The number one most important thing to me is family. Then, to be successful. The last thing to me is to be able to give back to those who helped me throughout my life. Growing up, I have always been surrounded by family. My parents are divorced, which allowed me to gain even more family. I have a total of six siblings. Two are older than me and four are younger. The family has always been first. Growing up we were taught to always put family before anything. Being around family is important because, like Vannessa Gonzalez, you never know when it will be the last time you see them. In 10 years, family will still be my number one priority. Having divorced parents, I have experienced what it is like to have a small amount of money and what it is like to have a decent amount of money. . My definition of success is to have a job that I enjoy going to that also brings in enough money to be able to provide for myself. Sometimes success is measured by the amount of money that person makes. I measure success with the amount of happiness I can have. Choosing cosmetology, I believe that after school and in 10 years, I will be successful and I will enjoy my job and my life. As my other siblings went off to college, my parents always saw what was best and allowed me to visit different colleges to pick the right fit. Struggling to enjoy school now, I decided a four-year college was not the right fit for me, and my parents have supported my decision. My siblings and I are each a year apart, so my parents have a lot of graduation parties and college to pay for all at the same time. They are still willing to help pay a small amount of college tuition for each kid. Being able to get scholarships and pay for most of my college would help a lot. Just paying for most of my college would be giving back to my parents. Giving back also is one of the reasons I chose to go to cosmetology school. Doing hair for others and bringing back their confidence is a goal I have. In 10 years I hope to still be doing hair and giving back joy and happiness to my clients.

Growing up I would listen to my sister's stories from when she played tennis. They were always having fun and were not just a team, they were a family. My freshman year of high school, I tried out for the tennis team. I had only played tennis one other time when I was little. I was nervous to go by myself, but I was also excited to create my own stories from tennis. Through high school, tennis has taught me many things. Tennis is not like any other sport I have played. Most people do not understand the amount of work and effort it takes to play tennis. Tennis came naturally to me, but there are always things you can learn and improve from. Going into tennis I did not know how to do anything. The first thing I learned from tennis was to always try. If I stopped trying during my freshman year I would not have been able to get better and learn new things that allowed me to make it to state for the past three years. As I begin my next chapter, I will take this lesson with me. Even when things get hard for me, I know that if I continue to try something good will come of it. Another thing tennis has taught me is to be open to criticism. If you are not able to take criticism and advice from your teammates or coaches, you won't be able to get better. Every year my coach has something new to tell me to do for me to improve. Sometimes it is hard for me to accept criticism and change the way I have done things. But after I take into consideration what others have said and try the new thing they suggest I can see the improvement that it makes, even if it is something simple like my grip on the racket as I'm serving. Tennis has taught me to not stay stuck in my head. Tennis is a mental game. If I stayed in my head the whole time I'm playing thinking that I suck and won’t win, then I won't win. It is easy to get in your head when you mess up or keep doing something wrong, but if you can not move past it you make yourself lose. As a doubles player, it is hard to stay out of my head, but it is even harder to be able to get my partner out of her head. So while I am playing, I try to make things fun. My partner and I mess around so much that it gets into the opponent's head and allows us to win. Tennis is the best thing I have been a part of in high school. There is no drama and everyone is accepting of everyone. If I did not have tennis to turn to while in high school, my life would have been different. I would not have the family that I have now and I would not have my own stories to tell.

Last year, my brother asked me to dye his hair. I had never done hair before and was scared of messing up. When he asked me I had a slight interest in going to cosmetology school after high school, but still did not know what I was going to do. Doing his hair sparked my interest in cosmetology and helped me decide that I enjoyed doing it. After my brother won state football, he and his teammates got buzz cuts. He liked it for a week and then wanted a change. He asked me if I would dye it for him. He just wanted me to bleach it platinum blonde. So, we bought box dye and I dyed it for him. He only liked it like that for another two weeks. He then asked me to dye it again and recut it. This time, he asked me to do a fun design for it. I was nervous at first about messing it up and him hating me, but I still did it for him. This time we went to Sallys Beauty and got better materials to use. I hand-painted a cheetah print into his hair. It turned out way better than I thought it would have. Doing my brothers’ hair allowed me to try and test my skills and helped me decide what I wanted to do after high school. After dying his hair, my family started to let me do some of their hair. I have tried cutting and dying all different types of hair. I enjoy doing hair and am excited to be able to attend cosmetology school next year. This scholarship will help my family and I be able to pay for my school and the supplies that I will need. My family has a lot of children that they have to be able to provide for. This scholarship will allow me to make my parent's life easier while I can still pursue my dreams.