When I was born I didn’t know any better.  I never knew what was right or what was wrong.  Growing up I learned that I could make choices.  The road to excellence or failure in my life would depend on the good or bad choices I make.  As I go along, many, many temptations will come my way that could lead me off the path of excellence and on to the road to failure.  I want to keep to the right path that will guide me where I want to go.  In life I want to take the opportunity to go to college and take classes in high school so I may become a sign language translator.  In fifth grade, Miss Evans started teaching my class sign language.  Ever since then I’ve wanted to excel in signing.  I want to help other people in life to understand the world.  Another opportunity I want to take is to become an athlete.  To make that opportunity happen I need to eat healthy things like fruits and vegetables.  I need to practice to become better at the sports I want to do.  There are numerous other opportunities I want to take.  There aren’t just opportunities in the world but there are things that can harm me and start leading me down the path to failure.  Those types of things in the world are what I want to avoid.  Drugs are one of those things that could damage my health and I could risk the opportunity of becoming an athlete.  They do not only damage my health but they can make it so I can’t get a job.  It’s not worth it to me to even try a drug.  It can become an addiction and I won’t know until it’s too late if its damaged me.  Not only can drugs become an addiction but pornography can too.  These are not the only things that can harm me mentally or physically.  There are many things in the world that can harm us.  I’m making a choice now that I will avoid these types of dangerous things in the world before it becomes too late.  In the N.O.V.A. program I have learned so many things.  It has taught me no matter what stand up for what I believe in.  Also it has taught me some quotes like Opportunities which means “good things that come your way”.  Garbage in/Garbage out stands for, “what you put in is what you get out”.  These quotes have helped me understand a little bit more and it has opened up my eyes to the world around me.  The N.O.V.A. program educated me on more things than I could imagine.  It has taught me about music influences, positive and negative sides to media, cause and effect, and to study the situation.  It has taught me to be a N.O.V.A. lone wolf.  This is not everything the N.O.V.A. program has taught me because there are several things that I want to remember forever.  N.O.V.A. has prepared me even more for things I need to avoid or opportunities I want to take.   I have a road map that I want to follow and stick to my road map to my path to excellence.  Each choice I make I’m going to ask myself will this help me to stay on my path of excellence.  We each can choose our own road map that we can decide where it will lead us in our each and individual lives.