Adversity is a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune. showing courage in the face of adversity. My name is Diego Linares and I have faced adversity and am overcoming it. As a kid I was not the best student, I did not get the best grades and I would disappoint my parents. I always wanted to get into the medical field and study neurology but I realized that with the grades I had and my bad habits in school, there was no point in trying and I should just try to find a different career. While this was happening my father was a journeyman carpenter in Seattle Washington. He would be overloaded with physical and mental stress and one day it all fell on him and he had one of the worst strokes he would have to this date. He lost Vision in his right eye, speech slurring was occurring, and neurological and personality changes. After many months he was able to return to work as a carpenter but very limited due to his continuing recovery. After some months he was legally disabled and was not able to work anymore as a carpenter. He later had 2 more strokes in the following years which made it official that he would not be able to enter the work field again. My father was making around 100,000$ - 125,000$ a year and this made us have a very smooth and stable life. With him not being able to work anymore, there is no large income coming into the household, and my mother now has to work long hours and even overtime to cover groceries and other necessities. It's a shame because Social Security does not pay far enough for things like mortgages or miscellaneous bills. I gained a stronger passion for medicine and neurology, and specifically vascular neurology (stroke-related studies). I wanted to, and still want to research how strokes affect the brains scientifically, why they happen, and treatments. Helping people has always been something I wanted to do. Because of this, I had to get my first job and I worked every day after school because I had to start saving money for things like textbooks and such. I got more serious in school and used my working hours as in-school credit to get extra credits because at the time I was behind on credits for my junior year. I did every credit recovery option I could and I am now ahead in credits and am on track to graduate this year. Starting my senior year I made the decision to do Running Start, which was a great idea. I was able to knock out some classes with College credit specified to the major of biology. As a student, I have made immense changes regarding my education and have made better habits to hopefully Guide me to the career that I dream of. Fulfilling my dream and making my parents proud is something that I want to do, my parents being immigrants from El Salvador, not having a lot of money, and having a tough life motivates me to continue my dreams and work hard. In the past, I have taken the opportunity I have for granted, I want to make the dream I have come true with the resources that are around me. The only problem that presents itself and that scares me is financial problems and loans. Life is a lot harder financially without the head of the house supporting me and my family. From being a bad student to having a father who could not work anymore due to multiple strokes, this transformed me into the student and person I am today. I have dreams of becoming a Neurologist and helping shape the future of medicine and brain/stroke research. The title, Diego A. Linares M.D will be a dream come true.