Greetings! My name is Tayla Ferguson. I attended Greenville High School residing in Greenville Mississippi. I am the daughter of a split home and grew up with one out of five siblings. Accepted to over 10 schools in the state of Mississippi, I will be attending Jackson State University where I will go on to major and graduate with a bachelor's degree in Psychology. I plan to use my degree and become one of the best Occupational Therapists there is. What is adversity? Adversity is a state of hardship, difficulty, and/or misfortune in the span of one's life. There had been ample times when one may have trouble facing a situation in their life, or life itself. Along with many, I am one who personally dealt with adversity. I believe this has been one of the biggest times of adversity I had yet. When I was 15, on December 16, 6 days after my birthday, my home was destroyed by fire while present with my mother and sister. With no time to think, we had to pack or throw away everything we had. We had not only lost our home, but we left behind good memories. Great ones. It was the only place we'd ever known. Sometimes, I think about it and still get teary-eyed. To lose everything in an instant left emotions I couldn't process. Since it seemed like things had begun to spiral. Shortly after my mom lost her job of 10 years. It seemed even harder to find a job so we moved in with a family member. We have been here ever since. Although I'm grateful we have a place to lay our heads, nothing seemed to be like home. Nevertheless, here I am 18 years old and officially graduated from high school with honors. My mom got a job and we've all pitched in. I've been working and using money to buy school items and most importantly, items for our new home! She finally found a place that could feel like home again for all of us. Adversity is a part of life, and it comes with many challenges and situations to face. It happens to the best of us. How you face it though, is primarily your obstacle to go through. I, as well as my mom and sister, just learned to take things one day at a time and to never give up no matter how hard it may be. I plan to help my community move forward by giving back and voicing that it's okay to go through hardships and difficult times but there is always a way to get out of it. Just taking it one day at a time and never giving up is all you need to overcome it.