Margaret Alexander, 17 Long County High School “Hard work, confidence and focus on what her future is to be,” is how Long County High School band director Terry Kenney describes what drives Alexander to succeed. Not only is Alexander in Advanced Placement classes, she also is in dual enrollment at Armstrong State University, but has earned a 3.65 grade-point average and is the award-winning drum major of the high school’s Blue Tide Band. Alexander conducted the band in an honored performance at the McDonald’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Chicago and in a championship at the Sugar Bowl. She did dual enrollment at Coastal Pines Technical College and plans to pursue a degree in exercise science at Valdosta State. Kenney, who nominated Alexander to be awarded, says she has a “consistent personality, is success-motivated, fun to be around and work with. She has grown into the fine student one step at a time. She always tries to do the correct thing and help others to be successful.”
What motivates you to succeed? “Knowing that I could go farther in life and do more things is what motivates me to succeed. I love to push past my boundaries, and it feels so good to know that I am better than yesterday. Challenges motivate me to succeed. I love a good challenge, and overcoming it is the best feeling in the world. Success sets up my future, which is what I’m looking forward to.”
What are your tips or strategies for others? “My strategy for being successful in challenges or tasks is to stay focused on the goal. Once the mission has been accomplished, then I’ve done my job and can move on to doing another task or doing my own thing. A tip: Should you not succeed because you can’t find motivation, then do it for the same reason you get out of bed in the morning. We don’t get out of bed because ‘we have to.’ We choose to because we have motivation. There is one cause that makes us strive to become closer and closer to it. It’s just finding it that’s the hard part. The fun begins once you find the motivation. And a tip for that tip: If you can’t find motivation, make one.”
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? “I have always had the craziest of luck whenever I plan to do something. Something always backfires or comes up, and my plans get changed. But if I were to take a guess at where I will be in 10 years, I think I will be either in college working for another bachelor’s degree or I will be a military officer.”
What message do you think is most essential to your peers? “I think the most important message for my peers, or absolutely anyone else, is that no one will ever be faced with a challenge that is too much to handle. Everyone has challenges. The way you overcome is what makes the difference. In my eyes, quitting is never an option. My favorite quote is “Pain is temporary, Quitting lasts forever.” It applies to everything, and it is so true. We all have challenges that may cause pain. But pain goes away. Once a person has quit, there is no going back.”