Ever since I was in middle school I have been volunteering at the Botanical Gardens here in San Antonio. I have also volunteered in parks, doing the same thing as the botanical gardens, picking up trash. This has helped me learn that there have been many negative things going on with our environment. Many people are oblivious to what is happening to their own homes, and turning a blind eye to all the pollution affecting our environment. This inspired me to pursue a degree in environmental science. I want to help my community as much as possible by reversing the effects that we have caused on our homes. Eventually I not only want to help our community, but I want to help the whole world.

Soccer has been my life for as long as I can remember. Every day watching as many games as I could, watched my brothers play, and played myself in school. This sport that has been a part of my life for so long has indeed caused me to develop multiple traits throughout and has affected my life greatly. First I learned discipline. My classes have never been the easiest in high school, having to go through Dual Credit courses and AP courses while playing soccer. To be able to continue to play on the team I would have to have an above-satisfactory grade in my class, and this gave me motivation to be able to complete my work and be able to keep my grades as high as possible in these classes. Not only that I stayed focused and paid attention to both my coaches and my teachers. At first, I believed this was just so I could get more minutes while playing, but then I realized I was doing this because I wanted better for myself in the classroom, in life, and sports. Next playing soccer helped me to take control of my life. Like I said earlier none of the classes I have been taking in high school have been the easiest. I wanted to challenge myself, but to take challenges I had to sacrifice time. Not only that, I also began working at 16 right before my season began. For the past two years, I have been forced to learn how to balance work, sports, school, and my personal life. This took a huge toll on me the first year, making me want to quit everything and just lay on my bed without doing anything at all. After the season was over I was still in one piece and I realized that this was because I had learned to take control of how I use my time and just my whole life in general. I was able to sit down and map out how my days were going to go so I wouldn't break down. This transferred to by day to day-to-day experiences. Now when I have my things weighing on my back at once, I can remain calm and just map out how I will be able to deal with these things one at a time. Last but not least, soccer has helped me learn how to work with other people like I had never known before. Since I have played on my school's team for many years, I have met so many people I would not have met otherwise. Sitting in a locker room and connecting with my teammates has become crucial during the games because one of the most important parts of soccer is team chemistry. Soccer helped me learn how to connect with my teammates to improve this chemistry and that created so many connections throughout the school I would not have had if it were not for soccer. I do not consider myself very extroverted so playing with people I do not know has helped me escape my shell.