The minute I turned 16 I began applying for jobs, and since my first job I have been working ever since to provide for myself and to also help create my own time management skills and also leadership skills from being in management positions. While my leadership experience is slightly different than most, I do still believe that being able to work and go to school full time is a very hard thing to juggle that not a lot of students can do. Growing up my mom was a single mom raising five kids, so I didn't really grow up with money, and so the minute I turned 16 I knew I wanted to get a job so that I can finally start to have the things that other kids had and I didn't. Because of that, I have been working at the same high school job on and off since I was 16. On average I worked about 25-30 hours a week during high school, and during summer breaks and winter break for college I was working full time the whole break. I have been a manager at my work place since I was 17, and it has taught me so much about how to manage school work on top of being a leader figure at work. Time management has never been a strong suit of mine, and procrastination is my number 1 downfall when it comes to school, but always do what needs to be done to the best of my abilities and on time. I always finish my school work on time, and I always try my hardest, no matter how little time I have left. But always working and always being the leader figure has pushed me to do the best I can because I know that I have people who look up to me and expect me to have everything together. Leadership at work has taught me that even though I have people who will follow me and look up to be, I still have my own expectations that I have to do in order to move forward in my life, and that was always maintaining my GPA in high school and graduation with the highest honors i could achieve and I did. So far I have been the only one of my siblings that have graduated high school with honors, and I continue to be a first generation college student, none of my older siblings went to college and neither did my parents. What I learned in high school and my time management I still use to this day while being in college and also having a job outside of school to pay for my schooling, and I may not have had the privilege in high school to have the time for sports or clubs, but my job has taught me everything that I know and use tot his day about how to provide for myself while also going to school and getting my degree to do better, and to be the first of my immediate family to graduate from college.

Ever since being a child I have always wanted to help people, and now since growing up with a younger brother who is autistic, he has inspired me to continue to work hard and move towards doing what I do best, and that is helping people. My dream future is being a developmental psychologist and working with children with developmental delays in speech therapy, and cognitive therapy. I want to work with children who just need an extra push to get them to be successful, and I want to be the reason they achieve their goals. This dream is what I have dreamed of being for as long as I can remember, and my biggest fear is failure. I fear that I will never be good enough, and that I will never make it as a psychologist. Not because I didn't try but because of my own insecurities about where is deserve to be. I can no longer keep track of how many times I have experienced imposter syndrome while being in school. Any small mistake or failure sets me back 5 steps to where I want to be. Any sort of failure I experience whether it is in school, my work place or my friends, my brain tells me that I do not belong there and that I do not deserve to be there. Sometimes it takes me days to convince myself otherwise and to assure myself that I do belong in my school and I do belong to be where I am in life, and other times, it takes me minutes or hours to assure myself. And majority of the time, it is because of my support system I have. My friends and family are my biggest supporters. Being a first generation college student has its pros and cons, pros being that I always have all the support in the world. The cons, being a first generation student also comes with the high expectations to do great and to never fail. I try my best to surround myself with people who do nothing but support me, and I will continue to find people who support me for who I am, and appreciate me for who I am. I don't think I will ever not feel like I don't belong, but everyday I push myself to be who I know I want to be in my future, and to be someone who I would be proud of and be inspired by. Everyday is a learning curve, but I am confident in myself and believe in myself and know that I will do great, with or without help.