Since I was a little girl, I had been inspired to draw characters from animated films I would watch. Initially, they would only be animals, but as I grew older I found many things that inspired me to go further into the arts. Whether it was video games, TV shows, or another artist's work, I felt a spark of determination light up within me to continue to pursue art in my style. Of course, when devoting time to something that you’re passionate about will come with challenges. I have been doubtful of my art and kept a comparison between others’ work and my own. Demotivation and doubt clouded my understanding that I was still a beginner. Despite others the same age or younger than myself, people develop and improve differently. While on the verge of giving up, it was as if the universe knew what I was intending on doing and stopped me midway. Soon after I came about a motivational video that kept me from giving up. The words engraved in my heart brought back the fire I once had before. I felt a sense of confidence within myself ever since. I decided to live without a doubt in my mind and improve further with myself mentally and artistically. I’ve used professional artists’ work as a reference to study instead of worrying about how much better it was than my work. Observing different techniques and styles benefitted me in developing my own. I can create beautiful things, I will strive to create more in my lifetime because it is something that I’m passionate about. It’s been about nine years since I started officially creating artwork, and I’ve won art show awards for getting my school art project displayed in a well-known art gallery. My awards were listed in the school announcements and were placed in the yearbook. Another piece was displayed in the school office. I’m looking forward to making more achievements for myself. Art is only a hobby to me for now, but I am looking forward to upgrading this hobby into a career. Winning this scholarship would mean so much to me because it would mean that I’ll have more opportunities to claim art as my future occupation. If I had to choose a single artist to be my favorite, I wouldn’t choose anyone. My reasoning for this choice is simply because all artists I see on either social media or in museums, all of their work is beautiful. I love to see different aspects, perspectives, and styles from different people. Everyone’s art is beautiful and unique in its way as long as they present their passion for it.

My 'why' to pursue my life as an Artist/Animator is because of my passion to create. Creating something from the imagination is what keeps me motivated and inspired to continue forward with my life in the arts. I love the feeling while creating something freehandedly and presenting them to others, showing them the beauty and the meaning it brings. I hope to inspire my audience to pursue anything they want to achieve and teach them life lessons with my creations. My motivation to keep working hard for what I believe I can achieve primarily comes from my mother. She has always been strong while raising my siblings and me independently. She always struggled financially, but that never brought her down. She kept fighting for herself and importantly for us three, I am inspired by my mom and I will show her I am as strong as she is to make her proud. She always wanted the best for me, despite the flaws and mistakes I made; I redeem myself and move forward to make the best of myself. Another thing that keeps me motivated is the desperation to improve my artistic skills and expand my knowledge of art to become one of the best artists to be known. Currently, I am writing my stories of my own; hoping that one day I will bring them to life by animating them and making them into a TV series. My imagination has an endless amount of ideas I would love to share with the world and hopefully allow my audience to learn something while being entertained. A lot of issues are going on in the world, especially how we treat one another. My dream of being an animator isn't for fun or entertainment, I would like to teach people lessons through my work and hopefully change the world. Even if there is the slightest change in how people view or treat each other.

The attributes about myself that make me unique are my strengths, independence, and determination to continuously fight for what I seek to achieve. Keeping lifelong goals in life gives purpose and the will to be successful when it's finally fulfilled. My ambition is to become one of the best Animators/Artists and I am willing to work hard for it. Putting hard effort into something you want to be in the future while you're young would make great results. That is the reason why I am working so hard now educationally to get the best results that I can. Having the desire to be someone who is recognized for their talent would improve work performance. I am passionate about what I am soon to be entitling myself to. Becoming an Artist is was I aspire to be. What makes me unique is that I have a huge dream that people may not appreciate a lot in the future. Following trends or other people's interests were never a fond for me, I often think independently and create something incredible. Working as a team is beneficial for work, however, I always have worked independently. Working independently increases my productivity and work ethic which allows me to finish faster. I plan to give back to the community by presenting them with my artwork that would mean something to them and show their true values within themselves. Most people are lost in attempting to find out who they are. Reflecting on when I had an identity crisis, I used to want to follow what others were interested in, even if it didn't interest me. My desperation to fit in gave me negative feelings mentally and emotionally. I felt like people wouldn't accept me for who I was if I showed them. After a few hard moments in life, I realized that I had no one else but myself. I gained confidence and belief in myself afterward. Spreading messages and presenting meaningful art to the public would be beneficial for the next generation who are similar to how I was in the past. Many people need encouragement to realize their worth. I am willing to help them recognize who they are as a person. I hope to inspire and motivate others into having the confidence to do something independently and not to follow through with what everyone else is doing. Strengthening the mind would get us to where we want to be.

