any more. But, one day she started to play the game of basketball. The game saved her life. It lifted her soul up to the sky. The ball was always there even when no one else was. Once high school began her life took a turn for the worse. People changed, she lost practically all her friends throughout high school, it was never a good feeling. She was alone and had no one to turn to. The girls that used to be friends with her changed, they were extremely obnoxious and rude towards her. They made her feel worthless, not proud to exist. She tried out for the high school basketball team and once tryouts were over, she was accepted onto the team for her greatness. The coach knew she had something special to her, he knew she had  talent that wouldn’t go unrecognized. Her coach’s name was Giannis. Coach Giannis played basketball for the NBA and won MVP of the year back in his day. Practices were rough for her though. She wakes up feeling in her head and saying, “I’m not good enough, I’m not going hard enough today.” She would mostly overthink almost everything she put effort into thinking about. Elisa walked onto the court for practice that day. She was the first one to arrive. She liked to get there early to get some specific goals of hers done before the rest of the team showed up. The girls came to practice and shot Elisa the ugliest faces and began with their nasty remarks. One of the girls Gia said, “It would be better off if you weren't on the team and then, Kaia chirped in and announced, yeah, Gias's right no one wants you here go play somewhere else oh wait, you cant because your not good enough for any other team. Kaia and the other girls continued to put her down as the days went on. Call her dirty names and say negative comments about the way she plays. At first, she would ignore them because she knew if she acknowledged these comments, it would only make their egos larger and attract their attention that it bothered her. But they continued with her hatred towards Elisa. Elisa believed it was jealousy and envy that Kaia and the others couldn’t control. But it got unbelievable to the point where Elisas mental health was drowning in water and her physicality wasn’t in great shape. She gave thought again wanting to leave earth. She didn’t believe she was meant to exist. She was masking the way she felt on the inside. She bottled it up. She never showed emotion to the way it made her feel. Coach Giannis noticed what had been happening to her. He came over to Elisa one day before her game was about to start and said, “You know what you remind me of myself a lot because I always wanted to be a perfectionist, not get anything wrong, make everyone happy around me, but the truth is not everyone is going to like you and nothing ever in life will be perfect. That in life, I’ve never seen a cloud that sits over someone’s house forever. This difficult time in your life right now will pass, trust me, it will only make you stronger. Now go out there and show them what this sport has brought to you and who it made you become.” After the game was over Elisa was the leading scorer and was rewarded as the best defensive player on the team. Elisa took Coach Giannis words to heart. He was such a role model for her he didn’t even know how much he meant to her. Her parents were extremely proud of what she accomplished. They knew that she would go somewhere in life. She had ultimately done this for her family but most importantly done it for herself. She was drafted to the WNBA first pick overall in the summertime of 2025 after she finished high school. Deep down she believed in herself, it was just the voices in her head that blocked the passage to her greatness and success. I Elisa want to tell everyone out there who is struggling that you are good enough even if no one tells you you are. People in this society will want to tear you down but don’t let them define who you are. To the people who doubt others intentions, criticize them, you thought you were putting water on their fire, but you were really just adding gas.