American boxer Mohammad Ali once said, “​it isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that

wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe”. This statement stood out to me because of how
accurately it portrayed my own personal story. Throughout my life, I have held ambitious goals
and was often told that I would never be able to achieve them. For me, it was never how high my
goals were set, but more the smaller struggles that I had to endure which made them harder to
reach. From a permanent nerve injury at birth that immobilized my left shoulder and arm to
disordered eating later in my teen years, I understand that certain struggles can never be
completely resolved. But more importantly, those struggles taught me that when “a pebble” in
your shoe pushes you back one step, you take two steps forward.
My nerve injury is a part of my life that will always challenge how I physically do things.
It cannot be corrected by any surgery and it will be with me for the rest of my life. I learned from
a very young age, that I could not do all the things other kids my age could do. But that reality
did not give me a reason to give up. Instead, it motivated me to play more and play harder. Not
having bilateral function and strength in both my arms did not stop me from playing basketball,
football, soccer or gymnastics as a kid. And while the simple task of supinating my hand to hold
a plate may never be something that I can do with any ease, I learned how to compete in Rubik’s
cube competitions when my occupational therapist taught me how it could be a useful exercise to
gain fine motor strength in hand. Rather than dwell on what I could not do, I have learned to
accept it and find new ways to not only do the same activities other kids were doing but excel at
them, as well.
Besides these physical challenges, I have also struggled with body dysmorphia and
disordered eating within the latter part of my teens years. Growing up, I was sensitive to my
upper body weakness and I felt heavier than I wanted to be. I decided to do something to look
healthier. However, what I decided to do was not so healthy. I began starving myself to lose
weight and soon I felt the physical consequences of my choices. My energy level dropped and
my overall strength decreased. During my recovery, I took up weight training and soon learned
healthy ways to eat that would support my ultimate goal of being healthy. My physical routine at
the gym not only helped my physical goals but it also became a healthy way to cope with many
of the other stresses life threw at me that I could not change or control. These healthy lifestyle
changes led me to be more confident not only in the gym, but also in the real world. I was eager
to push myself to compete and try new things that I did not think I could do before. As a person
who faced both physical and mental challenges growing up, I learned that those pesky pebbles
that would not go away would also not hold me back. I never let the pain of those pebbles get to
me and I learned that my mountain to climb may in fact be made up of many tiny pebbles. I
know there will be new struggles ahead but having a means to work through them and the
confidence to succeed are where I can focus.