Deciding to go to college was a hard step for me to take. I had worked hard, grown substantially in my career, and made more money than most college graduates were or may ever make. I was on track to take over a very profitable business. Everything was going great. Going to school to get a degree was pointless. I accomplished so much success because I made so much money. My Mom would brag about me to her dad and her friends. I was successful. However, the thought of looking back on my deathbed and saying that was all I had done with my life was soul-crushing. I lacked the feeling of purpose and value. Was I actually successful? I have a motto that I say to myself often. It helps me do the right thing, even when others say not to. This code helps me stick true to myself and my beliefs. My goal is to be the best version of me that I possibly can be. No one has the same skills, life experiences, or even advantages as another person may have. I bring my strong sense of compassion, morality, leadership, and life experiences to the world. Having grown up in an abusive home, which led to an abusive relationship, and ultimately being a homeless, single-parent teen mom, things were not going so well for me. I dealt with and learned from my trauma, and I grew from it. Most of all, I understand what it feels like to be hurting so much that self-destruction can seem like the best option. I can see people, not for where they are in life, but who they are and, quite possibly, how they got there. I know how important it is for them to forgive themselves because they deserve love and happiness as much as the next person. So when I ask, "Am I being the best me?" that answer will be different for someone else. When conquering the business world, that question may have aligned with other people, but I knew I was not being the best version of myself that I could be. Which meant things had to change. Things had to change big time. I had to knock myself down a bit. I did a little reshaping and restructuring of myself to align more with who I was on the inside. So, what does success look like to me? Success, in the simplest terms, is doing what you enjoy and being content. For some, it can be a welder, a business leader, a teacher, or a delivery driver. However, my personal success is to make a difference. I want to help people, and I know deep down what I have always wanted to be. However, that meant college, debt, and a life change. So, I quit my job, moved somewhere my family could afford, and enrolled in college. While I am apprehensive at the possible accrual of never-ending loans, I am ecstatic that I am finally pursuing a life dream of mine. I am almost through my B.S. in Biology and then on to medical school. Am I terrified of the debt? Yes. Is this me being the best version of myself? Also, yes. College is not what success is. Being the best version of yourself is a success.

I am ambitious. Very little can stop me. I aspire to be the best version of myself in everything I do. If I am ever uncertain, I ask myself if I am being the best version of myself. If the answer is “Yes,” I move forward. If the answer is “No,” I reassess my trajectory. In this mindset, I have many things I am proud of accomplishing. Within the last few years, I was on track to be a business owner of a very high-profit store. But something changed. I was not being the best that I could be. I was doing what came naturally. I worked hard, numbers were second nature, and I excelled in any assigned task, but I began to understand I was in the wrong pool. Some pains came with getting me to change my trajectory. We have to adjust to a new style of living. My family is now living on a third of the income that we used to have. I miss the work sometimes, but I am doing the best thing possible. Currently, I work at a behavioral health urgent care. I work with people who are dealing with mental health and drug addictions. I do this overnight and attend classes during the day. The pay is menial, but what I am doing is part of a bigger picture. Sometimes, that can be hard to focus on, especially when I am far from the financial goals I set a few years ago. I have to do a whole realignment on how I look at finances for the big picture. A complex challenge I am facing today is that when filling out the FAFSA form, they look at my 2022 income. Due to that income, I am not eligible for the Pell Grant or any government grants for the 2024-2025 school year. In the following years, when I submit my current earnings, I will again be eligible for school grants. I will continue to work while going to school to avoid incurring mass debt, but this next year will be particularly rough. I remind myself that when I get to medical school, I will have four years of necessary loans, and my sole focus will be my doctorate. The thought of debt is scary. The idea of finally going to medical school outweighs everything else. In the meantime, I will continue to move forward and become who I have always been meant to be.

