Throughout my life I have faced many hardships, and therefore have many people who have impacted me. However, for this essay, I am going to talk about my adoptive mom. When I was ten years old, my biological mom died beside me. It was the most traumatic thing I’ve ever experienced, and I just remember the fear that rocked my entire body. Of course, I was never the same after that day or the events that occurred shortly after. To summarize, I had to go to court against my dad, who wanted full custody of me. He was not mentally well, and he was a drug addict and an alcoholic. Living with him would have been the worst possible thing to happen to me. My oldest brother, Shea, who is twentyone years older than me, quickly stepped up. He and his wife, Cassie, went against my father in court and allowed me to move in with them the very day my mom died. They sacrificed for me, and they took me in without a second thought. It was a rough adjustment for me, obviously, but they did everything to make it easy. They have always supported me, and loved me. They’re the people that my biological mom would want me to be with. But Cassie, who only had sons at the time, had to suddenly become a mother to a preteen girl who had faced a tremendous loss. The death of my mother didn’t just affect me, but everyone in our family. I wasn’t the only one having to adjust. But Cassie handled it amazingly, and she became the mom that I still needed. Now, no one could ever replace my mom, but Cassie was able to be what I needed. She taught me how to shave, and about periods, and how to do my makeup. She took me to get my hair and nails done. She treated me the same as she treated her sons. I love them so much, and I am so thankful to have such an amazing and supportive family surrounding me. Losing my mom at such a young age and having to watch her go was an event that impacted more than anything else ever has or ever will. My sister-in-law is one of the many who supported me during that time. Cassie may be my sister-in-law, but she’s my mom in a sense, too.

My life is far from perfect. I grew up in a trailer in Keithville, Louisiana. The neighborhood wasn’t clean and the people weren’t great, my parents fought often, and I was sexually abused for many years. My dad is an alcoholic and a drug addict. When I was ten, my mom died beside me. Immediately after, I went through court against my father, who wanted full custody of me. Thankfully, he lost, and I moved in with my oldest brother. The following year was filled with more losses, and I struggled to adjust and find myself. Then, in my junior year of high school at Caddo Parish Magnet High School, I took AP psychology and US history, which was taught by the same teacher. Ms. Anderson. She was an amazing teacher, and I remember finding that I didn’t need to study as vigorously as I normally did. The classes were equally, if not more, difficult than my others. I studied less because I was learning the subjects so well while in class. She made the courses interactive, and she was funny and personable as she taught. Ms. Anderson was herself, and she was so positive. On her bad days, she never tried to hide that she was having a rough time, but instead showed her students how she was working to be positive through it. I realized that I wanted to have the love and joy that she carried so effortlessly, and I wanted to be able to be myself as freely as she did. I spent many lunches with her in her class room, and some days staying after school to help prepare the room for summertime. I always knew that I could go to her for anything at all. And, once, I did. I was having a rough time adjusting to some changes I was experiencing, and I was becoming overwhelmingly stressed. I decided to go to her, and she talked to me and was able to help me. She encouraged me, and she gave me reassurance and she reminded me who I am. I am a strong girl, I am devoted to the things I do, I try my best at everything, I love with all my whole heart, I am smart and I am capable. She reminded me that I am more than what I go through and what I experience. I will forever be thankful to Ms. Anderson for how she influenced me at such an important time in my life. She not only taught me history and psychology, but she showed me the kind of person that I want to be. Still, I go to visit her in her classroom. And still, I strive to be like her each day. Ms. Anderson is not only a great teacher, but a great friend, a great role model, a great support system, and a great human being. I love Ms. Anderson, and I am so happy that I was able to have her as my teacher and learn so much from her. I hope that everyone is able to have a teacher, or at least someone in their lives, who is able to help them like she helped me. Everyone deserves a Ms. Anderson.

