An important life lesson that I have learned is how I shouldn't let others make me feel ashamed of who I am. Growing up I had to deal with a lot of racism, kids would tell me that I don't look like my ethnicity, and teachers wouldn't even try to pronounce my name correctly. This continued still until I finally got out of high school, I had changed my full name to a small nickname, because I was tired of everyone always mispronouncing it or mocking my name. Until I got into college, I realized how important it is for me to be proud of who I am, my ethnicity as a Latina, and my beautiful name, that is unique unlike others around me. I proudly help people pronounce my name, and they actually try now because they are respectful, and I go by my full name and my nick name now just to be kind to my peers around me. Though I regret not standing up for myself growing up, I look back on this and see it as an important lesson. I know there is a lot of fighting going on in this world, and though I am a hispanic woman and I am apart of the LGBTQ+ community, not everyone is going to like this, and I have learned from my past that, I do not care what others think of me. I learned I can be proud of who I am, and embrace my culture, instead of letting others mock it, I correct them and teach them about it. Currently there are more open people who are respectful, and to these people I feel comfortable being myself around them. I now surround myself around others who aren't going to judge me based off my gender, ethnicity, or sexuality, and instead they appreciate me for who I am. Though it wasn't easy, I cut off al the toxic people that were in my life who treated me poorly, and I now have a small close group of friends who love me. and though I had to experience being mistreated and was mocked, I now know who I need to put myself around, and I am living a better, happier school experience in college.

I apply my creativity daily in my life, by simply existing and letting ideas come to me. As an artist I am constantly making creative artworks, and in order for me to find some inspiration or ideas, I will be active daily by either going outside or simply watching a movie, and I'll find inspiration from that. I have to apply creativity in my life because my future career depends on it, I want to be a storyboard artist and character designer for films and television shows, and for this, i need to be creative. I have always been a creative kid, and I think this career will suit me perfectly because I am constantly creative due to my outgoing funny personality and my mind is always searching for something new. I am always drawing concept art for new characters, story backgrounds, even it it seems simple it is not, I have to come up with a new face, new body type, a type of clothing, hair texture, colors of the persons skin and clothing, its all a big lengthy process that comes with being an artist. Especially with creating a background, where is this background taking place, what is the environment like that surrounds it, the weather, the time of day, is it night time. so many steps that I have to apply being creative towards in order for me to accomplish my artworks.

For my eighteenth birthday, I was given an iPad, and with this iPad, I have used it to create my traditional artwork into digital artwork, and start my path towards being a digital artist. I am currently a self-taught digital artist and animator, I usually draw on my sketchpad first with a pencil, then I trace this art on my iPad with a program used by many artists called Procreate, and from there I can change the scale of the art, move certain parts of the artwork, color it, add detail such as shading and highlights and more, backgrounds, other characters, whatever I want. I will draw directly from my iPad too, such as when I do animations, I have to continuously draw more layers on the canvas and continue it until my animation is complete. Animation took a huge role in my life growing up and currently, because I am always blown away by all these continuous creative new projects that are able to become airing and successful television shows. Cartoons made for kids even have a big inspiration for me, such as cartoons that are seen on Cartoon Network, and Disney, because the writing for each show is unique and is so clever. Whether they are protagonists or antagonists, the characters are easy to get attached to, their character design, behavior, and personality. In the future, my goals are to work for the animation industry and become a full-time animator and storyboard artist, as well as an art director and character designer. I want to bring my creative ideas and add on to the many others that are already in the industry, as well as the future ideas that will come. I want to animate stories, whether it's 3d or 2d, and bring stories to life.

Throughout my middle school and high school education, I was a big drama kid, I loved acting and putting on shows because it was enjoyable to perform stories in front of a live audience. In order for me to continue my small passion, I had to audition for roles and memorize many lines. I never cared for my education, I always did my best for tests however I never actually studied for them, and I didn't realize this until I had to start studying for my first ever midterms my freshman year of college. I used the past theater skill I had trained my brain to do, memorization, and applied this skill to studying my study guides. I create flip cards of each word or phrase I have to learn, and continuously look at them for hours. Another method I use is also another form of memorization, but instead I physically write what I need to memorize. This method is actually my favorite strategy because I usually turn some sentences into songs and give them a rhythm. This helps me study that subject more effectively because if my brain thinks of it as a song, it's easier to memorize and it has a catchy pattern to it. Due to these constant strategies I used throughout my first year in college, I successfully completed the entire year will all A’s, and I have never been more proud of myself. I never accomplished all A’s before because I didn't have the motivation in middle or high school. When I reached college, I realized I needed to take my education seriously. I never thought of myself as a good student until I used these studying habits. Now I happily active my goals by putting in effort, and keeping the persistent motivation to succeed.

Nature is one of the most important natural resources I value in my everyday life because we get a lot of our sources from nature such as water, sunlight, the weather, fruits and vegetables, trees, and many other things that we need for survival and weather that fuels nature itself. I have always had a comforting connection with nature, especially the moon. I believe many don't see as much value in nature anymore or not as much as others do, because they are used to living in it, and they don’t see it as unique when it is. It is so amazing how we live on a planet, how we live off of water, food, and sunlight, all of it is remarkable. Not all, but so many are so used to living on earth, they don’t respect the it or the natural nature of the earth, like ecosystems and animals. Nature and oceans have become filthy due to pollution, toxic fumes caused by cars, toxic waste, and global warming, all caused by humans. I have witnessed people litter, I've seen them do it from their cars, or just out in the street, and they don’t care. Littering is such a horrible act to commit because your singular piece of trash adds to the billions of garbage that has been littered already, and it continues to pile up, polluting the earth. We can’t live without fresh water, that keeps our bodies alive, sunlight, that provides Vietnam D, or trees, that simply provide air. I love nature and appreciate it because it's naturally here with us, and we live in it and need to respect that, as well as how nature provides us with beautiful things such as plants, animals, ecosystems, and more.

