Strength comes in many forms and is presented differently in each person. My quality that I value the most is my mental strength. It has been hard earned to reach the point I am at now, and every step of the way has given me more strength and resolve to keep pushing forward. I am a single mother. My son has been the biggest reason that I have grown in strength. My need to fight for him and provide for him has given me a reason to keep going. You see, not only am I a single mother, but I also work a full-time job, raise my son, and attend school for time for my bachelor’s in project management. There are always days and nights that I want to give up, but the little boy smiling in his sleep steels my resolve and pushes me forward. I became a single mother when my son was six months old. I left a domestic violence situation, and I never looked back. It took an immense amount of strength to be able to leave everything behind, set my fear aside, and walk out of the doors. The nights after, while my son was in a new place and a new environment, it took everything in me to stay up at night with my crying baby, soothing him to sleep and not giving up. Since then, I have battled out nights of teething, attachment periods, new schedules, and transitioning to my son sleeping in his own room. Every morning, no matter how late I was up, I still wake up every morning and get us ready so I can go to work. I added college into the mix when I returned in the spring of 2022. This added to the long nights and perseverance to keep going. There has been many times that I thought about giving up, and doubting if I could do it, and it is always my own strength that pushes me through those times. Raising my son on my own is one of the hardest and most rewarding things I have ever done. It has given me the strength to believe I can do anything. His smiles give me more than I could ever give myself, and they remind me why I do everything I do. After everything I have fought through, obstacles and challenges I have overcome, to get to where I am today. My purpose and goals due to my little light in life. My shear willpower to never give up through it all. To use it to keep pushing for the future I want my son and I to have together. That is why I believe my strength is my best quality.

I am the youngest of nine children. By the time it came to parenting me, my parents had seen just about everything at that point. This meant the dynamics were a little bit different. My father was unemployed when I was young, so instead of daycare systems, I stayed at home with him. If you ask my mother, it’s reflected in my personality now. I spent a lot of time with my father, just him and I. He would pick me up from school and we would walk home every single day. He was always early, waiting for me at the same spot. We never walked the same path home, and at the time he told me it was because he wanted to see new things every day. The routine was impeccable. He would make me a sandwich with milk for lunch, and then we would watch the history channel, until I fell asleep. I would wake up, and he would be outside working. Every afternoon I would join him and bug him as much as I possibly could, while he patiently explained everything to me. I learned a lot about my dad early on. I spent so much time with him when I was young that he was always my favorite person. As I grew up, I realized more things about my childhood. I would sit in the garage with him, sometimes talking, sometimes just silently. Occasionally he would tell me stories from his childhood and from when he was in the military. My father had an adventurous soul. He always chased after the next adventure or to try something new. He passed his love for adventure down to me. We always took his motorcycle out to ride somewhere new and to try a new food. My father is always extremely hard working. Even when he was not employed, he was doing something to help provide for our family. There was never a time, even now that he was not doing something for work. He taught me that family comes first, no matter what you must do. There is no limit when it comes to family. I could never imagine a better father than the one I have. My father also taught me what to look for in a future partner. He always had impeccable matters and a great respect for all woman and children. He was so willing to give everything in life, and he still is. He will give the shirt off his back to a stranger, because he has had nothing before. My father taught me respect, manners, drive and ambition. He also taught me to never give up. I look towards my father now to fuel my big goals. I know I may never be the top in my field, or the absolute best, but I do know that I will be known for being hard working and kind to everyone I encounter. He showed me the type of person I want to be, and he taught me how to be that person as well. Without the military, I know my father would not be who he is today, and I am forever thankful and grateful for what he did and what he has gone through since then.

