As a young biracial woman in school, I have felt an imbalance in the way I have been treated within school. Bullying is a major problem within our education systems. Bullying took a large toll on my mental health. I liked my hair, until I came to school. I told my teacher once. I cried because a group of girls stood around me and made fun of the way I looked and how I look dirty because of the way my skin was and that I smelled bad. My teacher said, "Well is that true?" and nothing more. I felt as if I was failed since the beginning. My dad's death took a toll on my mental health during this time too. I experienced suicidal thoughts and tendencies and my grades fell short of those of other kids in my class. I struggled with math because I couldn't pull myself up enough to solve a problem because I felt like my real life situations wasn't even "solved." I couldn't wrap it around my mind. I felt like I couldn't get myself out of this feeling of deep emptiness and no other girl my age had felt that way. I couldn't talk to anyone about it because my mom didn't believe in therapy. Culturally, we usually don't seek mental help. It's frowned upon. I didn't want my family to think there was something really wrong with me and I really didn't want to get sent to a psych and my friends were not exactly the best people. I began to have a shift in mentality when freshman year came along. Call it an epiphany but one night it just came to me. I wanted to help young people like me. After awhile of doing research I discovered that I could take on a PhD and become a psychiatrist. I believe in myself and I will one day create change for our next generation. I had felt lost for so long but began to experience a passion for the subject and importance of mental health since it does effect almost everything you do. When I do acquire my first job working in the mental health field, I will be sure to advocate how important it is to take care of your mind and body. Whether this is through social media, or commercially. Therapeutic interventions, especially for the younger generation, who will soon become the future; can be essential since they will grow with a certain mindset and if often not changed on its own can be harmful to them and others. By, in the future, collaborating with teachers, parents, and the community, I will be able to create a more safe, supportive, and positive environment by just showing care and empathy by being able to speak with them and help guide them in their life's endeavors. I, so far, have little experience with this, but through my higher education, I will be able to more thoroughly do so. I was a mentor within my basketball organization to younger athletes like me and tutored children in a Chinese School in Dallas. I was able to assist with their academic endeavors to ensure they also have a better, brighter, future. In both occasions, I was able to make sure these children felt valued, respected, and supported. Which was what I felt I needed when I was younger. As a therapist, I will be instrumental in helping reduce or eradicate the effects of bullying. This could take on many forms but my overall goal is to do my best to help who is in need.

At 15 years old, I landed my first job as a basketball referee at Plano Sports Authority, and it was a perfect fit for me as a young woman interested in sports and health. As a child of two and a single mother struggling to make ends meet and a father who had passed away when I was six, money was always scarce in my household. My mom taught me to prioritize spending on basic necessities over being frivolous. I always wanted the cool things my friends flaunted, but it was out of reach for me. I couldn't wait to earn my own money, hoping that it would allow me to buy what I wanted without restrictions. As a referee, I worked hard and earned slowly, but I was able to grow financially as well as mentally. I was the only female on my school's football team and part of the basketball team and faced many criticisms on and off the court and field. However, I had to prepare mentally for what lay ahead. Referees had to stay calm no matter what. Officiating was different from playing, and if I made a wrong call or did not agree with what the opposing side suggested, I got yelled at by people on the bleachers, the coaches, the players, or sometimes even got threatened. On a good day, people groaned or told me how to do the job I was trained for. At least those people weren't aggressive. Despite the challenges, I had to keep my cool. I only earned 14 dollars a game and couldn't sign up for very many games in a week. When I received my first paycheck, I bought pants and a stuffed animal, but within a few months, the pants were too small, and the stuffed animal was lost. I had wasted my money. My mom worked for a little below minimum wage and my mom couldn't speak english very well. It was hard for her to get a high paying job under these circumstances, but we came here to live the American dream. As I started working, I realized how she sometimes felt. It was necessary to be prudent with my earnings because it took a lot to earn. It was more than learning about managing money wisely, my first job also taught me the importance of pursuing an education. I could not become a psychiatrist out of nowhere, and if I was ever going to break the cycle of the low-income that my family faced, I needed to strive for higher qualifications. Saving for school became essential, and I was taught to budget well by my mom and my supervisor, who once faced the same financial struggles. My dreams lay beyond earning minimum wage, and through education, I could improve my life and that of my family's. My first job as a basketball referee was not just about earning money; it taught me valuable life lessons that I carry with me to date. Working hard every day and growing resilient to tough situations made me stronger and wiser. I learned to manage money wisely, make a budget, and prioritize essential needs. Above all, my job made me aspire to pursue higher education, open up more opportunities, and break away from my family's low-income as well as living my own American dream.

