“I am afraid of the giants, fear and failure, that are staring down at me, waiting to crush me.”

We all have giants in our life. These giants come in all shapes and sizes and try to stop us from perusing our dreams. They tell us to give up and constantly remind us of our previous failures.

I used to believe that I wasn’t good enough or talented enough to be great. This fear had stopped me from pursuing my goals in sports, academics and writing. But, I got tired of being afraid. I was exhausted of telling myself over and over again, “I can’t” – I can.

I recently watched one of my favorite movies, “Facing the Giants.” This movie is filled with many unforgettable and triumphant moments. However, the most impactful scene in the entire movie was when Grant, the football coach, challenged Brock to do the death crawl.

Brock had written Friday night’s game off as a loss. “They’re stronger than us,” said Brock when asked if he thought they could win.

Coach Grant told Brock to crawl to the 50-yard line but made him do it blindfolded. He didn’t want Brock to give up when he saw how far away the 50-yard line was. As Brock’s muscles quivered and sweat poured down his face, Brock kept crawling. Coach Grant crawled next to him and encouraged Brock not to quit – “Don’t quit till you got nothing left. Keep moving. Keep moving. Don’t quit.”

When Brock finally collapsed on the filed and took his blindfold off, he began to cry. He was not at the 50-yard line; he was sitting in the end zone. Grant knew Brock had the strength to crawl further than he ever thought possible. The only person stopping Brock was himself and the giants he saw on the field.

Sometimes we need to blindfold ourselves to the giants in our lives in order to achieve our dreams. We are all born with a light, but the world and our fears try to dim that light as we become older.

Life is definitely not easy or fair, but we have to give it all we got. Whether we are football players competing to win a championship, or a writer trying to make a name for herself, we have to keep crawling.

I will not be the person that lives her life afraid of these giants and never challenges herself to overcome the obstacles that stand in my way of greatness. I will conquer the giants.

Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something. You got a dream? Well, you got to protect it. When people can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you that you can’t do it either. You want something? Go get it. Period.