My son is might shining light through everything. Every bad moment is washed away when he says, “Hi Mommy”. He has made me strive to be a better person than I ever thought possible. He gave me a reason to take care of myself, and to renew my life goals. The day that I saw an event that my son would love to go to, but I was unable to afford just $30 for tickets, and I did not have the availability to take the time off, I knew something had to change. I realized at that moment that I was staying in my job because I was comfortable there, but I was struggling because I was not willing to change. I immediately began researching new degree programs and looking at what I wanted for my future, and the careers in the different fields. When I finally settled on which program I wanted, I looked at the next piece of my life. I needed a new job. I began applying for everything I qualified for. I needed to provide my son with more. After two months, I got a new job, and started the next step. I looked at my debt, my spending, and my income. I created a budget and a plan. While I’m still working on this process, and it is ever evolving, I am finally getting somewhere and making a change. I have completely changed my lifestyle, my habits, who I am, and what I do. I couldn’t be happier about it either. I have been able to take my son and do so much since I made the changes. We have gone on adventures, and road trips, seen new things and met new people. I have also become a happier person. I am not filled with stress. I am able to take life in stride and adjust as needed. I did not realize how stressed I had been for so long. I did not have the time for my son, and when I did, there was always something else for me to worry about. The impact of these changes has been majorly reflected in my son as well. He is much happier and much more receptive than he had been previously. I changed myself and my life, but I also changed his, for the better. I have learned that I am stronger and more resilient than I ever realized before. I learned that one change can make a big difference in yourself and in life. I have also learned that nothing is worth sacrificing valuable time and happiness for. If it causes you more stress than happiness, or does not contribute to the final goal, it is not worth doing.

I’ve had the joy and the heartbreak of having many dogs in my life. Some were mine, some were others, but that all held my heart and my love the same way. There is no better and more honest love than a dogs for the person it chooses. I rescued my first dog on my own when I was twenty. He was four weeks old, and his mother had stopped feeding them and didn’t want anything to do with the puppies. I had little experience with puppies that young, but I had rescued kittens before, so I figured I could handle it. I took this tiny little black fluff ball with me and started the continual process of spoiling him every chance I got. I named him Kilo, which quickly just turned into baby Key. Kilo was by my side for everything. We did a 10-hour car ride together to go visit friends in Nevada, we went on our first solo beach trip, and eventually, getting married. I spent long hours with Kilo, as he was my only priority. He would walk by my side no matter what, wait for my signal to do anything, and sat or laid at my feet when I was doing something. When I was pregnant. Kilo loved my belly. Every day when I got home from work, he would come and sniff and lick my belly. If I sat on the couch, he would lay next to me and rest his head on my belly. When I brought my son home, Kilo was right there, patiently waiting to sniff this new little bundle. If my son cried, Kilo was awake and by my side. Every night walking back and forth trying to get my son to sleep, Kilo walked with me. There wasn’t a single time that he was not right by our sides. In March of 2020, the veterinarian removed a lump from Kilo’s back paw. Even after six months of wrapping it, the area had not healed. We found out that Kilo had cancer, and there wasn’t much we could do about it. If we continued removing the tumors, his body still would not heal them. Even though we know Kilo must be in pain, he does not let it slow him down. He still goes on walks every day, plays as much as possible, and is his obnoxiously happy self. Kilo is still horribly spoiled. He gets steak every time we cook it, and every morning he gets eggs with his breakfast. My son calls him my Key. He loves my son I believe more than he loves him. My son plays with him constantly, shares his food with him, and refuses to let anyone else touch his Key. Kilo sleeps next to my sons bed every night and lets me know anytime he wakes up. Even though I was the one that brought Kilo home, he chose to be my son’s dog. He shows him every bit of love he could possibly have. He is also teaching my son a love for dogs and all animals that is unmistakable. Kilo has shown me his insurmountable amount of love, his continual patience and kindness, and his perseverance through everything.

You start learning as soon as you are born. That first breath and everything following is learned. The assumption that you stop learning when you graduate high school is a false one. You may stop your formal learning, but you never stop learning. For some people, new things come very easily, and for others not so much. For me, some things have come easily, and others have required a lot of time and dedication to learn. To me, learning is not always the easiest thing. It takes time and focus that may strain me to give. Even with that, I always strive to be pushing myself to learn something new. I graduated high school in 2015. Once I completed that, I moved on to college and received my Associate’s in Criminal Justice. I graduated college and proceeded to go through an academy for criminal justice to become a correctional officer. For the following year I was in training and learning new things. My next big change was in career fields. I turned a hobby into a career and learned how to bake and decorate pastries. I did this for two more years, and then I chose to go back to college. I returned to college to get my Bachelor’s in Project Management. Since starting this degree, I have continually wanted more. My next big change once again, came in careers. I switched jobs and moved to become a corporate receptionist to learn the company that I hope to become a Project Manger at. Since starting this new career, I have been doing daily trainings to enhance what I learn from my school each quarter. I also go and seek information from different departments to be able to learn more. I do not want to ever feel like I am becoming stagnant in my learning abilities. I believe in doing little things on a regular basis to branch out and learn something new can keep yourself in the proper place to always be learning, and to accept new knowledge. My current goal is to complete my Bachelor’s in Project Management. Once completed, to keep you PMI certificate you must have continuing education every other year to be able to renew your PMI Certificate. I also want to continue my education by receiving a master’s degree once I complete my Bachelors. My goal is to never stop reaching for the next degree or certification. There is always something new to learn, as long as you are willing to learn. There comes a time in most peoples lives that they believe they are too old to learn. In actuality, instead of being too old to learn, they are closed off to new concepts in their career field, and instead are looking at learning in other sections of life. When you retire, you are learning a new way to live. When you take a step back or switch careers, or even just switch companies, you are learning something new. I do not want to close myself off from any experience there is. At every corner there is an opportunity to learn something new whether it is in a formal or informal setting. The only block to learning and enhancing your current knowledge, is yourself.

