Uniqueness is something not many people have anymore. We have become very similar trying to, “Fit in,” or be “Trendy”. Especially being a female, we try to hide our “flaws” or try to do dances to make us more popular. I believe that I am no where need, “trendy,” and I definitely don't “fit in”. She is the girl in class that always wears a hoodie and sweatpants, She is the girl that is always busy she doesn’t have time for parties, or drinking and smoking, staying out all night to hang with friends. She’s only ever out and about if she’s with her teammates. You don’t see with her nails and hair all done every few weeks. She’s the girl that always has a big water bottle so she drinks enough water everyday. When she’s in class, she’s quiet but asking questions and being engaged with the lesson. She finishes her work before anyone else, and asks the teacher if there’s any extra credit work she can do. After school she goes to practice, but not volleyball or soccer like all the other girls go to. She goes to wrestling, in practice she’s loud and energetic always ready to go. She’s not being a freshman, talking when coach is talking or showing a new move. She’s the team captain, telling the freshman to “shut it,” before they have to do sprints. She’s also the girls that knows when it’s time to put in the hard work it’s time to go. She’s not the type of girl to get discouraged because something is hard, She likes the challenge and takes it head on. After two hours of hard wrestling practice, she doesn’t go home and relax for the night, no after wrestling she’s headed to the next practice for the night. When she gets to her next practice it’s another two hours of hard work. An hour of Muay Thai and then another hour of Jiu-Jitsu. She’s small, she’s also fast, agile, strong for her size. She always asks the biggest guy in the room if he wants to spare with her, they typically just laugh at her request but accept it. She offers her hand for a slap-bump, the traditional handshake for respect before sparring, and she goes. Always moving, trying to find different avenues to find a position of control. After hours of hard work it is finally time for her to go home, when she gets home even now it’s no time to “chill” as soon as she gets home she’s got school work she’s got to focus on. She may be good in school, but she struggles to study, words getting scrambled together and not fully understanding the concept. She’s attempting to study for the next hour, sometimes confusing herself more than she was before she started, she understood everything in class, “Why can’t I understand it now?” She knows that she can finish her homework, it’s just going to take her longer. By the time she’s finished with her studying and nightly routine things, it’s already 11:30pm, 12am by the time she’s finally getting into bed. She’s exhausted, but she’s not tired. “Why cant I fall asleep?” She’s just laying in bed staring at the ceiling hoping she can fall asleep soon. For, She knows she has another fully loaded, hard working, day. She may be exhausted of the work, the pounding headaches she gets, the cramps, the muscle fatigue, but she loves it. She knows it will be worth it it the future. I am she.

Mental health is such a big role in life nowadays. Without a doubt, mental exhaustion is a real thing that people just want to call laziness. I think that people that are hard workers when to say they are exhausted are praised for working hard. When a normal worker or somebody that let's say just goes to school says they are mentally exhausted, they are said to be lazy. Which can put a lot of pressure on them to work harder than they normally would. If they continue to try to work harder than they have been without a break or understanding how to properly time chunk tasks. This can lead to a depressed state, when people go into a depressed state they tend to do work less, and simple necessary tasks like basic hygiene, daily eating, drinking enough water, and even just getting out of bed can become hard a task to do. With this becoming a problem, surrounding people don't see it as depression and they call them out for being "lazy" again. Mental health also has a huge aspect in the athletes' world. Especially in physical sports like Wrestling, Jiu-JItus, Muay Football, and even sports like Basketball, Field Hockey, and Lacrosse. As a triple student-athlete for over several years myself, I can completely support this argument. Whether it's been from overtraining and not being able to take a day or two off to recover, from not doing good in a match and/or tournament getting called out for "slacking" or "sandbagging". Truly hurts that athlete, I train and coach every day for at least 2 hours a day typically more. Currently, both of my sports are Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu, both very brutal sports, sadly I am a child of mental abuse due to my sports. Being told I was never working as hard as I could, being told I need to train every day to be a good athlete. Being told all my hard work wasn't enough it put me into episodes of not wanting to train in my sport. Having done these sports for over several years, it was truly heartbreaking. In relationships, I feel like it's almost the same thing when it comes to sports. There are multiple different types of love languages, everyone has a different love language. When in a relationship, if you wish for your partner to love you in a specific way. If they don't love you in a specific way that you wish for, it tends to feel like they don't nesseacaily truly care for you. Sometimes it can feel like you are alone, or it can lead to arguments. Which in some cases, can lead to toxic relations, or a bad ending.

