Like many other people I have goals that I set for myself. Some of these goals are much simpler than others. My biggest goal in college is to be able to succeed at my education. The ways I am preparing myself is by setting time for each class, so I do not get overworked for an individual class. I also make sure to study ahead in the chapter to have an understanding before the material is presented to me. I have experienced some hardships in my life. My biggest hardships has been the passing of my father. My dad was the person I looked up to and that was taken away overnight. This hardship has changed me for the better because I have been able to grow as a person and push myself more than I have before. It has been hard to go through my accomplishments in high school and now in college, but I have a strong and caring family behind me to help me through it which I am very grateful for.

As I was growing up, I did not realize how much a parent really does for their child and how much they struggle just to make their child happy. My mother has opened my eyes to how much she does for me just so I can achieve the goals and dreams that I have. My mom was not always a single mom but in May of 2020 my father passed away suddenly, and this changed everything for my mom and I. My mom and my dad used to be able to help each other through tough times but now it is just my mom. I tried my best to help her through everything but even through this tragedy my mother stayed strong. My mother is by far the strongest person I know because she was able to push through this and figure out how she was going to keep going. There were days where we both did not want to do anything, but my mom kept me doing something to keep us going. My mother inspires me the most because she never gave up and always looked at life in a good way because you don't know when your last day will be on this Earth so her and I want to make the most out of it.

I have been a leader in baseball and in Boy Scouts. For some background I have played baseball since I was 4 years old and have always been passionate about the game. I have also been involved in Boy Scouts at a young age as well. In baseball I was one of the captains for my senior year and myself along with the other captains were able to have good team chemistry and we were able to make it to districts. In Boy Scouts I was the Assistant Senior Patrol Leader for some years along with the Patrol Leader the other years. The other leaders and I kept the troop very organized, and we were able to help out the community in various of ways. My involvement as a leader in these groups did take a lot of my time throughout the day but I was still able to keep great grades. My grades were always the most important for me and I always strived for very high grades. I did have to manage my time very well due to my busy schedule, but I was able to get everything done on time and graduated with above a 4.0 throughout my high school career.

There are many changes that everybody would like to have whether that is in their community or on a larger scale such as in their state or even in their country. I will keep it on the smaller scale and say the changes I would like in my community. To give some background my community is only a couple hundred people, so it is a small town. I would like there to be more involvement in the community such as cleanups. I was involved in Boy Scouts and I have received the rank of Eagle Scout which is a very difficult award to reach in Boy Scouts. While I was in Boy Scouts my troop and I have been on many community cleanups to better the community. While my troop and I were working hard to clean up we saw people keep throwing trash onto the ground right in front of us. This is frustrating because even if people are trying to make a change there is a larger group of people fighting against you so the change you make will not have the impact you intend it to have.

There are many different ways for a person to have personal growth for themselves. For some it may be getting better grades or having better attendance. For myself I had a lot of growing up to do basically overnight. I was a normal kid just like everyone else where I did not have many worries in the world because my mom and dad were always able to provide for me. Then my father passed away and that flipped my world upside down overnight and I did not know what to do because my father was the person I always looked up to. Since that day I have been able to reflect on my life and realize you are not guaranteed tomorrow so you should be happy no matter what. I now look at life differently and I am not negative as before and I always try and be positive and happy towards the people I meet because I want them to know the type of person I have become through our interactions. Some things that have changed about me is I am happier and laugh a lot more than before my father's passing. I would say the most change for myself is spending time with family. Before I did not mind missing some family events or gatherings because I just thought I will see them next year. Now I try my best to get to every family gathering because I want to cherish every moment with them that I have left. This tragedy in my life has now opened my eyes into becoming a better person overall and I do believe that I have changed in many aspects in a positive way.

I have received a lot of advice regarding financial decisions that could impact myself later in life. The one that everybody tells you and is very important is saving for retirement. The sooner you start saving the better you will be once you reach retirement age. My dad also told me to have multiple sources of income because if you lose your main job and that is the only source of income for yourself then you will be in a difficult situation. With many sources of income, you won't be just relying on one source because you have many different sources of income. I have also been told about managing your money and having a tier list from most important to least important expenses. Such as rent and grocery bills will be at the top of the list while money for the movies will be at the bottom since it is not as important compared to paying for rent. By having this list, it will allow yourself to make sure you have the most important expenses taken care of and if you have money left over after all of your needed expenses then you have some spending money for yourself. I also have learned a lot about monthly planning much more since my dad's passing because before my dad used to take care of the bills and expenses, so I was not concerned about learning about money and how to save. Then when my dad passed my mom started teaching me about what each bill looks like and how to save for each bill for the month. This caused myself to start saving in my daily life and I can tell the amount of money that I am able to save now.

This scholarship will help me a lot through my college experience. In college I do many different activities such as baseball and I also like to help around the college and community. I have always been involved in my community through sports and volunteering. I have played baseball since I was 4 years old and have also been involved in Boy Scouts at a very young age as well. My dad was the person to introduce me to baseball and Boy Scouts since he played as a kid, and he was also an Eagle Scout which is a very hard award to achieve in Boy Scouts. This pushed myself to do the best I can in baseball and in Boy Scouts. Then COVID struck so it became very difficult because you could not be around anyone. Then later in the year of 2020 my dad passed away which made it even more difficult for myself to keep up with baseball and Boy Scouts because my dad was my inspiration in those two activities. I kept doubting myself and questioning if I really wanted to keep doing baseball and Boy Scouts but then I decided that it would be best for myself to keep going and I know that my dad would also want me to stay involved in baseball and Boy Scouts. Now I am able to play baseball even after I graduated from high school, and I have also achieved the rank of Eagle Scout just like my dad.