Education has greatly affected my goals and given me a sense of direction throughout my life. I grew up in a trailer in Keithville, Louisiana. The neighborhood wasn’t the best, and my parents fought often. My dad is an alcoholic and a drug addict. My mother did everything she could to keep that side of him away from me, but it still seeped into our everyday lives. We eventually moved out of the trailer, and my mom and I moved in with her parents. A couple months later, she passed beside me, and I moved in with my oldest brother. It was a lot of change- we also went through court against my father, who wanted full custody of me. I lost many others who were very dear to me in the following year. I began middle school, and struggled with friendships and finding myself. Through everything, all the changes I experienced and all the tough situations I conquered, school was always a constant. I was confident in my academic capabilities. I knew that I could study for a test, make a good grade, and have a letter to show for it. No matter if I was going through court or if I was on my fifth therapist in a year, school was always the same everyday. I could bring home a report card and show everyone that I had control over something in my life. I could show that I was good at something. School was easy for me, most years. I studied hard and I put a lot of effort into my classes. While school was an aiding constant in my life, it also provided me with support systems that helped me through rough times. I made friends, and while I may not be friends with them to this day, they helped me at the time. I had people I could hang out with and laugh with, and it was because I had met them through school. My junior year of high school I had a teacher named Ms. Anderson. Ms. Anderson taught AP psychology and US history; both of which were classes I took. Throughout the year, her classes were my favorite. I loved how interactive she was able to make her lessons, and I found that I didn’t need to study quite as much because I was learning the subjects so well while in class. Besides being an amazing teacher, Ms. Anderson was an amazing person that I could look up to. She loved her students and she loved her job, and she was so comfortable in who she was as a person. Since I was in high school, I was still trying to figure out who I was. Being able to watch her freely express herself and have so much joy inspired me. Of course, she had bad days like everyone. However, she was open about her emotions and she shared how she was able to overcome them. Even after I left her classes Junior year, I still visited her often throughout my senior year. When things got rough and I needed someone to talk to, she was always there. I had lunch with her in her classroom or would stay after school to help with things she needed done. Ms. Anderson did not only help me learn in class, but she helped me learn about myself and the kind of person I wanted to be. She is one of the best people I know, and I met her through school. School and education has opened countless doors for me. Whether it be honors courses, a constant in a time of change, or growing my support system, school has served so many important purposes for me. I decided that I wanted to be a dental hygienist after many years of contemplating being an elementary school teacher. I eventually made the decision to go into the dental field when I enrolled in the dental assistant class at the Caddo Career and Technology Center. The class opened my eyes to so many opportunities and new experiences, and I quickly fell in love with the career path. While I still love the idea of teaching, I believe dental is a better path for me. I plan on continuing to University Louisiana at Monroe, where I will major in dental hygiene. I will further my education and then get a job in the dental field. School has had countless lasting impacts on me, and I am excited to continue my journey in education to reach my goals.

Motivated and high-achieving students from disadvantaged backgrounds deserve opportunities such as scholarships or grants because they are willing to become a working part of the community, and they have shown that they are determined. My name is Shelby Hall. I come from a very rough background and have faced financial difficulty throughout my life. I grew up in Keithville, LA, where I lived with my mom and my dad. We lived in a run-down trailer that only had four rooms, one of which was the bathroom. We had box TVs, and both my parents had flip phones. We didn’t have anything other than cable, and we didn’t own a DVD player until I was about nine. We shopped at Walmart for our groceries, and stores like Target were out of the question. We had no fancy devices. My dad had his old van that he repeatedly needed to fix. Any sort of restaurant that required you to sit down and eat was practically fine dining. My father did yardwork until he was able to get disability checks for his deafness. My mother cleaned houses. Now, we weren’t the poorest. We definitely weren’t the richest. I remember hearing my friends at school talk about their large flatscreens, and how they got an Xbox for christmas and they would go out to eat every friday. I remember being told we couldn’t afford to do those things. Now, living with my grandmother, not much has changed. We receive food stamps each month. I have received social security money each month since my mom passed. My grandmother does not have a job, but I work at Raising Canes about 25-30 hours a week after school and on weekends. I know that we have no savings set aside for when I go to college. I know that we have no savings set aside for anything, really. I have slowly been putting money aside from my paychecks, but it’s barely enough to scrape up much of anything. I know that if I want to go to college and pursue a bachelor's in dental hygiene and leave without crippling debt that I will need help. So, I have been applying for scholarships, and I have been working hard on my academics. I have been picking up more hours at my job and working hard to get raises. This scholarship would help me tremendously with getting through college to further my education. I think I am as deserving of this scholarship as anyone else. My hardships and struggles do not make me more or less deserving. Even if I do not receive the scholarship, I am appreciative of the consideration of my application and the opportunity to share my experiences.