The most straight forward answer would be my son motivates me to farther my education, but it is so much more than that. My son does have a big piece in why I chose to continue my education, but he is not the only reason. My mother is my first motivation. She had three daughters and went back to school when I was two and the oldest was six. She did not have much help from my father as he was quite flighty at the time. I remember she once had to turn in a paper, but had no babysitter for us, so we went in with her. And I, being so young, was completely amazed by the sheer size of the room we were in. She had us quietly sit down while she turned in her paper and talked with her teacher, and we quietly followed her back out. Until I was in middle school, that was the only time I remember her ever doing her schoolwork when us girls were awake. When we were older, she went back to school again and completed her second bachelor’s degree and her master’s in psychology. She would stay up till eleven and twelve at night doing her homework, as to never interfere with our time with her. She did it on her own while we hardly knew the struggle, she was going through to achieve it all. Spite is my next motivator. In December of 2020 I left an abusive relationship, and the father of my son. I became a single mother. He always had told me I would never be able to leave because I would not be able to be successful. He told me I would fail at raising my son because I would not be able to provide enough. For part of our relationship, I was told I would never be returning to school again. Now, I am here to prove every bit of that wrong. I will be successful in college and give my son everything he ever dreams for. My third reason is my son. I want his to be able to see that absolutely anything is possible. I chose to go back to school to provide him with everything life has to offer. His smile with every new experience encourages me to fight harder to be successful for him. When he achieves something new, and the smile and joy he radiates from doing that. I want him to know that it doesn’t have to stop when he’s young. He can keep that thirst for knowledge he has and continue smiling every time he learns and achieves something new. I am a single mother to a toddler. I work over forty hours a week. All while going to school full-time. My goal is to never interfere with my son’s time with my schoolwork, so I wait till he is asleep at night to do it. Sometimes this means I am up till eleven or twelve at night to complete everything. As a single mother, I do not have a lot of spare money. Without grants or scholarships, I would have to use student loans, which I am trying to avoid as much as possible as I cannot fit those into my budget currently. My son is one of the many motivators and reasons why I am continuing my education. He is the most important reason of them all. But in reality, he is not my only one. Because if he was my only reason I would not be where I am today.

A healthy lifestyle is about more than just eating right. A healthy lifestyle is one that encourages a positive mental and physical self. For each person, this could mean very different things by what you can do and what your body needs. I made drastic changes to my lifestyle when I started college. I wanted to feel better every day but wasn’t sure how to get there. It took a process over many years to be able to adjust my lifestyle to where I am now. I was raised in what we call a “meat and potato” family. All meals were very hardy and involved meat and potatoes. I wanted to step away from this lifestyle and try new things. I started simple with incorporating new fruits into my daily lifestyle. The next step was ways of cooking different vegetable that I had already had. After that I became more adventurous and started trying new vegetables. Once I had these new items in my diet, I felt better, and not so sluggish in my daily life. I started the process of working out regularly. At first it was just calisthenics, then for the first time ever, I started jogging. It became quite relaxing for me and I started wanting to do it more often. Now, many years later, these changes have stayed in place in my life. Today, getting at least fifteen minutes of exercise in a day has an even larger impact on my life. Exercise has massively helped my mental health. It has given me a release outlet, helped me feel better about myself, gives me time to myself, and helps increase the natural endorphins. I also continue to have healthy eating. I removed caffeinated beverages from my diet, as well as increased my daily water intake to minimum a gallon a day. I also have removed candy and most processed sugars from my diet to try to encourage a healthier eating style. Since I have made these changes, my mental and physical health has increased. I encourage others around me to make the switch as well. The biggest change came in the amount of water I drink. I don’t feel the need to eat extras when I am drinking properly. My skin in healthier, and I wake up so much easier in the mornings. I no longer have a sluggish lifestyle. Instead, I feel better the more active that I am Eating healthy changed my entire life around. I started easy and just slowly evolved what I did with new challenges and lifestyle changes. I would never return to what I used to think was normal. I am more prepared for the day and what I have to take on, and I have the energy to do it all.