I had to use persistence during a rough time in my life during high school. I grew up being very athletic and it all ended suddenly during my sophomore year. I was forced to quit sports due to my leg ligaments being short and causing a constant pain I have experienced daily since the earliest moments of my childhood I can faintly remember. It was a horrible clash for me in this period of my life because everything felt like it had turned into a sudden stop. No more sports? But that's all I've known, all I've done my entire life. What am I now? A nobody? I struggled with my identity due to this, I had no others hobbies or talents besides my persistence in my competitive running career and other sports I was gifted in. It was a drastic change for my mental health and my physical health. My body was always used to the constant training and exercise weekly, and then it suddenly came to a stop. I had to figure out how I could still continue cardio, without hurting myself. Over time I found out I had a new talent and hobby, which is my passion for drawing. My future dream career is working in the animation industry, where I would be able to help create stories and bring them to life. What made me figure out this sudden passion was my persistence in not giving up after I had to quit being an athlete. I am very thankful for my self-motivation and what had happened to me, because even though it was a drastic change in my life, I overcame obstacles and found a new talent, and I had to be persistent in my self-motivation in order to find my passion for the arts.

To be generous is a very important character trait I often look for in people. In my life my inner circle is full of loved ones who have this trait, and I return it to them. When I worked at fast food services, I encountered many strangers and served them, and I saw many different personalities and emotions driven from people. Though I was a minor, I have had adults yell at me, though they have no idea who i am, and they are complete strangers, they still decide to lash out for unknown reasons. I have also met customers who were so kind, I would be generous and give them extra food. Generosity has an important role when you encounter others, because even if you do something small for someone, they will likely remember it for a long time. My abuelita gave me one of her bracelets she bought from Spain, and as a kid I never thought much of it and put it away. Until recently she had passed, I was going through my closet when i found it, and I instantly remembered the moment she gave it to me, and now I wear it daily. I love going out with my friends and I will always find cute things to buy for my mother and my sister. Even if it something small like an animal charm or more garden trinket or a shirt, I love spreading generosity to my family and friends because my actions will reflect to them and they then act generous to others, and the cycle continues.

From my California K-12 public school experience, I would say it did prepare me for college, however there were a lot of flaws in my education. The major source of this outcome is from teachers I experienced while growing up. Starting in elementary school my fourth grade teacher was verbally abuse towards a few kids she decided to dislike, and among the few was me. I didn't realize it at the time, she was actually racist, and purposely targeted kids of color. I remember vividly her targeting other hispanic children in the room besides me, and while she was extremely mean to us, she left the other children alone. I was a saint in school, I always feared of getting in trouble or getting snapped at, so I didn't understand why her behavior was towards me was straight up bullying. I vividly remember one time she took my friend to stand in front of the class with her homework, and in a second she snatched the papers out of her hands and confidently said "This is what a bad paper looks like.", and tore it up in front of the class and threw the pieces into a nearby garbage. My friend started crying obviously from shock and felt humiliated, she was sent outside. We were only fourth graders, children, and the entire year had to deal with a closed minded senior, as our teacher. Should I have told my parents what was going on in the classroom? I did, I came home crying one time after she had done something mean to me, and my mother went to the school, but they did nothing. I have no idea if other kids said anything about her behavior, but the lack of action from my previous school is unacceptable. In high school I experienced a lot of lazy teachers, the majority of them lacked any effort into their teaching. I had a biology teacher my freshmen year, who instead of actually teaching, just gave my class books and pre-questioned homework, then he would go to his desk and read. I remember students him questions, and he would simple reply with a "I don't know, thats what your book is for." I doubt he even looked at the material he was giving us. I understand not all teachers are perfect, but schools need to have more of a professional background check for oncoming teachers. My father is a teacher and he is perfectly fine as a teacher, he treats his students with respect and puts effort into his teaching. My experience with K-12 wasn't overall the worst, but it's a problem when you have immature adults teaching minors. Students look up to teachers, and if they're seeing bad behavior from them, it might carry on. For me it did, I got lazy during high school because none of my teachers cared, so I thought why should I care either. Academically my schools did fine, however, the person teaching the education needs to be professional about their job. Teachers are the ones in the classroom setting an example and need to put effort while they are teaching, so then the students will receive an education and give effort as well. and doing it with a poor attitude will. I had more teachers luckily who did care about our education and I feel like I was prepared for college, however this does not excuse the bad behaviors of my previous teachers. Public schools need to be more cautious about who they are hiring and seek professional teachers who care about students receiving an education.

There are many who have their own interpretation of what the meaning of life is for them, some believe it is to complete personal goals, others may think it has no meaning at all. The meaning of life isn’t about the destination, but about the journey and making memories along the way. I believe the only true meaning of life is finding your own way to enjoy it. This could be very simple like taking that nap you wanted or something big like completing something you had on your bucket list. Many take life for granted because they are so used to their simple routine, which is understandable because we all go to school, graduate, and work for the rest of our youth until we retire. The true reason why you should value life is because you are here on earth for a limited time. I try to see my friends as often as I can, because we are only at this stage in our lives once. We are all adults now, and I am thankful to have met them. We hold so many cherishable memories together from our childhoods. Even though the transition from childhood to adulthood is strange, you have others that are right beside you during this and now into adulthood. Everyone is living their lives differently and for the amount of pressure it is to find success and a stable job is intense. I am proud of those who simply choose to get out of bed in the morning. We all have our own way of finding enjoyment throughout our daily lives, so the reason why being in the present is the true meaning of life is because you are constantly making memories and interacting with people who will no longer be alive in a-hundred years.

