Poem on My Mind Right Now

Don’t Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh

When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest, you must — but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns

And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow
You might succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems so far.

So stick to the fight
When you’re hardest hit
It’s when things seem worst
That you must not quit.

— Author Unknown

When I was a freshman in high school, I was on the tennis team. Actually, I was on the team all four years: I played JV tennis my freshman year (received a JV letter and the Most Improved Player award) and varsity tennis my sophomore, junior and senior years (played No. 4 varsity singles and No. 1 or 2 doubles as a sophomore, played No. 1 singles and doubles as a junior and senior, voted Most Valuable Player my junior and senior years, advanced to the IHSA State Tournament in doubles with my sister when I was a senior and she was a junior).

I did not play all that much my freshman year, but because our team was relatively small, I usually got to go to the matches — even the away matches, which were the most fun, anyway! I remember one match in particular: We lost to Neoga, and I do not recall my teammates being all that upset about it (funny how kids can shake off stuff like that much better than adults), but for some reason, our coach took it really hard. After the match, she gave us each a copy of the poem “Don’t Quit.”

It has stuck with me ever since.