Rejection, the word that is scary to all and also breaks most. Rejection for myself is a very scary concept. I have always wanted to be success, as most people want for themselves, and recently rejection has made me feel less successful. I had applied to the radiography program at my school. I was hoping and was waiting for a few months after submitting my application to get the good news. However, the news I received was not the news I wanted. I was sad for a long time and thought that I was a failure. I thought my future career was never going to happen. I thought I was going to have to change my life plans and my life goals. For so many months I could not even tell my parents because I was so afraid that they were going to be upset with me. When I finally found the courage to tell my mother, she looked at me and told me that it was going to be okay because I could always try again. She said that failure is okay because it means that you tried but you must try harder the next time. So now, I look at this as an opportunity to help better myself, my educational career and my life as a whole. Being a first generation student is hard, especially for me, my family is not very educated on how college works, so neither was I. I believe that this was what made me be so hard on myself. But for me, it allowed me to push myself and strive to be great. After this rejection, I wanted to strive to improve me and my schooling. I took this as an opportunity to better my grades and better my grade point average. I took this as an opportunity to really be a better me. I learned that trying again or not succeeding the first time is okay, it is okay to fail. Failing allowed me to see that it is okay to not succeed the first time because it makes you a better person. Failing allowed me to see that it happens so that you can see the bigger picture in life. Being hard on yourself is not always the way to take on life because it does not always work the way you plan. Failure is a way of life and only helps you become more successful. I look back and I honestly laugh, I laugh because I never realized how hard life is and how hard I made it for myself. With this failure, I learned how to be better. I learned how to do school work better and how to take on new challenges. I strongly believe that this failure made me a better version of myself. This failure allowed me to open my eyes and see life as something bigger than just working and school work. It allowed me see and realize that life is what you make of it. You can always work hard towards something that you want but there will always be barriers and roadblocks, but you must figure out a way around these barriers and roadblocks. These roadblocks will make a better person.

Failure, the word that truly scares every single person in today's world. Personally failure has always been a fear of mine. I wanted and had to be the person that always succeeded. Until spring 2020 came along. The greatest failure of my career. I applied to my radiography program for the first time and was so excited. However, that excitement came to end on June 1st, 2020. I got the email that ended my pride and joy, I did not get into the radiography program. I cried for so many hours, but at the time it was my best friends birthday so I could not bring down the mood. I hid it from everyone in my life for a week. I was embarrassed and ashamed. I tried so hard to get into that program and pushed myself, so I thought. I now realize that I did not push myself to the fullest. I did not try my best or even give it my all. Today, I learned that maybe the timing was not right. I did not let this failure define because I can always get another chance. That is what I am doing today, I am getting another chance and I am trying my best and truly working towards my goal. I am studying hard and making sure that my application is the best one that is being read. I strive to do my best because this is the career path that I want to go down. I believe that this failure was the best thing that has happened to me. Before that failure, everything was handed to me and barely had to work for things. School came so naturally so I thought I did not have to study or try very hard. I now know that the real world does not hand things to you on a silver platter, you must work for them and fight hard.

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Fitness, the main key to a good mental state of mind, health and energy. I work out at least five days a week for about an hour each. I believe that fitness is the reason why I am not so down and feeling so sad all the time. It keeps my mind flowing and off topics I do not like thinking about. I go to the gym with my mom and sometimes my little brother. We all keeps each other motivated and make sure that they are pushing ourselves. For the hour that I am at the gym, my mind is focused on the gym. I am able to let go of stress that is caused by school or anything else and really focus on me. I am also working on my physical health by going to the gym. I am able to stay active and really show myself how to be active in healthy ways. I also believe that this is a stress reliever because it consumes some time out of my day, everyday. Before the gym, I am researching or watching people do exercises, so I know that I am working out correctly. Another benefit that I have found is that, going to the gym makes me feel more energized and ready for the day, if I go in the morning. Starting my day off with a workout makes me want to keep going.

COVID-19, the biggest adversity in everyone's life today. COVID-19 has truly hit my life very hard. I went from being so happy and honestly living my best life at school. I was in my own little world at school, all my friends around me, my sorority sisters, everything I could truly ask for. Then COVID-19 came and honestly took all of that away from me. I had to rush home from spring break to be back in time to get everything out of my dorm. I had one day, and four hours to pack my things and get off of campus. This was a scary time for me. When finally getting back from my drive, I remember crying and feeling very lost. School was starting online in a few weeks and I had no idea how that was going to turn out. I loved knowing how things were planned and how my semester would go. I liked to stay on top of work but was very unsure of how that was going to go with six classes online. Luckily, I had great resources and good support at home and still with my friends at school. Together my mom and I came up with new ways to complete work and stay on top of work. For a long time, I felt very sad because I was not with my friends at school, together we came up with ways to entertain each other and make sure our lives were as "normal" as they could be. I think this adversity really was life changing and is still life changing. I believe that this changed me for the best because I now see the world differently. I think that this showed me how strong I am and how fast I can adapt to change around me. Being able to see my academics basically come crashing down because school was so up in the air, was so terrifying. Seeing how fast society adapted to change was so fascinated. How classes are being taught is so different, but to me this hardship is mesmerizing because as a whole, new ways of teaching are being developed. For my future, it'll be a little different because I am aiming for the medical field. I do not think that "normal" will ever be normal at the hospitals. I think this hardship showed me how to be safer and more cautious. It taught me new ways to see the world in a positive way because it was so hard to when I thought we were not going to adapt as a society. Being away from school this semester has been a rollercoaster of emotions but it truly did show me that the medical field is what I want to go into because they are so many people in need of help. People that do not even know how to help themselves but still need the help. I want to be the hero when another pandemic or something of the same sort comes rolling around. Seeing first line workers work so hard and fight so hard for their patients is so mesmerizing and it would truly be an honor to be apart of that.