Opportunities Come and Gone

This is an article I wrote for the paper.

Talent; everyone has at least one. Each person is born with a special gift that sets him or her apart from the rest of the world; there is always something that you can do better than anyone else. Where there is a talent, there is a way to express it. High school is the perfect venue to see talents displayed; acts of brilliance occur on a daily basis inside the classrooms, in the hallways and on the athletic field. But what happens when those who have worked hard their entire lives to achieve success have their talent ripped away? What happens to someone’s life when the thing they love the most is taken from them?
Sometimes, a person who is blessed with all the talent in the world can completely take advantage of the gifts that he or she is given. Take a familiar name such as Michael Vick; easily could’ve been the greatest mobile quarterback in the NFL, not to mention the best role model. But, like many other famous athletes, his faulty habits got the best of him, and those habits threw him in jail. Along with throwing away his freedom, Vick threw away his amazing talent.
It is hard to believe that someone would take for granted the gifts that were given to him or her; however, there are still those who feel that their skills will always be there for them to use, no matter the choices he or she makes. The fact that someone is born with special abilities does not automatically ensure that those skills will be there forever. “I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.” - Mark Twain.
On the other side of the spectrum, there are people who seize every opportunity they have to express their gifts and talents. They love what they do, they do it for themselves and they give 100 percent all the time. Unfortunately, these are often the people that have bad luck. Why are the ones whole-heartedly devoted to what they love get their chance taken away from either injury or another tragic event? A person with a pessimistic attitude would be asking the question “why me?” and thinking that the whole world was against them. However, a person with optimism in his or her heart is able to cope with the loss.
How hard is it to stay optimistic when you’re told you CAN’T do something? “No” is a very discouraging word; especially when a football player asks if he can come back to play the rest of his senior season. I like to call it “the worst doctor’s appointment. ever!” One former Payson football star had his senior season end abruptly with an ambulance ride on a stretcher. Alan Marvin, now a finance teacher at Payson High School, tragically broke his neck playing quarterback in his senior year of football. “I thought it was just a stinger, I thought I’d be back after a few practices,” said Marvin. The point and time when an athlete is told that he is “done” is a memory that stays with him or her forever. “It was unreal. Like it was happening but not happening at the same time.” Marvin lost a scholarship to a division 1 school because of the injury. The injury changed his life but it did not end it. “Football isn’t life, and my family, friends and coaches helped me realize that,” he added.
As terrible as any obstacle may appear in our lives, nothing should ever stop us from progressing. Just because opportunity has stopped knocking on one door doesn’t mean that another door isn’t waiting to be opened. A lot of people have a hard time recognizing that life doesn’t end once their high school dreams are finished. A trial in your life may look like a big hill, even a mountain at times, which you need to get over. But once you get to the top of that hill, whatever is on the other side will be more rewarding than anything you will ever experience. Flowers grow and die, relationships form and fall apart, opportunities come and go, but life will always go on.