A healthy lifestyle is about more than just eating right. A healthy lifestyle is one that encourages a positive mental and physical self. For each person, this could mean very different things by what you can do and what your body needs. I made drastic changes to my lifestyle when I started college. I wanted to feel better every day but wasn’t sure how to get there. It took a process over many years to be able to adjust my lifestyle to where I am now. I was raised in what we call a “meat and potato” family. All meals were very hardy and involved meat and potatoes. I wanted to step away from this lifestyle and try new things. I started simple with incorporating new fruits into my daily lifestyle. The next step was ways of cooking different vegetable that I had already had. After that I became more adventurous and started trying new vegetables. Once I had these new items in my diet, I felt better, and not so sluggish in my daily life. I started the process of working out regularly. At first it was just calisthenics, then for the first time ever, I started jogging. It became quite relaxing for me and I started wanting to do it more often. Now, many years later, these changes have stayed in place in my life. Today, getting at least fifteen minutes of exercise in a day has an even larger impact on my life. Exercise has massively helped my mental health. It has given me a release outlet, helped me feel better about myself, gives me time to myself, and helps increase the natural endorphins. I also continue to have healthy eating. I removed caffeinated beverages from my diet, as well as increased my daily water intake to minimum a gallon a day. I also have removed candy and most processed sugars from my diet to try to encourage a healthier eating style. Since I have made these changes, my mental and physical health has increased. I encourage others around me to make the switch as well. The biggest change came in the amount of water I drink. I don’t feel the need to eat extras when I am drinking properly. My skin in healthier, and I wake up so much easier in the mornings. I no longer have a sluggish lifestyle. Instead, I feel better the more active that I am Eating healthy changed my entire life around. I started easy and just slowly evolved what I did with new challenges and lifestyle changes. I would never return to what I used to think was normal. I am more prepared for the day and what I have to take on, and I have the energy to do it all.

A healthy lifestyle is about more than just eating right. A healthy lifestyle is one that encourages a positive mental and physical self. For each person, this could mean very different things by what you can do and what your body needs. I made drastic changes to my lifestyle when I started college. I wanted to feel better every day but wasn’t sure how to get there. It took a process over many years to be able to adjust my lifestyle to where I am now. I was raised in what we call a “meat and potato” family. All meals were very hardy and involved meat and potatoes. I wanted to step away from this lifestyle and try new things. I started simple with incorporating new fruits into my daily lifestyle. The next step was ways of cooking different vegetable that I had already had. After that I became more adventurous and started trying new vegetables. Once I had these new items in my diet, I felt better, and not so sluggish in my daily life. I started the process of working out regularly. At first it was just calisthenics, then for the first time ever, I started jogging. It became quite relaxing for me and I started wanting to do it more often. Now, many years later, these changes have stayed in place in my life. Today, getting at least fifteen minutes of exercise in a day has an even larger impact on my life. Exercise has massively helped my mental health. It has given me a release outlet, helped me feel better about myself, gives me time to myself, and helps increase the natural endorphins. I also continue to have healthy eating. I removed caffeinated beverages from my diet, as well as increased my daily water intake to minimum a gallon a day. I also have removed candy and most processed sugars from my diet to try to encourage a healthier eating style. Since I have made these changes, my mental and physical health has increased. I encourage others around me to make the switch as well. The biggest change came in the amount of water I drink. I don’t feel the need to eat extras when I am drinking properly. My skin in healthier, and I wake up so much easier in the mornings. I no longer have a sluggish lifestyle. Instead, I feel better the more active that I am Eating healthy changed my entire life around. I started easy and just slowly evolved what I did with new challenges and lifestyle changes. I would never return to what I used to think was normal. I am more prepared for the day and what I have to take on, and I have the energy to do it all.