Having the ability to release creativity in the imagination is the reason why I am passionate about art. My discovery of my interest in art first began in kindergarten. Similar to other small children, I enjoyed drawing and doodling on my magnetic drawing board; inspired by movies, TV shows, and more. The enjoyment I felt turned out to be much more after several years later I got back into making art and creating characters of my own. At that moment, enjoyment morphed into passion and dedication. I thought of different career options such as becoming a doctor, a veterinarian, or a chef, but those career options did not interest me any longer. That was when I came to the realization art was the best option for me since I had a strong connection with it. Inspiration from observing other artists' work, and seeing how they let their imagination free on a piece of paper or a digital canvas convinces me to let my imagination escape and create something beautiful. Animation has always inspired me as well. Although I have little to no experience with animation I am willing to learn the basics of it and advance into something more complex. My mom used to be a single mother throughout my childhood. She had financial issues and struggled to keep her three children with her. As a result, she sent two of her children to another relative's home and kept one child with her while living with her mother. The one child she kept was me, I am the oldest of the other two siblings. Soon after kindergarten, I joined my siblings at my great-grandmother's house. I never knew the struggles my mom had been through until she told me recently. She struggled with depression due to financial issues, and other family members didn't treat her well nor were willing to assist her with anything she needed. Hearing about her background gave me the realization of why she wanted me to work so hard and do my best with everything. I always listened to her when she encouraged me to aim for the best results academically. She became the reason why I work even harder for my goals in life and to become a successful artist. My ambition for art was entirely based on my mom's strength and will to never give up and fight for success. I appreciate her for her hard-earned efforts to make the best life for her children, I am willing to show my appreciation by pursuing further education.

My personal experiences with finances affected which affected me entirely are not being able to go to the university that I've been dreaming to go to. Throughout my life, my mom always had struggled with finance. I would worry about how much a certain thing I wanted would cost and how it would affect my mom, so I would either not get it or wait patiently until she had enough to purchase it. There were times when my other two siblings and I would have to live in separate grandparents' houses because she didn't make enough to take care of us. Our whole family isn't close, so they didn't help her with anything. At present, knowing that I can't go to my dream university upsets me. I was hoping to attend this school and experience college life like every other student. Instead, I have to attend another university online due to its affordability. I plan on using what I learned to benefit myself into becoming the most successful in life I have ever been. Once I achieve everything I wanted in life and make enough money, the first thing I will do is help my mom financially. I will help her with anything that she needs to wash all of her stress and worries away. She is a huge motivation to me as to why I need to become successful in life. She was the reason why I am so successful in getting the best grades I could so I can get into the best universities for an excellent career. When I think of my future, I think of myself being successful in getting the career I have always dreamed about becoming into reality. Helping my mother with anything she needs for her to be happy and free from stress so that way she can enjoy life how she always wanted to. She worked so hard to get to where she is now. She did almost everything on her own and I will be the one willing to help her in the future. I want to expand my knowledge so I can have more opportunities to get a career that will benefit me. Everything that she's done for us, I need to pay her back for. I am a high school senior with a 3.4 GPA. I am willing to grow and move on to my next step in life.

