"ALS sucks" was the saying in my house. Especially as my mother began to worsen. She was a very active woman before all of it; she worked hard and loved her family fiercely, and every day, I strive to be more like her. My mother (as shown in the pictures I will be attaching) had a beautiful smile that she wielded freely, openly, and daily. My mother, through all the hospital visits, through the hardship and all the emotions that came with ALS, continued to smile despite it all. My father says that I got my smile from my mom, and what I hope most is that my smile not only resembles hers physically, but also resembles hers in frequency and power. She could light up a room, make people feel at ease, and bond with them through her smile, and going into hospitality, I hope my smile can do the same for people I meet and interact with. The prompt says "Mary Jane Sanders exemplified that the power of family can give you strength to push through adversity", and while my family likely gave my mom strength (she had said it many times), she multiplied that strength and gave it back tenfold to everyone in my family, including me. My drive to achieve what I want, my goals in life, and the job I want, have increased dramatically because of my mother. She poured gasoline on the fire, and all I want to do is to continue to make her proud, as if I can show her that I'm doing well, that I'm accomplishing what she knew I was capable of. There are parts of me that are saddened when I can't talk to her about my course, can't show her test grades, or gush about what I'm doing in school, whether it's tutoring or the literary magazine, but even that is outweighed by the feeling that I'm doing her proud. That's all I can hope for, and I will keep pushing for that, for greater heights and more happiness, for her. Hospitality and event planning (particularly for weddings, the field I want to go into) is the job where "smile even when it's all going wrong" is most common, because the goal is always to support the guest experience. They don't need to know when issues or catastrophes are happening behind the scenes; they just need to be taken care of, and while ALS sucks, it taught me a lot about finding the good in the bad and continuing to smile even when it feels like the world is crashing down around me. Nothing can ever replace my mom, but holding onto that and carrying it into the professional world feels a little bit like I get to keep her with me, and maybe show her to others, even if they might not know.

The person who has always had the most belief and trust in me was my mom. My mom was an incredible woman who wholeheartedly believed that I could do anything I put my mind to, and she's the only one who trusted me when I said I was going to take a gap year. My mom went to college for a short while, but dropped out to help her husband at the time. She worked hard to make sure that I would go to college and that I would try my very best without being overbearing. I can hear her as I write this: "Did you try your best? Then that's enough." My grades weren't the important thing to her; it was my work ethic she supported. She was constantly pushing me to be the best version of myself, making sure I worked hard and put my all into everything. She practiced what she preached, too; an incredibly hard worker through every job she had, working to support my father and my siblings, especially after my father went on disability. Her perseverance through life is one thing; the fact that she did it all with a smile on her face is another. My mom never let anyone bring her down: not her abusive mother, not my father's disability, not having to join the workforce after being a stay-at-home mom, and not the diagnosis of a terminal illness. She carried a smile with her, saying, "Today is the best day of the rest of my life, and tomorrow will be too." It's something I struggle with, that I wish I could carry with me, and that I strive for. Remembering that pushes me towards joy, to smiling during hard times, and to continue working hard, building my future. Another saying she had as she was sick was, "If we don't laugh, we'll cry, so we might as well laugh." That one is easier to carry, but coming from her meant everything. It functioned as a focal point for me while she was sick. I worked hard to try and keep my mother smiling and laughing, and it's given me the ability to find the best of a bad situation, and to keep smiling and laughing through the heartache. She passed about a year ago, and she's still one of my guiding forces in finishing my education. I would not be the person I am without her, and even just the memory of her keeps me going strong, even when I'm tired or struggling. My mother was the first person to say that I should go into event planning, and when I finally started working towards it, she had an I-told-you-so twinkle in her eye, even if she never said it. My mother made me who I am today. She strengthened me, taught me lessons I wish I didn't have to learn, and tried her absolute hardest to keep me from losing myself to grief or stress. She was an unbelievably special and hardworking woman, and I wish everyone in the world had gotten to meet her. While that isn't possible, I hope this gave you a glimpse of her, and I hope that people can see her in me.