Senior year is the year that you are supposed to know what college you want to go to and what career you want to study but that's not the case for me. It started in my freshman year when I looked into some careers. I saw a lot of nursing and criminology, although it would be incredible if I was either or but they didn’t catch my attention. Dermatology stuck out to me because of my past connection with it. At the end of fifth grade, I had hit puberty and it resulted in acne. I had a lot of it on my forehead and through my whole middle school years I felt ugly. I had gone to many doctors for face cream treatment but none of it worked. Until I found a great cream that a dermatologist had recommended on a video on Facebook I had seen. This changed my life and automatically fell in love with how they specialize the skin to help treatments like spots on your back or conditions that affect the hair and nails. I knew that this would let me help others with their skin and make them feel confident with their selves because I would have wanted self-assuredness from someone. Soon enough, during my junior year of high school, I was looking into ultrasound tech careers. I had no clue that there were other paths than just a baby ultrasound. Neurosonography performs ultrasounds on the brain and nervous system of patients of all ages. This was interesting because I always wondered about the function of the brain. I had done a school project on three important parts of the brain. But I resented it a lot with the hindbrain because its fundamental is to survival, motor activity, and sleep. Just how without it, I won't function correctly. Of course I didn’t understand thoroughly but I had done some research and there was so much more than the brain. I learned that brain vessels connect to certain things to make them function. This career would bring me more invested in how every part of our brain has a purpose even the small things we won't notice. Now in my senior year, dentistry has been a huge thought in my head. I was often called lucky because I had naturally straight teeth. Most of my cousins had braces growing up. But I never really realized how hard it would be for my cousins to get braces. You see we all came from a low-income background. So my cousins would often travel to Tijuana baja, California to get their braces done at a cheaper expense than in California. Sometimes they had problems with their braces and had to travel back and forth and it was causing them to interfere with their work and school. So taking it back to now, studying dentistry would mean so much to me. It will help me be determined to help those people in need. People that don’t have a sufficient amount of money to afford any dental service. Especially the young kids that come from parents with low income. I plan to create my dental clinic where low-income people in my community have the hope that they will get support and help to afford dental health services for themselves and their families. As much as those three careers each have a significant purpose inside of me I know that either career will fill up happiness and passion in me

I was always told that I have straight, perfect teeth. However, many of my friends had braces because their teeth weren’t in good condition. I sometimes thanked my mom and my genes for having natural healthy teeth. I noticed that my friends would have to travel far to get their braces. The biggest factor was that it's a lot cheaper in other places than here in California. Before my mom had to wear braces, I had no idea what it was like to struggle. I recall she would have to go to a dentist but the odd thing was that it wasn’t at an actual dentist's place rather than a house. Though it was a bit sketchy it was a lot cheaper for her because she couldn't afford to pay up so much. During my Freshman year, I started looking into a couple of careers I can round up to. The main ones that kept popping up were lawyers and doctors. Although they did sound amusing. I didn’t feel the connection, instead, I looked in another direction of dermatologists and dentistry. I felt the immediate connection and perseverance of pursuing Dentistry in my senior year. It was at one of my dentist appointments that my childhood dentist of 9 years asked me “You have great persistence to be a future dentist.” As much as I tried smudging that comment off my head it always came back and I started analyzing what he meant by that. That's when it finally hit me that I have a great skill of being very still and careful. Therefore, using my college education to be a dentist will help me be determined to help those people in need. People that don’t have a sufficient amount of money to afford any dental service. Especially the young kids that come from parents with low income because I have seen the struggle of my friends and family having to travel far due to not having enough money. I plan to create my own dental clinic where low-income people in my community have the hope that they will get support and help to afford dental health services for themselves and their families.

Last summer, my sister inspired me to start a rug-making business. Although we both knew that it would be kind of impossible because the supplies were too much money. I decided to watch some youtube videos about what to do as a beginner. It was a lot of time-consuming and money to go for it. My sister and I talked about what my first step would be. To start we had to find a way to save up money for the cost. I decided to gather some old clothes and send them to a thrift store in exchange for money. Though I felt like I gave too much and received 30 dollars for 5 pairs of pants and 8 pairs of shirts. But I couldn’t stop there, I decided to work with my mom over the week. Right after school, I had to change and eat in 30 minutes and head to work. We would clean some sorority houses in a university by my house. This took a lot of my energy and I had to figure out time management. I didn’t have much time to do my homework and study for the test. I would often hit an all nighter and wouldn’t get any rest. Until the 2 months, I was able to raise a sufficient amount to purchase my tools. There were a lot of calculations to add up like measuring my frame with wood that had to build for the base of my rug/cloth. A week later I bought all my materials and 4 different locations and successfully had everything. Now I had to complete a profile pic for my business. I had to come up with a variety of different looks for my rug profile and eventually posted my first-ever video customizing a rug. I was so proud of myself and even though I haven't blown up I am waiting for the time. I was very stressed with organizing the prices of the different sizes and colors and had to figure out the amount of time I was putting into each rug depending on the price. So I had to count down my hours and although I didn't have many buyers I was still happy with everything. I have learned that solving solutions takes mistakes, effort, passion and patience to find the key. Although I am just beginning I know the right time would come and I was able to find a solution to my problem.

