When you first look at Julio Rodriguez, the first things that will pop into your head are that he is probably a quiet person, and looks like the type of person you would only talk to in a school setting. Julio has very dark, short hair and is five feet and six inches tall. Julio was skinny and had dark, tan skin that resembled the color of a grizzly bear’s fur. Julio lives with his mom in a very small apartment in the slum area of New York City. Julio’s Mom (Mireya Rodriguez) looks very wise, and she has slightly squinted, green eyes. She looks like a woman version of Julio, with the same color hair and skin. She has her hair grown down to her elbows that she usually wears in a ponytail. She works nine hours every day for six days a week at a thrift store. Julio’s dad died in a car crash when Julio was ten years old, and Julio’s life has changed ever since. Julio is now 17 years old and is a senior at Midwood High School.

Julio had many goals he wanted to eventually achieve in life, but he had one main goal that he knew he had to achieve. Julio’s main goal in life was to go to medical school and eventually become a surgeon. Julio knew this goal wasn’t going to be easy for him at all, and that is why he set the goal. He knows that the greatest kind of goals he can compose are the ones that are hard for him to achieve. He knows that there are going to be many obstacles in his path, and there are already some obstacles he needs to overcome, but he will not let these difficulties get to him or stop him. Julio first wanted to become a surgeon when he was very young. He always found it fascinating that a person like a surgeon could just basically repair another human being. That was about the time Julio also learned the concept of money, and that surgeons make a  lot of money. Julio thought it would be amazing if he could do something he loves, and be able to benefit from it in many, many ways. Julio has been working toward this goal ever since.

The second semester had just started and Julio was walking to lunch with his best, and only friend, Reed. Reed had pale skin, with hair that almost looked bleached. He had many freckles, and was short for his age. Midwood High School was a short building, but was filled  with very long corridors. The longest, and darkest hallway was the one that led to the cafeteria. This corridor had no classrooms in it, but led to many important rooms, including the office and the gym. This was the only hallway that was painted lime green, and was always the coldest hallway for some reason. Reed and Julio were turning into that hallway, when Julio started to complain.

“I already have projects in two classes, and the semester has just started,” Julio exclaimed to Reed in an annoyed tone.

“I also have two projects, and it seems like I’ll never finish them,” Reed complained, “I honestly just feel like I want to give up.”

“Don’t be like that,” Julio told Reed, because Reed knows Julio doesn’t like when people just give up.
So, Julio and Reed continued walking to the cafeteria without a word to one another.

When Julio got home the same day, the first thing he did was get started on his history project. Reed wasn’t the only one who felt like giving up though, Julio was also a victim of the terrible fate. Julio had thought to give up countless times each day, and whenever he did, he just took a moment to think about his goal, and how he could never achieve it if he always gave up. This gave him motivation to continue and conquer all of his work. When Julio was done with all of the work he had to do that day, he watched Premier League soccer until he fell asleep.

“Bang, Boom, Bam,” Is all Julio could hear as his car was spinning into the curb. He couldn’t see anything, but he knew he was badly injured. He could smell the strong scent of gasoline that made him feel sick to his stomach. He could feel the warm feeling of blood trickling down his leg, as he tried to push his way out of the car. He felt around for the car handle, but then stopped when he heard sirens coming his way. He just sat there, and with no more feeling in his leg, he could only hope that people were coming to help him out. As his eyes started to clear up, he could make out two ambulance trucks, and a police truck. Julio felt very fatigued, and didn’t know what would happen to him, as he closed his eyes for a second time.

“Julio, Julio are you alright?” Julio woke up in a hospital bed to his mom, Mireya standing over him.

“Mom, what happened?” Julio asked as he looked around at his surroundings. Julio felt a strong poke in his arm and looked down and saw a needle in his arm that was connected to an IV. The hospital room was white in every corner of the room, with a mini television resting at the end of the bed. He felt his mom’s warm hand on his own hand.

“You were in a car accident,” explained Mireya, her eyes watering, “You severely injured your right leg, and bruised a couple of ribs”

“Will I be alright?” Julio quizzed, with a puzzled look on his face.

“The doctor said it will take about eight weeks for you to be able to walk again, and you have to stay in the hospital for three weeks,” Mireya said, holding back her tears.

It had been three weeks, and Julio was ready to go home. Julio was emailing his teachers every day, determined to keep his grades up. Julio had never ended a semester with a grade lower than an A-. He didn’t care if he had to rest, he just did as much work as he could until his mom or a doctor told him that he needed some rest. Reed had also been a major help. He visited Julio every day, and kept Julio updated on what they were learning in most of the classes. Julio was always thinking about his big goal in the back of his head, and he knew he wasn’t going to let this injury stop him.

On the ride home, Julio was refreshing his email over and over so he could stay updated. It was a Friday, and the school day was already over. Julio knew that he would have unthinkable amounts of school work to make up when he got back to school, and he wasn’t looking forward to it. Julio wasn’t the type of person to let this stop him, though.

When Julio got home, the first thing he did was try to get used to walking with his crutches. He had never been injured this badly before, so he needed to prepare for the upcoming weeks. Later that day, Julio met up with Reed to give him some support.

“So, how long do you have to be in that thing?” Reed inquired as he looked at the cast that went all the way up Julio’s leg.

“Five more weeks,” Julio answered, “That’s five soccer games, twenty five days of school, and a lot of time wearing this goofy cast. Not to mention, I also have to wear this cast around my ribs.”

“Just keep pushing through those weeks, and the cast will be off in no time,” Reed encouraged.

