"Why are you such a bad kid?" I remember my mom asking me such a complex question when I was only nine years old. "I'm sorry, I don't know," I replied. This memory has been engraved in my head ever since. As a child, I had a horrible temper. I would go from 0 to 100 in seconds. My relationship with my Hispanic mother wasn't the best. My emotions often took control over everything and, I would be screaming harmful things or crying hysterically over nothing. Since childhood, it was evident I had a mood disorder, but my mother's cultural stigmas towards the psychologist and therapy kept her from seeing a specialist, and thought it would go away in my teenage years. During my teenage years, I struggled with anxiety and depression. I never really understood these feelings and thought it was just my personality. After much pleading, my mom took me to a therapy center where they diagnosed me with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Bipolar Disorder. Now, I'm working with the help of my therapist and psychiatrist to better my mental health. If I had received the help earlier, my relationship with my mom and myself could have been better. That's why I want to eliminate the stigma of mental health. Not only in all-around but also in Latinx and African households where poor mental health is overlooked and ignored.

For many, their dream life is a luxury and unsustainable expense. That used to be me at a younger age. My dream life looked like a movie theater in my house, a closet filled with expensive clothes, and a driveway filled with luxury cars. As I got older, I discovered that my dream life looks like peace and happiness. Now I imagine my dream life is in a small home, growing my produce, and writing articles that empower women and LGBTQA+ members. My dream life involved helping the community by teaching them with adequate tools and information to succeed. My dreams are to impact and empower minorities in the US and Latin America. I want other people to dream big and never lose hope. I will help minorities in the US and Latin America by providing them with resources and tools to better their life. Reading and writing can heavily change the way someone thinks. In my dream life, I empower people to change their perspectives. I have big dreams of making an easily accessible and free magazine. This magazine will reach young women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ members in the US and Latin America. The magazine will provide information that can expand their knowledge about the world, culture, and important news in a language they can understand. The magazine will additionally present them with tools to improve their academic careers and different education paths. I have big dreams of helping communities and people in need. A life involving educating the community is my passion.

One of the simple pleasures in my life is writing. As a kid, I didn't enjoy writing because I made many mistakes and never felt inspired. As I matured, I started to find it therapeutic. When I'm writing, I can write about anything and everything. I can share my knowledge with the world. Writing helps me analyze the little details often it helps me relax, and share the hardships of being a student. Writing makes me enjoy life's little moments and appreciate the characters in them.

I'm an empath, meaning I feel and suffer with people. Not only the negative emotions also the positives. I enjoy making others feel hopeful and happy. My way of appreciating others is through gifts. Not any gift you will buy at the store but rather baked ones. During quarantine, I developed a love for baking, and now it has become a way to share my appreciation and love. Whenever one of my friends says something along the lines of "I love blueberries." It just comes naturally for me to bake them blueberry muffins. I cherish the look on their faces when they know I thought about them. They feel comfortable and heard. Another way I show my love for others is by going the extra mile for them. For me is a way of connecting with them and helping out someone who needs it. Sometimes my mom needs help with something in the house rather than waiting for her to ask I do it to show that I understand her. She then feels loved and appreciated. A part of my life is that, helping others and showing my affection for them. Doesn't matter if it's by cooking or helping out, what matters is that the people around me feel cherished and loved.

To me, the word joy signifies pleasure and comfort. Joy is when you are with friends feeling comfortable and happy. Joy is when you experience pleasure in knowing you worked hard for that grade. Feeling joy is feeling happiness and comfort. During Covid, I had lost myself and felt uncomfortable in my body. I started to seek happiness and make my life more pleasant, by being grateful. The way I started experiencing joy and comfort again was by being grateful and present at the moment. This was not easy but now I believe it has become part of me to live in the moment, therefore, noticing the details that make me feel joy. In my life, I seek joy by taking care of myself my body, and my mind. I nurture my body with good food and do things that bring me joy. Some examples are hanging out with friends and writing. These two activities make me stay in the moment and experience and life by enjoying the little things. That's how my feelings for the word joy changed and how now it forms part of my identity.

I was 11 years old when hurricane Maria hit Manati, Puerto Rico, on a Wednesday afternoon. The look on my parent's faces as the first rain started coming in with raging winds, they were sad, worried, anxious. At that moment, I couldn't truly understand the damage this hurricane would cause to my family or on my island Puerto Rico. That first night I'll never forget, behind my house, the mountains roared. The lights were out shortly after the first hour of the hurricane hitting my state. My dad and I looked out the window as he told me about the damage he thought this category five hurricane would cause in our poor communities. Later we learned he stayed short. Friday morning, the hurricane has passed we had no communication with anyone anywhere. I saw as a child my community working tonight for the first time. My neighbors helped get trees out of the streets and shared appliances so that food didn't rot. My family and I left to check on my grandparents and other family members. I was choked to see and hear on the radio news. We didn't receive reports on any death just yet, but everything flooded houses businesses, and schools. Puerto Ricans were broken, many families cried in the streets they didn't have shelter. The houses some of them had worked for all their lives were gone in a moment. As a kid it was hard this was the first time I saw true hopelessness in people's eyes. During these times my family and I helped around looking at the positive side of things. My uncles helped move trees clean flooded businesses, and my cousins and I gather water and food for the elders. This tragedy fueled my passion for helping the community and gave me hope.

Last Saturday, I went with the National Hispanic Honor Society to feed the homeless in a Park. The society partners with a local church and, we go every second Saturday of the month to serve food for the needy in the community. As one of the secretaries for the society, I have to show up at every event. At first, I wasn't specifically into the activity but being there impacted me a lot in a good way. I didn't predict that the members of the community were going to be so delightful. Once I got to chat with them for a bit I got to know the personalities around me. This activity is the first I've done involving me helping the community by going out meals. The NHHS as a group helped set up tables for food and beverages. After, we welcomed and served the members of the community, who showed up with big smiles and cheerful personalities. Through the event, I got to meet more and more people and their experiences. Even though they found themselves in a challenging situation they were still smiling and had a polite attitude. Conversing and making relationships with them made me reflect on the situation the members of this community live in. Most of them were professionals who had dreams and aspirations. These goals were broken by society and bad influences. We constantly forget the value of relationships with our community and doing this activity reminded me of how wonderful making connections can be. This volunteer activity impacted me by making me recognize how cruel the world can be even if you are a good person. Still, there's hope, we are the hope. It may sound cheesy but every one of us indeed has the power and potential to help these communities and the people in them. Being involved in this project impacted my thoughts on what's my purpose in the world, it made me realize what I'm passionate about. Helping the community and its members by giving them the tools to succeed it's my purpose in life. The way I will change the world is by becoming a social worker for communities. A volunteer work I first started to raise volunteer hours for my honors society impacted me by teaching me the path to fulfillment in life. If any teenager in high school is having trouble grounding themselves emotionally I strongly recommend this type of volunteer service. It's a gratifying and fun activity that helps you ultimately connect with yourself and the community.