Playing with a deck of cards when I was younger I realized it did not matter what cards I was given because at the end of the day, I still had a deck of cards. I think this was a moment of realization for me, understanding that I had a specific hand dealt to me and I can either make the most of what I was given or make excuses as to why I couldn’t. I feel that my american dream is not to live in a picket white fence house with a job at an office and coming home to a wife, a dog, and 2 kids as most people picture when they hear “american dream”. My American dream is to wake up everyday loving where I am in life, loving the job that I have and feeling comfortable and welcomed where I live. I think it means a lot to me growing up with a mother who immigrated here and working day and night, putting in so many unseen efforts to get to a place in life where she and my father can hand me better cards then they were dealt. My American dream is to put my future children in an even better position than my parents put me in and continue this upward trend in my family by working just as hard as the last generation. I plan to use my college degree to take it to the next level and complete my doctorates so that I am able to get my dream job as a physical therapist. With my research and experience and talking to people I know that work in sports medicine I know that this job will be something I look forward to every morning when I wake up. I know that this job also pays well and will allow me to be able to give my children an even better lifestyle. I also have come to a conclusion that with this pathway and end goal that I will have put myself mentally in a much better place knowing that I have completed a task I have wanted to do since middle school. However I do not believe that money creates happiness but I am also not blind to the fact that our society is controlled by money. Knowing that with money, more opportunities open up that are not there to people without money and these opportunities when action is taken are what create happiness.

I would like to impact the younger generation by telling them that life is not always going to be happy and cheerful and that there will be times of bad, but also show them that, is what makes life so great, that there are ups and downs and that is perfectly fine. I think my personal battle with a thought process is that I have to be perfect and I have to look like this and be this smart when comparing myself to other people. I would stress the most that everyone is different, some people are going to be stronger, some people will be smarter, some people will be more compassionate. I would stress that they do not need to be the same as anyone else as long as you are who you want to be. Knowing that I would have loved to have known this as a younger kid growing up I know that other people especially younger should know this and be accepting of themselves and others.

"You have the opportunity to do what I did and more". My father told me this when I was around 6th grade driving to one of my club soccer games. He was telling me about a story of when he left his team because he felt the coach didn't do things right. He said he was a hothead, a show off, and he loved to prove people wrong. He told me that he could have been able to go play somewhere in college and make a local name for himself. However, loving to prove people wrong was the reason he was so good but was also his biggest flaw. Watching me for years he saw that in me and warned me of what he had gone through because of it. Since then I remind myself of what I can do. I learned to be able to create a mental switch between focusing and studying for school and being able to completely clear my mind and create the needed tunnel vision for my athletics. My father had a lot to do with the success and perseverance I've had throughout the years. He was also always very accepting of the choices I made in my life including choosing to play soccer, run track, and to wrestle. He was accepting of every decision I chose to make about how much I cared and the amount of effort I would put into each sport. He understood that life as a highschool student is hard enough as it is and that playing even one sport makes everyday even longer. His acceptance is one of the reasons I am who I am today because it allowed me to explore what I believed was right and what was wrong morally, it allowed me to believe that whether you worship a god or don’t at the end of the day any choice you make affects the people around you. It allowed me to explore who I wanted to be as a person, to experiment the balance between compassion and a pushover. The impact my father had on me was not some kind of miracle talk that changed who I am because at the time I had no idea what he meant when he said I could be better than he was, I never understood because I felt that he was the best person around me. However the words he said and the status that he had in my mind made the words stick with me all these years. He planted a seed of knowledge and wisdom and allowed me to water it as I pleased and allowed me to grow that statement however I felt was right. Looking back I realize that he didn’t mean a better athlete but a better person, he wanted me to grow and to realize that life is not about sports, it’s not about how much you can lift or how fast you can run. It is about the way you present yourself to others, it is about how you treat others, and most importantly it is about the way that you treat yourself and take care of you.

One of my biggest goals is to create a lifestyle that I enjoy from the second I wake up to the second I fall asleep. I think I do a great job at creating a comfortable environment for the people around me but I have a problem doing that for myself. So my goal would be to create a head space and mentality that allows me to make mistakes and learn from them without repercussions. A future where I am able to wake up ready for the day knowing that I am doing what I want to do and doing something I have worked endlessly for, then go to sleep knowing that I am accomplished even if I did not complete every task I set out to do as long as I became a better person. At the end of the day my goal is to become a better version of myself and improve little by little and become the version of myself that my younger self would be proud of.

I had always wanted to be a professional soccer player since I was a kid, not because of the money or the status that came with it because I always hated how celebrities acted once they got famous and made it. I wanted to have that influence so that I could help other people who were less fortunate. And now as a highschool senior I have matured that concept into wanting that influence to show people that life is not perfect the way you see it on social media. I would like to show the younger generation that life is not always going to be happy and cheerful and that there will be times of bad, but show them that is what makes life so great that there are ups and downs and that that is perfectly fine. I think my personal battle with a thought process that I have to be perfect and I have to look like this and be this smart when comparing myself to other people I saw, matured my ideas from when I was a kid. I would stress the most that everyone is different, some people are going to be stronger, some people will be smarter, some people will be more compassionate. I would stress that you do not need to be the same as anyone else as long as you are who you are and who you want to be.

If running a 400m dash controlled the outcome of your future why would you want to start 50m behind and now have a worse chance at being able to show what you can achieve. This is the exact situation that some students deal with in life and I believe that every student should be able to have access to the equal educational standards and privileges so that everyone has a fair chance at achieving what they want in life.

Home is an interesting word that can have so many different meanings. The word home can mean many different things to every single person. A home to me is not a building you sleep in but a place where you are able to show our insecurities, show your weaknesses, and show that you as a person are not perfect. This definition of home is the basis of my personality, no matter where I am, who I am around, or the situation. I make it my top priority to make people feel at home. Many teachers would agree that I am someone who is able to make peoples' days by just having a simple conversation because of the authenticity I bring with me. This has not always been the case, I grew up with not many friends nor felt at home in many places. I was bullied and ridiculed for the way I looked and could only feel at home when I was with my couple close friends from grade school, other than that I had always had this feeling of being alone. This feeling wasn’t only physically being alone because I could be around people but still feel alone because I had felt that I didn’t belong no matter where I went. After many late nights and deep talks with myself I made it something to be ingrained into myself that I wouldn't let the people around me feel the same way because nobody deserves to feel alone. I believe that every person deserves to have a hand on their shoulder that keeps them upright and is able to help guide them where they need to be when in a bad situation. Although I had to go through some bad experiences in life, I think becoming someone that others come to for help makes not only their lives better but also brightens my day knowing that I have done everything I could to assist someone in becoming the best possible version of themselves. However I still find myself thinking about how the events in my life have affected me and I think one of the main things that happened during this time of realization was wanting to grow up and be someone that helped people. In 6th grade I didn’t yet know where or how I would do this but that is what I wanted to do. A few years later I became interested in sports medicine, finding out that I would be able to stay connected with sports and help people made me look into it deeper. I found Physical Therapy as a perfect pathway for me. It would allow me to help people, allow me to stay connected with sports, and allow me to accomplish my biggest goal in life which is to help people while also fulfilling my wants. And since then I have worked hard to balance 3 sports, balance having many emotional connections with my teachers, peers, family, and balancing my studies to have the best chance at being able to fulfill this goal.