Julio had just come from school on Monday, and he was trying to do his math homework. He had already skipped all of social studies and science work because he couldn’t understand it at all. The same thing was happening with his math homework, but he was able to slowly get through it. It was already nine o'clock, and Julio had only finished homework for two out of his five classes that he had work in. Julio really just wanted to stop working, and just give up on all of his work, but in his heart he knew that he couldn’t. Julio decided that he wanted to try to fight through this situation that the car accident had put him in. Before his dad died, if Julio had trouble with anything, he would tell his dad, and his dad was there to support him. This would always make Julio better, but now he didn’t have that as an option. Julio couldn’t ask his mom, because she worked until 11pm at the thrift store, and when she got home she just ate dinner, took a shower, then slept. Julio didn’t blame her though, because he knew she worked harder than he ever would. Julio had never worked so hard in his life. He was able to finish all of his school work before 2am, and he thought it would take him all night.

For the next few weeks, Julio’s nights had all been the same. When he first arrived home, he ate a snack then started his homework and studying right away. He wasn’t the type to procrastinate, especially when it came to his homework. He would do his homework until about eight o’clock then he would eat dinner. He always kept his dinners simple. Maybe he ate a grilled cheese sandwich, a couple slices of pizza, or even just a bowl of cereal. After Julio was done with dinner he got right back to work, making sure all of his work was done to perfection. Julio’s grades had gone down a lot as he was in the hospital, and he didn’t like the look of it at all. Most people would let this discourage them and bring them down, but not Julio. Julio knew the only way he could ever move forward in life is by not getting discouraged by things he couldn’t control, and instead using these things to help him grow and become a better person. With this mindset, Julio was able to finish all of his homework before midnight, which might not seem that early, but to him, it was progress.

It was the day before Julio would be getting his cast off, and he was was studying in the Midwood High School Library with Reed, when the topic of college came up.

“I still don’t know if I want to go to college or not,” Reed confessed to Julio with a troubled look on his face.

“I’ve always thought that I was going to go to college, but I really don’t know at this point,” Julio whined, “I mean, I want to go to college, but it is easier said than done.”

“What do you mean by that?” Reed questioned, as he flipped through his history textbook.

“Well . . . what I mean is . . . what I mean is that I don’t think that I could afford it, and besides, if I did go to college at all, there is no way I would be able to afford enough years, or even a good enough education to become a surgeon,” Julio explained, with his head resting in his hands.

“What happened to the Julio I know, that never gives up, and never thinks like that?” Reed blurted in a surprised manner. 

Julio knew Reed was kind of joking when he said this, but it kind of opened Julio up in a way. Julio started to think about it and realized that he could make it into college if he truly tried. He knew that his mom couldn’t help pay for college, because his mom didn’t really have much money to spare, but he still knew it was possible. This would be one of the hardest obstacles he would have to overcome if he wanted to become a surgeon, but he knew he could do it, and he knew it would be worth it.

It was the next day, and Julio was at the hospital, ready to get his cast taken off. After about twenty minutes of waiting, Julio was called into a darkly lit room, where they took off his cast and took some x-rays. He was very glad to hear that his leg and ribs were completely healed, and that he should start walking again in about two days. Julio had recently felt better than ever, as he was on top of his school work, and was healed back up to perfection.

Julio soon arrived home and started to brainstorm ideas of ways he could make it to college. He knew paying for his entire college education was completely out of the picture, unless he was able to win the lottery or something, but he was being real with himself and knew that he wasn’t going to win the lottery any time soon. As he was scrolling through the internet, looking at different colleges and medical schools, he came across an article that was all about how some very good colleges were going to be handing out scholarships to the best of the best students that were recommended to them. This is when it dawned upon him. The only way he could really get into one of these great colleges was to earn a scholarship.

  As soon as Julio got to school the next week, he went straight to his counselor to talk about this situation that Julio was in. The counselor’s office was also in the long, green corridor. Julio’s counselor told Julio all about how it worked and actually gave Julio some very good news. A college called Cornell University was actually giving out scholarships to some of the hardest working students and high schools around Midwood High School. Julio’s counselor had recommended the top ten students to this college, and Julio was in the top five. Julio was very excited and knew this was his chance for it all. He knew he really had to step it up and catch the eye of Cornell University.

It was the last week of school, when Julio checked his mailbox. Usually him and his mom didn’t get much mail, so he was surprised to see a big envelope sitting at the back of his mailbox. He didn’t know what it could be and decided to go inside and open it up. When he got inside of his house, he went up to his room and sat his backpack down, ready to see what was inside of the envelope. He sat down on his bed, and tore the paper seal off of the envelope. Getting mail was so rare for his family, that it felt like a mini Christmas just to open one piece of mail. He was not expecting what was inside. It was a full tuition scholarship to Cornell University. Julio couldn’t believe his eyes, and had to re-read it three times to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. Julio couldn’t wait to show it to his mom. It was about three hours later when his mom drove up to the driveway.

“Mom, I got a referral at school,” Julio admitted to his mom, as he tried to look sad.

“Seriously Julio, what did you do?” Mireya questioned, with a confused look on her face. She new Julio would never do anything bad.

“Here, look, it says it on my referral,” Julio croaked, trying to convince his mom that he actually got a referral. Julio reached for a piece of paper that he told his mom was a referral. He showed it to his mom, and his mom screamed. Julio showed her the scholarship, and they were both just happy to see it.

Julio has now finished college, and medical school, and is now training to be a perfect surgeon, by performing surgeries with well trained surgeons. Julio has moved out from his mom’s apartment, and now even has a wife, and is going to have a baby daughter in about two months. Julio couldn’t have asked for more in life, and is just glad that he never gave up, and was able to push past all of the things that were trying to stop him. Julio had finally achieved his goal, and was already setting new goals for himself that he could achieve in the future.