I had never cried as much as I did when I read Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata in the fourth grade. I didn’t know my little body could produce that many tears. When I read Kira Kira for the first time it was a fairly new book, it was published in 2004 and I was in fourth grade in 2008. It had won a Newberry medal and it was on the reading list for a Florida reading challenge that they had at my school and I read it. It helped me win. Kira Kira was a transformative book though. Aside from winning a prize when I was ten this book shaped me into who I am today. It is about an Asian family, the kids being Asian-American and this horrible tragedy rocks their lives. The main character, Lynn is an elementary school-aged girl (maybe it is why I related so much, we were both immigrants and young girls) and she has this coming-of-age moment in elementary school. I won’t spoil it but the feelings that I got reading it when I was ten were unforgettable. In elementary school I had always read light-hearted fun books, Junie B Jones was my idol and Jerry Spinelli's books were so amazingly written to me. I didn’t know books could break your heart and make you think all at the same time at such a young age. It was one of the first books I bought when I grew up and it’s just one of the books chilling in my room. I believe everybody should read Kira Kira and fall in love as I did.

I have faced adversity all my life. Adversity isn’t always like oh this one person is against me, it can often feel like the world is against you. I was always a nose stuck in my book child and I had always known I was going to college but it was when I was sixteen and I went through my brain hemorrhage that adversity really started in my life. I’ve always strived to be the best and that showed me that I wasn’t. The fact that I got to graduate with my class and that I wasn’t held back was nothing short of luck. Even though a difficult senior year for me filled with recovery and feeling like my brain was betraying me I graduated with a 3.6 GPA something that made me feel like maybe I wasn’t so bad after all. I remember thinking how am I going to go to college now? My answer was to never give up and I didn’t. I always remained humble and I knew I was going places and with this being my junior year in college I feel like I may have done it, the hardest thing throughout my life. Education is vital. It opens many doors, doors otherwise bolted shut. I face adversity by never giving up. I remember when financial aid wouldn’t fund my second year of schooling, I remember how depressed I was then but I just never gave up. I understood how hard everything was going to be then so I picked myself up from the bootstraps and I didn’t throw in the towel. I got a job and never let my eyes waver from the prize, my college degree. It took me longer than most to get my AA degree but I did it, last April, through my hardwork and perseverance. I wasn’t the giving up type and now I’m at my four year university finishing up my junior and senior years of college. I never thought I’d be here. Oftentimes when faced with hardship while I never give up it’s important to remain clear headed and breathe. It seems difficult especially when you’re faced with it but it’s important to always be taking care of yourself. It’s not stressed to always be taking care of yourself so I will stress it. It’s important to keep in mind that even though this task is stressful you can do it through sheer power of will. Michelle Obama once said, “You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it's important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.” Throughout life that is to be remembered. Adversity is hard especially when it feels like roadblock after roadblock but remember you got through every single one of the roadblocks.

Perseverance to me is when you never give up. Perseverance is when someone sees the worst thing that can happen to them but they vow to be better anyways. Perseverance is not just about not giving up, it's about your ability to keep going no matter how many curveballs life will throw at you because it throws a lot. When I was a child all I ever wanted in life was to go to college. I wanted to hone my craft and do something worth saying about. When I got to college I went through a lot of obstacles in my college journey through FAFSA and grades, it seemed like things were out to get me. I didn’t yet understand that life was just hard but I did understand that to get to where I wanted to be I had to be willing to fight for my dreams. So I just kept on going through all the obstacles and self doubt. I’ve been in college longer than the average college student. I will graduate in my seventh year but I would not trade my story for the world. That was my perseverance. I’ve also seen persevering all around me. My family-the aunts, uncles- my parents, and even me, my brother, and my cousin-are all immigrants. Of course me, my brother, and my cousin were children when we touched down in America twenty one years ago but it’s not just that. My family entered without knowing a lick of English or anything about jobs. They just wanted a better life for their children. Soon enough though they got jobs and they all bought houses and made lives for themselves and I often think, if I hadn’t seen this stellar example of never giving up growing up maybe just maybe giving up on college would be an easy thing. Since I did see it though giving up was never in the cards for me. When I think of one artist who never gave up I always think of Vincent Van Gogh. I think of him because he lived a very destitute life and not many people bought his art when he was still alive but he still made it though. He never gave up on his art or his dreams, he knew what a good artist he was and the people who never bought it were just snobby rich people. He’s a great example of the ability to keep going. I’m pretty sure at those times he could’ve just given up on his dreams and gone on to sell art and make money but Vincent just kept on painting. He never left that dream alone and even though he is more recognized in death than he ever was in life to me Vincent Van Gogh is a great example of people who always keep going.

