Keyonia is a junior at Towson University. Here at VOAC she is our Donor Research Specialist. As an intern she is here to learn as much as she can from us and her experiences with our clients and volunteers. She asks plenty of questions and occasionally she’ll tell us a story like this one that reminds us how important our experiences are to shaping our character:

“Let my struggles be my stepping stones.”

This is a saying that I came up with myself after a rough patch in my life.  2 years ago, when I was a sophomore in college, I experienced what I call the “worst semester of my life”.  That semester, I dealt with family drama, the loss of what I thought were “lifelong” friends, and the pressure of working 2 jobs while going to school full-time.  I was at my wits end.  I just could not understand the purpose of all I was going though.  I didn’t see a “light at the end of the tunnel”, it was just dark.  I was lonely, depressed and angry.

One day, while on the phone with my mentor, an old middle school teacher, she sensed something was wrong and came to take me out to lunch.  She sat quietly while I vented for a whole hour on everything that was happening.  When I was finished, she stared at me for a while and said “Don’t you believe in yourself and what GOD has in store for you?” I was silent.  She then smiled and said for me to think of myself as an arrow.

You see an arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward.  So when life is dragging you back with hard times and difficulties, it only means that it’s going to launch you into something incredible.  So the harder the struggle, the better the outcome.  But I had to wait; impatience was what was making me miserable, not necessarily the struggles.  I left that lunch with and new frame of mind.  If I continued to work hard, believe in myself, and know that the things I go through are all for a better reason, I would be fine.  And today I am.  My struggles have most definitely become my stepping stones and all for the better of me and my future.  I no longer fear the bad times, but reflect in them because I know what the future holds.