A Challenge In My Life That Has Affected Me Tremendously

Everyone has a certain challenge or personal circumstance in their life that has affected them tremendously, whether it is school related or not. In high school my challenge is being unable to get transportation for my after-school clubs, school sports team home games, soccer club tryouts and community service work. Students who have cars or have both parents who can make it easier for them to get rides may find this challenge more manageable. Being that I'm from a single parent household living with my mom and other siblings, participating in after school activities is a challenge. My mom, with two jobs, works from 6am - 8pm and uses her car to get to and from work except on Mondays, which is her day off. My older Brother who goes to college uses my mom's car on the school days he has classes. That leaves me and my younger brother less opportunities to get transportation to activities we have after school.

Transportation has affected me from participating even in community activities. Being in Florida, a person cannot get to one place without a car. With there being only one car in my household and my mom being the primary user of it to get to and from work, I cannot participate in after school clubs, attend our sports team home games, go to soccer club tryouts, earn community service hours by feeding the homeless or get a job that will provide extra income for my family. These are meaningful activities that I like doing, and not having a reliable mode of transportation makes it close to impossible to do. The only day I can get a ride from my after-school activities is on Mondays when my mom has her day off. On Tuesdays and Thursdays my school provides the after school tutoring program with transportation, which I take advantage of so I can stay in the front office and work there as a volunteer or as a tutor for the math after-school program, and when I'm finished I could go to my tutoring class and get help on school work or complete any homework I have; knowing that I would have a ride and not have to walk an 1hr 30min to get home or wait an hour or more for the bus is a big relief.

What I have learnt from this experience is that in life there will be an obstacle in your way that you can do nothing about, but it shouldn't stop you from accomplishments rather than ignoring your problem or taking the easy way out by pretending it doesn't exist. I joined my schools after schools tutoring program which gives me transportation on Tuesdays and Thursdays and on Mondays I have my mom pick me up since it's her day off. This gives me three days out of the school week I have reliable transportation to get some of my activities done. The other two days (Wednesday and Friday) I walk home or ride my bike, but I see it as exercise and I prefer this rather than walking every day of the week.