Station Three: Jesus Falls the First Time

Jesus, the cross you have been carrying is very heavy. You are becoming weak and almost ready to faint, and you fall down. Nobody seems to want to help you. The soldiers are interested in getting home, so they yell at you and try to get you up and moving again.

I have fallen many a times in my life. By nature, I am a determined person but that doesn't mean I haven't quit when things have gotten too tough to handle. After I injured my IT band in college, I felt hopeless and overwhelmed by my tennis game. I was playing for a Top 10 Division I school. A team I really had no business playing for; however coach saw my extreme work ethic and believed in me. For weeks I contemplated staying on the team or leaving to be a normal college student. I agonized over letting my parents, my coach, and my team down. In the end, I chose to "retire" from collegiate tennis. Looking back, I realize that I let myself down the most. I gave up on the one thing that had given me so much confidence, strength, and joy leading me to be the person that I am today. I fell. I have tried to live my life with few regrets, knowing that in the moment I made/make the best decision for me/my family at the time. However if I could do it again, I think I would have stayed. Luckily for me, I was able to get up again and put tennis back in my life. 

As humans, we will fall. We will quit. We will find our crosses are too much to bare at times. But we must remember that Jesus too fell when He was weary. He too felt the burdens of His cross: dying for us and for our salvation. And if He can get back up and continue to carry the greatest cross, then we too can get back up.

As an adult, I sometimes put things off. I give up too easily, and sometimes don't do my work as well as I know I can. 

(All italicized quotes/prayers have been taken from www.catholic.org/prayers/stations)