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Ryan Ng

Dr. Smith

ENGL-101

15 Nov. 2019

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

American tennis player, Arthur Ashe, taught us to achieve our goals and fight misfortune.

This quote teaches us that although the past cannot be changed whether it is positive or negative,

there is always a way to do our best in order to turn things around. This quote relates to me

because there were a couple of moments I had to work hard to achieve my goals. If we did not

have this quote, people would probably have a hard time with moving past their past events and

thinking positively.

Once I started middle school, I had a very hard time with my reading comprehension and

frustration management at first. So, in order to overcome these challenges, I “started where I

was” and “used what I had” by seeking help from my family, teachers and counselor. In order to

“do what I can,” we came up with many strategies to cope with my frustrations and improve on

reading comprehension. Instead of screaming in the hallways (at school) and lashing out my

anger at other people, I took a couple of walks, talked with a trusted teacher about my

frustrations and practiced talking about more, once I calmed down. In order to improve my

reading comprehension, I had to practice reading more news articles and books, writing notes

down and thinking of reading as a way of entertainment, instead of thinking of it as boring. Once

I started my sophomore year, my tendency to scream in the hallways and lash out my anger wore

off. Then, before taking my English Regents examination, I noticed that my reading

comprehension improved because I was able to study a few vocabulary words and read some
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stories monthly. Also, I was able to seek help from my English teachers after noticing that I was

getting a bit frustrated about studying for the English Regents examination.

Another moment I had to use Ashe’s quote was when I got interested in running. In order

to achieve my goal of being a fast runner, I “started where I was” by setting my goal to run two

miles in less than 24 minutes. Once I achieved that goal, I moved onto my next one of running

five kilometers in less than 33 minutes. I “use what I had” by using the track near my home and

then running on the streets in my neighborhood. Once I achieved my first two goals, I moved

onto running in Central Park with some of my friends. I “did what I can” by running two miles

on the road at least once a week. A few months later, I achieved my goal of being a fast runner

by taking less water breaks and developing motivation into running faster.

As Arthur Ashe taught us to do our best to achieve our goals and fight misfortune, his

quote relates to some of my past experiences. His quote relates to my first years in middle school

when I had to overcome my challenges of reading comprehension and frustration management.

The quote also relates to when I first started running because I was able to follow his three steps

within a short period of time, and I developed motivation into running a half marathon

eventually. As a student with autism, I am very impressed about the fact that I was able to

overcome these challenges well.