When people ask what my goals for the future are, I usually would say being successful or making money. But when I really think about what I want my future to look like, I picture happiness, I picture family, and I do picture being successful. But not just successful in a rich sort of way. Being successful means achieving the dreams and life I’ve always wanted to have. Creating my own family, and making sure they are always taken care of. In my future, I see an environment of positivity, an environment of smiles and laughs, but most importantly an environment where I can grow and continue learning. As a student who always strives for the best, in almost everything I do, I want a life that reflects all of the hard work I have put into it. A life where my children can say yes my mom is cool, yes my mom is funny, and yes my mom is kind. Going through the past high school years I take a lot of pride in having my mom as a role model. After she was diagnosed with breast cancer my junior year, things became a lot for me to handle. But I continued showing up for work, and I continued completing my school work, I continued being an older sister, but I stopped leaving the house. I took care of all of her needs, but in return I lost a lot of the people around me. Even though losing my friends wasn’t her fault she still takes some of the blame and now encourages me to actually go to parties (which is something I never thought would happen). But what she doesn’t understand is that there was nowhere else I would’ve rather been, than sitting on the couch watching stupid shows like Love Island USA, right next to her. So after all of the things my life has put my through I continued to persevere and if my life doesn’t reflect all of the good things I have put into it, it simply isn’t a life worth living. When my future doesn’t reflect who I am, it just isn’t my future. Because I take pride in the people who raised me, and I take pride in the events that shaped me. That is all I could ever ask for.