Growing up I have never had to experience a school bully, which I am very thankful for, however one time in high school I had a friend who was dealing with something troubling. When she would park to go to school, these group of boys would be purposely sitting outside their cars and begin to catcall her. They do this to any girls who park in this parking lot, and no one has ever stood up to them because everyone is trying to get to class. This infuriated me because it upsets me when a person decides to ridicule someone else, people they don’t personally know too. I took action and parked by her one school morning. As we walked by the group they were quiet at first, until one of them called me a slur. I talked back back at them, because it was absolutely how ridiculous their behavior was. Parking at the top of the lot so you could purposely stalk out for girls just to verbally harass them? After I exchanged some words my friend and I walked away, and I knew my actions put them in their place. What disappoints me about this situation still is although I did the right thing, stood up for my friend and myself, the harassment continued toward girls. The reason why I am so selfless and I wanted to help my friend is because I have experienced being catcalled, and its not a good feeling. Although she had to change her routine, she became happier and we would walk together to our classes with no issues. I have always been selfless and motivated to help others I see in need, I stand up for family, friends, strangers, anyone who is in need and help bring resolve to situations.

I started to appreciate my life after I survived a car accident. I was on the freeway when a car had hit me while making a lane change, and somehow didn’t see my car. Luckily, they managed to hit my car directly in the middle, but if they had hit my car a little more towards the front or a little more towards the rear, the sudden force would have caused my car to spin out. Since we were both going 75 mph, who knows how either of us would have turned out. What scared me most was how quickly my life could have changed, or even ended. The driver who hit me, their family innocently ate a meal as they were returning home from a trip, while I was an innocent high schooler trying to get home from work. I am very thankful to have come out of my car accident alive and unharmed, and from that day on, I realized not to take my life for granted. Any day could be your last, anybody’s last, and people don't cherish the things they have, the people they’ve met, the time they have left. I can’t imagine how my family would have suffered if I had gotten hurt, severely injured, or had never returned home. For a while after that accident I was scared to drive. How could I trust my life in the hands of others around me? Or what if next time it's my fault? Worrying about the future gets you nowhere. I learned from this experience that I ended to appreciate my life and enjoy the present, not dwell on the past, and as some say, treat every day as if it were your last.

I’ve had many dreams before about my future in adulthood, and one that sticks with me the hardest is being an animator and working for the animation industry. It is my dream career to have the opportunity to help others create projects so that many can enjoy, a studio I have my eyes set on, is Cartoon Network or Disney. I love both of these companies because they both have been showing more culture and LGBTQ+ representation, and I would love to join their team and create more cartoons for kids to enjoy. I am so passionate about my future career because of animation itself and how it inspired me growing up. It began with my early childhood, I would watch Disney 2D animated movies constantly, and from there I continued to watch cartoons. I love the beauty of animation, how we can draw our imagination into reality for others to see. I enjoyed my childhood because I remember a lot of old animated movies and tv shows I watched, and I want to do the same thing for our future generations and be behind the scenes in creating these films. In this future career, I will be helping others who are like-minded as me, and together we will help create movies and cartoon series for anyone out there to enjoy. Animation films bring people together because there are many I have met in my life and people online are so passionate about these cartoons. With these cartoons, people can express themselves and what they like to watch, helping them find more people with similar interests, and many recreate artwork based on these shows. Animation is morley focused now digitally, so I believe with my constant drive for drawing digital artworks, I will be able to reach my dream career.

I had never really cared about getting an education until I realized I was wasting my life. Though I was still in high school, I decided to take action and prepare myself for college. I got part time jobs while I was completing my high school education, and I had planned on taking the SAT. However due to Covid, this was canceled and I never got the opportunity to take the testing. When I was applying for college’s I never had a certain one I wanted to go to, so I applied for whatever was convenient. That's when I saw a new animation program would be starting at this private university. Seeing that this is my current passion, I applied, and about a month later I was accepted into William Jessup University. I love this school so much, though I am not Christian, I enjoy the community because they are kind and accepting of me, and others like me. The only problem is, I am struggling finically, my schools tuition is extremely expensive. I am a self taught animator, and my main goal for the future is I would love to be a future animator working for an entertainment industry, and I will complete this goal by continuing practicing my artwork. I will share my ideas and help others with theirs. Building creativity off of others is an important skill to have in the entertainment industry because you need to work together with one another in oder to accomplish your goal for your show. You need character designs to be unique and recognizable, backgrounds that are astounding and memorizing. I have a strong passion for animation because I love the concept of how people are able to bring their imagination into reality, by drawing it into recognizable moving motion pictures.

Growing up I was always athletic, I started off playing soccer and it grew from there. Up to high school, I was competing in Track and Field and Cross Country. I've always had pain in my knees while I participated in sports, and I ignored it. All was going well for me until I collapsed from pain during practice. I went to a physical therapist and she revealed an issue involving my iliotibial bands. This ligament is in your legs and it connects your hip to your knees. What my issue is, is these ligaments are too short, it's causing my constant knee pain. I had to stop participating in sports completely or else I would cause permanent damage to my legs. This period of my life is so far the worst experience I have faced, I was so used to being an athlete and relying on my athletic skills for my future, that I was devastated I had to drop everything. I felt like a nobody until Covid struck and the world went into lockdown, I had time to find a new passion. I got into my old passion for drawing, and eventually this led me to who I am today. I am currently a self-taught digital artist, and these years of practice has shown me how my life's changed drastically ever since I quit being an athlete. With my current skills and experience, my hope for the future is to become an animator working for an entertainment company. I have high hopes for the future and this career because animation is only becoming more popular, and I want to join a team where we all create something for others to enjoy, something permanent you can always go back to and watch, I want to bring stories to life.

