My necessity to accomplish this task began an evening when I sat in the back of the car with my brother, thankful that my mother drove back home with my drunken stepfather in the passenger seat. All too quickly and unexpectedly he jerked the hand-brake. Spiraling down a gloomy and empty road, I felt death creeping up upon me as the weight of my body slammed against the car’s door. As I opened my eyes, my hands gripping tightly to my brother’s arm trying to comprehend what had occurred, I swallowed down all my emotions and my dignity which had formed into a ball in the middle of my throat. …show more content…
Nonetheless, I felt humiliated and miniscule. Consequently, a couple of months later, in what would be the beginning to my empowerment, I decided to rebel and joined cross country. Every insult became my motivation to push through hill workouts when my knees felt weak and sore. The degrading comments were the energy I needed for my effort to work through the physical pain and be at practice every day. At every race I made sure to learn from my mistakes in order to improve and run to the best of my ability the next time. I made a commitment and didn’t plan on anything holding me back from outgrowing myself. I wanted to continue to persevere as I noticed how I gradually became faster and stronger to prevent ever getting hurt by him