College is a time to discover who you are as a person. You are exposed to so much of life that you may have never seen before. People are new, experiences are new. College is the time to really branch out from what you have always been. When I first entered into college, I was nervous about who I was and fitting in. Quickly I realized that everyone is trying to figure out who they are, each in their own way. For some this meant entering new groups at college, some partook in events, others just stayed with their original friend groups. For me, I branched out of my comfort zone and reimagined my life. I was raised in what we call a “meat and potato” family. All meals were very hardy and involved meat and potatoes. I wanted to step away from this lifestyle and try new things. I started simple with incorporating new fruits into my daily lifestyle. The next step was ways of cooking different vegetable that I had already had. After that I became more adventurous and started trying new vegetables. Once I had these new items in my diet, I felt better, and not so sluggish in my daily life. I started the process of working out regularly. At first it was just calisthenics, then for the first time ever, I started jogging. It became quite relaxing for me and I started wanting to do it more often. Now, many years later, these changes have stayed in place in my life. Today, getting at least fifteen minutes of exercise in a day has an even larger impact on my life. Exercise has massively helped my mental health. It has given me a release outlet, helped me feel better about myself, gives me time to myself, and helps increase the natural endorphins. I also continue to have healthy eating. I removed caffeinated beverages from my diet, as well as increased my daily water intake to minimum a gallon a day. I also have removed candy and most processed sugars from my diet to try to encourage a healthier eating style. Since I have made these changes, my mental and physical health has increased. I encourage others around me to make the switch as well. The biggest change came in the amount of water I drink. I don’t feel the need to eat extras when I am drinking properly. My skin in healthier, and I wake up so much easier in the mornings. I no longer have a sluggish lifestyle. Instead, I feel better the more active that I am Eating healthy changed my entire life around. I started easy and just slowly evolved what I did with new challenges and lifestyle changes. I would never return to what I used to think was normal. I am more prepared for the day and what I have to take on, and I have the energy to do it all.

Depression can feel all consuming, like your life has been ripped away from you and you have no will to fight for it back. It can have a cause, come out of nowhere, or be linked to a more severe mental health condition. I was entering into third grade the first time I attempted to commit suicide. A girl so young should never feel that way. When I was eleven, I turned to self-harm to try to find something. At thirteen I was drinking and begging for someone to help me. When I was fifteen, I chose to turn to strangers who promised they would be there for me. It was not until I was almost seventeen that I finally felt strong enough to stand and ask for help. Later I learned that I medicine that I had to take to be able to breathe as a child, had caused an imbalance that has resulted in a life-long battle of depression. At seventeen I learned how to regulate my emotions, and I was finally empowered to try to feel more than nothing. It wasn’t until I was twenty-one, battling perinatal depression that I was fully honest with those around me about what I was going through. Before that point, I hid my mental health in shame, because I thought I was just not good enough. Since that point, and being honest with those around me, my life has completely changed. I had a support system, and I created one to stand by me while I battled new experiences. I got the resources I needed to be active in life and try to constantly improve my mental health. My entire life I had failed relationships and struggled to even be around my own family because I had felt the need to hide what I had been experiencing. It was only after I was honest that I finally felt like I was part of something more. It wasn’t my family that had shut me out, But I had done it to them. Being honest allowed me to then be able to be a more positive person for others. I changed my life and made a goal to always have a bigger goal. Forcing short term and long-term goals kept me striving and being able to fight for my own happiness instead of giving up. I now also try to support those around me. Be a positive person in their lives. I always open myself up to help others, whether it is for a hug or just someone to listen, I will be for them what I always needed someone to be for me. Even just a smile or a good morning can change someone’s day.

When I was born, my father was a meth addict. He had started smoking when he was 11 and drinking at the same age. He fought in Vietnam, came back, and his addictions escalated to cope with what he had experience over there. He was constantly chasing the next high or rush to cope with what he had been through. He was an adrenaline junky, to add onto his highs. By the time I came around, he was so deep into his drug use, that he didn’t have the extra curriculars anymore, just drugs. That being said, he was never a bad dad. He gave use children opportunities and experiences that others didn’t necessarily ever get. He always wanted to be an amazing father, just couldn’t get past his addictions. When I was a baby, my mother left my father. We moved two hours away for her to raise us in a safe and healthy environment. During that time, it took my father a year to get clean. We moved back and not long after, my parents purchased their first home together. My father being clean did not last long. He relapsed at the end of my first-grade year. My mother, once again, packed us girls up, and moved away, to give us a healthy life while my father got clean. It was another year, with seeing my father on occasional weekends, that he finally was clean again and this time, he moved down to where we were living, to start his life over. My father never really got clean and completely sober. He was an alcoholic for most of my childhood. I remember my mom buying two 36 packs of beer a week to appease his needs, on top of him drinking hard alcohol. When I was 19, for the first time in my life, and the first time since my father had started drinking, that he finally gave it up. It took him almost dying and having liver failure to stop drinking and fully get his life together. As a young girl, I witnessed all of this. I wanted to know why. Why we moved all the time, and what was so hard about not doing drugs, that my father could not be there for us. I chose not to be like my father. Instead of seeing him drinking and thinking it was okay, I decided I did not want that in my life. I never wanted my child to wonder if I was going to be okay and if he would see me again. I took my childhood and decided to provide my child with more than I had ever gotten and not introduce that into our life. What I went through and witnessed as a child massively impacted who I am today. I treat my body and myself the bets possible way I can. I teach my son good habits, and I refuse to ever expose him into anything like what I witnessed as a child. I took my experience and chose to be so much more than what was predicted by every statistic. What someone goes through can shape their decision-making skills, but in the end, it is solely reliant on them if they want to change something or not. What someone has experienced should not determine their life.

