My family has been supportive of my goals, but I always knew it was on me to achieve them. I grew up in a household that lived paycheck to paycheck, and having to support myself to obtain a college education was always in the conversation. It is part of why I believe so much in hard work. If I wasn't going to pay for my future, who was? My community has shown me what it means to be a hard worker, to be kind and loving, but also never give up. It has given me the determination and ambition that I needed to create the dreams I have now. I always asked myself what it meant to be someone successful. For a while, I struggled with my worth. If I didn't get straight A's, take every opportunity, try everything I could to be the best that I can, who was I? It was an issue that made me spiral at even the smallest crack in the pattern of my life, or the academic excellence that I had achieved. One day, I finally fell apart. My parents didn't know what to think. Wasn't I the perfect child? The one whom they never had to worry about? I was frantically insecure about my imperfections, but also about my future. If I couldn't do everything, then who was I to try to be someone successful? But my family reminded me that hard work doesn't mean perfection, it means not giving up even in the face of hardship. It means that even when everything is going wrong, when you feel like you are the worst, or the world has gotten you down, you can get up and try again because you are worth it. That my right in this world wasn't how successful I am, because I am worth it already. Worth isn't determined by deeds; it is determined by the fact that I exist. My community and family made me realize this by showing up every day for me and by telling me what it means to be a hard worker. I see those around me struggle, and I see them in places where it feels like they will never get through the struggle. But I have also seen them get up every time. No matter what, it was okay because we had each other. No matter what, we were worth it, even if we failed or even if everything went wrong. This is what I look for in every moment. Pushing myself for me and not for the world's definition of success, but because I know that I am capable. Because I know that I will get up even if I fall, that I will be relentlessly ambitious because of those around me. My future isn't determined by what my success looks like, and my community made me realize that. I want to help other people realize this as well.