Jennifer Kelley. My mother. The most beautiful, loving, protective, supportive woman that has ever been a part of my life. This woman has unintentionally taken the role of being the most impactful person in my life as well as the most inspirational. This woman that has given me life has also given me a reason to live. A sister, wife, aunt, grandmother, and luckily for me, my mother. She has been an inspiration and a role model for many other members of my family. She has also been our biggest supporters for anything that we want to accomplish in our lives. Watching her take on this role for our family members has inspired me to take on that role for my nephew and little cousins. Being a positive impact in their lives is extremely important to me thanks to the values that she has instilled in me. In the year of 2012, she decided to go back to college after being a work-from-home mom for the first nine years of my childhood. She acquired her associate's degree from Monroe County Community College in 2015, making herself a first-generation graduate. She then went onto Eastern Michigan University to acquire her bachelor's degree in social work, ultimately deciding that she was going to become a therapist after basically being one for my entire family and I for our entire lives. After achieving this degree with a giant smile on her face in 2016, she went on to achieve her master's degree in social work at Ohio State University. In 2019, with all of our family screaming “MOMMA!” and “NANA!” from the stands and probably almost breaking them from jumping up and down so much, my mother held that master's degree up with the most prideful and happy smile I have ever seen in my life. Today, my mother is a behavioral therapist with her very own successful private practice that she named “This iz Me.” Watching her go from typing doctor's notes at home with me at her hip, to owning her very own private practice has fundamentally impacted the route I will be taking in my own life. She has demonstrated that taking life by the reins is the only way to get and do exactly what I want. Thus, I will be taking life by the reins this fall by going to Central Michigan University to become an interpreter for the deaf community. A fighter is “...a person with the will, courage, determination, ability, or disposition to fight…” according to dictionary.com. My mother is the ultimate fighter for many reasons. She has been a fighter against verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, even in childhood. All of these things that she has been forced to fight against have impacted the way that she has raised and taught me which has ultimately protected me. In 2016, my mother had to fight against an intimidating brain aneurysm. Thankfully, the surgeons were able to take care of it with no harm done to her brain. Only five years later, in September of 2021, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is a fighter, so she fought it. She beat it. She survived it. Thus, because my mother has always been a fighter, she has inspired me my entire life to also be a fighter. She has taught me to fight for what I want, what I believe, for my family, and in the event, to fight for my life. My mother has created a strength in me that has prepared me to face any obstacles that come my way. I am ready.