In life we all have our own enjoyment that encourages us to strive forward, wether it be something small and simple, or big with great importance. The major things that encourage me to have the strength to continue my life and going forward is my passion towards animation, and my family and friends. I am very passionate about the beauty of animation because I find it so fascinating how we have the ability to put action into our ideas, and create them into animation. The reason why this fuels my life and keeps me motivated is because I get inspiration from these shows. In the future I want to be able to create my own art and stories and share it all with others, and the way these animations are presented is truly remarkable. I have always been very outgoing and I love making friends and family happy. Another thing that fuels my drive to go forward in life, is all of them. I have earned and lost many friends throughout my life, and the current ones that are close to me I have never been more thankful for. These people fuel my life because we have gone through so may situations and experiences with each other, wether they are good and bad, and we have many more to come. The same with applies with my family, I love my siblings so much because we've grown up together. I'm overjoyed knowing my younger siblings will be attending high school next year, and seeing my friends who are now in college like me. Seeing all my loved ones around me grow up is a blessing, because we all have learned so much from existing in one another's lives, and they all give me the courage to keep going on in life.

Growing up in a town with fewer people of color was never easy for me. I had always been treated weirdly because of my name and my skin color. Students and teachers would never make an effort to pronounce my name correctly, and no one would bother to ask me. I had people who didn’t even know me try to tell me what race I am, or some would try to convince me why I am not Hispanic because of my tan appearance. I had to deal with racist behavior that made me insecure about my own name and appearance, and for the longest time, I just went along with it. I was too afraid to speak my mind. I never once stood up for myself when people said my skin color was weird, and I never corrected a teacher when they would pronounce my name wrong. I finally began to speak my mind when I went to college. I had a fresh start, a new chance to tell people how to pronounce my name correctly. I did this on my first days of classes and everything went fine, I haven’t heard any stupid comments from anyone since my old high school. I definitely feel more comfortable with my current reputation at my school because there are more like me in my classes, and I feel safe being myself around others. I'm finally able to speak my mind after dealing with so many hurtful comments, and though the experience wasn’t pleasant, I have learned from it. I confidently speak my mind and stand up for myself now when it comes to my beautiful name and ethnicity. I know there are some out there who still won’t be able to understand, so I’ll do my part and speak my mind.

During my freshman year of college, I met three amazing young women who are all in the same major as me, and constantly we are all going to each other for support. As art majors, we constantly have to create artwork, and recently, I have come up with a plan to help build more confidence and encourage my friends with their artwork. Every year there are anime conventions, and near my area, there are two. Now that we are eighteen, we all could apply for selling our artwork at this convention. The four of us have our own unique art styles, and with all of our creativity combined, we would gain attention to our artwork. The reason why I am encouraging them to do this is I noticed all of us are insecure about our art, so I believe this experience will help us feel more confident in expressing ourselves and build more passion for our artwork. When I did sports, I was always encouraging my teammates because in cross country we ran together always, during practices, and during competitions, we all were striving for the same goal. I even encourage strangers online with whatever it may be because I believe if you encourage someone it will help them with their insecurities and strengthen their confidence in themselves or whatever it may be they are struggling with. When I was competing in soccer I was always being encouraged by my teammates and families on the sidelines, because they all had faith in me when I was about to score a goal on the opposing team or save the ball from going into our goal. Even though this happened so long ago it had a great impact on me because I still go back and think about these moments.

I have never had thought of creating a bucket list until I was in a car accident over a year ago. When I came home I realized how quickly I could have been gone, my life almost ended. Though I haven't achieved anything on this list yet, I am getting close to experiencing it. Two things I am most persistent about accomplishing on my bucket list are permanently getting rid of my constant knee pain, and to travel with friends. First on my bucket list is I want to permanently fix a current issue I have with my hips that is causing constant pain in my knees. I have been to physical therapy and I was given therapy exercises that may help get rid of the pain. I have tried to achieve this goal, but I gave up after a year. In the back of my mind I doubted myself, and convinced myself the therapy wouldn't work. Despite my worrying, I'm not giving up again. I need to get over this obstacle so I am not dealing with constant pain for the rest of my life. My second goal is I want save enough money so I can to travel with friends. I want to get out of my comfort zone and experience some fun with my long known friends. We are all currently trying to save up for a trip to either Disneyland or Disneyworld, the only issue is we all are in school right now and need to focus the majority of our money on our education. I also want to do this because I have traveling anxiety, and I am used to going with my family everywhere if I ever travel, so I want to get over this fear by traveling with my friends.

For the majority of my life I was athletic, and I was confident in my skill for sports and Karate, but with my appearance, not at all. I never realized how bad it was until I was out of school for a year due to the world being quarantined. During this period I was away from my social life with no judgment, and I decided to become my ideal self. I began to buy clothing I liked, I cut my hair, and I was pretty happy for a while. I have never been a fan of taking selfies or posting on social media, I wasn’t happy confident with my appearance. I decided I needed this to change, and it did. A more recent issue is I struggle with having confidence in my artwork. I am guilty of comparing my own artwork to others, and due to this I never feel like my artwork is worthy of looking good. I love my art, but I'm too shy to share it with my friends or post it online. A goal I have made for myself to get over this is to start creating stickers and prints of my artwork and post them online to see if anyone has an interest in purchasing my artwork. Being confident is very important to me, in order to achieve future success, I need to be confident in myself and my artwork skills. If I want to be a future animator, I need to teach myself now how to be confident in my art. If I keep repeating self-doubt, I am never going to improve. I have learned how to teach myself how to be confident in my overall appearance, now I am on a path to start teaching myself how to be confident in my artwork.

I treat others with empathy because I understand the value of our current existence. Though many don’t tend to think about life deeply, I do. I treat strangers around me with empathy because you can’t guess how a person may act towards you based on their appearance or their beliefs. I sympathize with many around me because I am a part of the 97 percent who have experienced sexual assault, and I’ve heard too many stories. From close family members and friends, to complete strangers online, many have opened up and shared about their trauma, and it's heartbreaking to hear so many of us have experienced the despicable actions of others. What is frustrating about the majority of society today is people can't simply live in peace with one another due to their differences, and they are choosing to be this way. Being open-minded and respecting another person's personal beliefs' is acceptable, and there wouldn't be conflict. Being an open-minded person needs to be more taught because if you're accepting of everything that may seem different or new, you'll live your life learning about other things, instead of rejecting anything new you come across, or not having an interest in it at all. I have empathy for all because the majority of people all have similar experiences, and you never know what stage a person is going through in their life. I used to work in the fast-food business, and I always treated customers with welcoming behavior. A simple smile or a small act of kindness could make someone's day because we are all here on Earth for a limited amount of time, so might as well live your life by treating others with respect and having empathy, instead of living your days being close-minded and alone.

