I have been drawn to the kitchen for as long as I can remember. It was with my family that I first learned how to cook. It all began with mixing brownie batter and decorating cookies before I was tall enough to see over the counter. As time went on, I was allowed to cook independently and experiment, once my parents trusted me to use the oven by myself. Now, I love to try out new recipes, flavor combinations, and techniques when I'm in the kitchen. While it may take me a few tries to get things the way I want them, I have learned to embrace failure and imperfection. As a person with social anxiety, expressing certain feelings with words can be difficult. In those moments, I turn to cooking. The kitchen is my safe space, where I feel at ease and confident. Cooking has been incredibly helpful for my mental well-being. Having these experiences in the kitchen has given me a connection to cooking that sparked my interest in culinary arts. It wasn't until high school that I became interested in making a career out of culinary arts. During high school, I took a culinary arts class. After a year of working with this group, we were able to communicate without talking. We could anticipate what others needed with just a look and we moved as one. To me, it felt like a symphony, and I knew that this was what I wanted to do. My ultimate career goal is to open a farm-to-table restaurant with an emphasis on on-site cultivation of ingredients. I also plan to provide cooking classes on sustainable cooking, classes about growing your own food, and educate people on how to eat sustainably. I plan to offer these classes at the farm and in the restaurant so people can be exposed to the entire process of farm to plate. I also plan to organize a farmers' market to sell extra produce the farm produces and to support local businesses. Because I started out cooking with my family, incorporating my Hispanic heritage is very important to me. My great-grandmother taught me many of the things I know. Using her recipes and ingredients she used would allow me to pay homage to my heritage and will enable me to educate people about it. Incorporating my heritage would also give me a chance to show people that you do not have to lose tradition to be sustainable. This, to me, would be a meaningful way to give back to my community.

In my dream version of my future self, I am passionate, self-motivated, altruistic, and using the knowledge I gain through my college education to make this earth a safer and livable place for the generations to come.