I used to play basketball. I was a forward and shooting guard. I never really felt like I fit in. I'm of hispanic and asian decent and all the other girls on my team were different. When I first started, I really wasn't that good and it didn't help my case of trying to fit in. Especially when I got to high school. I was intimidated by the other girls because they were big and tall and in a gym full of about twenty girls, all ready for tryouts, not one of them looked like me. I loved basketball still. I thought it was my way out. My new beginning. It wasn't until I started experiencing this slow and agitating pain in my back that my skills in basketball began to deteriorate. It was strange because I thought from now, my knowledge and proficiency in the sport could only get better with just practice. But the pain in my back creeped up from my lower back, up my spine, and to my shoulders. I was constantly at the doctor's office and in and out of physical therapy but no one could tell me exactly where the pain derived from. This caused me to sit out at games and practices. Then as if my basketball career wasn't already becoming unstable, I was then diagnosed with Anemia. My endeavors in basketball eventually came to an end. I haven't really ever been an academic but I study because I want a better education and a better future for myself and my family who have struggled with financial issues since the beginning. I felt like I had lost all hope. I needed that outlet. Art, at the time, was much less a hobby. It was instilled in me from a young age, that if you couldn't help yourself first, then you couldn't help others. I had dreamed of becoming an educator. I wanted to help young women who had dreams like mine, but how could I help in this field if I couldn't even really participate in it myself? Was basketball really the only thing I could help in? My coach and I would still talk, even though I wasn't at my best. I told him I felt lost. He mentored me and helped me discover so many things about myself even outside of basketball. He taught me that there's so much more outside of just this game and I could use the lifelong skills I learned in basketball to help others in a variety of topics. I learned that taking care of the mind and body is key to achieving success in any endeavor. My coach introduced me to his grand daughter one day as a mentor. He told me to teach her as I have learned. I taught her the importance of teamwork but also the importance of independence. We played games together and hung out sometimes. I tried to establish the idea of hard work and that its not just the practice that makes perfect but the perfect practice that makes perfect. Which was also something else I learned from basketball. If you don't practice something well, then you will never be able to get the best results. In my time mentoring her, I was not only able to help her with new ideas and guide her many of her life's issues, but also gain a better understanding of myself. I learned from her just as she learned from me.

