I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving! My family and I went to Luray for a rejuvenating time of hiking, smores, and horseback riding. On the last day, though, our car broke down. My dad was able to get a ride back home and pick up a car to drive back to our family. I learned an important lesson here. Your plans are likely to get messed up, but this shouldn’t deter you from reaching your goals. Everyone has times when they wanted something to go perfect and it fell through. There is a key I’ve found to getting through these tough times. It’s attitude. When our car broke down I was pretty angry because it really threw a wrench in our plans. But my parents were looking at this malfunction as a challenge and had a good attitude about it. If the whole family was angry we would have had a much more difficult time getting home.

I think this can apply to everyday projects as well. From homework to tasks at work, when something goes wrong you have to see it as a challenge to overcome. You and your team have to look at the “roadblock” and engage it head-on. Confront a negative event with a positive team attitude, and you all will see things already look better. And when you’ve surpassed this event, you and your team will have built valuable skills at handling challenges. You will also be stronger and more knowledgeable in your abilities. Challenges can be aggravating, but they also add so much value to our lives. I think Bruce Lee said it best:

“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.”
― Bruce Lee

Help SVSLI overcome some of our own challenges by spreading the word about us and donating to help send Latino scholars in the Shenandoah Valley to college.

Check out our Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ShenandoahValleyScholarsLatinoInitiative !