Riding in the car looking out and the window seeing the whole city at Priceless in E-town; seeing everyone buying McDonald's and like a normal teenager my dad is giving me a long lecture.  Almost like every other teenager when your parents are giving you a lecture you let it go in one ear and out the next.  But my dad stated something that just caught my attention. That was, " Nothing is handed too you." I just thought about it in my head and I noticed it was completely true.  If one thinks about it you can’t have success without any hard work.  I believe that nothing is handed too you, you have to work for everything. 

Last year it was during the fall I came home got the mail.  Then I ran into my yard, up the stairs hearing "Click Clock!" and begin talking to my dad.  I said “Dad can I go to K.Y.A ?"

He responded "If you want to go you can’t get less than a 90% in math."

I thought it was pretty fair, so I accepted the deal and went on.  So till K.Y.A I made sure I had 90% by finishing my homework, studying for and test, and completing padding grades.  I got to go on a trip to Louisville and got to debate on bills. K.Y.A is an event where you can go debate on problems and suggest them to the state gov. This made me feel very proud of myself ; I proved to my dad that I deserved to go.  If you really think about my belief it makes perfect sense.  An orange is to a orange tree as success is to hard work.

Last year during the summer I got out my car, ran down stairs, and went into my room and I see a letter waiting for me.  In my mind I thought "What could this be?" I ran upstairs grabbed me some food and go back down. I went to my room again turned the TV on and I looked at the letter a closer and it said Duke University. I finally opened it and it was a brochure inviting me to Gifted and Talented Program. I was being acknowledged for my math skills; I felt very proud of myself. This brochure said I was in the top 90% of the U.S. All my hard work was paid off by getting into this. They were also giving me a chance to take a A.C.T or S.A.T. These are usually test that sophomore in high school take. This was a honor to be selected for this only certain kids are selected.  Working hard truly pays off this is a perfect example right here.  This has affected me a lot as you can see.

Often in my life my dad tells me about the story of his life.  He shared with me that he moved to one of the biggest cities in America Atlanta, Georgia.  He moved with literally nothing he went to college got a degree.  He established his self in the city and starting making friends.  He then became actually pretty wealthy attending lots of professional sports events and things of that nature. When he  If he moved there and wanted to be lazy he would have been a bad situation.  He had  to help him.  He was independent and worked hard for all of these things. Think if you moved by your self would you have the determination to do it?

Earlier this year in my room  my dad comes down tells me about how we are going to go on a 8th grade trip.  He said it was going to be around 500$.  He told if I don’t keep all my grades up he will cancel it literally a day before.  If it has to come down too it I haven't completed yet but he has already said I am going because of how proud he is of me.

Hard work always pays off as shown.  That one day in the car changed my life forever. Now I live by this belief.  I think that one day in the car will make me be a lot more successful in life.  Where I want to going life hard work is going to be needed.  This belief has made me a better person.  This belief made me stop being lazy by instead of saying this will be good enough I care so I put a lot of effort to all of my work.  I think everyone should live by this I know that this would help a lot of people. If one thought like me as in this belief people would realize that they cant do the minimum and expect the best. If you work hard nothing can go wrong only positive things are out comes. One cant succeed majorly if you don’t put in hard work.  Always remember that nothing is handed to someone.  One has to work for everything they have achieved. I hope everyone that has read will start using this in their lives.