An important issue I see that I am addressing is young girls, believing they can do anything thing they want as long as they put their minds to it. At a young age, I was bullied and one day I stuck up for myself my father saw it and took me to a martial arts gym to learn Muay Thai so I knew how to defend myself when he wasn't around. Soon after starting Muay Thai, I started doing JIu-Jitsu as well. I ended up loving both sports and continued doing them. When I entered middle school, I joined the wrestling team, and my coach, didn't let me have any matches until my 8th-grade year, it didn't bother me because of how much I loved the sport. When I got to high school I continued to wrestle and my love for the sport grew so much more. In my first year of wrestling in high school, I had many more matches than I did in all three years of middle school. I started to talk to the younger girls that trained at my martial arts gym trying to convince them to try wrestling. Since I am their coach a lot of the young girls joined a wrestling club or a team at their schools. Just because wrestling started as a "man's sport" doesn't mean that girls and women shouldn't be able to do it. I think showing young girls that if you can wrestle against guys that are naturally stronger than us, and still be able to hold your own and even win. my career goal is to be a professional fighter, and own my own business, two of the career that is "meant for the man," personally I don't believe that there are jobs for men and woman. If you are physically and mentally able to work through any problems the task may bring up then do it. there is no trying or "I might" it's either a heck yes or heck no and it's been noticed that many women have been conditioned by men to be small and take up little space. I want to show women the complete opposite, be loud, take up a lot of space, and make their presence known to everybody. We don't have to be accepted by men to be happy, Id rather not be accepted by anybody, than not be happy. Unconditioned the woman's minds from the past and help them to see the present and the future if they are willing to put in the extra effort and time to be the best them they could ever be.

It's hard honestly. Both of my parents were in the Army, that's how they met. I was born the year that my dad was leaving because he didn't want me to grow up without a dad. At the same time though, I had to grow up without a mom. I also had to grow up with a dad that has been, blown up, shot at, and has PTSD. My mom left my father and me when I was only about one year old. So growing up in an only-child/daughter home and with a single father. Growing up with just my dad and me, he was always slightly harder on me than most believe he should've been. I was bullied as a child, so my dad signed me up for Muay Thai to learn to protect myself. Then about a year later I got into Jiu-Jitsu, eventually, when I went into middle school I joined the wrestling team. I ended up doing it through high school, and If I get accepted into the recent college I've applied to I hope to get back into wrestling again. On the other hand, my dad hasn't let go of the big dream I had since I started doing Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu. My dream is to go to the UFC and be a UFC champion and strawweight. I use to look up to Rhona Rousey, she was always so inspiring to me when she was in the UFC. Ever since she switched to WWE I have just haven't seen her to same, but when she was still in the UFC, all I could talk about was one day going into the UFC and fighting with Rhonda Rousey. I mean as a kid I had some pretty crazy dreams, I knew I wouldn't be able to fight her. About three years ago though I would look up to Rose Namanujes, Amanda Nunes, and a few other women closer to me in the weight class. My dad thinks I could have a good chance of beating them or at least tying the rounds which them. I don't think that I could beat them, but I know that I can always give them a run for their money no matter who it is. I think thats why my dad still believes in my dream, and I'm not sure exactly what I want to do anymore, but somehow I always no my dads going to support me. Even if it is the road he was hoping for.

I am a wrestler, I will always identify as a wrestler. After I graduated high school I realized that I can't wrestle unless I go to college and wrestle. However, I told my dad that I will stay home and help work on the business he bought for me. The business or Wrestling, I think was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make in my eighteen years of living. I do jiu-jitsu, and I am a jiu-jitsu fighter. I've competed in jiu-jitsu as long as I've been a wrestler. Then I also am I Muay Thai fighter, I've been doing Muay Thai more than Wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu. Even though I've done Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu my whole life, longer than wrestling, I will always have a deep love for Wrestling. When I was sixteen, I was very indecisive. Putting a big decision like owning a business, or following my wrestling career to college, is a hard decision for a teenager. I had to decide to either stick with something I've done my whole life and have the rest life set on a red carpet for me. Or I could go off to college even one that was only 5 hours away and wrestles, and start my own life how I wanted to live. I decided to stick with the route that I've always stuck with. I thought that since my life was set, I would have an easier life. I had the gym I train, I work there about thirteen hours a week, the gym every day, and I have company apparel I wear every day, to every competition I compete at. Life would be easy, right? I mean I have the same routine I've had my whole life, nothing hard about it. Wake up early, go train, go home, eat, do any work I have, go workout, come home, eat, take a nap, go to the gym, teach, train, come home, do more work, shower, eat, work, sleep, repeat. Easy life, right? Yeah, It's pretty easy, not many problems, nothing to worry about. As an 18-year-old that's a lot of work, and it's no problem for me I'm fine with it. What's scary is missing out on being a child, being a young adult. Now, I'm deciding to try to go to college and wrestle, while still doing a business major. I'll still be doing the work I need to, but I'll also still be able to wrestle. It's still a scary decision, but I think it's a smart idea since I'll still be close to home, and will be doing everything that needs to be done.

