Hello, I am Annabell, 22 years old and, in my 4th, year currently attending CSUN in pursuit of a bachelor's degree in business management. I am also a transfer student from Los Angeles Mission College. Throughout my entire college career, I have always maintained a fulltime position in retail work. I worked at Walmart for my 2 years at LA Mission, took a gap year to save a little more money. Transferred to CSUN with my associate's degree in business management and have spent the beginning of my time at CSUN until present working full time at Target. While the days may seem long and the work seems endless, I know there is a bigger picture at the end of the day. It can get rough at times; nobody around understands the pressure of simply missing one alarm clock because something as simple as that can be the beginning of the end. Especially living in Los Angeles where there is always something going on whether its traffic jam, a big car crash, an event, your tire popped on the way to school or work. I work 40+ hours every week and add 2+ hour lectures, homework while trying to complete a group assignment, and trying to go to the gym all in one day. It all gets very challenging and very overstimulating really fast. I'm thankful for the close people around me that help ground me and help me realize that any little problem that steps in my way is no greater than the problem I will be when I achieve my goals. One thing about me is I will not stand down, having work motivates me, it keeps me going because I know there is something I must accomplish. So, whether it is retail work or a 10-page essay, I am jumping in headfirst and ready for what's to come. It is not always motivation that keeps me going, there are days even I just want to quit both my job and school but then what would I eat. A time in the past where I was having a difficult time balancing both work and school is right after I finished my time at LA Mission. I had lost my position at Walmart because of a point system error. 3 days after I was fired, I acquired a part-time position at party city where I remained for 4 months and in those few months, I lost all my savings because I wasn't making what I made at Walmart and bills shortly started to pile up. It was during this time that I decided to take a gap year and focus on saving because I knew I would be paying out of pocket once I completed my transfer to CSUN. After those 4 months I managed to obtain an operations team member position at Target and now I am in my last year at CSUN still working at Target and I couldn't be more grateful. While working may not seem like a joy, waking up every day and going to work is a blessing because I have a job that appreciates me and helps accommodate my schedule in order to attend school and still put food in my stomach and clean clothes on my back. I referenced this moment because sometimes things stop us from accomplishing our goals but with a bit of time and hard work something is bound to work out. It's important not to get discouraged when it matters most.