Education has shaped my understanding of the world starting from my kindergarten years to now, when I’m in college. Education is very important and it influences how we see the world around us. Since education has made such a huge impact in my life I feel like I see the world differently. I will go step by step and explain how education has given me a sort of other worldly view of the world. In kindergarten, education was vital because I learned the alphabet, how to count, colors, etc. Knowing these things are important because they are the building blocks of our world. Even now when I go to the library-somewhere I love going-all the book authors are alphabetized so it would be difficult if I couldn’t tell you if A or V came first. Also, I worked with children at a children’s museum and I count on them all the time. In first grade, I remember learning phonetic sounds and how to read. I learned the M sound and I remember us rubbing our bellies because it was delicious and I remember P was a big one because we all loved popcorn! In second grade we learned how to tell time on an analog clock which is very funny because I didn’t realize it at the time but I think that year that I was in second grade was the last year they stopped stressing the importance of it. A lot of my time is spent telling others the time on an analog clock. In third grade, we were taught how to sit still and do a task. That was the first year where we took tests that mattered and were important. In fourth grade, we were taught more about language and how even small words can make big words. In fifth grade, we were taught about our bodies and how they change. In sixth grade we were taught about growing up! Education became something real that year because we had to recall things back in like third grade to help us out. In seventh grade we were taught biology, something that I really like and cells and how they separate and grow. In eighth grade we learned a lot about our history, America’s history and how things evolved and changed in a different way. In ninth grade I learned how to read music and not just read it but how to transform it into sound with my voice. That was the year I took chorus. In tenth grade I was taught long division and synthetic division in my math class, something that really helped me in my college algebra class. In junior year I got sick and had to miss a year of in person school but since I was homeschooled I learned education can happen in all ways. During my senior year I learned more about myself and how I evolve through time. Even now at twenty three I realize life is a constant learning and teaching moment. Our lives aren’t a straight line and we usually depend on a curve. As you can tell, education has shaped my understanding of the world greatly and I think it has made me a more compassionate and caring person.

As a first gen college student, next school year will be my final year of schooling. I am excited to walk that stage and graduate. I started in 2017 and as you all know being a first-generation student comes with many hardships. Over the years I have learned many aspects of college life and with what I have learned I want to help others (especially other first-gen kids) and spread the knowledge. One of the greatest challenges I faced daily growing up is being an immigrant and a visibly black immigrant at that. Growing up I remember throughout kindergarten I was always in Rosetta Stone classes to improve my English but luckily for me, as a young girl with older siblings who went to school it was easy for me to absorb the language and because little brains are often like a sponge sucking up all the information it can, I wasn’t in those classes for long. I want to be able to show other immigrant people who want to pursue education the right way to apply for financial aid and you know many of them don’t know when it opens. I would know because I was one of those students. Thinking back on it, my second and third years of college were honestly the most miserable years of my life. I found out financial aid wouldn’t help pay for me anymore and honestly I was depressed. I remember I always wanted to grow up and get a better education and I always wanted to go to college, something I always told my mom, seeing my immigrant family struggle financially and being so helpless was not my favorite thing in the world. I wanted to do something, I wanted to show them their sacrifice-coming to a whole new country with three small kids, not knowing the language-wasn’t for nothing. Growing up in school I always participated in academically enriching things like scholar bowl and spelling bees, language and words were something I was very good at. By the third year, I was able to pay for two or three classes per semester through the payment plan my school offered but it was still not ideal. I felt like I had failed somehow. I want to make sure other first-generation students never feel how I felt during those years. I also want to teach them time management! When I was sixteen I had a brain hemorrhage or a stroke. It was a freak accident but it did set me back and that was one of the first challenges I personally ever faced. The fact that I got to graduate with my class and that I wasn’t held back was nothing short of luck. Even though a difficult senior year for me filled with recovery and feeling like my brain was betraying me I graduated with a 3.6 GPA something that made me feel like maybe I wasn’t so bad after all. I have the patience to sit with someone and listen in a way that doesn’t make them feel forced. I do think I would be a great recipient of this because when it comes to helping others: I don’t hesitate.