My family didn’t come from a wealthy background meaning they had to learn about savings, credit cards, and budgeting at a later age. However, they quickly managed to understand the basics and were able to help me in some way when I first got my 100-dollar bill. When I was younger, each birthday, I would receive money and my parents always told me to not waste it on things that will not interest me later. Naturally, I never paid attention to them because I wanted every toy I saw in the commercials. I recall that my mom and I would frequently go shopping together, and I would observe her paying with both cash and a debit card. I never understood why she needed to use two separate methods. She recalled my question and replied, "Sometimes you can pay the balance with a card and it works the other way around when you don't have enough cash." My mother used to have me write down the items she needed from the store and instruct me to include the prices when I was in middle school. Once I did the math on her phone and gave her the sum, she would ask me to make some subtractions. This was because she always had a spending limit and was on a budget. This undoubtedly assisted me in creating my business's budget. I only had enough money saved up this summer to purchase my goods. I decided to make good use of the $100 that my sister gave me for my birthday. I had requested my mother to help me in budgeting my expenses and helping me save additional cash. During the weekends, she allowed me to accompany her to work, and she paid me $40 per day. I had to give up a lot of the things I desired, such as clothes, games, and food, but it helped me save money for the material. But once I had my own, I rapidly realized the significance of money. Even though it required a lot of effort and sweat, by the end of the month, I had saved 340 dollars. I was aware that money was hard to come by. I had set a saving goal and requested credit from my mother to assist me to control my expenditures. I then had to do a lot of math to figure out which materials were more affordable before I could ultimately acquire everything I needed for my rug-making business. Nonetheless, there weren't many clients coming in and my business hasn't been performing well. I went right away to my parents to get their opinion. I had to assess the cost and figure out how long it would take to produce the rug. I also needed to make sure I was getting value out of the resources I was using. I used to feel like I was working too hard for too little pay, so this relieved a lot of my tension. Mom advised me to calculate the cost by estimating the number of hours needed and the size of the rug. eventually obtained a credit card, which allowed me to track my spending on various items. Despite receiving a lot of budgeting and saving advice, I opted to learn from my failures because that is what has enabled me to analyze how I might avoid making those mistakes in the future. Whether it be spending too much money on food or paying too much for unneeded products. I've been able to learn a lot about the value of money and finance.

Personal wellness means being physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually healthy. It has been a very important aspect of my life because I struggled with balancing my life. I didn't have anyone to rely on for advice so I kept it to myself. I did notice that I was lacking ambition in my classes. I was falling behind in classwork and wasn’t learning anything. On top of that I wasn’t cleaning my room and I had the same old decorations. I wasn’t eating healthy and I was just so negative about life. This was affecting my life because I just felt tired and didn’t feel like talking to anyone. I knew I had to change because I always aimed for high grades and turned in my work on time. I always felt happy doing work and hanging with people around me which me feel happy and positive. A way that I received help was from my sister. She was there when I needed to cry on someone and gave me great advice about having a spiritual mentality. She told me that you can’t let one thing upset you and instead find ways that find you happiness. She was right and so I deep cleaned my room, gave myself a new look, and believed in myself. This was so different for me because I came so close to spirituality and anything you put your mind to, you can achieve it, you can convince it and you can be it. I have been healing some community groups I volunteer for young teens and women that need that support and don't feel good about themselves. She told me that you can’t let one thing upset you and instead find ways that find you happiness. She was right and so I deep cleaned my room, gave myself a new look, and believed in myself. This was so different for me because I came so close to spirituality and anything you put your mind to, you can achieve it, you can convince it and you can be it. I have been healing some community groups I volunteer for young teens and women that need that support and don't feel good about themselves. She told me that you can’t let one thing upset you and instead find ways that find you happiness. She was right and so I deep cleaned my room, gave myself a new look, and believed in myself. This was so different for me because I came so close to spirituality and anything you put your mind to, you can achieve it, you can convince it and you can be it. I have been healing some community groups I volunteer for young teens and women that need that support and don't feel good about themselves.

Last summer, my sister inspired me to start a rug-making business. Although we both knew that it would be kind of impossible because the supplies were too much money. I decided to watch some youtube videos about what to do as a beginner. It was a lot of time-consuming and money to go for it. My sister and I talked about what my first step would be. To start we had to find a way to save up money for the cost. I decided to gather some old clothes and send them to a thrift store in exchange for money. Though I felt like I gave too much and received 30 dollars for 5 pairs of pants and 8 pairs of shirts. But I couldn’t stop there, I decided to work with my mom over the week. Right after school, I had to change and eat in 30 minutes and head to work. We would clean some sorority houses in a university by my house. This took a lot of my energy and I had to figure out time management. I didn’t have much time to do my homework and study for the test. I would often hit an all nighter and wouldn’t get any rest. Until the 2 months, I was able to raise a sufficient amount to purchase my tools. There were a lot of calculations to add up like measuring my frame with wood that had to build for the base of my rug/cloth. A week later I bought all my materials and 4 different locations and successfully had everything. Now I had to complete a profile pic for my business. I had to come up with a variety of different looks for my rug profile and eventually posted my first-ever video customizing a rug. I was so proud of myself and even though I haven't blown up I am waiting for the time. I was very stressed with organizing the prices of the different sizes and colors and had to figure out the amount of time I was putting into each rug depending on the price. So I had to count down my hours and although I didn't have many buyers I was still happy with everything. I have learned that solving solutions takes mistakes, effort, passion and patience to find the key. Although I am just beginning I know the right time would come and I was able to find a solution to my problem.