Climbing the Stairs

I remember the summer before 8th grade we went to visit the UCLA campus with my mom's friends from Taiwan. I was pretty excited since I really wanted to go there especially since it is so close to home. The campus environment is so beautiful and peaceful. My brother took a picture with the Bruin bear a bunch of times, and we took pictures of the famous halls such as the Royce Hall. What really caught my eye were the stairs that you had to take in order to go to the upper portion of UCLA. There were over 150 steps, and when I climbed up I was panting and sweating at the same time. I did not know why those steps were there and thought to myself "why don't they just put an escalator or elevator?". My dad told me "These steps are here to resemble that long, rigorous process you have to go through until you reach your goal which in this case is UCLA (or any other goal). Each step represents a different obstacle in your life. And guess what? You are only the 60th or 70th step because you still have high school." While I thinking about what he said my mom's friend's son, Spencer, who just came from Taiwan was rolling down the hill next to those stairs. It is really easy to fall while chasing your dreams. Just lay down and start rolling not caring about anything. Keep on climbing even if you are almost dying because if you start rolling back down (which is really easy) all your hard work will be for nothing, and you will never see the reward at the top.