I remember when I applied and got approved for my first ever credit card. It was through my bank and I remembered feeling so grown up like with this credit card I was going to do everything right and make all the good decisions. Before that day nobody had ever taught me how to use a credit card, nobody ever told me what it was for really. I can’t say I made bad decisions with my credit card but I can say I bought thoughtless things with my credit card and I am still paying for those decisions today. I won’t lie. Senior year we had economics class. It was a semester-long class where you were taught the bare minimum about financial literacy. I cannot even tell you today what we learned about except for renting a car, I do remember conversations about that. In my first year of college I took macroeconomics (or was it microeconomics) either way all I remember was that it was boring and nothing that was being taught was applicable to my real life. That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Financial literacy is something that we all need as soon as we buy something or even get a job, honestly we should start in kindergarten. One thing about financial literacy: I want people to not only be taught how to get a job but I want people to know how to keep the money from that job. I also want people to be able to read their paychecks. Oftentimes people don’t know the difference between your gross pay, your net pay, and why they are different from one another. A big one that everyone needs to be educated on is taxes! I want to educate people on not only what they are but how one does their taxes themselves because it’s tricky. When I got my last job I loved it and my mom approached me and she told me I needed a 401k plan. I got one immediately and then months and months after I was always in my financial human resources department at my job because I always wanted to know. Where is my money, where is it going, and does it move? I didn’t know how any of that was determined and I remember my human resources woman at my old job telling me about Roth IRAs too and getting people to know about that is stellar. I also want to get into investments and investing in something but I’m not sure how to do that. I do have a couple financial accounts and I’ll probably invest once I graduate but I can’t say I’m a connoisseur and I understand everything. Last but definitely not least is credit cards! I know I kind of touched on this but I want there to be more ready information on credit cards. Not everybody knows what the rates mean and I know I don’t understand credit card limits so there’s probably a confused person out there too. There’s a lot to know about when it comes to financial literacy, a lot of do’s and don’ts and I want everybody to have the information they need to succeed in this world.

Writing has always been an outlet for me. Ever since I could pick up a pencil I have been writing because writing is something we all do. Writing also goes hand in hand with reading, regardless of what job field you find yourself in you will always need writing. The world is built on being able to read and write. Writing to me means having an education, thinking back to when people had slaves the basic skill they kept from them was reading and writing because being able to know how to do these things was power in lots of people’s eyes. It still is. Thinking back to Anne Frank, the way she told her story and touched a lot of people was because she wrote down her story, all the details, the good and the bad because people need the whole thing. When I was younger in elementary school I would enter a lot of reading and writing contests. When I was younger there was this thing called Scholastic reading counts and basically you read all these books and you got points for how much you read and I remember for a few years I was the person with the most points. Also I was the girl who always asked my teacher to go to the library so I could type up the next great American novel. I couldn’t stop writing. In middle school I did a bunch of spelling bees, spelling, reading, and writing are all closely related so you betcha I did well in them. In high school my local library had a summer reading program and the summer before my senior year I read the most books and I got a bike and through it all I was still working on the next best American novel. When I got to college I didn’t even think about majoring in English, that never crossed my mind. I was most passionate about reading and writing but I thought I needed different passions, passions that would make me more money. Since entering junior year though and declaring my major I’ve realized there’s nothing I would love more than to read and write. Writing is important to me because it’s given me a major that I love. Writing is also important to me because it’s a really important outlet that I don’t think many people realize. When I’ve had a particularly rough day I just sit down and I write letters to myself and it’s so therapeutic that people don’t tend to realize that. It helps you get all your thoughts out in a healthy and productive way. Writing has also given me my favorite shows, movies, and songs. Behind all these great things are talented writers who bring ideas to life. Writing has affected every part of my life in a positive way, without writing I don’t know where I’d be right now.

