Mental health is the most real thing imaginable. There is no other way to describe it other than the difference between living and dying. When I say that I am not talking about only suicide. Even if your body is still on this Earth because you can't stomach leaving it, it doesn't mean your soul is here with us. Mental health should not be ignored, however with that being said, it should not be exaggerated either. Mental health is something that people of all ages should be educated on, but it should never be "trending". In my opinion the hardest thing about mental health is being stuck. Sometimes your scared, or embarrassed, of your feelings and saying them out loud or showing someone how you feel with fear of judgement or scared of what others would do when they found out. Sometimes talking about your feelings makes them feel too real, and that could be the scary part. Sometimes you're scared people will think you're being dramatic. I know growing up my parents saw me crying and it was tough love, sometimes I wonder if they knew the damage it would do if they would still have acted the same way. Awareness is so important because some people are just born with depression, and others have traumatic events that cause mental health problems, and others will fortunately never know the symptoms of poor mental health or depression. My career path will be in Veterinary medicine. My dream job would be an emergency vet, however I would absolutely love to be a guest speaker at high schools and colleges. I want to spread awareness about respect for all aspects of life. In my opinion, respect is a key source of mental illness. I live by knowing that you never know what someone else is going through, however you can choose to respect it. Not too long ago I went through a horrible experience with someone I trusted my life with, and in the midst of me breaking down to my best friend she told me that it was his first time living too. Every day since that moment I have tried to remind myself that it is every one's first time living as well as mine. Having grace is one thing that can change someone's life. Everyone messes up but it is up to you if you give them grace and remind yourself that more times than not, it's not brain surgery and it is okay to make mistakes, because you never know what situation someone is in and if they have ever been in a similar position before, because it is their first time living too.

To begin with, I was raised on a small farm for all of my life. Growing up I participated in FFA and 4h with Supervised Agriculture Experience projects such as growing cattle and swine for the Youth fair. As well as numerous Career Development events such as Floriculture, Horse Judging and Competitive Public Speaking. Additionally, my dad grew hay on hundreds of acres throughout the years, which is where I spent countless summer hours driving the tractor, hauling hay and tending to customers. It was during this time that I learned the responsibility, time management, and social skills it took to care for a farm as well as run a successful business and be successful in the Agriculture Industry, rather it be Beef cattle or Coastal Horse hay. In school we learned about animal production, reproduction and labor. With that being said, the one thing they didn't teach me was the mutual respect for all life. In my personal experience, no one taught me respect, it is something that I had to witness on my own and learn from experience. Respect is one thing I plan on endowing into the next generations to follow me. I believe all aspects of life should be respected. I believe in the respect of animals, humans, plants, and property. Such a large and important part of farming is respecting the ground you work on, the equipment that helps you and the animals that bring you labor, companionship and food. With working in the large animal medical industry I plan to educate all ages on respecting the resources that help us so greatly be successful. For 20 years I lived on a farm, we had countless beef cattle, chickens, working dogs and horses. Throughout the years, I learned so much about what the animals could do for me, however what I did not learn was what I could do for them. This has had such a large impact on me deciding to go into the veterinary field. I decided a long time ago that animals helped me grow up so much as a person and turn me into the person that I am today, they deserve to be taken care of with the upmost respect and I was going to be sure that I was one to give it to them as well as educate everyone I meet and convince them to do the same.

I am a 20-year-old college student. I will be attending Santa Fe College for the summer 2024 semester to finish my pre-requisite classes before transferring to the University of Florida College of Agriculture and Life Science. At CALS, I will obtain a degree in animal science with a focus in animal biology and finish my prerequisites for the College of Veterinary Medicine. I chose the University of Florida not only because I am a lifelong Gator, but because it is one of the most competitive universities in the country. The knowledge I obtain from both the College of Santa Fe and the University of Florida will be knowledge that helps me save lives one day. As far as my favorite animal goes, my favorite animal is a dog. It’s a little cliche because a dog is a man’s best friend, but the kind of love you get from a canine is the kind of love you cannot find anywhere else. I have always thought to myself, why didn’t God make dogs able to talk? After long thought, I realized that God didn’t want dogs to talk in order to show us that the purest form of love cannot be found in words, but in actions. I am currently a vet technician at Gainesville Animal Hospital and I recently had a pretty tough case. The patient was a 17-year-old pit bull who presented for not eating, lethargy, and vomiting for three days. In the room, my senior technician and I are drawing blood for labs and the owner is telling us the story of how he met Diesel, and I instantly knew that dog saved him. Diesel saved his dad from drug abuse 17 years ago and now it is our job to save Diesel. The dad knew there wasn't much to be done but was not ready to let go that day because it was his deceased daughter’s birthday. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do to help Diesel and he passed peacefully in his sleep the next morning. Diesel hung on to his painful life in a last attempt to help his best friend. The selflessness I saw in Diesel that day was the selflessness that I see in so many dogs every day at work and in my everyday life. Dogs are cute, sweet, entertaining, and loyal, but it is the ability to love blindly that brings me to why they are my favorite animal.