As I inhale and exhale, I can feel my muscles begin to loosen. As I concentrate on my breaths, I keep my eyes closed and keep my mind blank. I learned how to meditate when I took Karate lessons, with it, I am able to calm myself down and relax. When the world was forced to shut down, I was a junior in high school, and my mental health has never been the same since. Even though its been two years, I feel like I am stuck as my past self. Meditation is an important coping mechanism, because I am able to take my mind off of everything I experienced that has caused my anxiety to increase. Another healthy method I practice to better my mental health is exercising. I am physically active, I am doing cardio by running or practicing karate. Being active and practicing Karate helps me mentally because when I am working out, it takes my mind off of my worries similar to when I meditate. I feel less stressed after I complete my workouts. Stress physically feels like my temple contains a build-up of junk, clogged inside my head, a pressure, like my head is full. When I go running outside or I practice a kata, I can feel all that pressure in my head slowly relieve itself, like pulling away a knot. Taking care of my mental health is one of my top priorities besides feeling myself and getting rest because I can’t function if I am mentally distressed. When I don't meditate or exercise, my anxiety and stress can increase quickly, causing a build up of both. Meditation and exercise are extremely important coping mechanisms because for me they always take away built-up anxiety and stress.

Out of everything I have explored throughout my life, my most favorable hobby is my passion for drawing. I always had ideas and needed to express them somehow, and since kindergarten, I have been drawing. I have to practice drawing constantly in order for my art style to improve, and the more I do so, it begins to feel easier. I draw more comfortably with a simple sketchpad and a pencil, but recently I have been practicing my art skills digitally. Besides my constant drive for drawing, I have a creative drive for crafting jewelry and making stickers. What inspired me to start creating jewelry of my own was during quarantine two years ago I was inspired by people I saw doing the same online. I began to collect beads of all sorts, along with charms, string, and wire. I have made my own earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. I enjoy doing this small hobby when I am stressed and need something to do to take my mind off of everything. I love jewelry making because I make things with my friends, and I will make jewelry for them. The last hobby I enjoy is making stickers. We all enjoy entertainment such as movies, television series, cartoons, books, and more. What I love doing is I create stickers of characters based on these media, and I use a website to print them for me. I am up to date with a lot of trending shows and movies right now and I enjoy drawing characters and scenes from these shows. I want to share my enjoyment with everyone out there who enjoys the same content as me, and by putting stickers of my digital art up, people can have merchandise of their own from another fan of their favorite show.

One thing that gives me hope that the future will be better is the people who will help take action into convincing America's leaders, to changing our current gun laws. Recently an Elementary school in Uvalde Texas, was attacked by a boy who had just turned eight-teen a few weeks prior. He bought himself two automatic assault rifles, boasted about his guns and threatening the school on two social media platforms, and did the cruel deed. Not even two weeks ago from this school shooting, another eight-teen year old had planned an attack, traveled to Buffalo New York, and attacked many innocent people of color, while they were simply shopping at their local grocery store. I have experienced a life threatening situation back when I was a six-grader. A man had shot a police officer and was on the run, he came to my hometown because he wanted to take his son out of school. My entire school was forced to go in lockdown, I remember being outside during recess, when teachers began yelling at everyone to get inside a classroom. At first I didn’t think it was serious, until our teacher read aloud and told us what as going on. Immediately everyone panicked, I had never seen so many of my peers look so afraid. Some were crying, others frightened in silence, not knowing what would happen. We were in the dark for six hours, and when it was all over, I had never felt so relieved. I never want any children, teenagers, or adults to ever go through the horrors I experienced. We shouldn’t be afford of sending our loved ones to a school, where they are supposed to feel safe and have a great education, not a life or death experience. Kids are completely innocent when it comes to violence, and the fact that all American schools have to teach students how to avoid a gunman, is unacceptable. If America had their gun laws in control, none of this would keep happening. At least have those who want to own armory, a simple background check, or a more higher age limit, or have more than one adult present if one wants to purchase a gun. Anything at all can help prevent these horrid attacks. Why can eighteen year olds legally purchase a killing weapon, when they legally cannot drink until they are twenty-one? It is absolutely ridiculous that this is apparent in our society today. Guns are made to kill, regardless of whoever is behind the gun, they are made to kill. People can buy them for self defense, but we are risking so many future lives by allowing murderers to purchase whatever they want. One thing that gives me hope for the future of America is the many minds around me who agree with my stance. With enough persuasion and teamwork, my hope for the future is that we can convince those in charge to take action to gun control. We can’t loose anymore innocent lives.

I have a talent for my past athletics, and currently have a talent for the arts. Starting at the age of seven I began to play sports like soccer, basketball and baseball, and eventually, I went to track and field, and cross country. My talent is with running and long distance endurance, I can run for hours without having to stop. I competed in races for both sports, each race was about three or five miles, and I would run under ten-minute miles in order to surpass a lot of runners. For practicing I would train every day, morning or after school, I would run up to thirty or forty miles per week. Practice contained different workout sessions; long-distance running, hill repeats or sprints. When I had to quit running I had more time to focus on my art skills, and since then I have been practicing my artwork. I started out drawing with paper and pencil, then I was gifted an I-pad, allowing me to draw digitally. I practice my art skills daily by coming up with ideas of what to draw. On days I can’t think of anything, I use a reference. I draw a scene or a character just to practice anatomy, perspective, and character design. I mostly draw human people with my cartoonish style. I love redrawing fictional or real people with my art style. Drawing daily takes up a lot of my time, I am usually drawing four hours a day. I take occasional breaks because I don’t want to get burnout. On days I don’t practice I always look back on old artwork and see if I can improve it. I am thankful for my talents in athletics and the arts, I continue each of my talents weekly and daily, knowing I am improving.