Did you know that an estimated 70% of generational wealth doesn’t make it past the second generation and 90% disappears by the third? (Anne-Lyse Wealth) Now I ask you to envision your perfect world. There’s probably a big house and a swimming pool in this equation but let me tell you my perfect world. My perfect world is where I get to finish college without loans and debts weighing me down, where I can pass on my knowledge to my children or younger generations, and where I can have enough money that it’s able to sustain until the next generation. We all want to be successful but the biggest thing to me is building something that I can give my children and their children’s children in the future. I don’t want them to suffer like me, I want them to have problems with figuring out college, loans, things like that and know I can help with that. So in a way generational wealth isn’t just about the money to me, it’s about the wealth of knowledge you give the future generations. I want to give them something that lasts a lifetime, what I tell them they can tell and pass onto others. I would never want to hoard my knowledge, I want to spread the knowledge and the money and the education. Generational wealth is also alumni perks like being able to give my offspring the opportunity to go to an amazing school because I went to an amazing school. After I graduate I want to move back in with my parents for a bit (I have two younger siblings that I want to see graduate high school) and I want to get a job that pays well. Another step in building generational wealth is a good relationship with your employers and your community. That’s a way to secure a spot for my offspring at a job. I already have a 401(k) plan and that’s another way to build generational wealth, it's giving my child a security blanket where I tell them regardless of what happens I got their back. I want to move somewhere with great schools and a great education and community lifestyle. Education isn’t everything but it’s an important thing that I’m going to drill into my children because I don’t want them to ever feel as lost as I have felt. Also opening a college fund for my child is another way to build generational wealth, everytime I get paid at my job I want a little bit of money going into that fund because if I help my child thrive in a college setting that’s generational wealth right there. So by investing in myself, my education, my knowledge, in my offspring, in things like real estate and stocks I can truly help create generational wealth.

Queer issues mean the world to me especially queer issues about people from other countries. I think they are important to me because I am from another country and I am queer. I am an immigrant from Haiti, have been here since I was two so America feels like home. At my four year university-I already got my two year degree-I am taking a sexuality studies class. This class has opened my eyes properly to all the hardships queer people face and not only queer people but queer people from other countries. Imagine being from two marginalized communities? Also when I was sixteen I had a brain hemorrhage that caused me to go into a month long coma and then miss my junior year of high school so adding that to my queer immigrant identity is another hardship. I think it’s good to learn though, I think it’s very important. I’m majoring in English and hopefully I can get a job after college helping those who can’t always help themselves. I speak creole and I translate for my family all the time because I can understand both English and Creole. I am fluent but how about if I branched out? Helping family is great but helping those who have nobody on their side and nobody to help them is greater. Also since social media is a big thing in my generation I use my platform on Twitter and Tiktok to talk about queer studies and to get people to listen. I wouldn’t feel comfortable knowing I have this thing which I am passionate about yet nobody knows about it. I also know college is hard and going through financial aid is harder especially for those who are first gen and have never gone through it before. I remember I didn’t have a second and third year of college really because financial aid refused to pay for my classes so it was a disaster at the time. I coped and finished later than I expected but I realized that is life and that is what we have to go through. I want to create something where first generation college students going through financial aid don’t have to go through this. I want to save them the frustration and anger I went through. I can also use my English to help the immigrant community get jobs especially my fellow haitians because not only do I speak the language but I kind of understand the hardships. I remember all the rough times my mom went through in the beginning when me and my brother were little trying to get a job, anything that would help her not suffer. I remember it was extra hard because even though we had my uncles and grandparents since they were also new to this country, this language, and how things worked they couldn’t really help her. I do understand the language on both sides and I have personal experiences that could help them. I want to be able to reach out and make positive change in my community. Also once I finish up at my four year university and get my bachelor’s degree I want to be a role model for the Haitian community where I’m from to never stop trying and to never give up no matter what.

