With my extremely short time living, it's easy to believe that I haven’t accomplished much. I’m not one of those honor students that gets straight A’s, graduates early, and goes on to be a doctor or lawyer. But when I take the time to look at everything that brought me to be the person that I am today, I find myself seeing those achievements that seemed so insignificant before. One of those achievements is graduating highschool. With the many roadblocks that could’ve stopped me from getting my diploma, I’m happy that I can say that I say I have that now. Like a lot of students had, my highschool experience started online due to the quarantine in 2020. With having to try and figure out assignments on my own, not being able to socialize outdoors, and not having any former connections that I could keep in contact with, I was left with a looming feeling of isolation and ended up falling into a depression. Thankfully, my mother had taken notice and decided to sign me up for virtual therapy sessions, but it was still too late to save my grades. I had failed about half my classes for the freshman year and was put into summer school to make up the gap. I had never felt lower. I was never a perfect student but I had always been able to keep up good grades in all of my classes. So, to go from that to failing half my classes felt like a shot to the stomach. While I felt shame, I had no other choice at that point and went to summer school. Even though there were still feelings of depression that lingered, It was still a bit easier being able to speak with a teacher if need be. After finishing summer school and passing my previously failed, it was just the 3 next years to get past. Despite there still being some roadblocks ranging from me having to miss half a semester due to surgery to rude teachers that couldn’t care less if I passed or not, I had managed to keep my grades up enough to finally graduate. With everything that happened heading up to my graduation, I feel that it taught me that even when it may seem like you're in a hopeless situation, it will soon pass and your hard work will be worth it in the end. By learning that, I am now able to attend college and pursue a bachelor's degree in history. I hope that in the future, I gain my degree and am able to become an archivist, working with important pieces of history.

There was a time when I couldn't have been older than 4 or 5 when my mom first explained to me and my sister what a dollar meant. It was around Christmas and our mom got us both a new piggy bank (mine being purple and my sister’s being red) she showed us how we could put dollars and coins into it, and if we saved enough we could buy cool things like candy or toys. Of course, little me was stoked at the idea but, me being little, I still didn’t fully grasp the importance of saving my money. Later on, something people around me had always had me remember is that if you save your money now, it will help a lot more in the future. Right now, though it is easy to despair about the current state of the American economy with prices going up due to inflation, the reason I'm still relatively afloat is due to the things both family and teachers have taught me about financial literacy. My family not only showed me how important it was to save but also that I should put thought into the things I purchase, especially if it's a more expensive item than normal. When I was a bit younger, I was sent on a field trip we were having with our summer camp group with a packed lunch and five dollars. Of course, now, five dollars isn't worth as much but when I was little, it was equivalent to fifty. The trip was to a mini safari so the gift shop was safari-themed with alligator and giraffe stuffed animals, keychains, bracelets, and other items. What caught my eye was the big walking sticks that (at the time) were just as tall as me. The only problem was that it cost five dollars. After worrying over my decision for a while, I ultimately decided on the stick. After all that, I realized I never bought a snack. By the time I got home, both my sister and mom reprimanded me for my poor choice, but that experience taught me how to seriously think through my financial decisions. At school, they used to talk about saving for college and even showed us Brainpop videos that taught us things like the difference between a credit and debit card. These things will help me be able to build a good credit score and prevent me from gaining debt from misusing my cards. I'm still learning things today. I'm 18 now and I'll soon have to worry about taxes, bills, and insurance, but my family has been with me the whole way and has been helping me to figure it all out. From purple piggy banks to 5-foot tall walking sticks, I've learned a lot about money over the years and find that those experiences will take me farther in life.