On May 13, 2021, I graduated from Palm Beach State College with my associates degree in communications in the top of my class with a 3.94 gpa as a 17-year-old Early Admission student!!! It gets better because I was a dual- enrollment / Early Admission student, meaning that I finished all my high school credits in my 11th grade year and was able to enroll in college full time my senior year, so all my tuition was paid for by my high school. But it does not stop there, a month later on June 17th I graduated from high school, rank #5 in my class with a 3.86 unweighted gpa. Oh, my goodness, I could not believe that I really made it all the way through to finish getting both my diploma and a degree at the same time. Achieving something like this topped so many of my accomplishments. Every time I tell someone I graduated both with a high school diploma and associates degree in the same period time, they are astonished, but to be real, I am too of myself. Moving forward, this experience has taught me that I can do anything because I have started at the age of 12 in 2016 aiming to graduate with my associates degree by the time, I finish high school. I first started as a dual enrollment student in Miami at Miami Dade College, and I was only allowed to take 1-2 classes over the summer. Then in 2018 I moved to West Palm Beach, and I was now able to take 1-2 courses every semester, which moved things a lot faster. Although things moved faster, this journey was not easy because I was still in high school full time with 7 courses on top of that adding on a college course. For example, my junior year of high school really pushed me way out of my limits. I was taking honors courses on campus and online classes, in addition to a college course every semester. Some nights I would not get enough sleep because I am up writing and revising an 8-page essay. The work never stopped for me, my mom would tell me to take a break, but I had to finish it. With all the sentences and ideas flowing fluently in my head, I would not dare to lose them. I was working in overdrive, instead of me relaxing and watching tv like the other kids and have fun, I instead enrolled myself into college summer courses as well. You could basically say I had school all year round. Sometimes all of that workload became overbearing and I would start to stress on how am I going to pass these classes. However, I overcame that and was able to keep pushing with the positivity and encouragement by my family and friends and by God keeping me from not giving up. To state once again, I now knew within myself that I can do anything. As it is written in Philippians 4 and verse 13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” And lastly, I hope to achieve in the future my career as a business attorney, civil judge, and an entrepreneur. In each of these fields I will bring something extravagant. Not only just my career, but I hope to achieve to have a family of my own and give them all the love and support they all need and continue to encourage them when it may seem that encouragement cannot be found.

God is my greatest inspiration in life because he has formed me for a reason with a purpose to fulfill. Many times, I could have died, but I did not by the grace of God. So many individuals died in the past year due to Covid-19 and gun violence, but I am still here. The days that we wake up to see are not promised to anyone. As a result, I thank God that he wakes me up every day that I can be able to move towards fulfilling my purpose and walking in the calling that he has on my life. Jesus came on Earth and fulfilled his purpose; he did what he was called to do even though so many people talked bad about him or ran away from his call. He came to save everyone, and, in the end, he had to die on the cross for me and everyone that is living. God not only created me, but he died for me. So why take these days that I have for granted or delay the fulfillment of my purpose because someone said I do not think that is a good choice or maybe I have tried that before and it did not work, so I am not going to try it again. God had so many haters, but he still did what his father told him to do without hesitation. And that right there inspires me more than I could ever know. God made me with a purpose, and I have to fulfill it. Whether it be just to do the simplest thing of being polite to a stranger or do the wildest thing not knowing what the outcome would be. God knows the steps that I should take to do what he needs me to do on this earth and day by day I take his directions towards my end goal. Moving forward, my future drives me. Knowing that one day I will be completely walking in my calling as a business attorney and then becoming a civil judge that I strive for within every class I take, and every move I make keeps me moving ahead. Having the thought on my mind of leaving a legacy behind for my children and every generation behind that reminds me that I cannot stop now. I have to keep working towards completing every goal. However, it is not only about my career and legacy for my children in my future, but the future generations that are filled with so many great ambitions that will see and know my name and be reminded that I did not give up. I kept going no matter what and that should be an inspiration for them. Mistakes may take place down the road, but still do not give up. Everyone has a calling on their life that was placed by God, and it is for us to answer it and take instructions and follow through till the task is done.

God is my everything. He is the air that I breathe, my morning star. God has provided me with everything that I have. All the love, grace, favor, family, and friends that I have were given to me by him. I would not even be able to sit and write this essay without him. Each move that I make is ordered by him. He knows everything. Every inch of peace that is within me comes from him. He keeps me going forward in life even more so when I feel like giving up. When I see that every door is closing, he continues to remind me that he will open doors that no man could ever shut. When family and friends are nowhere to be found when I am in pain or wallowing in sadness, God is always there. Besides that, there can be many other things that can be somebody’s everything. It could be their one and only true close friend, a parent, phone, car, or even a house. However, I believe that all of these can be all gone in the blink of an eye, but God always remains. I can go on and on about him. He is the one that wakes me up every day without fail. Also, when I am down, I do not have to look to others to cheer me up but can think of everything that he has done for me, even when I did not deserve it. Not even a man nor woman watches over me everywhere I go. I can say that it is only God that does at all times. I could just be walking down the street, and God forbid something is to happen to me, but it says in the Bible, he is my protector. So, I know I am being watched over and covered daily. Moreover, he continues to fill me with love and kindness that I can show to others. Not only does he fill me with love, but with forgiveness in my heart for those that have wronged me so that I do not forever be bitter towards them. Altogether, God is my everything, and I am only here because of him.

