Tej is a USC friend and my partner in the soccer team. I met him during orientation and he has become one of my best friends in college. He was born in Tunisia but lived the majority of his life in the United States. Here’s his proverb story:

The proverb is in French, my dad always uses to tell me this in though situations: “c’est en forgeant qu’on deviant forgeron.” It’s like if you work hard you’ll succeed, practice makes perfect. It’s meaningful because I know that with hard work I will get to where I want to be in life. Dedication will pay off. My dad always told me since I was little in Tunisia, and continues to tell me. So when I first moved to the U.S. when I was about 9 years old I didn’t speak any English. It was very hard for me and I was having a tough time with my classes and everything but my dad just told me to keep working hard. So that’s what I did and now my English is almost perfect, I have no accent. And I mean I go to USC so I guess it all worked out in the end. Yet, I still apply it to any work I do, even with soccer, which is a meaningful sport to me. The more I practice the better I will be in that sport and that’s how I helped my team to win the league championship in during my freshman year. Beating UCLA at their home field couldn’t get any better.

I couldn’t agree more with this quote. Although I didn’t understand what it meant before the explanation, hard work does pay off and practice makes perfect. In life, the more you practice, the better you become, no matter what field you choose to pursue. I have heard many people say that willingness beats skill. If someone is good at something but doesn’t put the work to succeed, the other person who might not have the skill but who works hard will be the one to prosper and achieve the goal. Coming from abroad I didn’t know how hard it would be to get into a highly selective university like USC and I think that my hard work made me achieve my dream of studying in the US. Also, I believe that coming from his father also encouraged him to work hard and to believe in this proverb because it is someone who you look up to and this makes it even more special.