As a Collegiate Athlete, we tend to hold ourselves to a higher and unfair standard than we should due to pressure to do well. We judge our bodies for not being fit enough and we constantly criticize our own performances instead of realizing all the little things that we have accomplished. However, if there’s one thing that I have learned as a Collegiate Athlete, it is that I love my body the way it is. I’m grateful for all the things that my healthy and strong body has done and has allowed me to do. I’m grateful that his body has healed from stress fractures, stress reactions, tendonitis, shin splints, and a torn abdomen. I’m happy that I am able to go on walks and bike rides with my friends and family with this body. I’m happy to be able to carry myself to class and to practice everyday with this body. I get to fuel this amazing body with nutritious and wonderful tasting food. I was able to run a 4:57 mile and I was able to back squat two-hundred pounds with this body- both of these things being great accomplishments for female track athletes. With this body, I will be able to stand for hours in the classroom and be able to teach my students and encourage them to chase their goals, dreams, and aspirations. Eventually, this body will be able to carry children and I will be able to run around and help my children grow into amazing people who are kind and caring towards everyone else. I love my body how it is, how it will be and for all that it has done for me. My body is so amazing and I’m grateful to be able to accomplish so much with this body of mine.

The educator that had the most positive impact on my life is Mr. Ron Bandy at Bolivar High School in Bolivar, Missouri. Mr. Bandy was my freshmen health teacher, and he was also my Cross Country and Track Coach. Mr. Bandy had a positive impact on my life, and still continues to do so. I could always talk to Mr. Bandy when I was having issues at home, or if I needed to get any stress off my chest. Mr. Bandy also helped me navigate the College admissions process and the College Portal. Mr. Bandy constantly did his best to build up my confidence, has always believed me, and pushed me to always strive for my goals and aspirations. All of this has helped me become the student, athlete, and person that I am today. I am so grateful to have someone like Mr. Bandy in my life. Without Mr. Bandy, I know for sure that I probably wouldn’t be in college and I would be constantly depressed from the emotional and psychological abuse that I endured at home. I think that every child should have some like like Mr. Bandy to be there for them when times are tough. As a First Generation student, the main thing that drove my interest in going to college was to make a better life for myself and my future children. I have grown up in poverty my whole life. Only one of my parents works, and their salary is $35,000 a year. I also have seven siblings, so it was hard on my parents' salary to give us the best resources or to be able to better our education. Being in poverty has come with many disadvantages, but I have always tried my best to work around my situation. I never gave up, even when things seem very rough. There were many times where we came close to losing our house. It was also tough when my parents did work or were dealing with family issues. While my parents were away in the evenings, I was left at home and became a third parent. Being the second oldest of eight children, I had a lot of responsibilities at home since my parents were either working or having other family issues that had to be dealt with. I had to complete most of the household chores, make sure my siblings got their homework done, help my siblings with homework if needed, make sure everyone was clean, and everyone was in bed on time. Because I had little time in the evenings to complete my homework, there were many times where I stayed up till 2 in the morning to finish homework. I would then get up at 6am, and the process would start all over. I knew that if I was able to go to college, that I would have to put in lots of work, study for hours, and continue improving in my sports so that I can get looked at by coaches and improve my chances of getting into a college and graduating with minimal debt. Luckily, with the help of teachers such as Mr. Bandy, I was able to get out of my hometown and get into a good college, and continue my athletic and academic career. I am majoring in Secondary Social Studies Education and hope to go back to my hometown to teach so that I can help my future students like Mr. Bandy helped me. With my education, I hope to change many students' lives and help them continue their goals, dreams, and aspirations after High School.