Books and I have always had an interesting relationship. I love to read as long as the book stays interesting and I don't get bored with it. I feel anyone can say about a book, but I have a couple of books that have changed my life and had some type of impact on me. The first book that I've read so many times would have the be. "My fight, your fight." Rhonda Rousey. Her autobiography had a big impact on me not only as a young girl but also as a fighter. The second book was actually s book one of my high school teachers gave me before he had to leave teaching. "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" by Sean Covey. That book itself made a big impact on my life and the fact that one of my favorite teachers and most inspiring teachers I've ever had. "My Fight, Your Fight." Rhonda Rousey was probably one of the only books that I've genuinely read at least three times consistently and enjoyed every time. When I was a young girl Rhonda was one of the only UFC fighters I wanted to watch, I would always try to watch every one of her fights. As a young girl, watching Rhonda gave me so much motivation to want to be the best fighter I could be. Not a lot of people inspire me, but when they do they always have a tremendous impact on my life. Sadly, nowadays Rhonda isnt a big inspiration to me anymore. That's only, because of how she decided to change from UFC to WWE which is no hate to her but It did make me incredibly sad. The one person I do think will always have a big impact on my life is a special ed teacher I had throughout high school. Mr. Matt Terry, gave me, "The 7 Habits Of High Effective Teens." He gave it to me at the beginning of my senior year, I was 16 years old at the time. I read that book twice, once to read through it and then once again, to highlight, underline and comprehend what exactly I needed and what I could apply to my life. I mainly read self-help/self-improvement books just to try and better myself. Recently though I've been trying to go through the different genres to see what books could help my creativity, my knowledge, etc.

I don't believe I can pick just one song. If I had to pick one artist though It would be Eminem, not because he's hardcore or he cusses a lot. All of his songs have a true meaning behind them. So If I had to pick one song it would be "Till I collapse," because that is an important saying in my life. As a fighter, that is something I constantly have to remind myself of I I'm not done with a fight until that final bell rings, my opponent taps out/TKO/KO, or I get knocked out or tapped out. I believe in his words "Cause sometimes you just feel tired, feel weak And when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up But you got to search within you, and try to find that inner strength And just pull that shit out of you," They ar honestly very simple words, but they have so much passion and the truth behind them.

I address the social issue by becoming a part of the solution. Sounds clique, but in my opinion, that is genuinely what I'm trying to do. I am a female fighter, I have been a fighter my whole life and for the past couple of years, it has become a goal of mine to become an influence on young girls in my communities. Not only to young girls though, but honestly to any and everyone that knows who I am. When I say I'm a fighter I mean that I do Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu for about thirteen years now, and about seven years of wrestling. Showing young girls that they can do anything that they want or put their minds to at least. I don't want people to think just because you're small, or a certain gender or race, etc, that you can't do something else that you see someone else doing it. I want to inspire people to always go for it. 67% of people don't know what they want to do with their lives. That is about 4.3 billion people, I believe that if you don't know what you want to d with your life then you'll just be stuck in a 9-5 office job that you probably hate. Nobody wants to be stuck doing something they don't like doing for the rest of their lives just to pay bills. Some people want to be entrepreneurs, but they are scared of failing. You will never know what is going to happen unless you try. As a woman, we typically don't do things we like because we want the approval of our families, friends, and even spouses. Which can lead to depression, anxiety, etc. I am actually in that problem right now I'm not super happy with my life, I feel as if I'm not going anywhere and it's just the same week over and over again. So I have been reflecting on my life and realized what I need to continue doing to keep my life on the same career path I have set in place. To do that, I have to step outside of my comfort zone. So I have decided that I am going to go to a college five hours away from home, not only to get a degree but to continue wrestling. Graduating high school made me realize home much I loved to wrestle. Stepping out of your comfort zone as a woman is a big step because at a young age a lot of girls were taught that a man will only like them if they are small, quiet and do as your told. So I believe stepping out of their comfort zone will be a big step for a lot of girls to help themselves.

