Throughout my life, I have encountered and overcame much adversity. From surviving physical, mental, sexual, and emotional abuse growing up to dealing with macro and microaggressions towards my various identities as an adult, it has been a tough road to traverse thus far. The most recent adversity I overcame surprisingly stemmed from running my business, The Brew City Homemaker, LLC. Though I received my A.A.S. in Culinary Arts and was nearly ten years deep into my career, I found myself dreading the food and beverage industry. Not only was I struggling with my mental health, but racism, prejudices, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia bombarded my very existence in numerous professional kitchens. It was honestly an over-fought and exhausting ordeal to experience daily. Individuals in upper management positions would often ignore the pleas to resolve the hostile work environment; the weight of their neglect left me feeling exploited and worthless. In October 2015, I decided that I had enough of the abuse and dropped the industry altogether to pursue a residential and commercial cleaning business. Being an Afro-Latinx, transgender, and queer individual in the cleaning industry also came with many challenges. Anti-LGBTQIA+ and racist sentiments, unfortunately, remained common amongst clients. What made it worse was the fact that I was financially struggling. Uncertain about how I would pay the bills if I dropped my biggest offenders, escaping my predicament felt impossible. Do I go back to the restaurant industry only to experience the same issue, or do I stick it out and deal with it? Surviving eventually came at the expense of identity erasure and my dignity, a form of humiliation that I do not even wish upon my worst enemy. In 2020, after improving my mental health and becoming empowered by the Black Lives Matter movement, I found myself ready to let go of my business of five years. Though I still felt uncertain about my financial situation, I took a leap of faith in November 2020 by enrolling at Arizona State University. A month afterward, in December 2020, I entirely disbanded my business to pursue school full time. I now continue to strengthen my conviction of expanding upon my education by improving my leadership, communication, and networking abilities for the sake of aiding and liberating marginalized communities. My ultimate goal is to become a champion, role model, and supporter of those who have faced similar struggles and adversity due to their identities as I have.