I’m a first-generation college student and I am 33 years old. I started late but better late than never. I also believe that timing is everything. Any other time, had I chosen to go back to school earlier, I would be missing my drive, self-discipline, and my desire for a better life, which are so strong within me now. I had the absolute best childhood; we were not by any means rich, but we were comfortable, and above this, I was loved unmeasurably and wholeheartedly. Regardless of this somewhere along the way I still became a product of my environment. I grew up in Oakland California and although I was a good kid, in my 20’s I started experimenting with drugs, and when I met my ex, I became addicted to crystal meth and eventually ended up homeless and on the streets. I mention this because this journey is where I grew into myself, learned valuable life lessons, and realized just how strong the love from my parents is for me. Never once while I was making the wrong decisions did my parents make me feel ashamed, unsupported, unloved, embarrassed, or alone. Never once did they treat me differently or turn their backs on me. I was always welcome at home, the only house I have lived in since I was 5. I chose the lifestyle that I was living and although my parents did not condone it, they never condemned me for it. This love, this support, this family that I had behind me and beside me every step of the way is my exact motivation to do better. I went back to school and changed my quality of life for myself and my family but especially for my parents who I am blessed beyond measure to still have in my life. They call me every single day and this is something that I do not take for granted. I want to be able to take care of my parents one day the way they still take care of me, I am who I am today because of them, and I love who I am. I am strong, caring, giving, empathetic, intelligent, self-driven, and independent, and the most essential thing in the world to me is being good to people. I can’t express how good my parents are as people in general and to others. They deserve to be taken care of and my father who is not an American citizen is still working a backbreaking job at 60 years old. He deserves to lay back and kick his feet up, and to enjoy the rest of his life. I cannot think of anyone more deserving, this is my motivation, this is what keeps me on a straight path and pushes me when I want to give up. I want to do it for them and I will do it for them.

East Oakland is all I know, I grew up on the same street since I was 5. Both of my parents are recovering drug addicts and I am blessed that they are both very active in my life to this day and did the very best that they could. According to statistics, however, It was inevitable that I would drop out of school and become a homeless drug addict at some point in my life. This was my reality, although I did return to adult school and get my diploma. When I was 26 I met my ex-boyfriend, a homeless meth addict and eventually, I joined him until he went to prison. While serving his sentence I grew tired of the life I was living and longed for stability. When I turned 31 I signed up for school and it changed my life forever. I saw light a the end of the tunnel and I gained a new love for learning. I am 3 classes away from my associate's degree in Liberal Arts and Humanities and plan to continue with a double major in business/marketing, I am determined to finish strong and I am still homeless but I have a no-excuse attitude to get myself out of the hole that I dug myself into. My ex got out of prison last year and was clean, got a job, and was doing great but eventually, he started doing drugs again, he lost his job, and in January of this year, he killed himself. All of my trials and tribulations have made me an extremely strong and faithful woman. I learned that no matter what you're facing in life you can fight through it and you can come out on top. When you want something bad enough there is nothing that can stop you from getting it. All you have to do is put forth the effort and hard work and it will pay off. It's never too late to chase your dreams, it's never too late to start something new. Don't let anyone or anything stop you from succeeding or being happy. I realized that no matter what bad things are happening in your life, what problems you have, or what you're going through. The world is going to keep on turning, it isn't going to stop because you're homeless or because someone just died. As harsh as that sounds it's a reality so wake up, show up, and give it your best no matter what.

I am currently a part of the homeless community in my city and have been for the past three years how ever I am doing everything in my power to turn my situation around. When I am in a better position than my current one I plan on making a difference within my community for the unhoused and reentries. At the moment I am using one resource I have and this is my writing. I am using my blog to educate people on homelessness and other issues as well as tips to be more productive and to better themselves. I also volunteer through taproots and am learning as much as I can about nonprofits because I hope that one day I will be able to start a nonprofit called Homeless helping Homeless where I can hire homeless individuals and reentries to build tiny homes for low-income housing. Living on the streets I have met so many talented and capable people who unfortunately can't catch a break because people aren't willing to take a chance on them. I know firsthand the challenges unhoused people have when it comes to working and making a change and I hope to find solutions to these specific issues. I also would like to help these same people get important documents they may need like birth certificates and identification cards. Help them create resumes and practice for interviews as well as help with interview attire. I don't want to give them a handout because I understand the self-discipline, commitment, hard work, and perseverance it takes to change your life and go after what you want. Therefore I want to rehabilitate them and help get them back into society. Sometimes all people need is a second chance and someone to believe in them. I believe that when you treat someone like a thief then they'll steal from you but if you trust someone that no one else trusts they'll do anything to keep that trust. Apart from this, I just want to be good to people and inspire others to be kind to each other and show the changes that can be made with a little trust, empathy, understanding, patience, and faith. Change starts with us and as naive as it sounds I do believe I can make an impact on the world or a small part of it with my writing and with acts of kindness,