“We regret to inform you that your application has not been selected.” I thought someone had put these exact words on repeat because of just how many times I have heard it. Recently in my life, I have experienced a large number of rejections that I have never experienced before, which I am still experiencing. Every door was being slammed in my face, without any remorse. I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! I started thinking to myself, am I not worthy of any? Can I not win at least one scholarship? In my life, especially this year of 2021 and the last year of 2020, I had been applying for scholarships and could not get even one. I believed that I was well overqualified for each of the scholarships I had applied for, but I guess the committee felt otherwise. I am a straight-A student with a 3.88 unweighted GPA, in the top 10% of my graduating class, have done many extracurriculars, write well-written essays, and lastly, show financial need. What was I doing wrong? It truly had been hard dealing with so many people not choosing me for something that I very much needed. I cried so much that it became a sensitive topic for me. Every time I would talk about it, I would start crying. All the time spent writing essays back to back, trying to meet every deadline, just to be turned away, really hurt to the core. Everyone kept telling me that everything is going to be okay and keep applying to other scholarships, but little do they know that I was on the verge of giving up. I thought maybe that going away for college was probably not the right choice because simply where was the money going to come from to pay for tuition and everything else. I know that loans are there, but I could not bear the burden of putting that heavy load on my mom. So, what was I supposed to do when so many doors have shut in my face? Well, I had to do the best thing I was good at, pray and trust God. I know some might ask, how is that supposed to help? Well, to me, it is the best thing to give you peace and comfort through these difficult times, and in prayer, I can ask God for a miracle so I can get through this situation. One thing that I know for certain is that when everyone else turns from you, God would not. So, I continued to pray and trust God that everything will work itself out. I also had to remember that everything I may have applied for may not have been for me because if it were destined for me, it would only be for me. Not only that, remember when I spoke about everyone telling me to keep applying, but I was on the verge of giving up? Those words may not have affected me right at the moment of rejection, but days later, it continued to motivate me to keep applying and not give up mentally or physically on scholarships and my dreams as well. I had to put rejection into terms that it was not me being turned away, but a note for me to try harder. So, with every scholarship, I put in 100% of my effort into each one of them and found as much more scholarships as I can whether it be from the smallest amount to the largest amount of money. I can indeed say that with each tactic that I had used, I was able to overcome the rejections and push past them for greater. This experience does not have to be a horrific memory for me. Instead, it can be a powerful tool to use toward every future goal I plan to fulfill. Every goal is not a 1-2-3 and done. Sometimes there are a couple of rejections, and some things may not plan out how you wanted them to. However, that is how life goes sometimes, but if I just remember that even though some doors might close, I must know that there are still a whole lot more open doors to go to, and those doors may be the ones for me to walk through. Even when I see rejection, I know not to become discouraged but push harder and become stronger because I know that there is something big, great, and marvelous out there that is just for me.

A role model is a person looked at by others as an example to be imitated, and my own would be one whose name is mom. Many times, a role model may be a celebrity or person in high ranking. However, mine is in my household who I see every day when I wake and before I go to sleep. My mom is my role model, and no one can ever take that position. I have always admired her strength, resilience, integrity, and morals that she carried. Many times, people would call me her little shadow or handbag because of how close I was to her. She always stayed strong when times are tough. She never gives up till a way to make things better is found. Not only did she stay strong for herself, but for me as well. There have been many times that I felt like giving up because I thought that there was nothing more else I can do, but my mom always continued to encourage me to keep going. She has set the foundation for the many morals and passions that I have, and without her in my life, I do not think I would have them today. It may sound cliché, but she has taught me so much that the list goes on and on. To list a few teaching moments, I will start with lesson #1, which is to stay strong even when things are literally falling apart, and all hope seems lost. Also, as my mom is a believer in Christ, lesson #2 is to always pray through the good and bad days, and lastly, lesson #3 is to stay focused on the target, which is my life goals and do not let anything get in the way of that. Each of these is very key to achieving each of my goals in life. Ever since I learned them, I have applied these lessons to achieve my goals. With lesson #1, many times on the journey to achieving goals, it is not always easy. As some might say, you must get through the thunderstorms before seeing rainbows and sunshine. For example, one of my goals is to further my education by going to a university so that one day I can be a business attorney. However, on this journey, a couple of forks stuck deep in the road, such as not getting into my dream college and turned down on many scholarships I have applied to pay for my college tuition. With every obstacle, it almost made me feel like I was not good enough and that I would not be able to fulfill my goals, but I remembered those three key lessons. Through these forks, I have been able to stay strong through the obstacles and find a sense of peace though I feel everything is crashing down. I not only used lesson #1 but picked on using lesson #2 every day by praying that everything would go in my favor. Praying for times to get better and applying lesson #3 the whole way through to keep my eyes on being a business attorney, which is my main target. With the use of every lesson, I am going to stay strong and continue to pray that I will accomplish my goals. Not only that, but not let the fog of rejection cloud my eyesight from keeping the focus on the main target to become who I have determined myself to be. Having each of these lessons under my belt, I will pay it forward by passing down these same lessons to others to prepare them for their journey to accomplish their goals. Indeed, each lesson spoken of is critical to obtaining one's goal(s) because not everything is within a touch of a finger. Instead, it will take every ounce of effort and blood, sweat, and tears to achieve. By placing into others, the same lessons that kept me grounded till I reached the finish line, I guarantee it would do the same amount of good or even better to someone else to get to their finish line.