I am the 6th child out of 7 in a household. I was born when my family was going through a crisis. My mother, specifically, took her anger out on me. Then, my siblings ganged up. This is how I developed a passion for school. Getting a high school diploma became everything to me—next, an associate’s. Then… that was in 2015. For a long time, there was no next. As I grew from child to adult, I had to have a stern sit-down talk with my mom about where she expected our relationship to go. I stated that if she wanted to join me as a friend in her life, she was welcome, but she couldn’t keep treating me the way she had been. She went home, a little upset, and called me later. My abusive mother, from that moment on, became one of my best friends and an excellent grandmother to my children. However, in 2009, she was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. She is a tough woman. She lived with me while receiving cancer treatments, and that mother of mine would sneak out in the middle of the night to clean up the store that she was on leave from. Yet, at the same time, I remember opening my door and praying she wasn’t dead on her bed. After completing my associate’s degree, I committed to helping my mom. As time went on, she became frail. One time, she tripped, and when her sister went to catch her, she broke multiple spots in her arm. That was her last vacation with her sisters. My mother always said she would live to ninety. My mother swore she was blessed. My mother said this was just God’s test. As I watched her deteriorate, I begged her to make a will. She didn’t find it necessary. I asked her to help me get the stuff out of her abusive husband's place and into my house so it would be safe. We planned but never got the chance. The day she sat in the doctor’s office and was told she had two weeks to live. The day he said the treatment was killing her and the cancer was killing her. My mother’s heart and hope shattered. She was taken off treatment. She was unresponsive in two days and gone within five days. It came as no surprise that her husband refused to let us have her stuff. It was worse when we learned he just gave it all away. My siblings were never the same. Some are okay, others have been hospitalized for mental health a few times. I trudged on for a while but would be remiss if I stated I didn’t have a breakdown. Ultimately, I left the job that I loved and moved. Me and my children face mortality questions and fears quite often, but the move has made us stronger and more unified. I finally had a moment to rethink about me. I got a job where I sometimes take crisis calls. One stood out to me. Their dad had a disease for over a decade, slowly deteriorated, and passed away. This individual wanted to go with their dad. We worked together to get him a job change and find a new goal to work on daily. That person has gone so far; I couldn’t be happier for them. I finally found my purpose.

A Black hole burped out a star it devoured 3 years prior in 2018. The universe is considered isotropic and, not commonly compared, but molecular atoms have a similar polarizability through magnetic charges. DNA and biology were constructed out of the same building blocks of the star that was devoured by the black hole. Furthermore, every cell has the same DNA, but the cells can read different signals in their environment to know which genes to express to create certain parts of a body. The list of amazing, unbelievable, and complex events in our universe is infinite. The universe and "us" is one and the same. Understanding our universe, is in a way, understanding more about ourselves. Teaching and sharing the world with our youth is a fundamental way to create awe and inspiration in a time when the Earth needs it. Depression rates and anxiety are on the rise. Less people are leaving their neighborhoods, or even their homes. Discovering more about the universe creates a passion for knowledge and the unknown. There are so many variables and complex scenarios in space. The universe, our planet, is always changing. To teach and drive creativity into the heart of our youth is not just creating one doorway, it creates multiple for the many young adults growing up uncertain of what to do next or where to go. The applications of the explorations of the universe come from many different specialties. Mathematics, physics, art, engineering, design, and more can all come from a passion created by the discovery of the universe. An adolescent can take part in space discovery. Use a telescope before bed. Compare the world around them to the galaxy out there and in the end find something that pulls at the base of their curiosity. Exploring the universe helps people to find their passion and helps people understand, what aspect of the universe piques their interest. This can help them further in their own academics and life goals. The concept may seem peculiar, but some children can not afford the same resources or experiences as others. So some people grow up to be what their parents were or maybe they can only think of a few degree choices because that is all they are familiar with. Finding what you want to do is not easy for people. The thought alone is stressful for grown adults. However, if you give the resources to a child. Limitless tools and interactive apps for exploration of the universe. A trend is going to follow. There are so many different variables and wonders out there, that if a child is immersed in exploration, they wouldn't help but find something that passions them. To be able to teach and fund exploration of the universe is a problem of its own. However, if we adults, as the current leaders of the world, could pull together the resources to enable kids to have telescopes in every bedroom, in every classroom. More observatory field trips, and hands-on experimentation. Allow kids to follow every corner that every scientist, artist, mathemetician, engineer, philosopher, etc., may reach out to with the utilization of proper interactive apps, channels, and subscriptions that come at subsidization to certain groups. We could be changing lives. The big question is, how to implement this plan into school curriculums, into every person's home. The teaching possibilities are limitless. With every discovery, we bring something new and exciting into households and classrooms. We bring passion. Lastly, the world is bound by the universe. "Them" and "Us" become "We". While each country wants to get there first and be the first, in the end, our accomplishments and discoveries are a factor that brings us together. It is a similarity we all have. Our children of the world don't care which country got there first. What matters is that they saw the world achieve something great. The power of knowledge is an amazing thing for our young generations. The ones who are going to grow up and with the utilization of all these amazing discoveries have a drive to invent, to find, and to learn. Not everything has been discovered, not everything has been invented, and everything is just beginning. In the end, the universe is connected to everything. Exploring the universe is not just the next unknown to explore. It is the next exploration that can also give us more clues to our very own existence, DNA, molecules, atoms, and environments on a macro and micro level. When we better understand our universe we open our eyes up to the possibilities of our world. When we take those lessons and make them accessible to children in the same way that we do any other core subject it opens up broader spaces of discovery for children to venture out in. When we take those explorations and make them as common as a toy instrument or a popular app, we put the universe in our future's hands. When we put passion and purpose into someone's soul, it can fill an empty spot that many kids felt was always going to be there. Finding and discovering something that brings individuals joy is something anyone should be proud of and support. It is something the world should come together and say, this is our future, these are our children. What legacy are we going to be leaving them?