Читать книгу That's Great Advice - Matthew Pearlman - Страница 11

Growing up, Consuella “Connie” Moore was the fastest kid on her block. When she was about 10, she realized that no one in her neighborhood could catch her. She knew she was fast, but she said, “I really did not think much of it, I was just having fun.”

Connie attended an inner-city high school in Chicago with 98 percent of students coming from low-income homes. During her time there, only a small percentage of students met the standards for reading and math in Illinois. Connie used her participation in track and field to keep focused. The faster she finished her school homework, the sooner she could get back on the track. Connie not only got straight A’s, she graduated first in her high school class.

Penn State University was different. Connie referred to herself as a “bookworm” in high school, but she struggled in her first semester at college. She was declared ineligible to participate in track and field at Penn State because her grades had fallen.

She made a turnaround when she saw her fellow teammates suiting up and competing.

“I didn’t know what it meant until that point when I saw my other teammates competing without me,” she explained. “Then I knew I had to do it, and I made that turnaround.” The first time Connie stepped on the track in the blue and white Penn State uniform, she knew she had persevered. She compared her hard work on the field to the classroom.

“Athletes never back down from a challenge,” Connie said. “It’s the same thing in the classroom. If I could go through track practice every day and go through the tortures I go through in workouts, I could sit down and open up a book. It just reinforced my desire.”

Later on, in college at Penn State University, Connie worked with kids with special needs through the Life Link program. She was a mentor to the kids, bringing them to the college campus, to sports events, and helping them with their education and life plans. Connie achieved a degree in psychology and then got an MBA in marketing.

Connie Moore gave me her advice about perseverance:

“Perseverance has been the story of my life. Every day my goal is to be better than I was the day before. Whether it is to be a better person, a better athlete, or a better friend, it is a daily perseverance. I grew up in inner city Chicago where drugs and violence ran rampant. Simply getting out of the neighborhood was a form of perseverance. When I was at Penn State University, I failed to meet the academic standards at the school. I was very tempted to drop out, go back to Chicago, and let my track and field career fall by the wayside. But instead I decided to work harder in my classes, train harder on the track and try to leave my mark in the Penn State history books. What happened is that I became an 11-time All American, 8-time Big Ten Champion and the first Penn State Olympian in women’s track and field history. Because I worked harder in my classes, my schooling didn’t stop there. I went on to get my MBA in Marketing.”