Giant eraser. Photo by Katelyn Avery.

Mistakes are going to happen so don’t stay down. If a gush of wind hits you please find yourself making a get up motion. While you can’t erase certain mistakes you can fix them by trying again. This is all stuff you’ve heard before but its a lesson to head. “Winners never quit and quitters never win” is a fact and not just a preachy saying. Erasers are all good but they slow you down. Just cross out your mistake and start writing again.

Regret can eat you alive as you get older, so don’t waste the good years. I’m all of 21 years old, but I can attest that what I say is true by watching other people. The ones who said college application time will come faster than you think at an eighth grade parent and student meeting. The ones that would tell me to make the best of high school, and that community college will pass by so fast that I would barely remember it. They didn’t lie.

Cash strapped describes my youth perfectly, but I still reached out at every opportunity I could afford. Violin for the short time my family could afford it during the third grade. AYSO soccer until the money for that ran out. Although I only had two years of club soccer left, and people were leaving for the travel team. I joined my schools chorus, maintaining that from fourth to ninth grade and then eleventh grade to twelfth grade. I took sophomore year off to join the school newspaper. During sophomore year you only had one slot for electives. I never gave up on writing so that was the best gap year I ever had.

Cultural diversity club also gave my life some much needed confidence and diversity during my junior and senior year of high school. I made the commercials for our club events and was able to attend awesome workshops at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. During my junior year the guest speaker was the real Coach Herman Boone, who was portrayed by Denzel Washington in the film Remember the Titans. I soaked up that experience like a sponge. I was part of a literary magazine, chorus and the school paper as well, but those only shaped ten percent of my personality. Cultural Diversity club made me take risks and that led to me wanting more knowledge and experience in my life.

As I entered community college I felt a hole in my heart when I couldn’t join the paper for two semesters. The reason being core classes that I needed to get out of the way. The History club eased that pain and I was able to experience a trip to Gettysburg without any ghost sightings. I also went to Colonial Williamsburg and the paper came back to me soon enough. I left my position as President of the History club and became a writer again. I had a job at the time as well in my community colleges museum.

My life is the life of many others but its also more than some people try for. Mistakes were made along the way but I didn’t try to grab an eraser. I love all my achievements even if I I didn’t list them all. I’m proud that I got out there despite not having a lot of money. The fact of the matter is that I didn’t really make any mistakes. I have some accomplishments which makes me worth something. So please don’t make the mistake of becoming a hermit. That mistake defeats any size eraser because its written in ink.

-Katelyn Avery

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