My mom is the one who has supported me in my education, sports, and everyday life growing up. She is the one who started me in preschool and always pushed me to do my best in everything I do, whether it was school, 4H or sports. I grew up with my mother who is a single parent and we always struggled financially from living in a DV shelter for almost a year when I was 3 to get away from my abusive father and was stuck in California because of the family court system until I was 12. I honor my mother by being a dual enrollment student and showing her how much her support has meant to me throughout my school years. I have been a good student, with an honor roll average nearly every semester. I've taken all honors classes since freshman year and now my senior year I've been out on dual enrollment at Cape Cod Community College to make sure I am a step ahead to achieve my goals. She has always known animals are my life and she has supported me with animals and knew that is what I wanted to do for my future. At a young age. I learned that animals would never judge me if I was having an off day or didn't know the answer. They became my safe place, so I wanted to help them feel sale too. Every dog walking by I had to pet, every frog that I thought was stuck in the sprinkler boxes I had to set free, and after a while. these acts just became a trait of mine. This trait has helped me through challenging parts of my life. My experiences through it all with and without animals has not only helped me shape my future but they have set it in stone. I have watched most people around me hate their jobs, so I have made it an obsession to love mine. I cannot have a life without animals in it. My mom has always been at my school events/activities, sporting events/activities and was a very involved parent throughout my school years since day one. She is the one who drove me everywhere I had to be no matter the distance she had to drive. We lived in affordable housing and still do today. I have worked throughout high school to be able to pay for a vehicle and insurance while playing 2 sports and FFA. My father passed away in 2021 and left nothing for me- no life insurance and he owned nothing.Although my mom did everything she could for me when I was growing up, it was very difficult for her financially. Even though my father had part custody until I was 10, it was a difficult childhood because of him. He never did anything for me and died when I was 14. I wish I had a decent father who could have done things for me but my mother made up for being both parents to me. I now know how difficult it was for my mother trying to keep a roof over our heads, food to eat and a running vehicle. She did all of that without any family of our own living 3,000 miles away until I turned 13 and we got home to Massachusetts. I am going to be able to live my future dreams because of her. My next chapter is to go to college at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK to study Animal Science at the Ferguson College of Agriculture.