Throughout my life, I believe that I have had a lot of obstacles, more than the normal eighteen-year-old would have. My most recent obstacle is a current obstacle, I am deciding to go away to college to wrestle while studying business, which will lead to an earlier obstacle that I had to deal with. Another obstacle I've had to recently deal with is deciding if I want to continue the career path of UFC and MMA or just go to the grappling career path. The last obstacle I've been dealing with was deciding if I wanted to go away to college and wrestle or if I wanted to stay at home and go to community college while helping run my business. My current obstacle, going away to college to wrestle while still studying business marketing, is a hard decision to make. I work at a martial arts gym in Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu, teaching both of them and due to teaching at my gym, I have come to develop a deep connection with all of the students I work with. The connection I've made with the kids puts me in a hard situation to leave and go to college for myself or stay with the kids. I love the kids I work with they genuinely have become like my little brothers and sisters, I see them about four days out of the week some kids I even see five to seven days out of the week. Not only am I a coach at my gym, but I am a Muay Thai fighter and a Jiu-Jitsu fighter. Throughout my whole life, I wanted to be a UFC fighter since I was about seven or eight years old. Recently though, I've started debating if I still want to be in the MMA world. I do love being a Jiu-Jitsu competitor and one day I hope to travel the world to do competitions, but the current problem isn't that I don't love doing Muay Thai as much anymore. It's the fact that I'm finally realizing how messed up I could get doing MMA. The biggest obstacle I think I've dealt with was deciding If I wanted to stay home and buy the business that use to sponsor me, or if I wanted to go off to college to wrestle. I struggle with making decisions, but this was one of the hardest things I've had to decide. I did eventually decide to take over the brand that sponsored me. It was very sentimental to me because they were the only brand that ever truly sponsored me and it just meant the world to me. It made me feel like more people believe in me at fact that I could do amazing things if I wanted to. Recently though, I've come to miss Wrestling since I graduated high school, Wrestling made me feel alive. Now that I have the business and can't wrestle anymore, it made me realize how much I loved to Wrestle.

I give back to my community by, being a coach to youth in combat sports. I have done Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu for about twelve to thirteen years, and I did wrestling for about 7 years. I give back by being a coach in the gym I train at. I help teach the Peewees, youth, and competition class in Jiu Jitsu every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday for about 10 hours a week. For Muay Thai I teach the youth class every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for about an average of three hours a week. Every once in a while, I go back to my high school and help out with my old wrestling team, to help some of the returners that I use to wrestle with. One day I hope to travel a lot to other countries to compete, in Jiu-jitsu and wrestling. Currently, I traveled all over the east coast to compete I travel to the west occasionally to compete in the big name competition. I have only traveled to the west coast for two tournaments going to California about four to five years ago and going to Las Vegas a couple of months ago. I hope to one day go to Europe, Brazil, London, and a few different places. I also hope to hold Jiu-Jitsu and Wrestling seminars, if I can I would like to hold them all over the country. Eventually, I hope to hold seminars nationally if I can get paid expenses. If I can hold seminars, I would like to use the extra money after everything gets paid off to put money towards a charity. That is actually what I have started doing when I do super fights. When I do a super fight and I get paid for winning I am going to give half of the winning money back to the organization or to the Charity they are working with. I worked with a charity before called " Tap Cancer Out." back in 2020. I plan on working with a lot more charities around the world, to help young girls to understand themselves and learn how to protect themselves while still having fun. That's my whole goal to help in my community, to help young girls learn how to protect themselves, and make friends, while still being in a sport and staying healthy. If I'm not able to do that, then my overall goal would just be to show young girls all over that they can do anything they put their mind too as long as they try their best.

