Life can change in a blink of an eye, and there is nothing that a person can do to stop it from changing. Over this past year, I have grown to know and understand how to demonstrate perseverance. The definition of perseverance is to continue on no matter the circumstances or to keep going no matter the obstacles that stand in your way. Perseverance is a significant value to have as a person because you can't control what happens in your life. Hence, the best way to deal with things you cannot control is to “go with the flow” because life gets more manageable in the future when you persevere through it. I have come to understand what perseverance is through my mother. She is genuinely one of the strongest people I know. In 2019, my mother was diagnosed with ALS, which is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Even with her diagnosis, my mother continued to persevere through life. In 2020, my father unexpectedly passed away from Covid-19. After my father's passing, my mother's health continued to decline rapidly due to ALS. She was continuously in and out of the hospital, she had a trache placed inside of her, she became completely paralyzed from the waist down, lost her ability to write, and talk to others. She was placed on a full-time ventilator as her lungs were not strong enough to breathe independently. This past year In September, I received a call from my mother's doctor that it was time to say my final goodbyes. Hearing those words immediately made me feel weak. The thought that I would no longer have either of my parents here on Earth immediately made me feel like I couldn't do anything without my mother being by my side. When I visited my mother at the hospital to say my goodbyes, I cried but realized that my mother wasn't crying. Most people would have cried, given up, and accepted that they would lose their battle and die, but not my mom. She said she wasn't ready to leave her kids, and she was going to fight and persevere through these challenges until the very end. Seeing my mom persevere through life even while on her deathbed changed me. It showed me that I am a lot stronger than I think. I can persevere through anything obstacles as long as I believe in myself. I once used to be a person who felt weak, but now I am a person who believes that I am at my strongest when faced with a challenge. I have changed into a stronger person because of my mother. No one said life is easy. I have learned that life is full of challenges, but life will improve if you fight your hardest and persevere through those challenges. I have learned that I demonstrated perseverance by continuing to live even through the hard times, like living through and adapting to my father's passing, continuing my education, and living my life knowing that any day could be my mother's last day. I now live by the definition of perseverance by continuing to fight through challenges and "going with the flow" because life is unpredictable.

In the month of March of my sophomore year in high school, my mother lost her ability to walk out of nowhere. It was later confirmed in the summer that my mother had ALS. Due to her diagnosis of ALS my mother was no longer able to work as she was unable to do what was required of her to do. With my mother no longer able to work that meant that my father was the only person in the household to have a job and earn some kind of income for my family. A year later, during my junior year of high school, everything shut down due to the coronavirus. Covid had a horrific effect on my family, as it had on others. Everyone in my family became ill. My father, unfortunately, took the brunt of it. On November 15th, 2020, my family received word from the hospital that my father had died of covid. Because my father was our family's primary source of income, we lost the majority of our assets when he died. After my father's passing my mother's health continued to rapidly decline due to ALS. She was continuously in and out of the hospital, she had a trache placed inside of her, she became completely paralyzed from the waist down, she lost her ability to write and talk to others, and she has been placed on a full-time ventilator as her lungs are not strong enough for her breathe on their own. In the month of September, my mother was officially placed on hospice. My family has been told by her doctor that any day could be her last day. Earlier this month I was strongly advised to go back home to say my final goodbyes as the end looks very near for her and the doctors didn't want me to miss my chance of saying my final goodbyes to my mother while she was still alive. My mother is a very strong fighter but unfortunately, she is currently losing her battle against this horrible disease. ALS has damaged my family for years and its damage is not yet done. This scholarship would affect my career plan in multiple different ways. After college, I would have a bachelor's in multimedia and with that, I want to go into broadcast production. My dream would be to work for ESPN. If I can't work at ESPN then I would love to do broadcast production for the news. The news is a way of communicating with people all over the world, and because this world is regrettably filled with so much negativity, I don't want to convey the bad news; instead, I want to spread the good. I wish to inspire people by educating them about all the good things that are happening in the world. Unfortunately, paying for further education and attending college is very expensive. I won't be able to work for ESPN or the news if I don't have the finances to attend college. After the passing of my father, our family was only allowed to live off of what my mother got from her Survivor Benefits and her Disability each month. The money that my mother got we used towards necessities that we needed to survive so we weren't able to save money for college. The only way I can go to college would be if I get scholarships that pay for everything. Every single scholarship would help and this scholarship would help pay part of my tuition and allow me to further my education in hopes of working in broadcast production.