My “Pie in the Sky” big dream for my life would be being successful in the sense of having my own family to love and care for. I want to have multiple children, a husband who loves me and the children, a nice house with a big yard, a dog, and a white picket fence. I want that big, perfect picture that everyone thinks of when they hear family. This dream is not completely impossible, by any means, but it isn’t the easiest to achieve, either. Many things could go wrong, and while many of them are out of my control, they still affect my dream. What if there are fertility issues? What if I struggle to find the person I want to spend the rest of my life with? What if that person changes over time, and we don’t spend the rest of our lives together? What if I’m not a good enough mother to my children and we don’t share that beautiful connection? So many things could go wrong, making this dream seem just out of reach because no life could ever be perfect. This dream was sparked when I was young. I watched my mother and father fight often. They fought with their parents as well, and my father had many siblings that he never spoke to anymore. I remember not understanding how a family could be that way. Of course, as I grew older, I realized that there were reasons we didn’t speak to those aunts and uncles, and there were reasons my parents fought. While I now had explanations, I wanted to be sure to use those explanations as resources of what not to do. Don’t be with someone you can’t have a simple disagreement with. As a parent, don’t compare your children. I learned what not to do in order to achieve this dream where everything in the family was perfect. I also learned things that should be done. Most of all of these I learned from my mother. My mother passed away when I was ten, but her impact on me has lasted. I want to be the mother she was to me. She always loved me, and she did everything she could for me. My mother would've done, and did do, anything for me. She loved me with such a beautiful mother’s love. I want to have that love for children of my own. I want to encourage them to live their lives and I want to support them through everything, just like she did for me. To achieve this dream, I’m going to be careful when looking for a partner. I’m going to acknowledge when I’ve made mistakes, and I will know how to disagree with someone respectfully. I will make sure my children have a good life, and I will become successful in my career so that I can provide for them as well as get to that large home. My dream, though it may seem simple or stereotypical, is to be a mother and surround everyone around me with love.

I have loved writing for as long as I can remember. I used to wake up early in the morning, just to write. My mom would ask why I didn’t play outside while it was early, and I always answered simply, “I’m writing”. I have always loved to read, growing up I enjoyed Rick Riordan’s novels, specifically his Magnus Chase series. One of my earliest books was a story called Ace the Flying Ice Cube. The tale followed an icecube named Ace as he tried to fly to the Sun. He and his best friend Punch built a rocket, and despite everyone telling him he would melt, he tried anyway. Of course, he did begin to melt as he neared the Sun. He and Punch returned, and they decided to continue to try and try again until they were successful. Recently, I have been working on a novel. It doesn’t have a title yet, but it’s been a steady work in progress for a few years now. It follows a young man and a young woman as they navigate life in an asylum in the early 1900s. They face their own mental issues, and try to find ways to escape as they conspire together with others. I hope to eventually get the novel published. I have folders full of files and drafts, and notebooks spilling over boxes filled with story ideas or short stories. I love writing because there are so many ideas that can be conveyed through paper and words. I can show emotions through characters, I can spread awareness through stories, I can express myself through my words. I love the idea that others may read my writing and feel inspired or be able to relax and be taken to a new world. Maybe they have something going on in their life, but my stories can allow for an escape. I plan to continue my writing as I always have- at any spare moment. My notes app is continuously having ideas added to it. I may see a tree and a story will blossom, maybe a young girl enjoys sitting beneath that tree and reading until she meets a strange boy who also reads there. The idea gets added to my notes app, and when I get home at the end of the day I sit with my computer or a notebook and I begin to write, allowing my pen to glide over the paper or my fingers to graze over the letters on the keyboard. I love writing, I always have, and I always will.

