What happens when an object collides with an unstoppable force? That object will be moved through and/or past the path of the unstoppable force, unable to overcome such strength. Through the years, I have come to believe that I am that object, fighting those forces and jumping over obstacles just in order to live the life that is thought to be normal.

My story starts a few years ago. What I thought was a simple stomach ache sent me to the hospital writhing in pain. Doctors were befuddled as to what caused it. Shortly after, I learned that this would be a daily battle, along with other symptoms that arose. Years later, after dozens of doctors and hundreds of tests, they had finally found the illness that had plagued me for all that time: Chronic Lyme disease. For treating Lyme disease, along with other co-infections caused by ticks, I was put on an aggressive antibiotic treatment. This caused my already overwhelming symptoms to intensify.

This debilitating disease, although causing my grades to slowly slip, has not been entirely bad. It has taught me the significance of balance. I learned to sacrifice my GPA in hopes of just staying in school. I sacrificed all of my time to make-up work and tests that I had missed, and with that, my friends, who had slowly drifted away. And above all I sacrificed normalcy. This disease has eaten through my teenage years, keeping me from my high school experience. All things that had seemed like normal tasks for others were huge hurdles for me. Against the odds, I have gained determination, perseverance and drive, which are things that cannot be seen on a transcript but rather, are markers of greatness. Though I do not have the desired grades or standardized test scores that I always dreamed of , I can bring these attributes to this college, as they are components of me and without them, I am would not be the same.

After the years of fighting, I have transitioned to being that unstoppable force. The object, my illness, has been pushed far enough away from my path to greatness that I can truly shine.