Learning more about my past growing up and having those deep conversations with my grandma and mom, my family has always struggled financially. I’ve disconnected a lot from my distant relatives and haven’t met a lot of them. College wasn’t necessarily always the option for my family members, and growing up I had high aspirations to succeed, provide, and care for my family. It has became a passion for me everyday to fulfill my goals, aspirations both academically and professionally. Starting work in high school, I then dropped out junior year and moved out of state at 16. I unfortunately struggled with addictions and went through a rough patch. I’ve then curved my path and enrolled myself back in high school in Colorado and graduated with my Diploma in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. Moving back home to Arizona, I drove back and forth from my hometown 2 hours away from Tucson during the pandemic for work. Then moved straight to Tucson as soon as I saved enough and have been living here ever since— running my own side business for residential house cleaning, and attending college for my associates in business administration for transfer to the University of Arizona. I will be graduating in May with my HR Certification along with my Associates in Business Administration. The support of my family, friends and my dog have been nonetheless a huge blessing in my life to hold me accountable, provide unconditional love and support during my academic journey and business ventures. At the age of 24, I’ve acquired a salary position the end of this year at a retail chain and hope to continue on improving and growing within with my degree and certification. It’s provided a passion to push forward and think of all the ways I can strategically apply my knowledge, skills, and experience to help my family, myself, and those I hold dear to me. As a the first-generation college graduate and Mexican-American student I hold everything I do with respect to those who supported me every step of the way. It’s my responsibility and passion to venture into businesses, network with employers and be one of my own. Starting my first business at the age of 22 was all but a learning experience, continuing, not giving up, and continuing the fight is what success looks like. Its failures, and successes, in one. That’s what it looks like and again thank my family, friends and loved ones for being a reason and support system to fight, apply, and keep going.

The fundamentals of achieving goals, especially academically have been a challenging considering mental health, stability, and stress management. Mental health being most important, it has impacted daily lives when left alone, uncared for. Similar to a wound— one must pay attention to it and care for it so it can heal, at least clean it, right? It’s not as easy as it seems, and unfortunately it has impacted my daily life as well. As a recovering addict at the age of 16, and starting full time work at the same time, my academic journey was nonetheless an out of reach experience to me. I dropped out of high school at the same time, heading down a path I would either learn from or let consume me. During this period of my life, I came to a close overdose one night and had a choice of either staying on my carpet floor, scarping up bits of my life while I scavenge for another fix, or stand up and provide a solution to a problem that has to be recognized by me, and only me. This was a shifting moment of my life, after 6 months of depression, anxiety, addiction, and substance abuse I have been sober since 2017. Since then, I’ve enrolled back into high school in 2018 after moving to Colorado on my own and working full-time, becoming apart of the Class of 2020. Moving into my own apartment, finding work in Tucson, AZ after COVID hit, and going to psychotherapy and psychiatric appointment to stabilize my mental health, and cope with dilemmas as experiences in my life. It has not been easy, as there are dark days when I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. Recovering from addiction, depression and being diagnosed as Bipolar has been a challenge, learning experience, and a long journey. It’s affected my confidence, stress levels, and handling/ regulating emotions. Daily life events that prove stressful may become overwhelming, pushing doubt into existence instead of willpower. Since starting college in 2021, I have been through so much mental health journeys of ups and downs, doubts and fears, but only to be graduating 4 years later with my associates in business administration. My social life had a great impact as isolation from addiction caused me to lose a lot of close people in my life, which taught me the value of family, community, education, and connection. I’ve struggled making simple friends, as many do, and forced myself to face the uncomfortable again, and again. This has built me into the resilient leader I am confident to say I am. Running a residential home cleaning business and working full-time while attending college full-time has taught me much about myself, my abilities, my weaknesses and strengths. Through the years, and til this day, mental health and my diagnoses and experiences have had negative impacts on both my academic journey and social life, it’s also shaped me into the person I am today, and someone who is always looking for ways to grow, improve and make better decisions everyday. Speaking of the month of April, this was the month in 2018 I also decided to quit substance abuse and journey into the unknown. Here I am today, graduating with my associates in business administration and leading a team of 18 people and running my own business. It’s always a journey, and a learning experience we all go through differently.