Thirteen-year-old Morgan Whitaker is a perfect example of what can happen when you put into the play the old adage, “When life knocks you down, get back up again.”

Morgan used to be bullied for her high-pitched, “squeaky” voice. She was shy, yet a cheerleader, trying to fit in, trying to be cool.

When Morgan tripped over a soccer ball and broke her leg, she thought “her life was over.” With a couple screws in her leg, the Campbell Junior High School eighth-grader missed cheer tryouts and was sunk into a sad state.

She once aspired to be a professional cheerleader, but thanks to some motivation from her mother, Morgan has a new-found confidence and a new career goal.

Morgan is now pursuing an acting and modeling career with IMAGES Talent Agency in Lexington. She even competed at her first model and talent contest in Los Angeles recently and had great success.

Now, Morgan is using her new passion, her new-found self-confidence and her squeaky voice to speak out against bullying and inspire her peers to reach for their dreams and love themselves along the way.

Morgan lives by an inspirational quote that could offer us all some motivation for the future.

Ingrid Bergman said, “I was the shyest human ever invented, but I had a lion inside me that wouldn’t shut up.”

Morgan’s story is one we can all learn from.

As she shared with the Sun earlier this week, when life closes one door, another usually opens. And, if it doesn’t open on its own, keep pushing at other doors until one does.

She could have given up and let herself wallow in self-pity when she found herself unable to cheer. Many of us would have, even at ages of greater wisdom than 13.

Instead, she got up when life knocked her down. She started pushing at doors and she found a new dream and a new passion.

Don’t give up. Try again. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Love yourself, quirks and all.

It’s a story told over and over again, but we can all certainly learn from.