I became a parent at the age of eighteen. I had dropped out of school to work and help support my parents and siblings. Once I found out I was destined to be a teenage mother, I went back to high school and graduated when many thought I wouldn't. Motherhood helped me realize that I needed to be educated to provide a good life for my child. My journey to higher education met many detours, however. I went to work full time right after high school graduation in order to obtain health insurance for my son. My son's father was an abusive partner, but, in my naive youth, I felt that I was in love and that he never meant to hurt me. I married him and had three more children. I went to work for my local government and found that there were opportunities for me if I used my brain to move up in the organization. All the while, though, I always yearned to go to college. I was a gifted student through my freshman year of high school and I had dreamed of being the first in my family to go away to college. I started taking one or two classes a semester so that I could make myself a more attractive fit for job openings while balancing being a full time employed wife and mother. It took some time, but, I was able to put myself through community college and I graduated with my second Associates Degree in Fire Science Technology at the same time that my first born graduated high school. I knew that studying at the kitchen table while my children did their homework at the same time was cementing how important education is in one's life. I took a break from school when I gathered the courage to leave my abusive husband. He prophesied that our children and I would be homeless and destitute without him. I knew that I would do all I could to make it. Today, I am happily remarried. Now is the time to continue my education and to set an example for my youngest child as I did for my older children that education is an important part of life. I want her to grow up knowing that her mother persevered in spite of a divorce and that she continued to follow her dream to get her college education. I will be able to utilize my higher education to continue to move up in my organization and in turn help my children fulfill their dreams for a college education.

I believe life itself is an act of beautiful creativity whether it is through the lens of religion or the lens of science. I was in an abusive marriage for most of my life and I had to find creative ways to survive every day. Some examples this creativity were spending countless hours planting and cultivating a home vegetable garden, spending afternoons in the outdoors with my children in tow, and spending my evenings journaling my thoughts away from the abuser. When I finally gathered the courage to leave the abusive marriage with my children, I had to get creative with my salary and budget to afford the split. My ex-husband made it clear at the time that I would never survive without him and I knew that I would make it work. Today, I am happily remarried and I use creativity every day to keep our marriage happy and healthy by creating new exercise routines for us, finding ways to spend quality time together, and hosting functions where our children and extended family can come together to grow. My job involves firm code interpretation that sometimes results in hard lines and frustrations for all parties involved. I use creativity in finding solutions to issues that meet the intent of the code while working with affected parties to alleviate costs, burdens, and overhead. I also have to be creative in creating content for educational programs for the community such as safety talks, videos, and presentations. I utilize this content for senior citizens, children, Spanish speaking citizens, as well as refugees from various countries. By having the gift of waking daily to find creative ways to improve another's day, helps make life beautiful. I know I enjoy using my heart and brain to make the world better every day.