I come from a single-parent household. My mom raised my sister and me by herself. My father has never been actively involved in our lives. We would see him sometimes at our grandparents, his parents, on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Most of my childhood memories of him revolve around him being in and out of prison. I grew up in a small and well-off town, and a majority of the peers I went to school had both their parents actively involved in their lives. I remember being in elementary school and seeing all the other little girls attending Daddy-Daughter dances with their fathers while my sister and I attended with our grandpa, our mom's father, or our uncle, our mom's brother. I would get questions from other students about who or where my father was, and I would tell them I do not have a father because it was easier to say that than to explain what being incarcerated was. Incarceration has left me without a permanent father figure in my life. However, something I have learned from the experience is other people's past does not define me. Just because my father has been in and out of prison does not mean I will follow along the same road. I can already say I have achieved far more than what I ever thought I was capable of doing due to my family's past. I have always been academically ambitious. I suppose my academic and career goals have always been more extravagant because I have always felt the need to prove to myself and my family that my father's past and continuous actions do not define me. My biggest goal in life is to make life comfortable for my mom because she has always done whatever she could to provide for us and make us feel like we were not missing out on anything in life. She did and continues to do her best to raise two girls into strong, independent women. I made it my goal to graduate in the top 5% of my class, which I can say I did. I made it my goal to attend college, and I can say I am a first-generation college student now at Texas Tech University. Now, I am well on my way to building a comfortable life for my mom and all the people who have helped me grow into the person I am today. Yes, incarceration has made me feel left out in some aspects of life. However, it is not an excuse I use to limit myself. Instead, I let my family's history of incarceration drive me to build a better future for myself and my future family.