“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties” (Helen Keller). All through elementary school I was doing fine in my classes, but when I entered sixth grade, my grades started to drop. I’m not  sure why, either. Could it have been because I was lazy, scared, angry, or under-confident? Much like Helen Keller overcame her obstacle of not being able to communicate, I too overcame my obstacle of getting bad grades.
Helen’s obstacle was way worse than mine, but both obstacles were still a challenge. Helen was deaf and blind and had nothing to cure her disease. Then an independent woman named Annie arrived from the North. At first, Helen loathed Annie and had a flippant attitude, but over time she learned to trust and obey her. Annie taught Helen how to communicate by using her hands but it was a long process.
After getting bad grades regularly, I thought I would never be able to overcome that. Over time and with encouragement from my parents and teachers, I realized a change was needed in my thinking. If I wanted to get good grades I would have to be confident and that goes with anything in life. So as my confidence level rose, so did my grades.

Both Helen’s and my obstacle were similar because we both needed to have confidence in ourselves. Helen learned how to communicate and I got better grades. I also learned that Helen never gave up. I never give up either and continued to have confidence, patience and persistence.
It is possible to overcome obstacles if you put your mind to it. From Helen, I learned accepting help from others is important to building self-confidence. For me, I learned how to be more confident. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” (Helen Keller).