My best friend of ten years has recently been pulled out of my life. I met her in third grade, I was crying because one of my friends had said something mean to me when she came out of nowhere and began to talk to me. Nancy and I grew very close, her family meeting mine, and we would take turns sleeping over at each other's homes. In middle school when we were close, I was very outgoing but she wanted to be by my side always, so I would hang out with her and our group of friends. High school, is when things started to change. Nancy began hanging around a group of kids who were known for being bad influencers, Lillian and Aaron, and I didn’t want to be around them so I met other people and hung out with them. We would still get lunch together from time to time but I noticed her behavior started to change. She seemed almost sad or upset, and I knew that something was wrong but I didn’t ask, and this was my first mistake. One day I was in class with her when she was called to the office, and later she texted me she was getting expelled. She claimed one of her friends had framed her for cyberbullying and no one believed her, and I asked her to explain. Aaron would take her phone and use it, so without her knowing he began cyberbullying Lillian, a previous friend of theirs. After a while then he told Lillian that Nancy was the one who was cyberbullying her. Though Nancy told police it was Aaron, she had no proof because all the evidence was on her phone. She moved to Vegas to finish school and live with her dad, and my second mistake was growing apart from her. Over the rest of our high school years, she told me she didn’t have a lot of friends and I wanted her to be a part of my life again. She dropped out of high school and came back to live with her mom during the pandemic, so I met up with her to see what I could do to help her. Nancy came over to it and it felt so nostalgic, but she told me stories of horrible abuse that happened to her by her ex-boyfriend in Vegas. She also felt stuck because she dropped out of High school. My mother wanted to help her too, so we all had an intervention and gave her advice on what she could do for work and schooling. I remember her leaving feeling so happy and reassured that day, but, little did I know I was wrong. The next week, she moved back to Vegas and got back with her abusive boyfriend. Recently she has moved back to our hometown and is trying to reach out to me, and I haven't yet because I am frustrated. I tried helping her, and I don't understand why she went back to being with her boyfriend. Nancy has impacted my life deeply, I have known her for so long and we've experienced so much together, it's saddening that this can end because of a controlling manipulator. As a society, we need to educate young girls that they don't need to throw their life away for a man. My Abuela lived with my abusive Abuelo, and she died never getting the chance of freedom, she was too afraid. I have heard too many stories of women who have done exactly this, we need to stop this cycle of abuse.

I used to have a talent with sports, I was a competitive athlete, who was determined to stay fit and continue this skill. Unfortunately, I had to let go of this skill and I went through a small depression, not knowing if I had any other talent in me, all I knew was my athletic skills. That's when I started to get back into drawing a small fun hobby I haven’t had time to do since I was a kid. I began to work on this hobby, which became a new talent over time. My current skill is coming up with creative ideas, then I put my thoughts into traditional and digital artwork. I learned how to perfect my cartoonish style of characters, animals, and scenery. First drawing with a pencil and paper, then beginning to draw digitally. I am a self-taught artist, and recently for school, I created an animation. Since December last year, I have improved my skill. I practice by drawing traditionally or digitally. My goal for my skill is to be used for my future career, being an animator for a entertainment studio, being hired by content creators, and having the opportunity to work. With my ongoing creative thoughts and my desire to draw, I want to combine both and use this major skill for my future dream job, I want to help bring ideas and stories to life. I have not given up on my new skill, even though it's completely different from what I was used to. I know there is a reason why I had to stop being an athlete and start a new path in life as an animator and artist. I am thankful for this new skill and I am greatly improving it daily, through my constant daily drawing and practicing.

Many are motivated daily for their loved ones, for a friend, a personal goal , possibly for a career, or an education. Personally, what motivates me daily is my life itself, the fact that I am alive and breathing, awake and couscous. Peoples lives can change in an instant, so I appreciate everyday as it comes, being alive is an award to me. Waking up in the morning is a start to my motivation, I know from the moment I am awake, I am motivated to get my goals done and put action into what I need to do. Some days I go to the gym and take care of myself, others I will focus on my artwork and practice. Days I go to my University, I will focus on my schoolwork and study for exams. Then occasionally I will relax and go hangout with friends or family. I have a routine, and I am motivated to complete it. My life itself keeps me motivated, I know there are many who don’t have the life I live, and others who loose their lives too young, and don’t get the opportunity to experience life longer. The family I was born to, the friends I have gained and lost, the car accident, my previous jobs as a fast food worker, all of this is apart of my life experiences. Life keeps me motivated to experience more future situations that can be positive or negative, knowing I can learn from them. My life gives me the opportunity to have goals for the future, wanting to share my creativity to others, expressing my interests through my artwork I am motivated to complete my goals and succeeding into my dream career, my life keeps me motivated to experience it all with my family and friends.

I love showing my affection to my family and friends, and I have some ways of doing this. One way I make my loved ones feel loved is when I go out on errands. Besides looking for the things I am planning on, I also look for things that I believe my friends and family would like. For my mom, she loves cats and hedgehogs, so when I go to small stores in my downtown, if theres something kitten or hedgehog related, I have to buy it for her. I love doing this, its a small surprise every-time for her. Seeing my friends and family feel appreciated makes me happy, and it shows my love and appreciation for them. Another way I make my family and friends feel special is I create jewelry or artwork for them. I have a hobby were I create rings, earrings, necklaces and bracelets. When I want to relax, I’ll make some jewelry and I’ll make something for a friend because I want them to know I love them! With my artwork, sometimes my friends will ask me to draw them a certain character, so I will do. At times I’ll do it without them asking because I want to show them that I care about their interests! The way I show my love is by giving from the heart. I have cherished some jewelry I received from friends in elementary school, I do this because it brings me back to those times when we were kids and those memories make me happy. I believe the same thing happens when I give to others, the item or thing they are receiving will always have meaning from that moment they received it, and they can look back at that time during our lives and feel loved.

