Striving for Greatness: A Vladimir Chigvintsev Story

3

An hour passed by when I saw Alek rush past my room and into his down the hall. I pulled off my head phones and walked over to see what he was up to. When I got there he already had a book out on his desk that his nose was already wedged inside of.

"Whatcha reading?" I asked him.

"Hey Vlad." was all he said, without looking up. Does anyone answer questions around here?

I gave up once more, grabbing a sweater and walking out of the house. I drove back to the studio and found Valerie's address on one of her forms she had to fill out. I decided to take the advice of the only guy who seems to care about me becoming something other than myself, Maks.

I had no idea where the address was and so I plugged it into my GPS and drove where it led me. I ended up in a really bad part of town and was in disbelief at the house that she lived in. The house I was parked in front of looked like the size of my kitchen and living room put together and that's it.

I thought back to what I knew about Valerie. I was always so hard on her for my own personal benefit, never thinking about what she has had to accomplish to even be where she is right now, if she becomes a national champion with me, the endorsements she will receive will really help her family out, they won't have to struggle in a neighborhood like this.

Suddenly a loud banging noise happened beside me and I jumped up in my seat. A man was pounding on the back of my car.

"Hey!" I said out the window, "watch the paint it's fresh!"

He walked to my window and grabbed my shirt.

"Cars like this and rich kids like you don't come around these parts unless they are stupid, if I were someone else I would have already gotten your hub caps, and maybe even a wheel or two off without you even noticing.. scram"  he said before cursing me out as I sped off.

As fearless as I am, I was not about to stick around and get myself killed or anything. I wanted to speak to Valerie but now I am afraid, what if she didn't want me to know about where she came from?

Obviously knows exactly who I am. A spoiled rich kid, who has been given everything his whole life and who lives in a big house in a nice neighborhood with a famous father... but not many people know the struggles I go through everyday to be who I am. Maybe if I open up to her she will reciprocate and we can have a better connection... a winning connection.