Living in South LA my whole life, I’ve had all the experiences that every other kid in the area has. I grew up watching Word Girl and Arthur from PBS Kids because I didn’t have cable. I got up at 6 a.m. every day before school just to catch a new episode of Wild Kratts. I held my mom's hand as we walked into the local Vons to rent a movie from RedBox, with my other hand falling to my side, holding onto no one else. My parents divorced when I was seven years old—to this day, I almost never see my dad. I hardly remember a time when my two siblings, both parents and I lived under one roof, but then again, I don’t see a purpose in trying. Where my dad lacked parental effort, my mom made up for it with compassion, encouragement, helpfulness and overall inspiration. Growing up, I knew the only thing I wanted to do in life was be an artist. Ever since I was in diapers, I would create games out of paper, illustrate and narrate stories in make-shift books and scribble on the walls where I definitely wasn’t supposed to. My mom was always there to cut out the paper for my home-made games when I wasn’t old enough to use the scissors, staple together my handmade books when I wasn’t ready to use a stapler by myself yet and scrub the walls of my color markings then hand me a sketchbook instead. Despite my mom working in STEM, she never doubted my potential to pursue a career in a creative field and encouraged my dreams at every opportunity. No matter the difficulties we faced through the years, my mother’s support never wavered. My family never had a shortage of money problems but despite the difficulties we faced through the years, my mother’s support never wavered. She’s always been there to buy my art supplies, drive me to my art internship and so much more. Now, she’s helping to financially and emotionally support me in my journey at USC, my dream school. As I start my freshman year of college, I frequently look to my mother’s path for inspiration. Over the past few years, my mom taught me what it meant to succeed and the results that come from hard work. When I was younger, she worked as a Los Angeles Unified School District teacher and used her skills as an educator to guide me. After several years of working for LAUSD, she made the brave decision to resign and start her own business teaching kids in South LA how to build and code robots. My mom has always been an advocate for bringing better resources to those who might not have them and when she saw that her school wasn’t doing its best to teach South LA kids, she took it into her own hands and started her business. After 4 years, my mom has connected with so many people and organizations across LA. Seeing my mom leave her previous job to pursue what made her happy and what would give back to the community is a core memory for me. My mom taught me to never give up on my passions, work for what I believe I deserve and give back while I do it.