Being an only child to a single father has always been hard. Now make it an only daughter to a single father, that’s rough. It’s just been my dad and I since I was one years old, We’ve definitely had our ups and downs. Recently though, I’ve come to realize that I can’t stay home for the rest of my life like he wants me to. Him and I own a business, we bought the business for me because I didn’t want to lose the sponsorship I had with the brand so they sold the brand to us. I made a deal with my dad that i’d stay home and go to community college in Virginia Beach so I can still help with the brand. Now life with my dad hasn’t been the easiest recently, and it’s made me realize that I really miss wrestling. I had to make a choice either stop wrestling after my senior year and buy the business, or continue wrestling into college. At the time, I didn’t want to lose either. I also thought that I could wrestle and do the business at the same time, cause why couldn’t I? All is doing is adding another thing to my schedule and I do that all the time. So I picked the business over wrestling, and my dad told me to go to community college to learn the basic stuff of business. So I did, but i absolutely dislike it. I mean it’s not much different from high school, but in high school I had a purpose. It was to be the best female wrestler in the Hampton Roads. Trust me I was one of the OGs of female wrestling in the 757 area. Recently though i’ve been thinking to myself, why can’t I do both? So I decided I’m going to prove my dad wrong I searched for a college, 1. That was close enough to home that I could just drive home for the holidays and breaks, 2. That has a Business Marketing program, and 3. That has Woman’s wrestling. Surely enough, I found one. I love my dad, but I also love wrestling and jiu jitsu (my business is a jiu jitsu apparel company). I want to have a better education not only to prove to him that I really am able to do whatever I put my mind to, but to also show him that wrestling will always have my heart. It’s a very spontaneous idea because i haven’t told him yet, but I do believe once I accomplish my goal he’ll be very proud of me.

I believe that higher education is important for multiple different reasons. Not only does it experience certain things, but it can also help you build beneficial habits for your future. Also, like me, if you are an athlete then college could be a helpful way to pursue your dreams to either the Olympics, NBA, WNBA, or UFC. You can also make very beneficial connections with the people around you. Everyone once in their lives has tried to make healthy habits, whether it be new years resolutions like waking up early, having less coffee, or going to the gym more often. We've all tried to do it before, in my opinion having a structured schedule like college or high school, can help especially in college when you make a commitment to classes and the specific times you want. After a while the routine will become effortless, there will be off days where you don't feel like going to class, but you know you made a commitment to that routine and that college so you'll want to complete it. In this process, you will start developing a certain way to help make it easier. For example, Waking up at six am, and do whatever skincare or mourning routines you do, I wake up, use the bathroom, wash, drink my morning supplements, stretch, and listen to my daily podcasts. By the time you are done with your morning routine we could say it would be around maybe seven thirty/ eight am, maybe go to a couple of classes or gym till lunch etc. I believe it just really helps you with a good daily routine. From an athlete's perspective, daily routines are super important. You have to wake up early enough to be able to do your morning routine and get ready for practice. The classes you register for have to be far apart from each other to give yourself time to, recover, get a snack or protein shake in, get some work done, etc. They also have to be far enough time-wise from your practice so you can, prepare your gear, eat if needed, do class/homework, or even just have enough time to get to the building or room where your practices are being held at. Not only is it the routine aspect, but it gives us athletes a bigger goal to work harder for me, it's wrestling in the Olympics and I believe that college would be a big help with that. Now obviously there are clubs and just doing it solo, but going to college you can get a higher chance to get recognized by high programs. As I said before athletes in college can be a chance to get into higher programs. In those programs can be people that have access to people higher up and can easily help you develop a connection with those people with connections and possibly be able to get a dream job or a dream sport that you want. Or maybe not even a connection for a job, but maybe a friend or teammate introducing you to someone and you and that new person have an instant connection. With can lead to multiple different things whether that be a possible new partner, a new best friend, or even a ner business partner. Multiple different outcomes can come from going to college and getting a higher education.