As a first gen college student next school year will be my final year of schooling. I am excited to walk that stage and graduate. I started in 2017 and as you all know being a first generation student comes with many hardships. Over the years I have learned many aspects about college life and with what I have learned I want to help others (especially other first gen kids) and spread the knowledge. I want to be able to show them the right way to apply for financial aid and you know many of them don’t know when it opens? I would know because I was one of those students. Thinking back on it, my second and third years of college were honestly the most miserable years of my life. I found out financial aid wouldn’t help pay for me anymore and honestly I was depressed. By the third year I was able to pay for two or three classes per semester through the payment plan my school offered but it was still not ideal. I felt like I had failed somehow. I want to make sure other first generation students never feel how I felt during those years. I also want to teach them time management! I know this one is big for first generation students because between school, job(s), and whatever else you do it feels impossible for you to juggle everything and be successful. I want to show first generation students they can be successful and it is possible. I had a job that was partially a full time job with the hours I worked but I managed to juggle the job, get the grades, and graduate with my AA. I’m also finishing up at college to get my English degree because I would love to be a librarian, tutor, and maybe an editor. Honestly the sky’s the limit and with that degree if I were to work in a school I would be instrumental in helping others learn English. English is not an easy language but since it’s always come easy for me I want to help others get a grasp on it so they can pursue higher education in this country. I also want to help first generation students figure out what major is right for them along with a minor. Personally, I got lucky. I was able to do the research and at the end of the day I knew what interested me so choosing a major wasn’t hard but I’ve already switched my minor after one semester in classes for that minor. I want to be the sound board for all the first generation kids that helps them and actually lets them know which minor they should pursue. I want other first generation students to see me and be filled with hope at the thought that this could be them. Since I also worked with children for four years while I got my associate’s I do think that bolsters my empathy greatly. I have the patience to sit with someone and listen in a way that doesn’t make them feel forced. I do think I would be a great recipient for this because when it comes to helping others: I don’t hesitate.

I think my greatest achievement is receiving my AA from Florida Southwestern State College, the community college I attend. I think this is such a great and amazing achievement especially because nobody else in my family has done it. It definitely took me awhile, I graduated high school in 2017 and I am getting my AA in 2022. I do not see a huge problem with that though only because my life has been filled with hardships that I will outline in this essay and I didn’t want time to be another problem of mine. Time would serve as something that boxes me in and I know I didn’t need that. Getting my AA is one of the most rewarding things I could do and I wish everybody knew how financially rewarding getting an AA at a small college in your town is. I have met so many people along the way that have aided me in my journey and people that seem like staples in my story. My family is a low-income family trying to get by but the fact that despite my financial problems I stuck with it speaks to my perseverance and how much I wanted this. I really wanted this, I wanted to have at least my AA because I know with that certificate doors will be opened for me. I could go the supervisor track with that certificate or I could be a receptionist because one amazing thing my college has provided me is the ability to be proficient in Microsoft. I want to be able to help and support my family, especially the ones who can’t help themselves such as my younger siblings and the ones who helped me such as my parents, aunt, and uncles who took me where I needed to go and were always there for me when I needed someone. I had a brain hemorrhage at sixteen, something that almost killed me and since going through all that and learning how to walk, talk, and write again with rigorous hours of therapy and tears I have come to the realization that life is precious, like a rare gem. Life is truly what you make it and I don’t want being low-income being the deciding factor in if I am successful or not. I want to be successful so bad and with my BA I have a plan in my mind of how to be that. I want to be that because the least I could do for those who were always by my side through one of the toughest things I could ever go through in my life is never giving up. When I had a brain hemorrhage I remember one of my main thoughts was: would I actually walk the stage and graduate with my graduating class and the answer to that question was yes. I didn’t need to worry much because if anything my family would be sure I walked that stage. That experience taught me love, patience, and the power of never giving up. It taught me love for all those around me who helped me succeed, it taught me patience for myself because even though it takes me time to do what I need to do I still do it, and it taught me the power of never giving up because even when things get hard I know it wouldn’t be wise of me to just decide I am not doing this anymore. I hope with my BA in English I can work for a publishing company for a few years, working with books-something I love, then I hope to go to law school. I want to either go to the Ave Maria School of Law in my hometown because it’s great or an out of state law school, either way I want to be one of the best lawyers around.