Eight months ago I began my journey as a Veterinary Technician at Gainesville Animal Hospital. Shortly after I began working, I was introduced to the brilliant Dr. Ortiz. Dr. Brenda Ortiz is smart, resilient, confident and passionate and has every quality and attribute you could ever ask for in a woman. Dr. Ortiz became my idol in life very quickly. Doctors like her are the reason that I push myself so hard to be great because I can only try to be as remarkable as she is. She has taught me so many useful medical lessons as well as life lessons. For example, Dr. Ortiz taught me how to grab a urine sample directly from a cat with a needle. Additionally, along with the help of a few of my fellow technicians they are currently helping me learn how to speak and understand Spanish. I work with many Spanish-speaking coworkers and she always makes sure that I never feel left out and understand what she is saying. Through this, I have learned many words and phrases and soon I will be able to communicate in Spanish. Dr. Ortiz has shown me through example how to focus on work and balance being a supporter in your family as well as an exemplary mother. She works up to 6 days a week at times and still makes time to take her son to school and go to concerts with her daughter. Dr. Ortiz is someone that you always want around, she is an older woman that will keep you young and I aspire to have that quality when I reach her age and experience. She is the most supportive doctor I have ever met and it truly is a blessing to be able to work with her. She is compassionate and truly amazing at her job. Since she started working with Gainesville Animal Hospital, our three clinics have grown so much in clientele from her previous clinics. Her clients move clinics just so their pets can be taken care of by her. If that is not the best example of good medicine then I don’t know what is. Dr. Ortiz truly lights up the room and she surely lit up my drive to become a better student. She believes in me as much as my own mother does, as well as every other technician she has come in contact with and that is the energy and wellness I will strive to spread throughout the rest of my life. I love that woman and I pray I can be half the woman and doctor she is.

Throughout my adolescence, I have been told numerous times that my most attractive feature is my genuine love for life. I just love being here. I am so blessed that God let me live on this beautiful Earth and continues to every day. To list all of my simple pleasures I would have to write a novel. However, the most important simple pleasure to me is nature- I love being outside. I love animals and seeing them in their natural habitat and I love going on adventures- especially with my dog. Outdoors gives me peace and relaxation. I love watching sports, especially baseball and volleyball. I hope someday to be a Baseball manager in the MLB and live in a town like Steelville, Missouri and enjoy my two favorite things- nature and baseball. When I am outside or watching baseball I am at ease and happiest. I also enjoy making others happy. I love giving compliments and seeing people smile, it’s one of my favorite hobbies.

Growing up I got bullied a lot. Mostly for being small and shy, and then it escalated as I got older. When I got into high school the bullying settled down- most of them realized it wasn't cool anymore. However the past two years, I have realized that bullying comes in all forms, shapes, and sizes. This means that adults can bully too. I learned that when an adult uses their authority figure to target you or make you feel bad about yourself, this is bullying too. This year I learned to stick up for myself against all types of bullies. As a result of this, I have become more targeted by the adults that began this, however, as a student and as a person I have gained more respect from my peers, family, and myself. Sticking up for myself (and others) is something that I am very proud of. I will never regret sticking up for myself, no matter how others try to make me feel about it.

Growing up, my parents always stressed to me the value of money. My parents growing up themselves were not wealthy, however, since I can remember we have never struggled with money. My mom always said, "It’s okay to be spoiled as long as you understand the value of money and hard work.” I live by that quote today. When I was around the age of seven, I started working with my grandparents in the garden and my dad on the farm. I worked long hot days and got paid nearly nothing. When I turned 12 my dad and his best friend started growing a vegetable business and my sister and I worked that during the summer. Cleaning, shelling and bagging the peas was long, agonizing work, but it was all worth it when that cash flow started coming in. After each payday over the summer, my parents would take us out to dinner and activity, like a ballgame or movie, etc. Instead of my parents paying for it however, they made us pay for dinner and the activity to show us how quickly that hard-earned money goes away. They taught us that life is expensive and that we need to manage our priorities, in hope that one day we would have financial responsibility and impulse control enough to pay for bills and save up before spending our paycheck on luxurious items. I am extremely grateful that my parents have raised me this way. Growing up with money was nice and I love all the nice things my parents give me, but I also value the hard work they put in every day to be able to give me these nice things and I honestly could not be more proud of them

I was raised in a small town called Chiefland, Florida. My town was a lot like every other small town, full of favoritism and small town minds. I want my legacy to be remembered in Chiefland, Florida forever. I want to work in baseball for as long as I can. I want my legacy to be within the Chiefland Baseball program as the female 2022 Chiefland graduate that went to a University and became a manager in the big leagues. Bobby Cox was one of the most successful managers in the MLB. He has been my idol ever since I watched my first baseball documentary with my dad and he explained to me who Bobby Cox is. Successful for me would be working alongside some of the best athletes, traveling all over the country, living the game that I love. My legacy will be one that the coaches tell their players about and the kids I went to highschool with tell their kids about. I want to be inspirational to younger girls (and boys) in the baseball industry like Bobby Cox was to me.

On January 14, 2018 I lost someone that was very special to me that I hoped I would never have to live without. A few days later my cousin, sister and best friend dragged me out of bed and took me to a Chinese restaurant in efforts to cheer me up. The fortune cookie and the end of the meal read "By acceptance of the past is the only way to alter it." This quote really spoke to me at that time, as it still does because I was in the process of learning how to accept his death. I was depressed and growing unhealthy, however at that moment I read that fortune cookie, and a slice of hope glimmered through me. I never thought something so simple as a fortune cookie could change my life but it did. The next days, months and years have been hard, however that day I was okay because I knew to move on from this I would have to accept it. Accepting his death could not bring him back or "alter the past" however, I learned that accepting it could alter my aspect of life from then on. By accepting his death, I could finally have peace in knowing he is in a better place, and remembering what a great life he lived and how proud he would be of me today.