Sophomore year of high school was rough, starting with my mom dying of pancreatic cancer two weeks after my grandfather and cousin died. Then covid hit, we were out of school and I hit an all time low. I did not know what to do with myself and what my plan for the future was. Junior year comes, my dad moves and now i’m out of district. I contacted the school through emails, calls and going in so many times and I did not even once get to talk to the staff that was responsible for enrollment. I did not want to start a new school with no friends. I simply couldn’t, everything in me just did not have the motivation. I started to become really depressed, I had no one to help me through the grieving stages of losing my mother. I sat there and had a reality check, my mom was my best friend. She had all these goals for me that I knew I need to achieve. I became persistent in getting myself back in school when I realized that I still could achieve these dreams. The day I turned 18 I went to the school and enrolled myself. I got involved with this program called TAEOP where I was able to recover 6 credits in two months. My persistency didn’t stop there. I wanted to be in regular classes and involved with sports again. I set up a date and I worked up the courage to talk in front of the schools board. They were delighted to hear about my situation, they even decided that everything that happened with the school was wrong and that I deserved the chance at getting what I wanted. My persistency allowed me to get back on the right path.

Generosity is one of the biggest elements of being a nice and well rounded human being. When you are generous, you provide a safe and warming environment for the people surrounding you. It gives you a good reputation when you help someone that wouldn’t do the same for you. In this world people expect to be treated the way you treat them. If you change your perspective and are generous towards someone that could cause a chain reaction. Being understanding and a good human helps to heal the negativity in others. You could potentially help someone be better. When I was in high school there was this girl crying on the floor in the bathroom because she was stressed about finals. Being a senior I understood what she was going through. I offered a listening year simply so she could feel relieved and have a little bit of that burden off her shoulders. She informed me about what was going on in her personal life. I gave her advice on things she could do to work around it and at the end I also told her that I could personally help and tutor her so she feels prepared for finals. Not only did I make her feel better but it made me as a person feel helpful. Just a simple conversation or facial gesture could change someone’s day. Generosity to me is being an optimistic person and being someone that people will look up too and want to be like.