I am a three-sport athlete. I play volleyball, basketball, and softball. I love playing the game and working with my teammates towards reaching a goal. Although it is one of my favorite things to do, I have faced challenges with my schooling. Along with my athletics, I am involved in a number of other activities, such as student council, forensics, NHS (National Honor Society), band, and others. In doing all of these activities, I don't find a lot of time to do homework outside of school hours. Before I share my challenges, it is important to have some context. My father is an administrator at the school. He always knows the second anything goes wrong with my grades or with another student, and will instantly address it. He and my mother both have very high expectations of me, and I will become valedictorian of my high school class if I maintain my 4.0. I am very healthy, and am always at school. I am also the oldest of four siblings, and my parents are divorced. I also have never left school early due to feeling sick or being overly emotional. My biggest challenge yet was this year. Two of my classes were online: Calculus and Business Law. I worked diligently on them, but, slowly, I began falling further and further behind. Soon, I had a month left to finish both classes, but I was over 30 assignments behind in Business Law, and over 20 behind in Calculus. Soon my life was consumed by the stress of finishing those classes. Failure wasn't an option. The day before my final due date in Business Law, I started working on my final paper. I fell asleep that night while working on it, and when my sister woke me up the next morning, I had forgotten to set an alarm, my computer was dead, and I was nowhere close to finishing the assignment. By the time I had reached 3rd period, Psychology (another college class), I had had an awful day. Nothing had gone the way I needed it to, and I was starting to panic. Regardless, I continued to power through the internal panic because (as I told myself) I was strong I could keep it together until the end of the day, and coach expected me to be at practice, so I was going to be at practice. I then went to 4th period, where student council was decorating for Christmas, and I was leading the charge. When I walked into the classroom, I was bombarded by questions. My head begin to spin and I felt sick, so I escaped to the bathroom to conceal my panic attack. I felt too physically sick to stay at school. I went to the office, crying, and asked if I could call Dad to send me home. He agreed, and, once I got home, it took several hours for me to stop shaking and vomiting. I finished my class that night and went to bed before midnight for the first time in a month. When I woke up the next day, I looked at my grade, terrified that it would be anything less than I needed it to be, but I had an A. I finished Calculus the next day, and I got an A in that class, too. I was ecstatic. A huge lesson that I learned from that experience is that I truly can do anything that I set my mind to, even if there are doubters all around me, or if the doubts are in my own head.