Falio Leyba Scholarship

On the day I was born, no one knew how much this baby was about to go through. My mother picked out my name. Zion. In Christianity terms, Zion is the city of Jerusalem also known as the “kingdom of heaven”, ”holy place”, & ”highest point”. I was born exactly one month early, my original birthday was supposed to be July eighth and I also had to have surgery as soon as I was born. My intestines were twisted so they had to transfer me to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and untwist them. To this day, I have a unique scar on my stomach. On top of that, since I was born early I had to stay in the NICU until my real due date. My mother was eighteen, she was still pretty young and didn’t finish high school so there wasn't much she could do to help herself and her child. My mom reached out for help from my dad’s family because she didn't have “a family” on her side. My maternal grandmother found out about my mom living with my dad’s family and she filed custody for me. The day of court the judge ruled that I was gonna live with my maternal grandmom. While living with my mom’s mom I was abusive just like my mom. I would get hit with objects, verbally insult me, and purposely not feed me. When I was eight years old the Department of Family Services had enough evidence against my maternal grandmother and they gave me back to my mother. Unfortunately, things started to take a turn. We started falling behind. . I made sure my siblings ate every night and did their homework. Soon the landlord had kicked us out. We stayed at was my mother’s friend's and his father’s house. Countless tardies, going to school in dirty clothes, hair wasn’t done, it was a lot. Department of Family Services found that my mom didn't have a stable home for my siblings and I. My mom was forced to either give her children up to the state of New Jersey or find us a home. My mom placed me and my brother with my paternal grandmom while my sister stayed with her. While living with my paternal grandmother my maternal grandmother filed for visiting rights a few months later. When it was visiting day it was the same thing as before. She even called me fat and told me to lose weight. Going into 2020 it wasn't fun. I started starving myself to lose weight and my paternal grandmom started noticing. She filed to take away my maternal grandmother’s rights.Going into COVID, I couldn't fit my clothes anymore. I also struggled with my depression and thought about how life would be better if I wasn't here. Unfortunately, I acted on those thoughts. I was put in the mental hospital for about two months. I was put into an eating disorder program where they would help me make good choices on food. Going into freshman year everything became worse. I started falling asleep in all my classes. I pushed through it though as much as I could. As months went by I lost my great grandmother, Myrtle. She helped me throughout my whole life by fighting and never giving up on the court system. She passed away from covid and I was devastated for months. I couldn't even delete our last messages together when she asked me about my graduation from eighth grade. I know she’ll be watching down on me once I walk on this high school stage.