K-pop has been part of my life since I was around 14 years old. My cousins introduced me to groups like BIGBANG, 2NE1, and Girls' Generation, and what started as a shared interest quickly became one of my favorite hobbies. Years later, I discovered TXT through BTS. Friends encouraged me to listen to TXT in 2020, and The Dream Chapter: Eternity became my first comeback as a MOA. From that moment, I was hooked. One of the things I love most about being a MOA is the kindness within the fandom. As a latina fan, I have always felt welcomed and accepted. One of my favorite memories happened at a TXT concert when my friends and I ended up with seats in different sections. I was nervous about sitting alone, but by the end of the night I was singing every song with another MOA I had just met. We laughed, screamed, cried, and celebrated together as if we had known each other for years. Moments like that remind me that MOA is more than a fandom but one big family. Even when there are language barriers, TXT music has a way of bringing people together. Although I consider myself OT5, Yeonjun was the member who first caught my attention because of his confidence, stage presence, voice, and goofy personality. Over time, Soobin became my bias because of his kindness and empathy. As someone who feels things deeply, those qualities really resonate with me. My ult bias is Jungkook from BTS, who has remained my ult for over a decade. Choosing a favorite TXT song is difficult, but I would choose "Our Summer." Every time I hear it, I feel nostalgic and think about summers spent with my grandmother, who has always been one of the most important people in my life. I have been lucky enough to see TXT twice: ACT: LOVESICK in Dallas in 2022 and ACT: SWEET MIRAGE in New York in 2023. Seeing them for the first time felt unreal after years of being a fan. My favorite TXT era remains The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE. The music, lyrics, and emotions behind it made a huge impact on me, and "0X1=LOVESONG" remains one of my favorite K-pop songs. I think what I love most about FREEZE is how emotional it feels. The themes of feeling lost, growing up, and trying to find your place in the world resonated with me, which is probably why I still find myself going back to this album years later. Outside of being a MOA, I am currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology while raising my daughter as a single mother. I pay for school through financial aid and student loans, and balancing graduate school with parenting responsibilities can be challenging. This scholarship would help with rent, educational expenses, child-related costs, and reducing the amount of student debt I continue to accumulate. TXT has been with me through many stages of my life. They were there when I became a mother, when I returned to school, and now, while I work toward becoming a psychologist. A lot of my life revolves around responsibilities being a mom, going to school, completing clinical training, and worrying about the future. TXT has been one of the few things that has always been just for me. Their music makes me happy, gives me something to look forward to, and helps me disconnect for a little while when life feels overwhelming. My goal is to become a licensed psychologist in Puerto Rico and support individuals and families, especially mothers struggling with mental health challenges. As a mother myself, my experiences with anxiety, perinatal depression, and postpartum depression inspired my passion for maternal mental health. Those experiences helped me understand how many mothers struggle silently while trying to care for everyone around them. I hope to be the kind of professional I wish I had when I was struggling, someone who listens, supports, and reminds people that asking for help is okay. Through my education, I hope to help others feel less alone, more hopeful, and supported during difficult moments, just as TXT and the MOA community have done for me.

