"I can't" or "it's too hard" are words that are often too common in a lot of people's vocabulary. When we encounter obstacles or difficulties in our lives, we find it easier to take the easy route rather than persist and push forward.
Sometimes we feel stuck, unable to move forward or persevere. But when the going gets tough, you just have to keep trucking along.
If you're looking for some extra motivation, meet Hasaan Hawthorne.
The Pelham High School senior capped off a perfect 37-0 wrestling season by capturing the Alabama state title on February 20. He came third as a junior last year.
Well, he did. Hawthorne was born without shins, a condition called tibial hemimelia. His parents had the tough choice of deciding whether to amputate his feet and legs through the knee or allowing them to grow and having their son use a wheelchair.
This option allowed Hawthorne to walk with prosthetics and sit at a school desk. He received the surgery at only four months old, but it never slowed him down. He used Tonka trucks and push cars to move around as a child before receiving his first pair of prosthetic legs at 14 months, according to AL.com.
He was a part of championship baseball teams growing up and also enjoyed running and skateboarding.
"I think it's funner having prosthetics than real legs because you get to do more stuff," Hawthorne said in an interview with AL.com when he was just 11 years old.
His love for athletics continued to grow, but one sport emerged as his favorite.
"We would wrestle every weekend," Duke Frison, a family friend and former babysitter, told AL.com. "You could tell that WWE was a big influence on his playtime because he would always jump on me from 'The top rope', which was also the top of the couch."
Robles made the wrestling team at Arizona State as a walk on and was named a three-time All-American. He also won an NCAA National championship in 2011.
"I said, 'Why can't I do it?' It just looked cool to me," Hawthorne said.
He worked so hard that in his sophomore year, Hawthorne had to have two surgeries: one to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder and another just six weeks later that would be his second amputation, leaving one limb longer than the other.
He spent the summer heading into his junior year recovering from the surgeries. Unable to work out, he had fallen behind and gained 20 pounds. But like Hawthorne has been doing his entire life, he persevered.
He has his eye on Nationals and competing at the college level, although he doesn't know where yet.
To this day, it's still hard for his parents to see him fall.
"Unless I tripped him," his mom Felecia Hawthorne told AL.com, half-joking. "But just knowing he knows how to get back up, that's the feeling of accomplishment as a parent."