Space is limitless. When you are in space you can do anything, up in the clouds you can be anything you want to be. I often think about Mae Jemison, the first black woman to travel into space. I wonder when she was up there with all her white colleagues, people who didn’t look like her did she think about the physical act of taking up space or space itself. Probably the second one, she was an astronaut after all and from my readings a mighty good one at that. Mae Jemison is a great example of a minority who took up space in her field and transformed it. Reading about Mae Jemison, she was an inspiration, she got all the accolades and awards in her mostly white mostly male dominated field while she was neither. She took up so much space especially when she went off to Stanford University in California after graduating at sixteen years old, she was the president of many student-led groups at her university and Mae Jemison was an inspiration. She is an inspiration to me currently. I can only hope that one day I am as great as she is. I want to succeed in my male dominated field of law and I want to be a mighty good lawyer too, one who inspires people especially black, queer, or female children to see me doing what I love and being who I am to realize that they would like to do that too. To me the meaning of taking up space is demanding to be seen and your presence to be acknowledged and not caring who sees you because you know you belong. Taking up space is having a big personality. I like to think I take up space especially with my big ideas. I never want to give up and I always strive to be one of the best at everything I do. Similarly to Mae Jemison I did student government in my college for a bit, I won awards, and we went to Chicago and LaBelle, Florida. At my job at the children’s museum I always work with the kids, talk to them in a way they understand that shows them that my favorite thing is listening to them because it is. The children really like me and I love them. While taking up space is a lot about you as an individual I think it can be about other people too, I like to take up space because I want the kids who see me and like me to see that it’s okay to take up space. I color my hair crazy colors (currently it’s purple) to see other people smile and look at me, doing the things I love daily and I want them to think dang, that girl sure has gumption and she takes up a lot of space. I want to be a Mae Jemison because not only did her existence take up space, she even went up to space. She is a fierce woman and leader, she is very empowering. She knew what it was to take up space and I can only hope to be half of who she is and accomplish half of what she has.

I definitely feel like I am prepared for success. From a young age I didn’t want to see either me, my family, or even my friends struggle so I worked the hardest I’ve ever worked for that. The first thing that prepared me for success was going through K-12. I was a very motivated student in school, was very good at reading, and participated in academic competitions all the time. The best thing about K-12 I feel is the tests especially for the subjects you aren’t great at. For example I am awful when it comes to math, algebra has never made sense to me. I took algebra in the eighth grade and I remembered studying for every test we had, wanting to be successful in it, striving to be successful. K-12 is a great place to motivate kids and it also helped me in my future life. Since I do go to college my studying skills are much better, I know how to make flashcards and how to annotate something I am reading because of K-12. I feel like that’s definitely prepared me. Another thing in life I give credit to is jobs. I've been working since I was eighteen and what I have learned is that a job keeps you on the right path. I work with children now, something I love doing and because that’s my job it makes me happier and I am more equipped to handle working with them. My personal definition of success isn’t like a big house in the hills or designer dresses. My personal definition of success is someone who has gone through life and is living their happiest, most comfortable life. My definition of success isn’t a college education because while I want one I mostly want one for what I want to do in the future, be a lawyer and go to law school. But a lot of my cousins have gone through technical school to be placed in their fields, they are happy and making really great money and they're only nineteen and twenty one. That is success to me. Success is knowing what you want to be, what you want to do and doing it. Success is very subjective but that’s okay, as long as you are content I believe you’re either very successful or you have what it takes to be very successful. Twenty years from now I will be forty three. When I am forty three I see myself a successful lawyer who finished undergrad and law school, and who has been working at my firm for about ten years. I see myself traveling and doing what I love, being the best person I could be because life has set me up for success. That’s what success means to me.