On January 23rd My boyfriend drove to the Willamette River in Oregon and jumped off a bridge near the Ferry building. His body was pulled from the river by divers the next day, and he was identified with his California driver's license. I always had a feeling that he suffered from schizophrenia/paranoia and depression because I am familiar with schizophrenia. My brother was diagnosed when I was young and I experienced many of his episodes until he was properly diagnosed and found a solution with the proper medications. My boyfriend attempted to hang himself once previously before but he couldn't go through with it. To this day I can't comprehend how alone he must have felt leading up to the day he decided to take his life. I often ask myself how he came to fear living more than he feared dying. Being that this is still very fresh I am currently learning to cope and doing my best to not blame myself. I often feel like I could've stopped him like I was selfish, blind, and unsupportive. I have dealt with feeling angry, hopeless, and confused but among all these emotions I have come to realize how strong I am and how much I appreciate my life and my loved ones. This incident makes me want to be a better person to my loved ones and to strangers. To be kind, have empathy, be supportive, and educate others on not only mental illness but substance abuse and how the two of them together can have devastating effects. I have plans to write a book on these topics and to start a nonprofit in his name to help others struggling with mental illness and addictions and their loved ones. People with beautiful spirits can make decisions due to these issues that they can't come back from and this not only affects them but the people that love them. I want to let people know that there is hope and that there is help out there. They are not alone and there is someone out there that cares. I believe that the first step is listening to people and understanding them. Properly diagnosing them and coming to a solution that is safe and satisfying for a patient. I am currently a Liberal Arts and Humanities major but I am taking Psychology and at the end of the day I just want to be good to people and help in any way I can.

Call me a late bloomer, call me an ex addict, but before anything else call me a fighter! I have been homeless, I have been a domestic violence victim, I have been an addict, I have lost the love of my life because he lost his battle to suicide. However none of this defines me as a whole nor has it stopped my perseverance in any way shape of form. If anything it has made me a fighter, a better and stronger woman, and it has given me a passion to educate others and spread awareness on three important topics that so many people overlook. However these three topics can have devastating results if they are not caught on time, diagnosed as an issue, and then given a guaranteed solution. These three topics are homelessness, mental illness, and drug use. I started dating my boyfriend in 2017 he was already battling a long history of drug abuse and not too long after I started my own with Meth. He was also struggling with schizophrenia/paranoia. I come from a good family, I was and still am a "good girl". I thought I could save him but on May 28, 2019 he went to prison. During which I was homeless and eventually overdosed on fentanyl. My boyfriend was motivating me to do something productive while he was serving his sentence, get my driver's license or a job and after my overdose I years of a grueling lifestyle I had , had enough. In January 2022 I made the best decision I could have ever made for myself and I signed up for school online. My time in school has given me more than just higher education, it opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities and I have yet to look back. It gave me purpose and a burning desire for a better life, it also gave me the confidence and guarantee that I can have anything I want if I work for it. My boyfriend was released October 18, 2022 clean and sober, he got a job, he was successfully checking in with parole, and attending his classes. Unfortunately his battle with drugs was far worse than mine and has a history of mental illness and January 24, 2022 he drove to Oregon and jumped off of the Willamette River Bridge taking his own life. I am currently still processing my feelings and this is still a very fresh loss for me but it has made me realize how strong I am. I plan writing a fictional novel based on real even to spread awareness on addiction and mental illness, I've already written a 6,000 word article for my blog. I also plan on being an advocate for my local homeless community. I will not let my trials or tribulations define me or stop me from my goals of making a positive impact on this world. As naive as it sounds I truly believe I can make an impact on the lives of others through my writing. My favorite quote is "In a world where you can be anything; be kind" you never know the battles others are facing internally and this world is in dire need of more patience, understand, generosity, compassion, empathy, faith, and preservation. I plan on providing as much of these things on as many people as I can during my time here. I couldn't save my boyfriend but I can save myself and inspire others to save themselves as well. Thank you for this opportunity to share my story.

