People have various answers for how their life unfolded or for how successful they are. The reasons can stretch out anywhere from places to attitude to opportunities.

For me, it was simply my family.
 
 I grew up in the small town of Frackville, Pennsylvania and, from a young age, I garnered support from my entire family during my athletic endeavors.

My siblings, parents, and grandparents were my biggest supporters, critics and continue to be so to this day.

   
Growing up, I never fully decided that I wanted to play football in college.

 I always loved the game and everything about it, but there was a significant moment in my life where I chose to become the best I could be at football.

That moment was my 6^th grade summer at an Eagles Jeremiah Trotter youth football clinic in Valley Forge Pa.

 
 I forget mostly everything about the camp except for this defining moment when the clinic had a retired Eagles Hall of Famer speak to us.
The man began his speech talking about the game of football and how he embraced everything about it.
It taught him the many life lessons that determine who he is as a grown adult today.

Out of nowhere he yelled the words,

"Are you with me?!?"

Everyone in the room looked around confused.
We were unsure if he was talking to everyone or a few of the kids who were passed out on the bleachers.

Sure enough, he yelled it again, even louder.

"Are you with me?!?"

We all replied, "yes sir".

Throughout the rest of his speech, he continued to use the phrase to make sure we were all locked in to his conversation.

 
Later, I realized that those four words was the entire meaning of his speech.

"Are you with me" simply meant that in order to be successful, you will have to sacrifice a lot of things to achieve your goals.

There is a small path that you must follow in order to follow your dreams and any wandering from this path could end your chances of achieving what you want.
To the Eagles Hall of Famer, this meant giving up drinking with friends, not skipping school, studying for exams, not staying out late with his friends to cause trouble.

The words meant that success requires the ultimate sacrifice by giving up the ordinary things that everyone does to do what must be done to best prepare you for your future.

 
Now this is where my family had the most important impact in my life.

My biggest fans, supporters, and critics took on a new responsibility as an overseer.

The path to success was a thin straight line and for every teenager, there are plenty of distractions that could end up pulling you off that path.

My family, and specifically my parents, were always there to make sure I was doing the right thing and when something didn't seem to fit alongside that path, they would simply say,

"Are you with me?"

 
They were the driving force to keep me in line and allow me to be successful.

Although it was overbearing at times, they did it all out of love to put me in the best position to be successful.
They have done so much for me through taking me to workouts, camps, and recruiting college visits.
They are truly the ones that allowed me to get to Lafayette to play football and graduate with an engineering degree.

Without them, I don't know where I would be today.

 
To this day, I have the words,

"Are you with me,"

printed over the top of my bed to remind me to make the right decisions to be great.

People will think all my success and effort was done by me, but I know it has come from the support of my loving family.