Once I had found out the reality of the finances of college, being that it was extremely more than my family could afford, I knew I had to research other options. I began consistently applying to scholarships in freshman year and as an incoming senior, I haven’t given up yet. However, the scholarship application process for me was accompanied with mental exhaustion and mental fatigue and hopeless thoughts.The greatest thing I’ve learned so far in applying to scholarships is that you just have to make it through to the next day or the next session of applications because giving up doesn’t bring in any money. The aforementioned statement about scholarship results and continuing to work hard sounds very elementary. In fact it is quite elementary. However, when the scholarship results determine what college you can actually afford, if any, you have to build up a thick wall mentally that helps you stay strong and be able to deal with rejection or taking a loss. As for my story, I’ve yet to earn a scholarship although I’ve applied to at least 35 over these past couple years. But I could’ve either completely given up on applying to scholarships or understood that my time will come and I am going to be extremely grateful for the scholarships I believe I will get. And since I am currently applying to this scholarship, it’s evident that I haven’t chosen to give up. Additionally, in order to stay persistent in applying to scholarships you must apply with a general goal in mind. The general goal is to find a way to pay for college or to pay for somewhere to live during college. Likewise, you must choose scholarships unique to you because it’s easier to write an essay on a topic that relates to your life. This being what type of college you would like to attend, what makes you different than your counterpart, and how is this going to benefit you in your college life. For me, I looked for scholarships big and small because every dollar counts and I searched for many minority and academic scholarship because that’s what makes me the smallest bit of different from my peers and other applicants. But by having a goal, you will have something to work for which has played a great part in pushing me to try again the next day. To say the least, applying to scholarships is stressful. It feels never-ending and can feel like a waste of time. But the reward in the end will be great and I believe I will have a chance to attend a big university, debt-free, which is key to continuing and pushing through each and every day.

Most of my financial education and experiences came from watching the mistakes of the influences around me. Money wasn’t plentiful in my household growing up and the lack of it tore a lot of relationships in my family. Watching my parents stress and worry persistently about bills, loans, and debt pushed me to work hard in school so I’d have a great chance of getting into college and going into a career so I wouldn’t have to be anxious about finances. I wanted to break the chain of poverty to help give back to my parents for sacrificing so much to make sure my siblings and I never went without. But this is just the surface of my story. As mentioned before, as a child, my parents’ relationship was torn by financial strife as my mother began to worry about how the bills would get paid or how she would fund our school expenses. My dad had to hop from job to job just to make ends meet and to try and provide for our family and living with 5 siblings only made things harder. I watched our car get repossessed for missed payments, bills constantly being pushed back, and eviction out of our home, forcing us to live with a family friend. This taught me two prominent lessons that I’ll hold onto for life. The first lesson being that financial difficulties can tear relationships apart, if you let it, and that I have to be smart with my money so I can have a plan to navigate through adulthood. I have to budget and invest in worthy things and to save money for emergencies because life throws you all sorts of things. And without God on my family’s side with miracles, we wouldn’t have been strong enough to survive those financial burdens. But I didn’t just take away financial practices from these experiences. I learned how to be grateful and enjoy what I have in life because we didn’t have much in my early childhood. I learned to bond with my siblings because they were the only ones who knew my situation at home. Having to struggle together with listening to my parents argue and having to live with people from our school, which we saw as embarrassing, taught us to be strong and to keep family close. Additionally, these struggles have helped me to put my faith in God. Although everyone isn’t religious and some can’t relate to this feeling, it is a part of my unique story and is a part of my identity. My family prayed together for miracles and that helped my family keep going to work out of financial crises. As I grew older, I chose not to necessarily feel sorry for my childhood burdens but to be glad I experienced such hard times because I am stronger and wiser in those areas because of it. I plan to take those financial lessons and apply them to my life. Even with a part-time job, I’ve learned the importance of saving and ensuring I have funds for emergencies. This encourages me to grow up and be financially stable and debt-free so I can break the cycle of poverty and low-income.