Before I became a man, I had this childish mindset on all my surroundings. Before I became a man, my mind wandered on this lustful, weird journey. I began my eighth grade with positive intentions and ready to prove everybody who I was. My first grades were below average, but that wasn’t going to break me down. I kept studying and realized that if I wanted to achieve something I never had before, I was going to have to do something I had never done before. I had to change my belief system in most parts of life. Some parts were my hours of sleep, my free time, and my overall daily schedule. I was raised to believe that I needed eight hours of sleep everyday, and most of you will quite agree with me, but when you are working on your dream, when you are working on that dream that you have, you are willing to sacrifice whatever it is to have it. Instead of waking up at 6 A.M., I lowered it to 3 A.M. I used all the time possible to study or improve my physical body. I began working out everyday, began studying long hours everyday. There were some very dark times and setbacks but I just kept at it. I woke up everyday with a positive mindset and with a clear vision of what it is I wanted. I dreamed of seeing those A’s in my hand, I dreamed of winning a championship, I dreamed seeing myself victorious before I was. On a 3-hour rest schedule everyday, and heading to the gym before practice, really challenged my body to its limits. I took my Sundays off, but all the other days was me grinding. You could ask my friends they can tell you, I had to miss some get-togethers either because I was on the gym or studying. But finally, I got what I wanted. From having a 48 as an average I graduated that 8th grade year with High Honor Roll, my team and I won 3 championships, and had made new friends that shared a similar mindset. When the school year ended, I even began to miss the grind. The grind became addictive. I started to miss it, miss working on my goals because I really believed that I could achieve my dream, and someone else’s as well. That summer I went to my first residential camp in Georgetown and excelled in their classes. Made great friendships with people from Turkey, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and even Italy. I learned their culture and way of life. That summer I brought to Puerto Rico some success principles that I learned and shared them with as much people as possible. I had made it a habit to always be grinding. I believe that it’s okay to sleep, but only when you’ve earned it. You can’t be chilling everyday. I only rest when I have achieved my current goal. Try to always improve in something different because nobody is perfect, there is always something you can improve on or help someone else improve on. This time I also understood how reality works and how important is my education but also my street smart. Taking care of my mother all those years really built me up and taught me how to take care of others and myself, developing those basic street-smart techniques. I finally realized that I could be just as smart as my cousins, and also have a life. Believe me when I tell you this, you can have anything you want, you just have to be willing to put in the work and make a few risks. Also, it’s not like I didn’t have a life. My girlfriend and I had a wonderful year and we always made time to see each other. I never missed a practice or gym session. I paid full attention in my classes and still had time to party. It all comes down to whether or not your willing to get out the couch, put the phone down, and GRIND. The grind is the best thing that ever happened to me and I still challenge myself in doing more and more challenging goals. The one thing I can never be is average. Anyone can be average, but very few can be great. Average people don’t wake up at 3 to study or workout, average people don’t wake up with a positive working mindset, only those who are willing to not be average change the world. Believe that you can be whatever you want and that you can have whatever you want. We were all born to achieve greatness, embrace the grind and trust in the process. I don’t really remember the exact day, but when I became a man everything was so different. I saw everything in a different way, especially people. When I became a man I started to connect and understand God. When I became a man was the beginning of my new life. The day when I was reborn and with a purpose. It was my reincarnation.