Every morning, for as long as I can remember, I would wake up to the shouting of my

younger sisters, or a bellowing “GOOD MORNING!” from my father. This morning was no

different. I get jolted awake, just to begin to doze off again. I am not much of a morning person.

After a few minutes trying to extend my time in bed as much as possible, I eventually begin to

slowly roll out of bed. Immediately I regret it. A shrill cold comes over me and I power through

the seemingly freezing cold air to make it into the warm shower. The same thing happened once

I made it out of the shower. The air was freezing again. I threw on my clothes, hurried over to

the kitchen, and began to devour my cereal. My little sisters are running all around the house,

screaming at each other about some show that they wanted to watch. Three younger sisters can

be a bit overwhelming at times. Both my mother and father continuously try and fail to quiet

them down, and eventually leave them in the backyard to run out some of their energy. It was

turning out to be a pretty average morning in the Tidmore household.

For all 17 amazing years of my life, I have grown up with a loving family, that supports

me with everything I face in life. While I have had to deal with multiple problems in life, my

parents and my siblings are always there for me. Although there are times that I might be

frustrated or aggravated with some of them, I nevertheless love them. Each one of them means

the world to me.

Later that day, at lacrosse practice, I had been struggling to effectively shoot and pass and

catch the ball. It seemed like whenever I even attempted to do something, the opposite tended to

happen. I was getting extremely frustrated with myself, especially since it seemed like everyone

else was having an amazing practice. I kept trying harder and harder, but things seemed to keep

turning worse and worse. My struggles started to get in my head, and the problem continued to
escalate. No one else seemed to notice my frustrations, except my dad. He saw how irritated I

was becoming, and when he did, he approached me and asked, “Why do you keep getting in your

own head after each mistake? Everyone makes mistakes, so there is no reason to continue

beating yourself up over one practice.”

After he said this, I realized that in the long run, one disappointing practice will have

little effect on the rest of my career, and with that in mind, everything suddenly changed. I was

not going to let me define myself by one moment, and my energy as well as my performance

increased dramatically. Mistakes happen to everybody. A couple mistakes should not ruin

something. My father helped me learn that improving my attitude about something that might be

challenging for me is the best way to turn my struggles around.