Determination

Junior is very determined to make his story different than all the other Indians on the reservation.  I was very unsure of him at first and thought he was just putting on an act.  I thought the only reason Junior decided to move schools was because his teacher, Mr. P, very seriously told him to leave the reservation and keep his hope. After reading the entire book, I truly believe Junior is determined to make his life different.  He has made it through tough life experiences and knows he can make it though anything else life throws at him. 

I feel like I am also a very determined person who has already made my story different than my family.  I will be the first person in my immediate family to graduate from college.  I have two older brothers who both tried to attend college, but quit or failed out.  I continue to play college athletics into my senior year; my brothers both quit after one year of pursuing athletics after college.  I am the only person in my family who has not struggled with credit issues.  Both my parents’ plans were changed because of having children at young ages (19 and 20), which derailed their dreams at the time.  They struggled greatly at my age and were going through struggles.  Although I go through struggles too, my path has been much different from my parents and my brothers’.    

         I have struggled with many seasons of shin splints and stress fractures, but just like Junior, I have had moments of athletic greatness. Junior’s success came in the second Wellpinit game of his freshman season.  In the first play, he went up and blocked Rowdy’s shot, then took the ball to the hoop to make the first shot of the game making the score 3 to 0.  My moment of greatness came during my junior year at the state track meet 2-mile race.  I was leading the race for 6 of the 8 laps, going through the first half of the race in a personal best. Previous to the race I was 10 seconds off the school record and beat the Crete High School 2 mile record by 16 seconds. 

         Unlike Junior I do not have serious medical problems. Having seizures twice a week would be very scary.  I also think it would interfere with his social life, considering he was having so many seizures.  He would not be able to go out and do as much as other kids his age.  Junior has more struggles than I ever have and through it all he is determined to be better than anyone expects.  When he went through his first surgey, when he was 6 months old, he had little chance to survive.  Though he did survive, doctors said he would have serious physical disabilities.  Throughout the book Junior tells us no, never happened.  I think some people are just born with determination.  Junior is a great example to all of us of not giving up and fighting with determination.