Every day there are people who have chronic pain and suffer constantly, and every day I watch my parents suffer the same fate. Their muscular and joint pain has been a problem since I was in high school, which wasn't helped with the fact that my mother had just given birth to two new girls. My parents made me realize that I had an affinity for helping people in pain. Also with being a cross country runner these two things inspired me to persue a career in physical therapy so I can help people recover from injuries or suffer less with chronic pain. Now that I am in my third year of college I am dedicated to persue a master's or even doctorate's degree in physical therapy after receiving my undergraduate degree. While persuing these difficult degrees, I do have some hobbies that I enjoy doing. My first one is playing basketball, whether it is playing with a team or just being by myself cracking down on routine drills. I just love the sport and applying my knowledge to specific exercises is amazing when it comes to injury prevention. Another extracurricular activity that I managed to do while in the 2020 pandemic was join my school's National Society of Leaders and Scholars program and the Phi Theta Kappa society. These two programs personally selected me to join because I showed leadership qualities while having impressive grades. Currently (spring of 2021) I am passionate about getting back in the world as we start to see the end of the pandemic starting to come. I want to get out there and explore new places while studying different ways in helping people. Medicine is not always just a one way street, so to have different backgrounds of study is the most interesting thing to me as of now. While yes, I do need to finish my education at my college first and save up money before I would be able to go travel, I do have a good city to start my life in. Now the tricky part is finding the funds to pay for my college. Receiving this scholarship would be a great honor to receive and it would greatly help in paying for the more expensive third and fourth year of my college education and hopefully I would be able to use the money for the graduate college that I will be applying to in a year.

Being a first generation college student has been quite an experience to say the least. In an economy where people with only high school degrees do not obtain well paying jobs, my parents got lucky with finding decent paying jobs that they have worked at for 10+ years. It doesn't help when they have four kids they have to help pay for college. Excess funds was not a luxury we had growing up and it still isn't. Having to rely on a third party to cover most of my college funds is very stressful and basically a throw of the dice. Not every semester is covered by a third party so I have to dip in to my savings that I have had for years in the bank. Years of saving up money for this occasion, just bleeding out before my eyes and I can not do anything about it because of this pandemic that put me out of a job. Being a first generation college student is difficult enough, but also being a firstborn child is even more difficult. Being an example to my younger siblings means that every mistake and struggle with be put under a microscope and critisized. Not getting enough scholarships? Why didn't you try harder. Asking for a loan? Now you're in debt for years. Every school year I have strived to be the best example I can for my siblings but doing so requires that I pay thousands of dollars a year to go to my school and become the physical therapist I desire to be.

My parents were raised on the west coast of California, living lives without the extreme pressure of going to college since their parents never went. My mother's parents were immigrants from a Central American country called El Salvador, and my father's parents from a long line of Mexican culture in California. They grew up without opportunities for themselves to continue their education beyond high school and once they did, they got pregnant with me. Now it was my turn to live my life and try to reach farther than my parents have. They struggled providing a normal lifestyle even when we moved to Texas. They relied on my grandparents to uphold a house here until they were finally being able to afford it themselves. 3 kids later, my parents have finally earned their pay and we start trying to live a normal life, but of course, life has different plans. My mother was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. Treating this disease drained all of their saving and any hope for a college fund for me and my siblings. That fear that I may lose my mother, that i might have to help raise 3 kids, and that i may not go to the colleges I want was a huge struggle. I was so close to graduation and life threw a big curveball at me. After almost a year of taking it day by day, assignment after assignment, I was able to help my family by stepping up to the plate and hitting the home runs to motivate my family to not give up and to have hope that we would get through everything. I was the optimism that they so needed every day so they can keep fighting. Looking back, i do not know how i was able to stay strong for them, but what i do know is that being optimistic around people is one of the most important things to do when things get rough. Giving up wasn't an option then and it won't be for any more struggles in the future.

Everyone has heard the stories how cancer changes the effected person and their family's lives, but you never know how true that is until your mother comes home diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. When my mother did that, it changed our family emotionally and mentally. We were damaged and scared. We had just paid off the medical bills for the delivery of my sister and now we have something bigger on our hands. The following years were shattered with increasing medical bills to pay to keep her alive from chemoradiation and the malignant tumor fighting her. However, the most inspiring part of all this turmoil was how resilient my mother was when she came home after every appointment. It takes a lot of determination to live and fight through the constant pain she felt and to raise 2 newborns along with that didn't make it easier. She is my inspiration to continue with my education so she can see me graduate from college as a successful college student. It is the least i could do for her.