The N.O.V.A. program has helped lead me to my path of excellence by letting me know what things I should avoid, and what things I should look for.  I like that all the games we play have lessons to them, and that we can learn from them.  One of the lessons that I really remember is the one with the frisbees, called True Colors.  Our officer told us to try to convince the people who were outside to say they the wrong color.  He tried to show us what is right is right and what’s wrong is wrong.  Some things I really want to avoid are bad music, pornography, drugs, violence, and gangs.  I want to stay away from bad music because it can change the way I act and think.  I want to avoid pornography and drugs because they are addicting; drugs can ruin my health.  I don’t want to get into violence because it can lead to jail.  And gangs can lead to all the things I want to avoid.  A goal I have is to stay in school.  Education is very important; I cannot be a lot of things if I don’t go to college.  When I am older, I want to be a person who has nothing to do with anything bad.  I want to have a job and to be responsible for my actions.  I want to have stage three maturity and to have confidence in myself.  I want to live a gang-free, bad music-free, pornography-free, drug-free, violence-free life!