We all have our own way of receiving enjoyment, some find joy from books or playing a sport, others find joy in the arts or playing an instrument. Others find enjoyment on their day off of work, going on a vacation, or simply hanging out with friends or family. Although a lot of this is true for me, joy mostly takes place in my life when I accomplish something. It can be something simple like taking a shower, or something huge like succeeding a class exam. I seek joy in my life when I am simply alive, I see the good things in every situation. On some days I decide to take care of myself and I see joy in self-care. Other days I go out shopping for my loved ones, I find joy in this. It makes me happy knowing someone I love will enjoy my gift because I care and love them. I seek joy during school, though school can be tiring, I still seek out joy because I am surrounded by my friends and my teachers who want to help me succeed. I find joy in exams, because I know all of my hard studying has led up to this moment, and I can show my potential. I find joy also through in my kindness and caring personality for others. I am a animal lover and I take care of four cats, and earlier I was raised with three siblings and I took care of them when they were still younger and I help out my older brother who has autism. I find joy in these situations because I like the satisfactory after, and I love the feeling that the other person is now happy because I helped them.

There are many times in my life when things have not been so easy, losing a loved one, poor mental health, and even just bad days are a struggle to go through. Out of everything though, I had a difficult situation during my sophomore year of high school, when I discovered some life-changing news. One day I was in practice when my knee pain was so severe I collapsed and I had to be driven home, I cried all night and I was panicked because I didn’t know why this was happening and why my knees hurt so bad. Everyone else I practiced with did the exact training as me so there was no reason why this was as painful as it was for me. I saw a physical therapist and she discovered that the iliotibial bands that connect my hips to my knees are smaller for my body, causing strain and discomfort. Due to my constant running, the pain only increased. I had to stop competing in sports completely and I became depressed. All my life I was surrounded by sports, and I felt now like nothing knowing I could no longer participate. Then I realized I had more freedom, and I drew as a kid, so I started my past passion. Now looking back at this, I believe there was a reason why I had to quit my ongoing streak in sports. It took time for me to recover, but once I had closed that door, a new one had opened, and a new chapter in my life had begun. Currently, I am an artist and I have improved so much since I started. Due to this difficult experience, I was able to learn, adapt, and found a new hidden talent in me.

I am a huge nerd when it comes to books, movies, and shows, my favorite way of helping others is by teaching them something new or presenting them with something new. I have read many books, watched many movies and shows and I have gained a lot of knowledge about every idea that has made itself into watchable entertainment. The main reason why I love watching or reading stories is that I get super excited about talking about them. I get passionate about it, so when a person wants to talk about a current cartoon or asks me what movie they should watch, I always give them a recommendation and I answer their questions. I love showing my friends my passions, and though I may look nerdy, books and entertainment media just makes me happy and gives me inspiration for my artwork and ideas. I help others by showing them a possible new interest they could get into, with all my current knowledge from many television shows and books, I enjoy helping others find what they might enjoy. I enjoy all genres, so I have no problem if someone asks about a specific type of series based on horror or romance for example. I want to help others share their creative side as well, and by giving them a certain book or movie they might like, this will likely increase their own ideas and help build creativity. I get super passionate about these forms of entertainment because I find them enjoyable and I want to share that happiness with others, and I want to help explore others creative minds by helping them find new interests in order to strengthen their imagination.

I never thought I was talented at school until I discovered a new trait when I graduated from high school. All throughout my K-12 education, I treated it poorly, I never studied or cared for my schoolwork, I would skip classes and rather focus on social gatherings then take some time to look into my studies. When the world went into lockdown, I took the advantage and cheated on tests in order to finish though my junior and senior year. I am admitting this now because I am not proud looking back at my previous self. After high school I wasn’t sure what college I wanted to apply to, but knowing my parents I did some last minute research, and got into a Christian University. From this moment I decided I would get my act together and start to give it my all. I discovered that I have a talent for studying and for the first time ever in my life, I successfully gained all A’s throughout my entire freshmen year of college. I have always felt like I lacked the motivation and drive for school, and recently after I learned this skill, I continue to use it to succeed in the rest of my education. This studying trait is valuable to me because I am more dedicated to my studies and I don't procrastinate as much as I used to. I have greater skill in time management and I can use this skill for my future career. I learned I am a consistent and dedicated person, and I will give it my all in order to accomplish goals and overcome obstacles.

If I had the opportunity to leave behind a legacy, it would be my future cartoons and movies that I will help create and present to the world. While a twenty-minute episode of an animated cartoon may seem simple at a first glance, it is not. There is a greater more complex meaning to it, how many people worked together creating that twenty-minute animation, how each character and background scene has much effort and thought into creating each one, and how animations bring your imagination to life. As a child watching some of my most memorable moments were the cartoons that brought my imagination and sprung my creative mind to life. Not only do cartoons bring stories to life, but books can too. There are many great books out there that need their animated film or television series, and I think animation is an underrated way of presenting books. We see a lot of live-action films based on books, but it wouldn’t hurt if this was instead animation. Making a book into an animated series would seem more fitting because our imaginations almost work like an animation, moving pictures in your head, only they are physically drawn and presented to the eye. I was able to leave a legacy, I would help create more books into animated series as well as bring new ideas to the animation industry, help build platforms, and complete satires, so I can help fulfill future generations' childhoods.