My main, overall goal is to just inspire young girls all over the world. I am a young woman who has been a martial artist since I was five years old. I've been doing Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu since I was five years old. I started to wrestle in middle school when I was about twelve or thirteen years old and did that for seven years till I graduated high school, and I am now trying to get into a college that has womans wrestling. To break down my dreams, I was to be one or two of these three things either; A Olympic women's wrestler while still training and hopefully still teaching Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu. If not I hope to be a Jiu-Jitsu National champion, where I can get paid to compete, travel, and teach seminars around the world. while still training in Muay Thai and teaching both sports. Lastly, if neither of those goals works out, then I hope to become a UFC or MMA fighter while still hopefully being able to teach my sports. I am very passionate about these things because, when I was younger before I started training I was a very little girl compared to everyone else. So I was a very easy target for bullies, which is eventually what happened which is actually why I started training because I started to get bullied. When I did start training I instantly fell in love with the sports I started. Eventually, I became one of the most skilled people in my practice and when we were low on coaches for practice with a lot of kids. The coaches would sometimes ask me to assist them in the class with some of the younger kids who were just starting, by this time I was probably eleven or twelve. When I came to my current gym after my last gym wasn't enough for me anymore, within the first few months they asked me to be an assistant coach for the Muay Thai class. Eventually, I was asked to help with the kid's JIu-Jitsu class, I was so excited because I found so much enjoyment in helping the little girls understand something that I thought was so fun to do and something I was very good at and I loved helping them understand the basic drill, then eventually showing them different ways they could do it and add there own touch to it. It also makes me feel like the big sister I was never able to be since my sibling doesn't live with me.

My whole life has been surrounded by sports. I've done Muay Thai, Jiu-jitsu, Wrestling, soccer and field hockey. I did Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu since I was five, and I'm currently 18. I wrestled for seven years, from sixth grade through my senior year, hopefully, I can continue in college, and only did field hockey and soccer in middle school. I am hoping to go to Ferrum college which is not only close to home but also have an up-and-coming woman's wrestling team. There I will be studying Business marketing and management because I own a jiu-jitsu apparel company with my dad. I've always been athletic so for me, it just makes sense to do something sports related. I've created three different athletic career paths for myself. First, going to the Olympics to wrestle, while hopefully still being able to train and teach Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu. The second option would be to not wrestle, but become a National Jiu-Jitsu champion, while still training and teaching Muay Thai. My last option if none of my other plans work out would be to just be a UFC/MMA fighter. In the end, my life revolves around these sports, I teach at the gym I train at. I teach about ten to twelve hours a week, in my opinion, I have most of my life planned out with three to four different sports. Now I know these sports can be very dangerous, but to me, that's what makes it worthwhile. In each sport, you have to be able to quickly think on your feet, make as few mistakes as possible, and quickly count on any mistakes you or your opponent has possibly made, your reaction time has to be as fast if not faster than your own body, quick decision making, and much more. As a child, I was bullied that why I started training in Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu for my protection. Not only did starting these sports help me learn self-defense, but they also taught me; courage, self-confidence, self respect, standing up for people, and much more. Nowadays a lot of "normal" people don't have those skills, not saying you need sports to develop those types of skills, but with sports, I was able to learn those skills from a very young age. Just like everyone should be taught at a young age but aren't respected for instance, most kids nowadays don't have much respect for the people around them, in sports, you have a coach and a team, even if the sport you play is technically just you doing it you still have a team to practice with. While on that team, you must respect the coach and everyone around you, if not you more than likely won't be allowed to compete. Hense learning it from a sport at an early age.

As an only child living with just my father, there are many difficulties some can be emotional and physical. For instance, I had to make a very difficult decision to either go away for college so that I could continue wrestling and following my passions or stay at home and go to a small community college so my father would be left at home with no one there for him. Due to this, I felt like I'd neglected my true happiness and future for the current moment and my fathers' happiness. Not only do I feel like I was not able to continue to wrestle like I wanted to, but it would also've been much harder to find a less expensive college with women's wrestling so that we could pay for it. Now obviously, it wasn't all bad, growing up as an only daughter to a single father has its benefits, like I'm a lot mentally and physically tougher than most girls are today. I've learned how to "Hold my own" if the time has ever come, I've learned that if a boy ever tries to disrespect me I know how to properly handle him. Genuinely, I think that the best part about being in this type of situation, is you learn the true ups and downs of this world. Life isn't always gonna be a straight path with no blocks, I've come to realize that there are many blocks and potholes, but that's okay. When I was younger I thought it was embarrassing being an only daughter single parent situation, but now that I'm older and I can handle myself and don't need someones to help 24/7 I am finally realizing how lucky I am because most kids, having both of their parents or even just one parent that still has a good amount of income, those types of kids are normally spoiled with all types of toys and whatever they wanted. Their parents protected them in a little shell and did all the hard work for them because they didn't want their child to grow up in a hard world when in my opinion I think it just makes it harder for the kid in the future when they have to face reality. Don't get me wrong it would be amazing to not have to worry about if you'll have enough gas in the car, or when you have enough money for another grocery store trip, but from a young age, I was able to learn to budget, not to waste things, and much more.