One of the greatest challenges I face daily growing up is being an immigrant and a visibly black immigrant at that. Growing up I remember throughout kindergarten I was always in Rosetta Stone classes to improve my English but luckily for me, as a young girl with older siblings who went to school it was easy for me to absorb the language and because little brains are often times like a sponge sucking up all the information it can, I wasn’t in those classes for long. I remember I always wanted to grow up and get a better education and I always wanted to go to college, something I always told my mom, seeing my immigrant family struggle financially and being so helpless was not my favorite thing in the world. I wanted to do something, I wanted to show them their sacrifice-coming to a whole new country with three small kids, not knowing the language-wasn’t for nothing. Growing up in school I always participated in academically enriching things like scholar bowl and spelling bees, language and words was something I was very good at. When I was sixteen I had a brain hemorrhage, or a stroke. It was a freak accident but it did set me back and that was one of the first challenges I personally ever faced. The fact that I got to actually graduate with my class and that I wasn’t held back was nothing short of luck. Even though a difficult senior year for me filled with recovery and feeling like my brain was betraying me I graduated with a 3.6 GPA something that made me feel like maybe I wasn’t so bad after all. Going to college in my hometown was definitely the smartest thing I did, both financially and personally. But during my second year of college I got the horrible news that my financial aid had not gone through. Well you can imagine how terrible and discouraged I felt. I even asked myself what was the point of school or anything even though I knew I desperately wanted to go. Between financial aid and just my general sadness this caused me to miss a year and a half of school but now here I am, back on track. I plan on using my education to give back not just as me being an example to all the underserved and underrepresented kids out there but giving back to my family. Getting my AA will be sweet but getting my BS in criminal studies will be even sweeter and hopefully I can go into the workforce and help them out like they helped me. Through being an immigrant, through being sick, through feeling helpless because of financial aid they always stuck by my side and made me who I am today.

The biggest problem facing the world right now I believe is a lack of resources. It is a simple lack of resources for everybody and it isn't just that but it is oftentimes the way to get these resources are hidden. I was driving around last Friday night and I had to give a homeless woman twenty dollars and then she proceeded to tell me how badly she needed a kidney transplant. Furthermore we have one of the highest homeless populations amongst any other country, why? It is helpful to remind everybody that we are closer to poverty than we are to great wealth. A lack of resources also leaves us with a barbaric society. I was reading something a few weeks ago about how pilots are overworked and exhausted. Think about how many people are taking flights and our pilots are exhausted and overworked. That is simply inhumane and disgusting and in such a developed country, this should not be a problem we are faced with. I do believe the reason that there is so much suffering is because our government has fundamentally to its very core let us down. Gone are the days of JFK and him standing up on that podium, his adoring supporters looking at him and him asking us what we can do for the country, it is time that our country does for us. People go hungry, kids have to get jobs to try and live in the world, insurance is tied to employment which obviously is an awful idea. I think the lack of resources and definitely a lack of compassion from the American government to us working class American people who have gone through too much is the biggest problem we all face and if anyone says differently, they’re lying.

