We all have gained and lost things throughout the years. It can be as big as losing our favorite family member to as small as gaining our best working pen. I am going to share with you some of the things I’ve gained and lost over the past few years. The most important thing I’ve gained was confidence. C-O-F-I-D-E-N-C-E. Everyone needs some. I use to have so much low self-esteem it was crazy. I was a very diffident little girl. Some people would think I was going through depression. The reason I gained so much confidence was because I stopped caring about what people said, and all the stereotypes. I started doing my own thing. Another important thing I gained was courage. C-O-U-R-A-G-E. Courage is the ability to do something that frightens one. Making friends and really talking to people use to frighten me. Sometimes I still have problems with having and really saying to myself, “I will not be apprehensive about anything I do.” Also, I have gotten better at not fearing talking to people anymore.  I know I can really ameliorate that skill. I’ve came to a point in my life where what people think about me doesn’t matter. I only do what makes God, first and foremost, my parents, and myself happy. Last, but certainly not least, I’ve gained a wonderful relationship with my mom. We have gone through so much. I remember one time, we were trying to pick out a dress for a formal, and all we were doing was disagreeing on everything. It made me not want to talk to her about anything. I was a very dogmatic child. If I couldn’t have the one I wanted, I didn’t want one at all.  At the end, I was very contrite. Now, we can agree to disagree. It is so much better than it used to be. Now, we talk about everything. She is one of my best friends. I love her with all of my heart. On to the things I’ve lost. One thing I wasn’t planning on losing was the one thing I lost first. F-R-I-E-N-D-S-H-I-P. It started in the fourth grade where she and I had met. We said that we would be best friends forever. After that moment, we started to do everything together, then came the summer of my eleventh grade year. I moved to McDonough, Georgia, and everything started to go downhill from there. I would text her and call her and would get no response. It made me very upset and made me doubt myself at one point because I was always wondering if I was good enough, or if I did something wrong. I’ve come to realize that people grow apart and friendships have seasons. That was just our season to departure from each other. The most embarrassing thing I’ve ever lost was my dignity. D-I-G-N-I-T-Y.  It was a wonderful day in the halls of MLK Jr. High School, when I embarrassed myself to the fullest. My friend Amber and I were walking to Mr. Shoups class, on the right side of the hallway, talking about a situation that happened earlier that day. Being the clumsy person I am and not paying attention to where I’m going, I stepped straight into a puddle of water and backwards right onto my butt. All I could here was the laughter around me. What made it worst was that the boy I liked was coming down the hallway on the opposite side. That was the most embarrassing day of my life! At the end of the day, these situations and experiences made me the person I am today. I learned from them and moved on.