I work a full-time job, approximately 9 hours a day. I also take every chance I get to volunteer through my work to help the community. As a credit union, the company I work for is very vested in the community and that means participating in everything possible. On top of work and the volunteering, I am also a single mother, raising a two-year-old son. My daily schedule seems a bit hectic. We wake up every morning at five to have some quiet time and get ready for the day. I make my son breakfast while listening to videos pertaining to my classes and education. Once we eat, I get him ready, and we leave. I go to work for nine hours and use every bit of time I can to achieve more. I continue my education while I work, using every outlet they provide to watch seminars or do reading to further my knowledge in the financial field. During my lunch break, I use that time to do my daily reading for school, or finish writing a paper. At night I get home after picking up my son, and we follow our night routine. This includes doing extra learning activities with him. My goal is to give him as much time as I possibly can, and I try not to do any extensive schoolwork while he is awake and with me. Once my son goes to bed, I stay up and night and do my schoolwork. Sometimes I get to go to be by ten, other nights it is after midnight that I get to go to bed. When I first started my education again, the beginning was a rough experience. I was trying to do everything with no established schedule or time frames. I didn’t know where I could fit my schoolwork into the day, and it felt impossible to achieve. It wasn’t until the end of my first quarter that I finally found balance in my life and was able to not feel so overwhelmed. With the schedule now, I am able to properly raise my son, have enough time for school, do the volunteer work on my weekends, and also fit some time for myself in as well. I currently hold a 3.25 GPA and my hope is to be able to raise it to a 3.5 by the time I graduate. To me, without having every aspect in my life like I do now, I would feel like I was not achieving enough. My volunteer time helps me be part of something more, while helping others. Raising my son bring me complete joy, and makes everyday experiences so much better. Without my school, I feel like I am wasting an opportunity to show my son, and others, that it can be and is possible to always strive and achieve more than they thought they could.

Parenting has been the hardest adventure in my life. In June of 2020, during the Covid-19 crisis, I gave birth to my son. I thought I was prepared, but I realized I had created a false narrative around my life, and I was in no way ready for this little human to be mine. I had no clue how to fully support him and I, and I knew the basics of keeping him alive, but really, I had no clue past that. The turning point came while I was sitting next to his bed in the hospital. My son was in the pediatric unit, under lights due to extreme jaundice, and I was more worried about how I was going to get food while I was there and when we got home. I read everything I could on early childhood development and did all the planning I could to figure out how to give him the life he deserved. In April of 2022, I was able to return to college. I fought to receive Financial Aid, otherwise, I would not have returned. My son came roaring into my life when I was so completely lost with who I was or what I was going to do. He gave me my purpose that I was looking for to keep pushing forward and to strive for more. He is my motivation to spend all the long nights reading and writing papers. My son is my reason to push myself to achieve what I know I can do, just let my own self-doubts get in the way. I want to show him that no matter what happens in life, you always get back up and come back fighting for what you want. My goal is to never let me schooling affect my time with my son. I wait until he goes to bed at night to do my schoolwork. Sometimes that does mean staying up till eleven and twelve at night and waking up with him at five-thirty to be able to get ready for work in time. I have an amazing support system in my parents that if I needed, they would help. My mother, who raised her children alone most of the time, is my example on what to become. She had three children and went back to college to receive four degrees. She is there standing in my corner, cheering me on every step of the way. Reminding me that I have been through bigger battles, and I can handle this one.