My mother, Felissia Jackson was adopted at the age of six months from Houston, Texas and was brought to Beaumont, Texas to live and be raised by Ernest and Thelma Jones. My mother is such a great nurturer, something that she said her mother never was towards her. Amazingly, she has such qualities but was never raised with those qualities. My mother has always encouraged me to pursue my dream of going into the music industry. My dream is to learn how the Music Production business works, and I plan on doing that at Oral Roberts University. When my dad found out that was what I was going to school for he was not happy. My mother sat me down and said that I could not live my life based on what my dad wanted for me, that I had to make my own decisions and that I needed to be happy with the choices that I make. So the day we went to visit Oral Roberts, and the Admission Counselor asked me what my major was, I spoke up and said Music Production. I will never forget the look on my dad's face when I said that. The look was one of disgust, but my mom smiled and looked so very proud of me. She has always been there for me, looking out for my blind spots and helping me in every area that she could. What was so great to me is that she took a job at the high school that I attended just so that she could be with me and attend all my football, and basketball games and she was even the Assistant Track Coach. My mother has gone above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to being a mom. When money was low, she would not eat lunch but give me her lunch or her last few dollars to make sure I would eat, she would never tell me that she was hungry, she would say that she was fine. She always put my needs before hers, she never thought about herself, and I was always on her mind. My mother would always tell me that I can accomplish anything. She encouraged me to join the National Honor Society at school, when I thought that I wasn't smart enough, she said you are and you can do it! She was right, I have a GPA of 3.66 on a scale of 4.0. I often wonder what my life would be like if my mother wasn't in it, I don't know if I would have accomplished all that I have without here in my corner. My mother would stay up at night with me when I was sick and still managed to get herself ready and go to work the next day. She knew we needed the money, but she never told me that we didn't have money. She never let me know just how bad off we were. I do not have words to express how much my mom means to me. I would love to see her face the day I graduate from college and begin my career in the music industry. I want to be able to take care of her so that she would never again have to work, she can relax and let me take care of her. Thank you seems inadequate, I know that she is proud of me, but I am proud of her and so thankful that God put me in her womb, she is the best and I am so blessed beyond measure!

My name is Raymond Jackson, Jr. I go by RJ. I am a senior at Legacy Christian Academy in Beaumont, Texas. I will graduate on May 26, 2023, with a GPA of 3.62. My grandmother and grandfather on my mother's side both passed away from cancer. My grandmother's name was Thelma Jones. I never got the chance to know her because she passed away right before my mom got married. From what I am told she was a great mom and a strong lady. She was born in 1922 and managed life on her own leaving a small town in Louisiana and making her way to Beaumont, Texas to start her life, not being able to read well, she was fifteen years old and never really went to school. She made a living by taking care of other people's children and working in the laundry department at a hotel. My grandmother married my grandfather, Earnest Jones, Sr. and had three boys and adopted two girls, one of them being my mother. My grandmother passed away on October 10, 2002, from breast cancer, the thing that I find strange is that she was never sick a day in her life, then suddenly she develops breast cancer and that takes her out. My grandfather, Earnest Jones, Sr. lovingly called "Papa". I miss him so much! Papa was so much fun to be around, we would sit on the porch and talk about anything, and he took his time to listen to me. He was the breadwinner of the family, I learned from him that it was my job to be a good person and to take care of the family, he told me stories about how he learned to do many things so that he did not have to call on a plumber or electrician because he learned to do the work himself, he said that is how you save money. I was seven years old when he passed away from lung cancer, on November 26, 2012. I took his death hard, I felt like the world was being mean to me. My parents helped me understand that one day I will see him again because he like my grandmother passed away in Christ Jesus. Because of His death and resurrection, we are promised to go to heaven and be with the Father and see those who have gone before us. That day will be a great day to be able to live in eternity with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To have that promise, we must believe in Jesus, that He is the Son of God and that He died for our sins, and we must receive His forgiveness. Cancer is such an awful thing, but God is greater than cancer, we need not be afraid He holds us in His hands. No matter what we go through, we can hold fast to His unchanging hands, He will never leave us nor forsake us, Joshua 1:5 I was accepted to Oral Robers University and will be attending in the fall of 2023, I will major in Music Production. ORU is one of the few universities that offers a Bachelor of Arts in the field of Music Production. My goal is to work in the Christian industry to produce music for theater, movies, and television. As a Christian, I believe that we can use every tool that we have to spread the good news of the Kingdom of God and I want to do that through music production, all for the glory of the King!