Sometimes where you come from or who you grow up with determines who you become, for me that was many places and many people. Growing up, my dad was in the military; we would move around a lot because of his deployments. Moving around was difficult at first due to losing close friends and teams. It made me learn to not stress about the things I couldn’t control, I have carried that mind set throughout my whole life and it’s gotten me far. Constantly moving around as a kid was harsh till I got a bit older. I was never the type to distance myself. Since I was consistently moving, I yearned to connect with others, even if it was just for a short while. I learned from the relationships I made, cherished but, grew from them. Resilience is a strong gene in my family, or at least it feels like it is. My dad was conceived when his mother was sixteen to a man with a whole other family and life. He grew up poor in the Dominican Republic and when he was thirteen, he left the Caribbean to move to the states to live with his dad; my grandfather’s family. He came here as a malnourished little boy not knowing a lick of English. Growing up for him was hard because he was always mistreated being the “bastards’ child.” His family was poor and with him being a half sibling, favoritism was always shown. He persevered, graduated, and became a mechanic for the marines. He joined the marines to prove to himself that he could make it. I deeply admire that about my dad. His main goal in having children was to give them good plentiful lives, making them successful. Yes, we have struggled at times, but I say he did a pretty good job. My mom is the strongest woman I know. She grew up dirt poor, being the youngest of fourteen living off her family’s crops. Moving out at eight years old with strangers to pursue an academic future. She graduated high school in the Dominican Republic but sadly was not able to attend college like she had dreamt of and moved to the states. She somehow found my dad but that is for another time. She was seventeen when her and my dad got married, having me at only nineteen years old. She’d always dreamt of becoming a model but became a dental assistant for a little while. Though modeling never fell through she is happily living out a dream of being a mother of three. Growing up I had to be nearly perfect. Not only under the pressure of being the first generation of immigrants but a role model to my three younger brothers. Having to be well behaved while pursuing sports, clubs and a job, whilst maintaining good grades. Sometimes things wouldn’t be the fairest but through it all I’m grateful I grew up that way. It taught me to “stay busy,” staying busy helps keep the mind, body and soul productive so we don’t lose it all and go insane. I would say it worked since I am currently pursuing a sport I love, but most of all I am content. With me on my way to competing in a sport that I love at the level resulted in motivating my brothers to do the same. Which only made me work harder to be a good example for them; I pray they both succeed me.

When I was 14 years old I got heavy into drugs, I was smoking weed, vaping and taking opioids. I don't know what caused me to try it, but after the first taste I was hooked. At the time I was playing sports but quit to continue taking drugs. I was stealing from friends and family and selling my belongings, it made life feel better. My brothers were the first to notice because my weight dropped and my activity level decreased, they said they missed their older brother. They missed hanging out with me, playing sports, and our long conversations about girls and life. It hurt hearing them say that, but that didn't stop me it only made it worse. My parents started to assume stuff when my grades dropped but they never noticed the big changes since they were always working. I have two really good friends started into my poor habit. Now one is heavily addicted and the other has overdosed twice and isn't doing well. It's my fault they ended up like this, I introduced them to drugs and ruined their lives. It took me getting caught by my parents to quit, I didn't quit on my own I was forced to. I'm glad they forced me to quit because if hadn't I don't know where I'd be. I would probably be failing school, deathly skinny, and just overall unhappy. Getting caught made me look at life differently, I found my self getting angry that I was fiending for a piece of plastic, blade of grass, or something in a bottle. After I noticed those urges I was feeling were because I wasn't doing drugs it made me even angrier. I put that energy into something else and now I'm planning to compete at the collegiate level for track & field. I ran the drugs and feelings off, I pushing rusted weights and stabbed the ground with my feet until I didn't have those those feelings. It wasn't just my parents' force that made a change, I could've used the money from the job I had to do more and I could've done them at school. I made the changed because I saw what it did to me and the people I love, its poison. Looking back I didn't need to get into drugs, or more importantly get my friends into drugs. My best friend was like a brother to me, we related on almost everything. We were basically the same, person different font. He would tell me all the things he wanted to accomplish in life, he had dreams. At the time I didn't have any goals or aspirations, and it didn't bother me that he did. The day I got him to try is now the day I regret the most. He had always turned away from drugs, but on that day I had finally convinced him. After the first taste he was hooked just like I was and before we knew it we doing drugs left and right. Once I got caught my parents cut me off from them, but they were good family friends and understood what happened and didn't get angry or blame me. Once I was finally able to hang out with them I was sober and playing sports, whilst they had fallen into hole and couldn't get out. In the end, my best friend has now overdosed twice and I don't know where he is or how he's doing, and it hurts knowing it resulted from my doings.