My life has been wonderful and relatively normal. I went to school, made lots of friends, and I even date. I would definitely say that I am happy but there have been times where I feel like things are falling apart and my dad would always help me by saying listen to music. One day I was scrolling through music quotes and I found this one by Bob Marley "You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have."

This quote hit me hard because at that point in time I felt like an absolute wreck. I barely wanted to go to school, I was in therapy handling a personal problem that was affecting my school life majorly, and I felt like no one really understood how bad I felt but this quote told me something. This quote told me that someone had to relate to this at some point, because I felt like I had no other choice but to be strong. Bob Marley the Nobel Peace Prize winner understood that even though all I wanted to do was break down I had to keep going and not let it break me.

Ever since then I have kept this quote in the back of my mind and I repeat it like a mantra whenever I want to give. I haven't given up yet and whenever things get really bad I listen to music and remind myself that someone out there understands. This quote and music is what got me through the rest of my high school freshman year, my parents divorce, my first relationship which ended horribly, and now it has it has gotten me through my freshman year of college.

The first semester was amazing and I felt so good about everything seemed to be okay. Then the spring semester started and things got harder. I was in more difficult classes, I was in a two-month-long struggle with a girl who couldn't care less about how her actions were affecting me or other people, and I was stressed about my mom moving to a new house on a very accelerated time table. I finished the semester yesterday by taking my last final and it was not as great as the first semester. My grades weren't what I wanted them to be, I had grown distant from the friends I had made second semester, and I felt awful because I wanted to work hard and get Hope so my parents weren't paying as much money every year.

My dad said he didn't care and that he was proud of me because despite everyone's efforts to make this semester difficult I still passed all my classes and I still handled everything in a mature way that showed him I had grown up a lot. I was thrilled to hear him say that because I always want to make my dad proud and until he had said that to me I was worried that he'd be mad that I didn't work harder and use every free second I had studying. He told me that even with everything that was happening in my life I stayed focused on school and was a big help to my mom coming home every weekend to help her move and never once said I wanted to quit or give up just because it was hard.

I have no idea how I did, I felt angry so many times during this semester, I felt like I was going to fail so many times, but my dad was right I was never going to give up, it wasn't even a thought that had crossed my mind. That's when I heard it again, "You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have" - Bob Marley, I was sure that the only reason I did handle things so well was because my dad always pushed me to never give up and because I wanted to keep going. I am happy with my freshman year of college because I made my dad proud so many times and I feel even more ready for life now.