My favorite book is Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand. Unbroken is my favorite book because it tells an inspiring story of Louis Zamperini, who became an Olympic runner and an airman during World War II. This story is inspiring to me because of Zamperini’s success in sports and his resilience on the battlefield with his comrades. In 1934, Zamperini ratified the U.S High School Mile record of 4:21.2 and set the National Collegiate Mile record of 4:08.3 in 1938, which held up for fifteen years. Louis Zamperini became the youngest distance runner from the United States to compete in the Olympics when he ran the 5000 meter run in the Berlin Olympics, and finished in 8th place. Zamperini also set the record for the fastest last lap in a 5000 meter race, running his last lap in 56 seconds. After the Berlin Olympics, Louis Zamperini became an airman in World War II and embarked on a journey that led to an unfortunate crash. Against the odds, Zamperini survived with his two comrades and stayed on a life raft for 47 days in the pacific ocean. They survived through sharks, dehydration and starvation. Eventually, Louis Zamperini was captured by Japanese soldiers where he would be put in work camps and tortured maliciously. Zamperini would survive all odds and return home. While Zamperini struggled at home, he had a will to go on and improve himself everyday. As a Collegiate Division II Track and Field athlete, I look up to Louis Zamperini as he achieved so much despite being driven to many limits. Zamperini suffered with hope and humor despite being put to his limits. I enjoy this book and this story due to the leadership and inspiration that Louis Zamperini had.

After I finish completing my bachelor degree in Secondary and Middle School History, and obtain my Masters in Education: Curriculum and Instruction, my goals for my future are to go back to my hometown to teach High School or Middle School history and to coach the Cross Country and Track & Field teams. I want to be able to help my future students achieve their goals and dreams that they have in school and post graduation. I want to be able to help students get into their dream schools and occupations and be able to obtain scholarships. I especially want to help students that come from low income families like I did. I understand the struggle that many low income families and students face, and I want to be able to help my students get a college education to help them better themselves. My other goal would be to help support the high school Special Olympics team in my hometown. The Special Olympics team started approximately six years ago, and the athletes on those teams are always striving to give it their all and compete. Since there is only a Special Olympics Bowling and Basketball team at my High School, I would like to start a Special Olympics Track team in my hometown so that these students have more opportunities to be looked at by colleges and help them lead a life that other peers have. I would like to help these students achieve their goals in the classroom, as well as outside the classroom so that these students would have more opportunities once they graduate high school. Many of these students face many disadvantages everyday due to their disabilities, and my goal is to give them more opportunities to succeed like their peers get to do.

If there was one sentence that I could share with the world, it would be: You are your own teacher, motivator, and educator. One of my Great Uncles told me this at a family gathering when I was in middle school. At first I was confused by what my Uncle had said, however, it really clicked when I was a sophomore in High school. Basically it meant that you were in charge of your learning, your dreams, your goals, and your ambitions. While there will be teachers, counselors, therapists, and guardians to guide you and teach you concepts, you are the person who is in charge of learning those things and applying them to your life. Teachers and guardians can tell us how to behave, or how to write papers and do our taxes, but if we do not apply that to our lives, truly learn the information related to it, and expand on that knowledge, then we have ultimately failed ourselves. These words of wisdom helped me greatly in High School and has helped me so far in College. There will always be teachers, professors, and guardians that don’t really care about their students and won’t teach the material or connect to students. While these adults may have failed their jobs, we shouldn’t let their failure cause us to fail. We need to try our hardest to learn, and take in information on our own. This drive to teach ourselves will ultimately help us succeed. While some people may have to work harder to get to that success, we become more thankful and driven towards our success than most people are. So, as I wrote before: You are your own teacher, motivator, and educator. This will help you be successful in life.

After I finish completing my bachelor degree in Secondary and Middle School History, and obtain my Masters in Education: Curriculum and Instruction, my goal for my future career is to go back to my hometown to teach High School or Middle School history and to coach the Cross Country and Track & Field teams. I want to be able to help students achieve their goals and dreams that they have in school and post graduation. I want to be able to help students get into their dream schools and occupations and be able to obtain scholarships. I especially want to help students that come from low income families like I did. I understand the struggle that many low income families and students face, and I want to help them be able to help my students get a college education to help them better themselves. My other goal would be to help support the high school Special Olympics team in my hometown. The Special Olympics team started approximately six years ago, and the athletes on those teams are always striving to give it their all and compete. Since there is only a High School Special Olympics Bowling and Basketball team in my hometown, I would like to start a Special Olympics Track team in my hometown so that these students have more opportunities. I would like to help these students achieve their goals in the classroom, as well as outside the classroom so that these students would have more opportunities once they graduate high school.