Education has shaped my understanding of the world starting from my kindergarten years to now, when I’m in college. Education is very important and it influences how we see the world around us. Since education has made such a huge impact in my life I feel like I see the world differently. I will go step by step and explain how education has given me a sort of other worldly view of the world. In kindergarten education was vital because I learned the alphabet, how to count, colors, etc. Knowing these things are important because they are the building blocks of our world. Even now when I go to the library-somewhere I love going-all the book authors are alphabetized so it would be difficult if I couldn’t tell you if A or V came first. Also I work with children at a children’s museum and I count with them all the time. In first grade I remember learning phonetic sounds and how to read. I learned the M sound and I remember us rubbing our bellies because it was delicious and I remember P was a big one because we all loved popcorn! In second grade we learned how to tell time on an analog clock which is very funny because I didn’t realize it at the time but I think that year that I was in second grade was the last year they stopped stressing the importance of it. A lot of my time is spent telling others the time on an analog clock. In third grade we were taught how to sit still and do a task. That was the first year where we took tests that mattered and were important. In fourth grade we were taught more about language and how even small words can make big words. In fifth grade we were taught about our bodies and how they change. In sixth grade we were taught about growing up! Education became something real that year because we had to recall things back in like third grade to help us out. In seventh grade we were taught biology, something that I really like and cells and how they separate and grow. In eighth grade we learned a lot about our history, America’s history and how things evolved and changed in a different way. In ninth grade I learned how to read music and not just read it but how to transform it into sound with my voice. That was the year I took chorus. In tenth grade I was taught long division and synthetic division in my math class, something that really helped me in my college algebra class. In junior year I got sick and had to miss a year of in person school but since I was homeschooled I learned education can happen in all ways. During my senior year I learned more about myself and how I evolve through time. Even now at twenty three I realize life is a constant learning and teaching moment. Our lives aren’t a straight line and we usually depend on a curve. As you can tell, education has shaped my understanding of the world greatly and I think it has made me a more compassionate and caring person.

A great personal finance lesson that I find important is to always plan ahead. That is something I learned when I was nineteen, close to starting my second year at FSW, and all my loans just fell through. I was crushed by what happened to me because I thought that was the end of my education but after months I was back at school, with a job, and a clear financial plan. I also have a 401(k) , something that I believe a lot of young people should have because the 401(k) is a backup plan. Say the worst thing in the world happens to you and I know a lot about bad things, at least then you’ll have that backup plan and you’ll have this sense of accomplishment that you saved that money for yourself and your future. Another personal finance lesson I find important is to have a student Credit Card. The student Credit Card I have gives me or anyone who has it 100 dollars for every A they recieve. Do you know how good that is? It’s one of the best personal finance tips ever because as college students we still always need our freedom.

1. I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor 2. Born Tired by Jhene Aiko 3. this is me trying by Taylor Swift 4. Crowded Places by BANKS 5. Trip by Jhene Aiko ft. Mali Music 6. Floating by Alina Baraz ft. Khalid 7. Best Years by 5 Seconds of Summer 8. Young Dumb and Broke Khalid

Education is vital. It opens many doors, doors otherwise bolted shut. I just think of the many smart and successful people I know. For example Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic woman to serve on the supreme court. Sonia went to Princeton University on a scholarship, something I hope to get to study at USF and she then attended Yale Law School after graduating summa cum laude from Princeton and I think of how graduating Summa Cum Laude from USF is a big goal of mine. I think of all these accomplishments from Sotomayor, a marginalized person, accomplishments that I would like to achieve and that would help me convince a peer to attend college. I oftentimes like to think of Harvey Milk. I love the story of Harvey and I look up to him. Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California paving the way for dozens of gay individuals. Harvey Milk attended New York State College which is now called The State University of New York at Albany. I think of all the odds stacked up against Milk especially since he lived his life in such a terrible time for gay people iin America. His education got him far and he helped so many people who would otherwise think they are alone and nobody cared about them. He used his degree for the good of people. I would explain how important education is, maybe not for us but even for the next generation, to have someone to look up to. Going to college breaks down barriers you would otherwise have to struggle with. College is so important and I would hate to see that forgotten.