I used to think writing crippled me growing up, and I am not talking about the callus on my middle finger I have had since childhood. I have written for as long back as I can remember. According to others I was good. I remember my 5th grade teacher telling me she expected to see me on a best sellers list one day. Before graduation I won a $1,000 dollar scholarship from an essay I wrote about my greatest influence. Yet as good as I was at writing I was equally as bad at expressing my feelings out loud to people. As I grew up and started dating, I couldn’t express any type of emotions to guys, even a simple “I love you” or “I miss you” seemed near impossible to form with my lips and apparently guys, even the macho ones, really need that kind of reassurance… Constantly. I blamed writing! Letters became my thing; they were the only way I could confess my love or express my feelings. Text messages became my thing for arguments… and boy did I have a way with words! There was a time I stopped writing in my 20s, I felt like had written all the short stories, poetry, journal entries, essays, and letters that I possibly could. Until 30, becoming a college freshman, 10 years of life later, and a laptop! I fell in love with writing again but unlike the love-hate relationship we had when I was younger this time, I was completely head over heels. I grew up, and after years of ups and downs, coming into myself as a young woman, and being apart from my former crutch for so long, I realized the value of writing. I realized the value of writing so much that I started my own blog about a couple of semesters into college about writing and the benefits. Writing is what made me a well-spoken, confident, and effective speaker because through those years I learned how to organize my thoughts with a topic and my main points. Writing always allowed me to be honest with myself about my feelings or things that were bothering me because I wrote without fear of being judged, punished, or rejected. Writing was my outlet for self-expression and now that is what I want to help others to understand through my blog “Stephany Says”. I want to inspire others to use writing as a form of self-expression because being able to express themselves comfortably, confidently, and openly is vital in today’s world. Writers have a responsibility and for lack of a better term, a superpower! I utilize mine through my blog but there are books, news articles, music, poetry, scholarly articles, and so on that allow individuals to express themselves. To spread awareness on world issues, to speak up for others that have no voice or power, and to inspire others to do the right thing. Maybe some people just want to write to entertain or help someone escape their reality and imagine themselves on an oasis for thirty minutes while they relax and read a novel. As naïve as it sounds, I hope to change the world through my writing or at least a few lives because I think it has the potential to be that powerful. If not, I want to inspire others to try it as a form of self-expression and to reap the benefits that come with writing. I could go on and on about why writing is so important to me but for the sake of the essay’s guidelines I’ll end here

My name is Stephany Ramos and I am 32 years old. I guess you can say that I am a late bloomer. Yet, as the saying goes, better late than never. I have very naive dreams of making the world a better place and as unrealistic as it may sound to some I truly believe that I can. Of course not the entire world but some of it or for some individuals. I am from Oakland California, and I am very family oriented, I have six dogs that I always say are the reason I stay grounded, focused, and the reason that I get up from bed even when I don't feel like it. I have been homeless for around three years give or take. I have lived in tents, I have lived under the freeway, I have lived on the railroad until Union Pacific Railroad demolished my home of one year along with all my belongings .Now my six dogs and I are blessed enough to call home to a 1976 Jamboree RV. This would be, along with my financial hardship, one of my biggest obstacles while pursuing a degree. Statistics say being a minority, a first generation college student, my age, and the fact that I grew up in poverty are all social factors that in most cases lean towards very low odds of me finishing even the first two years of school. I applied for school on a whim and I won't lie, for financial aid. I had no idea what I was doing I just used my good ol common sense and I'm great at following directions. Even picking my classes I did on a whim but this decision turned out to be the best I have ever made even if it was for the wrong intentions. By the second week of class I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be and that everything was aligning the way it was supposed to. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and I knew that I was on the right path. Between my English and Communication's class which was a public speaking class that a finished off in spring with an A, I knew I wanted to do Advocacy for the homeless through my writing. I am currently building my writing portfolio and building a blog for freelance writing and self-sufficientcy. Educating my community of Environmental injustice is also very important to me. Even my Humanities/mythology class and learning of The Heros Journey made me feel more secure that this is my purpose in life. I have dreams of starting a Non-profit hiring homeless individuals and felons to build tiny homes and help them become more self-sufficient because coming from the streets I know how many talented and capable people there are that no one will take a chance on. You see, the most important thing in life to me is being a good person and being kind to people. Even if I die with nothing to show for myself I know I was good to people. My obstacles are no electricity, or phisical address, no TV, No toilet, Limited internet, filling big blue water jugs, no A/C or heater, having to move my RV on street cleaning days and so on. Our Hunan nature is to adapt to our environment and I know from experience that we as humans don't require much. Food, water, socialization, sleep, and air. Everything else non-essential. I'll overcome my obstacles because I can, it's that simple. I'm strong, determined, and capable!