St. Martin's Cloak
The Cloak is a collection of audio vignettes—stories that reveal parishioners’ faith journeys. Share your thoughts by sending us an e-mail.
You just got to keep on going because eventually you’re going to get there.
Nicholas Gross
Nicholas Gross is a senior at Boys Latin in South Philadelphia. He credits the Jubilee School, one of St. Martin’s outreach partners, for his appreciation of history. When he was in 6th grade his class interviewed the Freedom Fighters responsible for integrating Girard College and, in the process, learned their stories. The courage demonstrated by a man known to the students as “Mr. Tree” made a particular impact on Nick.
Mr. Tree – I think one the biggest obstacles is just having the courage to march even though – him and the other Freedom Fighters –knowing they were going to be harassed, hit by the cops, taken to jail – that’s a tremendous amount of courage. Just risking your own life and having your family worry about you but they did it for us, they did it for our generation.
I used to have a crazy amount of stage fright. I used to just shake and get so nervous in front of a huge crowd if I had to talk in front of them. And I still in a little way have that. But I’m better now. But this time I was at a big poetry workshop. It was like a big poetry club; there were a lot of people there. This was like two years ago I think. I had to say one of my poems in front of them. We always like sharing our poems.
And even though I was nervous at the time I just wanted to go for it. Even though I was afraid a little bit, I had that courage to say what I had written down and they loved it.
It’s true. All through life we’re going to face these obstacles.
I had to deal with this in high school. There were times when I didn’t feel like doing a lot of work. We get all this work sometimes and I didn’t want to do it. But I had to push myself to do it. Doing these things now, if we keep working at it I know I will eventually be successful in life. I know I have to keep going and keep moving because I know it will help me so much later in life.
So Just like Mr. Tree said about knocking down that mountain, you just have to keep on going because eventually you’re going to get there. You’re going to get where you need to be. I had to keep on going no matter what I deal with. It could be a fight; it could be a lot of work. But I had to get there.