As the oldest in the family of three there has always been a strong connection between my mother and I. One impactful moment in my life occurred when my mom and I came from buying groceries, during a windy night, and we started talking about what I want to study. We had this really common conversation, yet it was a conversation I didn't know how to respond to. "What do you want to study?" was a question that kept going around my head multiple times, but I couldn't really find the answer until one of those nights of groceries shopping with my mom. On that night, I shared my idea that I might want to study in the crime and law enforcement field. At that moment, she didn't understand what I meant by my idea of crime. But, I know she would understand me when I describe to her my interest of wanting to investigate crime scenes when there is either murder, kidnapping, or other cases. I knew for sure she would support this idea of expanding my interest in becoming an investigator and investigating crime scenes. The connection between us was like a friend I had for a long time and she would listen to me and I would listen to her experience. She shares that I should strive and not give up on my new journey like she sacrificed a lot of things when coming to the US. My mom always checks on me when I feel down and I know over the course of me growing into my teenage years we became closer and closer. She holds a significant spot for me since she listens and understands me and we are able to speak with so much trust. She has taught me that I shouldn't lose any opportunity because it can open to a life with new chapters to life. She has faced many obstacles as a teen mom and being able to provide for my brother and I. She is confident and believes in me being able to succeed in life, and every time she tells her struggles and problems she faced I turned it into a lesson for me to learn about life. Becoming a first-generation student comes with a lot of pressure and challenges throughout my new journey of entering college. There is a big influence by mom that I should view college as a new challenge in learning more about crime and law enforcement. I openly expressed to her how I have the fear of failing her and all her sacrifice might come to waste and end up as a failure. I always remind myself how I know I will make my mom proud and let her know that she came to the United States for no reason. With my mom's support, I am building up determination and slowly being more confident in myself, that it can be a fit for me to study criminology. Overall, my relationship with my mom has a strong bond with supportiveness, positive communication, and understanding each other. Her support towards my education has taught me that I should strive and believe in myself more as a first-generation in the family. With my new journey to college, I will bring along the lessons she has taught me and I am determined to succeed and make her proud of how I took the opportunities I was provided with and possibly help others in future generations.

"We don't have enough money. We have to save up," is the common phrase I listen to as a single parent tries to provide everything for my brother and me. A single parent doesn't have any support, but they are willing to strive to provide for their children. My experience with a single parent impacted me by becoming a determined and strong person even though I went through a lot of conflicts. Over time, my mindset kept growing with maturity and I knew that I needed to be a big role model for my brother. It did bring a lot of stress with worrying about our economy, but my mom kept supporting me in going to school and how I should be confident and keep studying for better paths to success. My goal changed over time to be high expectations for me since I know it's a goal for me to make my mom proud and one day give her back all the efforts it took for her to get me where I am now or in the future. The way I was raised has impacted my future goal through knowing that I will overcome conflicts because I have experienced a lot of conflict throughout my childhood. Being raised by a single-parent and a low-income household helped me build character in being strong and not fearing absolutes in life. I know I will be determined and challenge myself to overcome those challenging moments in the future. My future goal was to open up an ice cream business, but now knowing some knowledge in how business starts. I know that I will go through ups and downs, but it will all come to a peak where I will see that I accomplished my goal. I will utilize my talents by showing that there are people who care about solving cases unsolved. The career I would like to discover would be becoming a detective. This would help people who would love to have their case solved after waiting for many years for the department to solve it. I know I will put all the effort into solving cases and finding answers to other cases as well. The path I want to follow will also help the community become safer little by little even though I can't have control over catching all the criminals. Becoming a detective will help find criminals who should be behind bars or be connected to other cases. But, I am determined that the career path I can take will help people in many ways.