When I talk to my friends, many of them will bring up childhood friendships that they still maintain. Others will talk about their middle school that is just around the corner. My best friend has lived in the same city her entire life. For me, I struggle with answering the simplest question: Where are you from? I remember the first time my family had a big move. My dad had lost his job and we were forced to move out of California for my parents to find work. Living in Texas, I developed unbreakable friendships with new people\. My family moved again when I was in high school, this time to Florida to be close to family. I restarted my social circle at my new school and adjusted to the new area again. Just three years later I repeated the process as I traveled to college. The consequences of moving around so much are still present in my life and personality. One skill that I've developed is adaptability. I embrace change with open arms and I have become a risk taker. I declared that I would be a double major before I even set foot on my college campus for the first time. I live boldly by taking on any challenge that comes my way because I trust in my adaptability. I'm also constantly taking on new challenges, hobbies, and projects. I always remind myself that it's better to fail than to not try at all.

The woman who guided and raised me into the young woman I am today has been the biggest influence on my life. As I grew up, I wanted to learn more about my mother's life and family history. I would beg my mother to tell me stories about the immigration of my great-great-grandmother or the struggles my Italian-Cuban-American grandfather faced as he grew a successful business from the ground up. Once my mother returned to teaching high school, she began to tell me stories about her struggles and successes. Over time, I came to the conclusion that there are many people in our society who do not get a chance to tell their stories. My mother and her stories inspired me to strive to tell others' stories through filmmaking. I discovered my passion for filmmaking in middle school and I developed it throughout high school. I was originally the subject of my videos, but I decided to move behind the camera as I fell in love with hearing stories from my mother and family. I worked with different styles in order to accurately capture the stories I chose to tell. I used sports production styles to put together sports contests, or a reality television style to show my family's camping trip. Upon entering college, my professors started teaching me about the documentary style. With a degree in Film Studies, I plan to utilize all the skills I acquire to tell other people's stories in the future. I want to focus on people whom society gives less attention to because I believe that everybody has valuable stories to tell. This is especially true for those in minority backgrounds. In my videos, I combine various camera shots to represent the information that is being spoken. I often find beauty in many still shots, so I choose to focus on these types of shots or simple movement shots. This is so my viewers can focus on the content of the shot instead of how dynamic the camera work is. I also make the lighting and coloring of each shot resemble the realistic setting. Additionally, I seldom use complex transitions or other editing choices. I use all of these stylistic choices because I find beauty and effective storytelling in simple shots and edits. My goal with these artistic choices is to accurately represent reality and the stories that I tell in my videos.