My passion for creative arts started when I was in fifth or sixth grade. I designed my characters. I was inspired by many other animated films, other artists' work, video games, or reading comic books. Observing others' work always helped me improve my artwork. I am a visual learner. I love to observe and teach myself how to create beautiful pieces in my style. Having a creative mind has led me to different opportunities I can choose from to bring what I've always dreamt of into reality. The process of creating an art piece pulls me into a trance. Being in full focus brings me into my imagination. The feeling I have when creating art is indescribable, but I enjoy every moment of the process. I have many things I have to learn, but I am willing to take the time and have the patience to improve. One film that I think is incredibly gorgeous is the movie, Avatar. The graphics are phenomenal. The designs of the characters in the movie are extremely detailed. Seeing the background setting and the designs of the characters motivate me into teaching myself how to create beautiful backgrounds. I would love to be almost as advanced as the creators of Avatar. Seeing how they put their movie together requires hard work, as regards how long it takes. They had the patience and dedication into finishing this film. I have nearly the same dedication they have when it comes to bringing out what I want to do in life. The film Avatar is important to me due to the amount of time and effort they put into it to create one beautiful piece. It inspires me to continue with my passion as an artist to bring my own stories to life. I am currently writing my own story I have been working on for three years. I've been sluggishly building the story up to this point to make sure that it grabs any reader's attention and that the story is interesting enough for the audience to finish. I know little of my family background. However, I do know that quite a few of them have artistic abilities similar to mine. A genetic talent has been passed down to me and I am willing to pursue it as a future career. Having this ability will take me far toward becoming a successful artist. I want to make what is just a hobby into a career that will bring me success in life. Becoming famous is irrelevant to me. Enhancing my abilities and elevating them into something much more is so much more, showing people what I am capable of is important to me. I want to show others that art isn't just something being painted onto a canvas or a digital drawing being made on an electronic device. I want to show people the true beauty of art and provide messages that will engrave in their minds and open their eyes to reality.

When I was in kindergarten, I always loved to draw. Though, of course, other children loved to draw as well as I did, I had a feeling that mine was different. I was inspired by how the design of the cartoon characters looked; specifically from the animated film, Ice Age. Though, I wasn't consistent in drawing when I was young, the consistency began fifth or sixth grade. I started designing characters of my own. I would be inspired by many different things. Whether it was Anime, films, video games, or comic books. At that moment, I discovered that I had a passion to make art. I attempted to watch tutorials to enhance my art abilities. However, that didn't go much in my favor. I wanted to draw in my way. Be creative in what I saw in my mind. I decided to teach myself how to improve in my artwork. As years passed, I increasingly discovered my independence. Educational-wise, I would always need extra help with my work. I had to be put in a program called "Resource" which was a special needs class. I would have to be pulled out of my classes immediately after the teacher would be finished with the lesson. Independence came about once I began my freshman year of high school and I didn't need resource any longer. Having more than nine years of experience in Resource has given me leadership. If there were an art group project or a project where we had to include drawings, I would be the one directing my group on how to design our project. My group would always trust me since I was the artistic person in the group. I am hoping to benefit the world with my future art career by presenting to them the real beauty of art, instead of it just being paint on a canvas or just a digital picture made on a computer. My art would provide a message to the audience that would open their eyes. I want them to observe what is going on in the world instead of being distracted by everything else. My artistic career would also include animating a series of my own. I am currently writing a novel that I want to bring to life in the future. Though I have no experience with animation, I am willing to teach myself and learn about it once I attend university. I haven't read many books in my childhood. I never liked the thought of reading. I preferred to play video games, read comics or watch TV shows. As a senior in high school, I regret refusing to read books when I was young. I never realized how informative books were. Reading is incredibly beneficial to me because I'm learning new words every time I pick up a book. Reading has improved my writing. I am currently reading books written by Stephen King, since I am writing a story that contain horrific prompts. Reading shapes my imagination, whether it's comic or chapter books. I am interested in how others write. Observing how the author writes their novel inspires me to write in my own creative way. My goal is to pursue my passion for art into a career. I don't want to view my artwork as just a hobby. I will take any opportunity to bring my dream to reality. Despite many hardships that went in my way, they never stopped me from working hard to get to the position that I'm in at this moment.