Hello, My name is Lauren Bonds. I am a single mother to two boys. I graduated from high school. Became a bartender, because I love people. Met the love of my life, was planning a wedding, found out we were gonna have a baby. My oldest son Charlie, is 13. He was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis three weeks after he was born. His father and I, did not see eye to eye shortly after he was born. We separated. But my son is truly an amazing young man. We lost his dad in an ATV accident. Which has been hard for us both. I also have my baby boy James, who is 8. I did marry his father, but have since filed for a divorce. I had to accept that my son and I could not change a man if he himself does not want to change. My husband unfortunately got mixed up with drugs, he completely changed. He went from the guy who would give you the shirt off his back if anyone asked, to yelling and getting aggressive. It took only one time for him to bust my lip, and I knew my boys and I had to leave. We went to a women’s shelter, and he is now in prison. I myself, am 35, I am a recovering addict. Have been clean since September 2020. I graduated from SCI with a diploma for cosmetology. I enrolled, then had to drop out because it got too hard. But, went back to graduate. I am now a undergraduate at Strayer University. I have a 4.0 GPA. I am taking honors classes. Have been on the Presidents List. I am trying to create a life for my boys and I to be healthy, happy, and together in a home I manage all on my own. If I were to be chosen for this scholarship, I would pay off all three of my student loans to get out of debt. I would donate a big portion of the money to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, in hopes to finding a cure for my sons genetically terminal disease. The rest I would put in an account with interest for each of my boys. So that when it comes time for them to go to college, they won’t have to worry about student debt. They are the reason I am alive. I want to live life for them.

I have worked in retail for more than the amount of time that I'd like to admit. Was a bartender for ten years. So I know I have the communication and relationship-building skills, as I have had to interact with people in very different atmospheres. I am a hard worker, watching loved ones working hard to provide for the family. I have great role models that I fully respect. Have had mentors, who watch me hit rock bottom just to show them I am capable of hard work, dedication, and motivation to pick myself up again and succeed even further. As I was flipping through t.v. stations, I landed on this show called Storage Wars. It piqued my interest so I watched a few, well it was a marathon so probably ten episodes at least. I did extensive research on what it takes to profit off of storage units. I found some online storage auctions within a distance I am willing to drive. At first, I was not profiting from this adventure. I had to pay someone willing to help me load an entire storage unit in 48 hours, not only for their time but the gas in their truck. So, I started cautiously. I put bids on the units not that were not expensive. There was nothing in the units' worth of value. I am a full-time student. With no steady income and two boys, I put all I had into this one unit. I watched and bid again when I was outbid. It was getting rather a way too expensive. I started to think to myself, well maybe we can try again. By the grace of God, I won. I made double what I put into the bid. The furniture I was able to sell. There were a few name-brand purses, and name-brand shoes I was capable of selling for a very good price. The clothing items and the dishes, what furniture I had left I donated to the battered women's shelter. I have the passion to make this into a lasting career for my two boys. Having a job keeps food on the table, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our heads. Being able to work on my own time, has given me the time to be a full-time student to get my bachelor's degree in Business Administration in Entrepreneurship. It has allowed me to go on field trips, attend every sports event, and when their sick be there for them.

My grandpa ran his own business. My uncle and he would paint houses, interior and exterior, buildings, and churches. Having one of the greatest men I know get up and work hard to take care of my grandma and all six of their kids were inspiring. I knew from an early age that I work hard. I give 110% of myself to my job. It's what puts food on the table, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our heads. I say us because I have two boys. Working for a company, and having a boss is a job. I knew I wanted more. I would give all my efforts to succeed with a job but even more dedication and motivation for a career. To work on my own time, to be able to raise my boys, and be there to watch football, baseball, and soccer games. Whichever they prefer I wanted to be present for. After I watched a few episodes of Storage Wars, my thoughts were that it could be well fun. I did quite a bit of research. Found that there were a few websites that offer online auctions. But, I have to be careful and make sure to only choose online auctions within a certain amount of miles I am willing to drive. At first, I thought, why not? It can't be that hard and look competitive, which I can be. Also that it looked fun. At first, I thought of playing it safe, which was not making any profit. It was costing me money and time-consuming for nothing. I had to find a ride from someone with a truck who had the time to help me empty a storage unit within 48 hours. The units that were low bids didn't have anything worth selling in the unit. So giving gas for milage and not being able to sell anything did not have a profit. To be an Entrepreneur, you have to take risks. Being a full-time student without a steady paycheck, I put every penny I had into this one auction. The price kept going up. I thought, well, maybe next unit I will be able to win. And by the grace of God, I won the unit. I sold all the furniture, some of the expensive shoes and purses, which doubled what I had bought the unit for. After it was all said and done the clothes and dishes I took to the women's battered shelter. Go Big or Go Home, and remember to Pay it Forward.

Growing up my mother worked as an assistant to a couple of stock brokers. When they would go to lunch , when I got the opportunity to tag along, Id try to pay attention, but the terms they used, I was lost in a matter of minutes. But, my favorite of moms bosses, said during lunch not to look at the market when it’s down as your losing money. Try to keep in your mind your investing your money with the actual company, not the market. I’ve recently invested, not very much in stocks with a couple different companies. I didn’t research them, or look to see how they were doing. But, I felt strongly about my choices, I trust the company and that’s the tip I remember the most. I’m looking forward to see how they do.