Although I had to persevere through difficult situations throughout high school due to my home life, I think one of the most difficult obstacles that I persevered through was the aftermath of me not winning the High School State Cross Country Championship in 2017. I had qualified for the state championships with my team, and when I was racing, I felt pretty good. I was with the lead pack of the race and after the 2 mile mark, I led the race and didn’t look back. However, with approximately 100 meters left of my race, I passed out. I was unconscious for about 30 seconds, woke up and then tried to finish the race. However, I kept falling down when I tried to get up. Eventually, I crawled to the finish line. It took me over 6 minutes to finish the last 100 meters of my race, and I went from 1st place to 156th out of 163 runners. After my race I was upset and disappointed, but I had the support and help from my coaches and teammates. However, I didn’t get the same support from my family or some peers at school. I was bullied, many accusations were thrown around, and my dad became even more controlling and manipulative. This affected my mental health and it became really hard during Track season to overcome this huge mental block in workouts and race. Eventually, with the help of coaches and teammates, I was able to make it to state during Track and finished as the runner up in the women's mile. I am currently running Collegiate Division II Track and Field and while I still struggle with anxiety from my fall, I am doing much better and pushing myself everyday so that I can become an All American Athlete.

The most inspiring book that I have read is Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand. Unbroken is an inspiring book because it tells the story of Louis Zamperini, who became an Olympic runner and an airman during World War II. Zamperini's success on the track began in high school when he set a ratified U.S. high school Mile record of 4:21.2 in 1934. His mile record lasted 19 years. In 1938, Zamperini set the national collegiate Mile record of 4:08.3, which held up for fifteen years. Louis Zamperini went on to run the 5000 meter run in the Berlin Olympics, and finished in 8th place, which helped score one point for Team USA, and he set the record for the fastest last lap in a 5000 meter race, running his last lap in 56 seconds. After the Berlin Olympics, Louis Zamperini became an airman in World War II and embarked on a journey that led to an unfortunate crash. Against the odds, Zamperini survived and with his two comrades and stayed on a life raft for 47 days in the pacific ocean, and survived through sharks, dehydration and starvation. Eventually, Louis Zamperini was captured by Japanese soldiers where he would be put in work camps and tortured maliciously. Zamperini would survive all odds and return home. While Zamperini struggled at home, he had a will to go on and still impacted his community later in life. As a Collegiate Division II Track and Field athlete, I look up to Louis Zamperini as he achieved so much despite being driven to the limits of endurance. Zamperini suffered with hope and humor despite being put to his limits. This story is both inspiring and deserving of respect.

As a first generation college student, my experiences have greatly affected my life in a positive way. I have had some struggles with getting the resources that I needed to further my career and helped my family, but I have been able to learn from it and have used that experience to help other people that are in my situation. I believe that my experiences with poverty and family struggles have helped me overcome so much in life. I've been motivated to excel in academics and athletics so that I can get into a university with little-to no debt so that I can give back to my community and help my 6 younger siblings be able to succeed and work towards their goals and dreams. I believe that being a first generation student means that you will work harder towards almost anything, but because of it you'll receive the biggest rewards from it and you'll be motivated and grateful for all you have achieved.

The pandemic has affected my life in a positive way because it has helped me be grateful for all that I have and the opportunities that I have. The pandemic sadly cancelled my spring sports season, which caused a lot of people to become depressed. Being a division II cross country and track & field athlete myself, I was upset but I knew that this was a way for me to recover from injuries and get better for the next school year. I build up my base millage, did speed work and maintained a good attitude. While it was rough to not have teammates help me on workouts, I tried my best to get the most out of my workouts. When I got back to school, I was so grateful to have my teammates back, to meet with my coaches, to be able to go to class and see my professors and classmates, and to be able to get back to competing. I even had a very good season and ran multiple personal best times in my running events. If the pandemic taught me anything, it taught me to be grateful for all that I have been given and to never take anything for granted.