My mom as well as my grandmother both suffer from diabetes. My mom passed away when I was 10. I remember seeing how diabetes affected her each day. She used to need insulin shots, which, when I was a child, worried me. Once, I remember she was sitting on the couch and calling for me. I came, and she was shaking badly. I asked what was wrong and what was happening. She just told me to get her a candy bar from the fridge, and I listened quickly. She later explained to me that her sugar had dropped. From then, I began noticing more often how she carried a chocolate bar or we would suddenly stop and she would buy a coke. While everything was okay, it was definitely a scary moment for me as a child. I didn’t understand diabetes or what was happening inside the body. When I woke up and my mom had passed, and I was told it was from a heart attack, I knew I needed to know more. Since then, I knew what could happen. I have worked on myself and my diet to ensure that I can stay healthy. I also have PCOS (Polycystic ovarian syndrome), which puts me at a greater risk for developing diabetes and other heart issues. Knowing this, and seeing what happened to my mom, I have made sure to stay aware and be watchful of my own health as well as my grandmother. My grandmother has diabetes, and she wears a Dexcom G7 continuous monitor. Every 10 days, her monitor has to be changed. Sometimes, she struggles to place the device where it needs to be. I often help in placing/removing the adhesive around the patch. I try to advise my grandmother to stay healthy. I encourage walks, and healthy eating. She and I both pay attention to the monitor and are aware when her sugar is too high or too low. Whether she needs to eat a candy bar or stop eating a candy bar, we make sure to do what is necessary. Some of the most influential people in my life are or have been affected by diabetes. I have watched them struggle yet still persevere. Despite being affected daily by the disease, they continue to live full and strong lives and they encourage healthy habits. Whether I have diabetes or not, I have learned to be healthy and to take care of my body from those around me.

I was a sophomore in high school when I first watched The Perks of being a Wallflower. I immediately fell in love with the main character, Charlie, and his story. I watched it over and over and I read the book time and time again, but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why the story meant so much to me. At some point during my junior year, I began to see a therapist and while working through my trauma I found that my story was extremely similar to Charlie’s. Charlie and I were both molested through our childhood by a family member we believed we could trust. Charlie and I both struggled to make friends through high school. We struggled with depression, and the constant questioning of “why, why, why”. We have our own troubles at home, the soft but ever present tension between parents or the difficulty of expressing love to family. The story begins with Charlie starting his freshman year of high school. His best friend recently committed suicide. Charlie goes into high school not knowing many people and trying to adjust to the courses. He becomes close with his English teacher, Bill Anderson, who gives him books to read that teach Charlie lessons. (Yet another parallel to my life- My junior year of high school I became extremely close to my history and AP psychology teacher, Ms. Anderson). Charlie does eventually make friends; Sam, Patrick, Mary Elizabeth, Bob, and others. He struggles with his romantic relationships because of the trauma he faced as a child, something that I relate to as well. Charlie’s friend, Sam, was also sexually abused. The story brings awareness to how common sexual assault really is, and it shows the different ways people may cope with it. Sam chooses to not talk about it, and she often throws herself into relationships she knows are not good for her. Charlie blocked out his trauma, however it still has an affect over his everyday life. As the story continues, Charlie faces many ups and downs, but he eventually comes to the conclusion that while his assault was horrible, it was important. It made him who he is. It made things difficult for him, but persevering through it all made him stronger. He recognized that being angry at his aunt would do him no good. He accepted what happened to him, and he forgave those around him. Charlie’s acceptance and forgiveness set me on my own path of doing the same. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an important movie to me because Charlie’s story gave me something I didn’t realize I needed. It gave me an “us” and a “we”. Our stories are so similar, and I didn’t feel so alone after watching the movie, because I wasn’t alone. Sam and Charlie are just like me. I am just like Sam and Charlie. But I also learned that our trauma doesn’t define who we are. It’s a small portion of the people we are today. Charlie is so much more than just his trauma, he is a boy who loves music and cares deeply about the people he loves. Sam is so much more than her trauma, she is strong and she is happy. I am so much more than my trauma, I am a girl who loves to draw and who has a future.