People seem to forget that our mental health is just as important as our physical health, if not more I might add. You cant expect your body to function properly when your mind isn't "right". When I feel like I'm at my wits end, feel like I'm about to 'lose it', I always turn to water for some reason. The water becomes my happy place, it is my security blanket. The ocean, not just the sound of the waves are relaxing but to me even the smell. Its like I'm at complete peace with myself, and the world I live in. Even being at a lake, hanging your feet off the dock letting the boats wake creep higher and higher up your calves, is relaxing. Tubing down the river or snorkeling in a creek no matter what body of water it is, to me it is all very relaxing. Growing up I had a in-ground pool, I would have swam all year round if my parents would have allowed me to. I am sure not everyone would agree with me. My father is not only a certified scuba diver, but also has been an instructor helping others become certified as well. My mother, she has been fishing from the time she was able to hold a pole. So I guess it would be no shocker that I was swimming before I could walk, True Story!! Water has a tendency to help me feel at ease, or become relaxed. If I feel lost or that I am not able to sit still or be able to calm my mind I know being around water will resolve any issue.

Growing up I was in dance class from the age of 3 to 15, and in high school I was on the dance team. I was so passionate about dancing I wanted to become a back-up dancer for Michael Jackson. My dance class taught me how to tap, do jazz, ballet and toe, lyrical and also learned how to do high kicks from being on the dance team for the Judson Rockets. I started "tap dancing" when I was three, and loved it. I loved getting dressed up in all the shiny colorful costumes. Every year I had the opportunity to perform a dance recital. Even when it was the "off" period of the dance season I would make my own dance skits, and perform them for my mom, grandma, and or which ever family member I could get their attention to watch me. I'd mix & match my costumes from my previous recitals. I would pick a song or two, had to use a cassette player and record the parts of the songs I wanted to dance to on a cassette. My freshman year of high school, I created and performed a routine for a talent show. I didn't make first place, but was proud to get 2nd place, seeing on how I made the entire dance routine up myself.

I can honestly say I have a passion for life, I strive for self-improvement. I have so much motivation towards challenging myself to be better. I want to learn to be better. I want to be the best example for my children. After graduating high school I was basic. I have overcome so many difficult obstacles in my life, such as my drug addiction. When my son was born, with a genetic disease, Cystic Fibrosis, which life expectancy in the '80s hoped to make it to be in their 20s. Now, days they make it to their 30s. With up to 15+ medications taken daily, 3-4 breathing treatments a day, and daily feeds through his feeding tube. I was scared, upset, mad at God. I was afraid to lose him any day, there are no words to express having to watch my child go through so much pain without being able to make it go away. I was a coward and turned to drugs. J. K. Rowling said it best, "Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life". Now, I have graduated and received my diploma from Southern Career Institute in their cosmetology program. I am enrolled in Strayer University to achieve my Bachelors in Business. I don't expect myself to become a perfect person, I challenge myself to do better than I have done in my past, and work hard to achieve better for myself, not only for me, but for my kids who deserve the very best.

Benjamin Franklin said, "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest". I will say I do agree, but at the same time disagree. As your education would be the best to invest in, why must we invest so much money towards our education? I believe a woman or man should not have to pay so much to receive higher education. We all would be nothing without education. We are born to learn, as a baby we are taught to eat and walk, we learn how to swim and ride a bike. From the moment we start school K-12th grade, in my opinion, we only learn the basic fundamentals of how only to get by. I feel our country would want its citizens to be able to achieve higher education, not only to help our country thrive but also to want them to want to be better. I graduated high school in 2006, and the reason it took so long for me to get back in school in 2018 was the thought of affordability. After I graduated from Southern Career Institute in February, I was having a tough time deciding to get back into school to achieve my Bachelor's degree, all because of the student loan debt I have built up already. Nelson Mandela stated "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." We can't begin to try to change anything when it is unaffordable for most.

Although I have no problem at all helping another person making their company prosper. I would much rather take all the time and effort I have towards my own business. I have tried to start up two businesses. My most recent and favorite came from the show 'Storage Wars'. I started to bid on storage units up for auction online. For the units I won, I would go and empty the unit, sort through all of it to throw away the trash that was in them, and keep what wasn't to sell online. I used Offer Up, and Facebook marketplace to sell furniture, clothes, or toys. I found antiques, baseball card collections, coin collections, and much more. I would donate the items that I thought would not make any profit & keep all the important paperwork to get in touch with the storage owner to give it back to them. Which for me became a struggle, I found that once I met with these people I was starting to give them all their stuff back, but I can not afford to do that. I started that business upright when Covid happened, so I do not doubt that I had something going. The pandemic set me back so far, that even though our days seem to be getting back to the normal swing of things, my company 'Storage ReSale' won't. I am probably the only person you will hear say I'm thankful for the pandemic, it gave me the time to finish my cosmetology program. This gave me my second opportunity to try and make something of myself after I graduated in February of this year from Southern Career Institute. Graduated with more than a 2.7 GPA. I put ads on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all the social media pages I am currently using. I used Offer Up, and the Nextdoor ap trying to promote my services in the area I live in. But not one time did my phone ever ring. I came up with ads that I posted before and after pictures of family & friends that I worked on. I believe with the knowledge I gain from getting my bachelor's degree in Business, I will learn what I did wrong, what steps I need to take, and get a better grasp on what to do, how to do it to be More Successful. Being a prior graduate from one institute and trying to get back into a university is not a problem for me to do at all. Through hard work, and determination know I will make it work, I have to. Failure is not at all an option for me, so through better education and my will to win, success will be achieved. I truly believe that my career progression potential is currently limited only by my lack of quality education in business. Achieving my education goals to increase my aptitude, coupled with my extremely positive attitude, will most assuredly allow me to reach my ultimate altitudes.