Out of all of the wonderful things I have experienced in my life, taking care of myself makes me the happiest. I believe you need to take responsibility for your own happiness, self-care is very important for good mental health. Now some may think that's selfish, however, I don't believe it is. I was never happy with myself because I put others before me, and though this isn’t a bad thing, it became tiring. Over time I made sure everyone around me was happy but, never took the time to make sure, I was happy myself. I always made excessive amounts of effort in arranging hangouts and meeting up for lunch, and I never realized, that I was always the friend to offer, they never returned any effort of wanting to hang out. I began to start feeling the outcomes of this during my sophomore year of high school until Covid caused the lockdown. I decided to stop messaging my “friends” who never put any effort into our friendship. Then over time, I found out who were my true friends and who weren’t. Because of the lockdown, I was able to take a break from my social life and work on my true self, I started to wear clothes I wanted to wear, changed my hair the way I wanted it to look, and I did so many things that when I came back to school people didn’t even recognize me. Now I post things I want on my socials and I could care less about judgement, I am finally happy. I was so lost for the longest time as to why I wasn't happy? Now I have a healthy social life where I still make sure my friends are happy, I make sure I am doing good too.

If I had the opportunity to share one sentence with the world it would be “Enjoy annoying traffic.” Even though this sentence is short and out of context would have no meaning, I am here to share a story as to why I chose this sentence. I was in a car accident last year, a car collided with mine on a freeway. I was on my way home from work after I volunteered to come in, and in an instant, I was struck by a car. Luckily I had no injuries and the family who hit me was fine too, but I didn’t realize how much worse it would have been. The car that hit me hit my car on the right side directly in the middle, and we were both going around 70 miles per hour. If they hit me a little more forward or back, my car would have spun out of control. When I went home after this experience, I started to think if I had died during that accident, I would have never graduated high school, never experience being an adult, college, future family and so much more. Since that day, I want to share with others how I have viewed my life differently, and how they can too. I treat each day as if it were my last, I get everything is done and complete things I want to do. I draw that artwork, I complete that project, and I hang out with that friend. The reason why I say “enjoy annoying traffic”, is because even though traffic is annoying, enjoy that moment. Accept the bad days too, and learn from them. I appreciate my life more ever since that accident, and I am thankful I walked away from it, and I'm continuing my life.

Everyone deserves to be treated equality, no matter what background, personal beliefs, religion, culture, gender, sexuality, and more. As a Latina growing up many around me wouldn’t make an effort to try to pronounce my hispanic name correctly, and I disliked my name for a while due to this. Now I am older, and I am more confronting about my name, and I support equality and diversity in many ways. One way I do this is through my artwork, I love creating characters of more culture and diverse backgrounds, a lot of them being POC. By sharing this it can give inspiration to other artists who want to create characters of POC and more diverse artwork. Another way I support equality and diversity is I will not stand down when another person is being harassed over their identity. In High school my friend was being verbally harassed by these seniors, they would purposely park by her car to then make comments about her body, making her feel uncomfortable to even going to school. One morning I decided I would stand up for her, and I met with her at this parking lot where she was being practically stalked. As we both walked past the group of boys we were ignoring them until one of them called me a slur due to my short hair. I went off, I yelled at them to leave her alone and I threatened to call the police. After this encounter, they stopped bothering my friend. I don’t tolerate people purposely wanting to harass others due to their gender or for whatever reason, especially not my family or friends. I will do what I must and take action. We need to teach younger generations how to treat others with simple respect as a society.

The most inspiring book I have read would be "Avatar the Last Airbender: The Rise of Kyoshi" written by F. C. Yee and Michael Dante DiMartino. The stories of Avatar began in 2005 with an animated series, the setting being an Asiatic-inspired world, where most people can manipulate one of the four classical elements; water, earth, fire, or air, through practices known as "bending", inspired by Chinese martial arts. The title "Avatar" is a special gift where it started with one person being born with the ability to manipulate all four elements, and every-time the Avatar dies, they are reborn as a new person, and the cycle continues. The Rise of Kyoshi was released in 2019 and the novel is drastically inspiring to me because the whole story is creative and it inspires me to be bold with my own personal ideas and stories and present them in my artwork. The book is very similar to the animated series with new characters, new conflicts, drama, action, and more. What was a very surprising twist was in the very beginning of the book, we learn Kyoshi has not been discovered as the Avatar, and she doesn’t know she is the Avatar yet either. Instead her friend Yun, was thought to be the Avatar. I loved this twist because from the show we learn Kyoshi was a previous Avatar, while in the novel, the characters do not realize this yet, the writing in both the animated series and the book is brilliant. From this we see Kyoshi as she learns she is the Avatar and has to train in secret, then Yun discovering, following him becoming her enemy. The world of Avatar is an inspiring piece and gives me the confidence to present my own characters, stories, and ideas into my artwork.

An art piece that is extremely captivating and inspires my artwork is the piece; “Susanna and the Elders”, by artist Artemisia Gentileschi. Artemisia was an Italian painter during the late 1500 and early 1600s, and this artwork was inspired by the artists troubled past. In the artwork, two elderly men are let into a garden while Susanna bathes, and they want sexual favors. When she refuses, the men try to ruin her life by accusing her of adultery, and the punishment for this was death. However she was saved when they were caught lying, due to their stores not matching up. This specific artwork of hers is captivating to me is because 500 years later, this unpleasant immature behavior still continues, with catcalling, and unwanted attention from men towards women and minors. I have seen many true crime cases were when a women rejects a man romantically, and the man gets physically violent, and the majority of them will kill their victims, all because they said no. This piece is also extremely bold of Artemisia because when she was alive women didn’t have rights and were treated poorly, so for her to boldly display this piece, shows how she was way ahead of her time and wasn’t afraid to show her story through her art. What I love about this piece is how it tells a story, an unfortunate one, but, it can be viewed as awareness. Immediately when I saw this artwork it reminded me of the time my friend and I were catcalled when we were 14, by some college boys who drove past us while they did it. I wish I could say more, but overall I am inspired by Artemisia to create artwork that can be viewed as awareness, and artwork that displays a deeper meaning.