One of my favorite hobbies is playing the flute, where I can feel the emotions coming out of the instrument and how I can interpret it. The moment I picked up the flute and learned the traditional Hot Cross Buns in middle school, I would have never thought I would stick to playing the flute. A flute, after all, is a stick, which makes a sound where I might have to tell people around me to cover their ears as I would purposely try to play a high note. As you can imagine, my parents perhaps weren’t too fond of me playing too loudly, but they were proud of me for sticking to a hobby that mentally keeps me active. To know how to read the notes and try to play it for the first time can honestly be a challenge when my first instinct is to play fast. I find it funny that my instinct is to play fast when I get a music piece because I ruin it when it is about love, and I make it sound like love is a disaster. That is why I love to play the instrument, knowing that I can control how I want to interpret the music despite what it’s trying to tell me. Yet, I enjoy playing the flute even more when I play along with the rest of the band members, like woodwinds to brass players. As we all play along to interpret the music piece, I can feel every emotion from different instruments to create this beautiful imagery. I am forever grateful to my younger self for deciding to learn how to play the flute when I got the opportunity to do so. Overall, the hobby that I had grown to love has become a gift for me to help me take a break from school and to recharge to go back and focus with a positive attitude.

One of the ways in which we appreciate life is by experiencing every challenge in our own way, growing from and then investing in our communities to create a sense of unity and purpose. As a Latina, it’s not often that I see someone of my race be part of community projects nor do I see them trying to connect with those different from them. That didn't stop me. I was always the only person of color in a group participating in activities that even those in my family have never done. I'm a first generation immigrant and it has been a struggle trying to manage society's and my own family’s expectations of what I should be and how often, there is tension. All I have ever wanted to prove is that even a Latina from a small town can change the world and figure out who I am as my own person. Growing up can be a challenge when your parents have immigrated to America for a better opportunity. Not many American children grow up understanding that they will be the first to finish high school- let alone with minimal support. My whole life, all my parents have ever wanted was for me to have the best education possible and did what they could despite their limited English. Though I find it challenging figuring out what I want to do in my life, I know that my commitment to being engaged in my community and school makes my parents proud and even when I have difficulty with schoolwork, they try to cheer me up and tell me how much of a changemaker I am by being an intelligent Latina, and how my journey can influence and inspire other Latinos to be part of creating an atmosphere of inclusion. While participating in community services throughout my academic career, I would always look at the pictures they would post and wonder why I always ended up being the only Latina in that activity. I longed for commonality and shared experiences but it never changed. My parents were always the first to point out that when I was back in middle school, people of color slowly decreased in attendance from band- leaving me eventually a lone person of color in the band. In that, I worked hard to connect with others in other ways and never realized how lonely it was until my parents pointed it out. Being the only brown girl in the band, as strange and lonely as it was, I felt inspired to be committed to being a leader in places where Latinos are often not seen or expected to be seen. These experiences shape how I see myself moving forward in college- connecting with people in the ways I can, and demonstrating a willingness to be present and share my story. As I grow older, I want to be a leader myself to show others that I can thrive in life like any non-Latino child with limitless resources might- and do so humbly, sharing my culture and story. I’ve experienced a lonely childhood, experienced a newfound desire to grow, and hope to continue to experience ways in which I can become a more inclusive, kind person. Overall, I know that for me to be involved where colored people aren't commonly known in higher education will truly help younger audiences to not give up on themselves, and to move forward where anyone can make a change for their own history.