When it’s near the end of the school quarter, most 11 year olds would be rushing around to make sure they have all of their work in. Well, trust me. That’s not what I was doing. Instead, I was home with pneumonia, except I still had work to hand in and complete. But that’s pretty hard to do considering it hurts to think, let alone move my body to an upright position so I could even envision doing homework. I was was just a mere sixth grader, and all of the doctors told my mom that it was just a fever and it would go away soon. Fever or not, I was missing a bucket load of school, and the end of the quarter was coming up. Unlike most kids, I was actually wishing to go to school.

I was at gymnastics when I started getting really queasy and nauseous. I was working on my vault routine when I knew that if I went upside one more time I wouldn’t be able to keep it in, so I went up to my coach. All of my stomach pain and sweat came out through my tears while I told my coach how sweaty my palms were and how dizzy I felt. I then ran out to the bathroom stall and leaned over the toilet vigorously. Now, if you’re a smart person then you would be able to infer what would happen next. But for those of you who are clueless, I’m sorry to inform you that I have no intention to tell you what happened in that next minute. Trust me; you aren’t missing out on much.  My other coach came in to check on me, and she ended up calling my parents. All of this happened on a Monday, and I was suppose to stay after school that Tuesday to get some work done. Well, I can assure you that I wasn’t in school that Tuesday. Or the next one. I had my mom email my teachers to tell them about my unpredictable dilemma, and they sent all off the work I missed to my friend, Abbie, who came over to deliver it.

On Tuesday night I planned to go to school on Thursday so I could stay after to make up the work I was supposed to make up Tuesday. My fever had other plans, so I ended up staying home with yet another monotonous day ahead of me. I’m full of energy and I love going outside, so when I was stuck on the couch all day I was pretty bored. At this point my mom decided to contact the doctors, who seemed to think that it was only a diminutive stomach bug, except they couldn’t see a glimpse of how pale and fragile looking I was through the phone that my mom was talking into. My sister had an irritated eye one of the days that I was home, so we went to the doctors so they could check up on my sister. I was in no condition to stay home alone, considering I would throw up if I stood up because it took so much effort, so I went along with my mom and my sister, Carly.

Once we got there they checked on my sister, who was prescribed eye drops. The doctors took one look at me and demanded to check to see what was wrong. They felt my chest and knew something was up. I was sent over to the ER where we waited five interminable hours just to have a doctor come talk to us. They hooked me up with some medications and told me I had pneumonia. I also was told that I couldn’t go back to school for at least another week. I then asked about gymnastics because I had an upcoming meet. They told me I should really stay away from sports for now, considering my lungs weren’t in the best condition.

As I watched the days tick by, I thought of the homework piling up. I couldn’t even imagine how much I had missed, and I started worrying. If I had kept those zeros in my classes my averages would have stumbled down a big hill. This was a really hard time for me. When I see something that isn’t right I take action immediately; ask anyone. I hate being helpless, but that’s what I felt like as I was watching all of the work pile up on my desk. I couldn’t even work on the assignments I had because it hurt my head to work on anything that had to do with reading. Plus, I hadn’t even learned the new stuff I was suppose to be practicing.

Finally, my pneumonia went away, and I got to go back to school, but my battle was only halfway through. You would be surprised at the different reactions of my teachers. Some teachers threw work at me and told me it was due next class. Other teachers let me skip unit tests! But the amount of sincere teachers was not enough. Every day I came home from school, and I would hurl the pile of work on my desk, watching as the days before the quarter ended grew shorter and shorter. I was unbearably stressed out. I was getting quiz after worksheet after assignment tossed at me, all expected to be turned in the next day. It’s not that I wasn’t doing the work, it’s that I had missed all of the new material that I needed to know to be able to comprehend the worksheets!

I spent all of my free time doing the work, Facetiming friends to help me do it, asking my teachers for help, and occasionally asking my parents.  For that one week, I barely talked to anyone about something other than academics. My social life perished, and in return I was handed a golden platter of schoolwork. Every kids dream! The last day of the quarter came, and surprisingly I had finished up all of the work I owed. Once I had turned in the last bit of assignments that were due for that quarter, I was so relieved! A burden had been lifted off of me and I could finally have some free time.  For once that whole week, I could sit down and watch TV, or go out and walk my dog. Getting two weeks worth of school done in one week was extremely hard, but I pushed through.

There were plenty of times when I wanted to stop doing the school work (technically I couldn’t have because I would have fallen even more behind), but there were definitely times when I wanted to go hang out with my friends, or go play a game. I had to prioritize, and I knew that school work came first. Even when I wanted to give up and go do something else, I knew I couldn’t. I persevered and kept going, even when times became tough. I knew that if I stopped then I would never get to where I wanted to be, and I wanted to be finished with my school work. I went through the bad times, leaving me with really good averages.

If you feel like quitting, then think about this: difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. If you want to arrive at a beautiful destination, then you better get on that difficult road. It may be rocky, but it’s the destination that counts.

-Chelsea King