When I became pregnant at 21, I thought many of my dreams were over. At the time, I was still trying to figure out who I was and what I wanted for my future. Suddenly, I was preparing to become a mother. I remember feeling scared, overwhelmed, and uncertain about what my life would look like. One of my biggest fears was that I would never finish my education or achieve the goals I had set for myself. For most of my life, it was just my mom, my sister, and me. My mother raised us on her own and worked incredibly hard to provide for our family. Looking back, I do not know how she managed to do everything she did. She worked, took care of us, helped us with school, and somehow always found a way to keep going. As a child, I admired her. As a mother, I finally understand her. Motherhood was not what I expected. During pregnancy and after my daughter was born, I struggled with anxiety, perinatal depression, and postpartum depression. There were days when I felt isolated and overwhelmed. I often felt like I had to hold everything together while quietly struggling on the inside. Looking back, I realize how much I could have benefited from additional support and greater awareness surrounding maternal mental health. Pursuing my education has required significant sacrifices. As a full-time student, I rely heavily on financial aid while raising my daughter. There have been many moments when I put my own needs aside so she could have opportunities and experiences that I never had growing up. One of the hardest adjustments was watching my support system become smaller. My mom lives far away, and my sister who is also my best friend, moved away to pursue her PharmD. I was incredibly proud of her, but I also felt the loss of one of my biggest sources of support. There were times when I felt like I was carrying everything on my own. There were moments when I wanted to quit. Not because I stopped believing in my dreams, but because I was exhausted from trying to balance school, finances, and motherhood. But every time I thought about giving up, I would look at my daughter. My daughter is my motivation. She is my fuel. She is the reason I continue moving forward on the days when I feel discouraged. I want her to see her mother accomplish her dreams. I want her to know that becoming a mother does not mean giving up on yourself. More than anything, I want her to have choices and opportunities I never had. My experiences have also shaped the psychologist I hope to become. Going through anxiety, perinatal depression, and postpartum depression opened my eyes to how many mothers struggle in silence. It is one of the reasons I am passionate about supporting mothers, caregivers, and families. I want to help increase awareness of maternal mental health and provide support to women who may be feeling as alone as I once did. I want them to know they do not have to carry everything by themselves. Earning my PsyD means more than earning a degree. It means becoming the first person in my family to earn a doctoral degree. It means honoring the sacrifices my mother made for my sister and me. It means creating a better future for my daughter. Most importantly, it means transforming some of the most difficult experiences of my life into the ability to help others navigate theirs.

If you had asked me a few years ago about addiction, I would have given you a very different answer than I would today. Like many people, I viewed addiction largely as a matter of choices and willpower. While my education in social work introduced me to a public health perspective and challenged some of those assumptions, it was during my PsyD training that my perspective truly changed. One of the most influential experiences during my doctoral program was taking a Psychology of Addictions course taught by a professor whose passion for the field was impossible to ignore. Before that course, addiction was not an area that particularly interested me. Throughout the semester, he challenged us to look beyond stereotypes and assumptions and consider addiction from scientific, clinical, and human perspectives. What impacted me even more were the conversations about addiction treatment in Puerto Rico. Growing up in Puerto Rico, many of the beliefs discussed in class felt familiar because they were ideas I had heard throughout my life and never fully questioned. During the course, we discussed the barriers many individuals face when trying to access evidence based treatment and examined how stigma can prevent people from seeking help. Learning about these realities was difficult because it forced me to recognize that many individuals are not receiving the care they deserve. For the first time, I began to view addiction the same way I view other health conditions: as an illness that deserves treatment, compassion, and support rather than shame and punishment. What I learned in the classroom became even more meaningful during my clinical training. I worked with individuals struggling with grief, trauma, depression, anxiety, PTSD and substance use. As I listened to their stories, I realized that substance use was often not the primary problem, but an attempt to cope with overwhelming emotional pain. I met people grieving loved ones, carrying trauma, or struggling with untreated mental health concerns. Those experiences reminded me that behind every diagnosis is a person trying to survive circumstances that many others never see. These experiences are a major reason why I am pursuing a career in mental health. They taught me the importance of remaining open minded, continuing to learn, and approaching people with compassion rather than judgment. More importantly, they made me realize how much I still have to learn. In Puerto Rico, many individuals struggling with addiction receive treatment that is heavily influenced by faith based approaches. While spirituality can be an important source of support for many people, I believe individuals also deserve access to treatments that are supported by scientific evidence. Learning about the gaps that exist in our system motivated me to continue my education so I can develop the knowledge and clinical skills necessary to provide effective care. The more I learn, the more I realize how important it is to have the right tools to help people during some of the most difficult moments of their lives. I want to continue developing the skills necessary to provide effective treatment while never losing sight of the person sitting in front of me. I want my clients to feel heard, respected, and understood, especially when they have spent years feeling judged for their struggles. As someone who plans to continue serving communities in Puerto Rico, I hope to contribute to a future where individuals struggling with mental health and substance use concerns have greater access to quality care. If my education helps me better support my patients and connect them with the treatment they deserve, then I know I am making a difference.