As I have grown older, I have learned that is it an absolute necessity to keep the idea of perseverance in the front of my mind. As a young woman raised in a single parent household, I often found it difficult to see a better and brighter future for myself beyond living in a small town home. I watched my mother work tirelessly, sometimes holding multiple jobs to support both me and my brother. When we first came to America, I was really little. I lived with my dad and then eventually my mom and brother until my dad passed away. We didn't have any money and my dad left us with little to nothing since he didn't work. My mom worked days and nights as a waitress and eventually went to school for cosmetology which helped us afford a better town home in a less bad, still bad area within Texas. As a child, I was unable to help and I sometimes even felt scared. When I went to school, which was a fenced up elementary school with a few mobile homes that acted as other classrooms, I'd constantly get made fun of. The other kids would ask me why I wore the same clothes everyday. I asked my mom why it has to be this way. I wished things were different. She told me the best possible thing an overworked mom of two could say. She said that if I don't work hard, this cycle would continue. I would end up the same way she ended up. She told me to keep my relationships in close but to most importantly build myself so that I could have things like better relationships with people and a good job and maybe even kids of my own. If I had kids, I'd want them to have a better life, one where they didn't have to worry about going out in their own front yard alone or struggle with mental health issues at a young age. Working hard to me, means to pursue a higher education in something that I am not only interested in, but that also impacts the people around me. If I do so, I will become successful in my own eyes and I will be able to break the state of very low income that afflicted my family for many years. I know that pursuing this education is the key to breaking free of my constraints. I choose not to be held back and to achieve greatness so that I can help myself and my family pursue a journey beyond what has held us all back. I see this as an opportunity to prove my resilience and character and give myself the life I've wanted. However, my education is more than just a means of earning a higher salary and securing a better job to help me and my family. As someone who has experienced these financial challenges in her life, I am aware of the power the power that money conveys. Even with a small donation, or an amount made on my own, it is one step closer to helping many others just like me. When I successfully achieve my goals of majoring in Psychology and completing medical school, I will then be able to put forth the money that has been invested in me to help so many other people overcome issues of their own. My success will help me bring others up and give back to my community as much as I possibly can. This is what motivates me.

Imagine a spacious two-story home perched on the hills of Miami, Florida amid a vibrant sunset. Its lofty walls form an odd slanted shape, differentiating it from abodes below the hills. Vegetation, greenery, and land is plentiful. It's an animal-friendly sanctuary, comfortable enough for both me, my black lab, and my portly Maltese. The exterior hues of my Barbie Dream House could be described as a sleek gray color made of a solid stone, preferably limestone. I would like the external surfaces of the home to be flat formed with a minimalist ambiance, very much like a fresh canvas. This would be perfect for making the environment around the home stand out, rather than the home itself. While constructing my dream home, I'd like to include large windows within every room that peer into the surroundings, past the hills. This would allow for great natural lighting and the perfect scenery for my downtime. This would be in the same location as my glass coffee table centered in the middle of the living room, amidst a largely proportioned cartoon-like flat-screen TV. The glass coffee table should be made of strong glass material and filled with water for my fish. The rug beneath the fish tank table would depict the silhouette of a panther. This small touch would add a unique touch to the vicinity. When looking at the highly elevated ceiling, it emanates an ominous yet airy appeal, complete with dark or earthy colors. This creates space for a lotus-shaped chandelier. Next to the living room, sits an open kitchen filled with seasonings galore. The kitchen should incorporate a black marble countertop and two fridges, one for beverages and another for food. This area should be open to the living room so that the flatscreen TV is visible to the kitchen island and dining room table. I've always wanted a touch-screen microwave. It would have to be placed above the black countertops. This appliance would allow me to check on my food with a built-in camera, google, and even provide me with recipes when I don't know what to cook! The kitchen will also accompany my two dogs with a large dog door and free-range space into the gargantuan backyard full of a variety of plants and lots of space to run around! This would conclude the downstairs portion of my Barbie Dream Home, besides the average guest bedroom and separate bathroom with a large shower. Upon entering the second floor, you may fall into colorful black and red knitted fibers. The floor is bouncy and soft. It would almost feel as if you are levitating. These knitted fabrics would be hung by the ceiling and would lead into different rooms, including mine. The ceiling of my room would be made of nothing but tempered glass and other shatterproof materials to create yet another large fish tank on the ceiling. A humongous closet, the size of Barbie’s, should be situated in the corner of the room. Moveable stairs to make clothing in high places accessible is a must! A door in my room leads into a pool that would include stairs down to the grassy terrain area of my backyard. Lethargic days entail the need for a glittery black slide. Large flat-screen TVs would be integrated into all three guest rooms upstairs. A room for my artistic endeavors would be included. My art room would of course have to have a very large table and sink with many organizational tubs and boxes. Altogether, my Barbie Dream Home would have about four bedrooms and four bathrooms.